To follow on from two Christmas posts in Bathilda’s Notebook, Mugglenet: Christmas in the Forest of Dean: The Silver Doe Part 1 and Part 2, Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: Tracing the imagery and symbolism of the Silver Doe via one of J. K. Rowling’s favourite authors. If you haven’t yet read the Bathilda’s Notebook posts, please do. Then, on Christmas Eve (in the western tradition), enjoy this wonderful and timely article…
Beatrice Groves – The Qilin in The Secrets of Dumbledore?
December 20, 2021 by 4 Comments
Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: After the excitement of the new trailer for Fantastic Beasts the Secrets of Dumbledore Dr Groves has identified what may be the new Chinese beast in the latest installment. Join me after the jump to find out what a Qilin is, and what that may portend for the film!
Beatrice Groves and Kurt Schreyer – The Mystery of the Ink Black Heart
December 11, 2021 by Leave a Comment
When The Ink Black Heart was first identified as a possible title for the next Strike novel, it had one big disadvantage compared to ‘The Last Cries of Men’. Try as I might I could find no literary allusion worth it’s name. Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter and Texts & Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare, and Kurt Schreyer, Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Missouri, and author of Shakespeare’s Medieval Craft: Remnants of the Mysteries on the London Stage have written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post that not only offers a solution to this mystery, but potentially offers peak at a the story scaffold via Shakespearian epigraphs. After the break, read their elegant solution to the mystery of The Ink Black Heart.
Roses from Rowling – What is the Marilyn Manson Connection?
December 6, 2021 by 8 Comments
On January 31st 2020 the American ‘Shock Rocker’ Marilyn Manson posted his thanks to J. K. Rowling for the surprise receipt of a gift – a bunch of red roses. Almost immediately comment and speculation about this bouquet from fans of both Rowling and Manson (and a surprising intersection of both) flooded the internet. Thoughts of the meaning behind the gift ran from the romantic to a possible source for the epigraphs in Troubled Blood. In the event Rowling’s marriage still seems secure, and the epigraphs in Troubled Blood turned out to be the far more satisfying Faerie Queene. This leaves fans of detective fiction, such as we, with a problem – we have a loose end. Join me after the jump to find out how, or if this loose end will resolve.
Rowling’s American Family
October 24, 2021 by 5 Comments
It may not be common knowledge but J. K. Rowling has close family who are American citizens – living in the USA and working in the creative arts and who have spoken publicly of their connection to the more famous J. K. Rowling.
They are her two Rowling cousins, the children of her father’s brother, who are pictured on the right with Joanne and Dianne. After the jump find out more about author and voice actress B. J. Rowling and her musician brother Ben.
Recent Conversation