Looking Back on Rowling’s Kanreki

August 12, 2025 by 4 Comments

Nick’s Kanreki Retrospective

Having just finished the month-long Lake and Shed celebration of J. K. Rowling’s opera omnia, my dominant feeling is one of pride. Recording somewhat over 31 hours of video, mastering (or at least becoming competent) in video editing for the intro and getting to grips with the technicalities of rendering and uploading the content to Substack and You Tube, all within a month, was a challenge that I wasn’t sure I could pull off. Twenty-five episodes were dedicated to individual works of Rowling, and in each episode only a single example of lake inspiration or shed artistry was explored. The mine is so rich that we could easily produce another hundred and twenty-five episodes and still not exhaust what J. K. Rowling has achieved.

I see it also as the culmination of seven years of enjoying literature through the gift of J. K. Rowling’s writing. I can’t say how much pleasure it has given me to read the supportive comments in the Substack. Join me after the jump to find out how I got here.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Golden Threads, Nick Jeffery

Audible Harry Potter Full Cast Editions

August 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Available for Pre-Order Now.

Image

The first instalment in HARRY POTTER: The Full-Cast Audio Editions hits Audible on 4th November. The subsequent audio-books 2-7 are to be released between December 2025 – May 2026. The new cast has also been announced, and with some surprises. The young actress who will be playing Hermione in the HBO television series will also play Hermione in Philosophers Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban.

  • Hugh Laurie is Albus Dumbledore
  • Matthew Macfadyen is Lord Voldemort
  • Riz Ahmed is Professor Snape
  • Michelle Gomez is Professor McGonagall
  • Arabella Stanton is Hermione Granger, (Book 1-3) she will also portray Hermione in the HBO series.
  • Frankie Treadaway is Harry Potter, (Book 1-3)
  • Max Lester is Ron Weasley, (Book 1-3)
  • Jaxon Knopf is Harry Potter, (Book 4-7)
  • Rhys Mulligan is Ron Weasley, (Book 4-7)
  • Nina Barker-Francis is Hermione Granger, (Book 4-7)

But the big surprise is that Hugh Laurie, who played Dr Gregory House in the hit television series House, has been cast as Albus Dumbledore.

I’m honoured to have been trusted with the keys to Albus Dumbledore, and thrilled to be able to take him around the track of this beautiful incarnation by Pottermore and Audible. I’m also deeply conscious of previous drivers Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, Jude Law and the iconic narrations by Jim Dale and m’colleague Sir Stephen Fry. Just below the horizon, but headed our way, is the rough beast John Lithgow, his hour come round at last. This is great company, and it’s a privilege to be among their number.

Hugh Laurie is best known internationally for playing the American Dr Gregory House, the titular lead in the hit medical series House.

To UK audiences however, he is best known as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie partnering with Stephen Fry, the narrator of the UK Harry Potter audio book series. Here he is with (as he describes him) m’colleague Sir Stephen Fry, in the BBC television series Jeeves and Wooster.

 

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery

The HogPro Kanreki Project – Lake and Shed Readings Lost Child Golden Thread

August 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery continue with their Lake and Shed readings into the fourth generation of Rowling scholarship. Join us for our celebration of Mrs Murray’s 60th birthday, and her Kanreki, 還暦, or calendar re-birth.

For the day before Rowling’s 60th birthday, Nick and John tackle by reader request the never before discussed subject of the Lost Child theme in the author’s more than twenty published works. They re-introduce the Golden Threads idea — see their Pregnancy Trap podcast or the two Kanreki series on this subject (here and here) — then they do a deep dive into the crowded waters of Lost Children in her work, and then they go out out on a high-wire to speculate about what specific spring in her Lake subconscious mind is responsible for this recurrent inspiration. Enjoy!

As a birthday gift of sorts, Nick and John close off their month-long celebration of Rowling-Galbraith’s life and work with a follow-up look at yesterday’s review of the ‘Lost Child’ Golden Thread that runs through her stories. After cataloging the almost forty ‘for instances’ taken from the opera omnia in the penultimate entry in this series, Nick and John ask, “So What?” How does the possibility that Rowling had an induced abortion and is sufficiently unsettled by it that it inspires many even most of her books at least in part make any difference in understanding their artistry and meaning?

Filed Under: Golden Threads, Nick Jeffery, Substack Post

The HogPro Kanreki Project – Lake and Shed Readings of Beasts and Beadle

July 31, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery continue with their Lake and Shed readings into the fourth generation of Rowling scholarship. Join us for our celebration of Mrs Murray’s 60th birthday, and her Kanreki, 還暦, or calendar re-birth.

Nick and John return to the books at a reader’s suggestion in order to give a Lake and Shed reading of the original Newt Scamander textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Nick relays everything you need to know about the genesis of this work and John talks about Rowling’s comments to Stephen Fry in a 2022 interview about “archetypal” animals and the importance of understanding them because human beings are story-telling animals. Her discussion of the Lethifold and Niffler are especially challenging and illuminating. Enjoy!

Nick and John fulfill a reader request to discuss the book inside Deathly Hallows (one of three actually…), ‘Tales of Beedle the Bard,’ a text that Albus Dumbledore leaves Hermione in his will for her to read and apply to the Horcrux Hunt. Nick tells the story of Rowling’s creation of six hand-written copies as six-of-a-kind gifts for those who brought Harry Potter to life. John dives into the center story of the five tales, ‘The Hairy Heart,’ and tells the meaning of Harry’s heart to draw out what Rowling meant by describing Beedle as “the distillation” of the Hogwarts Saga.

Filed Under: Fourth Generation, Nick Jeffery, Substack Post

The HogPro Kanreki Project – Lake and Shed Readings of Golden Threads and Chiasmus

July 30, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery continue with their Lake and Shed readings into the fourth generation of Rowling scholarship. Join us for our celebration of Mrs Murray’s 60th birthday, and her Kanreki, 還暦, or calendar re-birth.

In this first overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John go back and fourth with four Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Bad Dad, Writing about Writing, Violence against Women, and the Evils of Fleet Street. John responds with three or more ’for instances’ of Mother Love, Ghosts, Pregnancy Traps, and the Lost Child with Grieving Steward. Enjoy!

In this second overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John talk about Kanreki red caps and tackle three Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Evil Government, Occult tropes, and the Embedded Author. John responds with three or more ’for instances’ of the Search for the Real, Embedded Texts, and Shadow Doppelgangers. Enjoy!

John travels to his backyard Mongolian ger, the archetypal circular architectural form, to deliver a firehose introduction to the four essentials of ring writing. He uses slides to depict the structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as his brief ‘for instance’ of how Rowling chooses to organize her stories and he provides a list of links (below!) for further reading. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Fourth Generation, Golden Threads, Nick Jeffery, Ring Composition, Substack Post