JK Rowling was voted the greatest living British writer in a survey published Thursday.

Author JK Rowling during a meeting with Romanian children in Bucharest, January 26, 2006. Rowling was voted the greatest living British writer in a survey published on Thursday. [Reuters]

The Harry Potter creator whose stories of the young wizard have sold over 300 million copies worldwide received nearly three times as many votes as Discworld author Terry Pratchett in second place.

Third in The Book Magazine poll was Ian McEwan, author of titles including "Amsterdam" and "Atonement," followed by "Satanic Verses" and "Midnight's Children" author Salman Rushdie.

Kazuo Ishiguro, who was awarded the OBE in 1995 for services to literature was fifth and Philip Pullman, author of "Northern Lights" was sixth.

Nick Hornby, whose most recent novel "A Long Way Down" was short-listed for the 2005 Whitbread Novel Award was eighth followed by AS Byatt.

Jonathan Coe was joint tenth with spy novelist John Le Carr.

The magazine suggested 45 authors' names and its readers were invited to vote online.