Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is determined to stay in Britain and resist the lure of becoming a tax exile - because she feels she owes the government a great debt for helping her survive when she was almost homeless.

The writer spent years living close to poverty before her tales of boy wizard Potter were snapped up and published, turning her into a literary sensation overnight, and she'll always be grateful for the hand-outs she received as a struggling single mum.

Rowling says, "I received a subsistence from the government for a relatively short period of my life and I pay a lot of tax and I feel one of the reasons I stay and pay (and) why I'm not based in Monaco is I feel I owe... I think my country helped me.

"There are places in the world where I would have starved."

And she admits her years of hardship inspired her new book, The Casual Vacancy.

She explains, "I couldn't have written this book if I hadn't had a few years where I had been as poor as it's possible to go in the U.K. without being homeless. I had friends who helped me, but I had no friends or family who were in a position to give me a house... We were on welfare for a couple of years."