[quoteJ K Rowling says she began writing the Harry Potter stories at the time her mother died of multiple sclerosis.
The author says she never told her mother Anne about Harry Potter but says she was a big influence on the books.
Rowling, who has sold more than 300 million books worldwide, lost her mother on New Year's Eve 1990, when she was 25 and her mother was 45.
The death left her "a wreck", she says, and was the inspiration for Harry's orphan status.
She told Tatler magazine: "I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about [him].
"Barely a day goes by when I do not think of her. There would be so much to tell her, impossibly much."
Rowling also spoke about her difficulties in coming to terms with the "enormous pressure" of fame.
She said: "I have never said this before, but when I was repeatedly asked, 'How are you coping?', I would say 'fine' but I was lying to myself.
"I had lived under a rock for such a long time and suddenly someone had lifted it off and was shining a torch on to me. I was petrified and didn't know how to handle it."
www.ananova.com[/quote]
