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Author J. K. Rowling was in a buoyant mood last week. ‘I’ve taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne,’ she tweeted gleefully, as news emerged of plans for a decade-long TV project which could net her £16 million a year for a new dramatisation of her Harry Potter books, starring a fresh cast. In truth, Rowling, 57, isn’t particularly partial to bubbly. But – as her friends, fans and supporters know – her deal with the Warner Bros. empire is about so much more than just the financial windfall coming her way. It is also, it might be said, a metaphorical slap in the face for those who have sought to see the best-selling author ‘cancelled’ over concerns she has raised about transgender orthodoxy and her belief that identifying as a woman is not the same as being born as one. She was plunged into this toxic debate more than three years ago, after sharing a link to an article on Twitter (on which she has 14 million followers) entitled ‘Opinion: Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate’.