JK Rowling receives support over Twitter abuse

JK Rowling, who was born in England, moved to Scotland in 1993

JK Rowling has thanked Twitter users who offered words of support after she became a target for online abuse in the wake of the general election result.

Their comments, she wrote, "reminds me how big the world is and how many more decent people there are than not".

The Harry Potter author previously tweeted that her "personal line [had] been crossed" by some abusive comments.

"It isn't always fun being a famous woman on Twitter and I believe in standing up to bullies," she wrote.

Rowling faced a flood of criticism on Twitter last year after it emerged she had donated £1m to the campaign for a No vote in the Scottish independence referendum.

In 2008, she donated the same amount to the Labour party.

On Friday the author revealed she had been called "a traitor" for her political views and had blocked some abusive Twitter users she believed had been supporters of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

"I feel no responsibility to hush up that kind of behaviour to protect the image of any political party," she told one Twitter user.

The 49-year-old also revealed she had "responded to other really nice SNP supporters" and had discussed "how much I had in common politically with many of them".

The writer also joked she would "bring marshmallows" after a Twitter user suggested her books should be burned in public.

The SNP took 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland in Thursday's election and is now the third largest party in the UK.