The world knows the place where J.K. Rowling wrote the final words of the last Harry Potter book — because she marked it on the furniture.

The location is the prestigious Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, just a few steps from the café where she wrote the first words of the first book of the Harry Potter series more than a decade ago.

Author J.K. Rowling, shown in August 2006 in New York, wrote the final words of the Harry Potter series in an Edinburgh hotel.
(Seth Wenig/Associated Press)

"J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows in this room on 11 Jan. 2007," Rowling wrote in a message on an antique-style statue.

Rowling announced Thursday that The Deathly Hallows, the seventh book in the series, will be published July 21.

"I can confirm she did write some of the book at the Balmoral last month and did complete the book at that hotel," the author's spokeswoman, Nicky Stonehill, said.
 
The Balmoral, a five-star hotel, usually takes a dim view of guests who write on the furniture, but this is an exception.

"Obviously this is quite a unique case," hotel spokeswoman Jessica Trotter said. "We're honoured and flattered she chose the Balmoral as surroundings to do her writing."

Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh with her husband and children, has sold more than 325 million books in the series about a boy magician and the Hogwarts School for Magic.

When she began writing, she was a single mother on welfare; now she is a multimillionaire and one of the most recognizable names in the literary world.

With files from the Associated Press