AUTHOR JK Rowling has insisted that the town of Pagford in her new novel The Casual Vacancy is not a thinly disguised version of Tutshill.

The Harry Potter writer was born in South Gloucestershire and was brought up in Tutshill from the age of nine, attending Wyedean School in Sedbury.

But speaking to about 2,500 fans at Cheltenham Literature Festival last weekend she denied that Pagford and its rich variety of characters are just Chepstow by another name.

"It is an entirely fictional West Country town," she said. "Entirely fictional!

"It is not Chepstow but it has got a few Chepstow-esque features.

"Chepstow is dominated by a lovely ruined castle and Pagford is dominated by a ruined abbey – rather like Tintern Abbey near where I grew up."

Just as Pagford is not Chepstow so none of the characters in the book are derived from real life individuals, she added.

"When you write a novel you have to know each of your characters inside out and you never really know real people that well!" she said.

But she said she did have one regret – she wishes she had not named one of her leading characters Barry.

"People keep pointing out to me that Barry rhymes with Harry," she said – inferring that Barry is really Harry Potter by another name.

"I wish I'd called him Kevin! There are hundreds of characters so it's inevitable that some of the names might rhyme with characters from Harry Potter."

During her Festival talk, JK revealed that her next book will be for children 'slightly younger' than the Harry Potter age group.

She has several new projects in the pipeline including another novel for adults – but a children's book will be the first to be published, she said.

"If the next book I publish is the one I think it will be. I have told my children about it and they really like it so that was quite encouraging!" she said.

"It is for slightly younger children than Harry Potter was."

She made the revelation after one of the 2,500 audience asked her if she makes up stories for her children when she puts them to bed.

"I do make up stories for my children and they are very much tailored to my children so I don't think you will be seeing them in book form," she said.

"If the next book I publish is the one I think it will be I have told my children about it and they really like it so that was quite encouraging!

"It is for slightly younger children than Harry Potter was."

Earlier during her talk one of the youngsters in her audience asked her when she expected to release another children's book and she said "Being the writer of Harry Potter gave me an absolute horror of committing myself.

"It felt like every tiny thing I said became magnified and came back to haunt me. But I think probably the next thing I write – or the next thing I publish – will be for children."

Asked by aspiring writers in the audience for tips on how to succeed she said: "You must accept that you will think everything you write is complete rubbish. You must put it away for a few weeks and then when you get it out again you think 'This is quite good. I'll keep it in.'

"It's a constant cycle of self loathing and despair and failure and rejection and then, after a while, it's quite good."

She also spoke of her personal battle with depression.