Harry Potter Discussion on BBC Radio – Beyond Belief

August 24, 2021 by 4 Comments

Beyond Belief is a radio program from the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 that explores the place and nature of faith in today’s world. Yesterday we were treated to our own esteemed headmaster Prof. John Granger, author of Literary Allusions in Harry Potter Dr. Beatrice Groves and co-host of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text Vanessa Zoltan joining the host Ernie Rea to discuss the Christian allegory and religious themes in Harry Potter.

The program can be accessed here from around the world, and it really is a very fun and informative listen. Please join me after the jump for my own notes from this fascinating program.

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Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Shared Text

J.K. Rowling with Simon Armitage the Poet Laureate – The Interview

August 12, 2021 by 5 Comments

More than two weeks ago, The Hogwarts Professor, John Granger posted the extended version of J. K. Rowling’s interview with the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Simon Armitage. (Saved for posterity by Patricio Tarantino of The Rowling Library.) Mr Armitage is an excellent interviewer, and Ms Rowling seems to be more at ease than I remember her being for a very long time. Because she is so relaxed, perhaps, she has revealed more new information than many were expecting.

I fully expect serious readers to be discussing this interview for some time to come. In an absolutely herculean effort Mary Granger has created a typescript of the hour long interview to aid our studies. I have only filled a few gaps caused I suspect by Simon’s lovely (but strange perhaps to the American ear) Yorkshire accent. If you do spot any errors. please let me know in the comments below.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Denmark Street – before the building work.

July 21, 2021 by 4 Comments

Before I started work this morning I came across a Reddit post showing views of Denmark Street from 2015 and 2020, clearly showing the building work that our favourite detectives complain of:

In a pleasing piece of synchronicity, at lunch I was listening to an old radio comedy from the late 60’s called I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, that featured a song written by Bill Oddie called Denmark Street. The song is clearly picturing a Denmark St. from a different age in it’s laid back and artistic heyday. If you are in the UK (or have a VPN that can make the internet think you are) you can listen to the episode on BBC iPlayer here. For the rest of the world the song can be found here.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery

Troubled Blood: Rowling and the Crime Writers’ Association

July 19, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Professor Granger has previously posted that J.K. Rowling was shortlisted for two awards by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) the British club for writers of both fiction and non-fiction crime. She was on this occasion unsuccessful in both the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for Thriller Fiction, and the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction.

The Steel Dagger was won by Michael Robotham for When She Was Good.  Mr Robotham has had quite a run at the CWA awards, first being shortlisted in 2007 for Night Ferry, before winning his first Gold Dagger 2015 with Life or Death. 2015 was also the last time J.K. Rowling was shortlisted for the awards with Silkworm as a contender for the Golden Dagger. 

  • Crime Writers’ Association (UK), Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, 2007: shortlisted for The Night Ferry
  • Crime Writers’ Association (UK), The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, Best Thriller, 2008: shortlisted for Shatter
  • Crime Writers’ Association (UK), The CWA Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel, 2013: shortlisted for Say You’re Sorry
  • Crime Writers’ Association (UK), The CWA Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel, 2015: winner for Life or Death
  • Crime Writers’ Association (UK), The CWA Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel, 2020: winner for Good Girl Bad Girl
  • Crime Writers Association (UK), Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, 2021: winner for When She Was Good

The 2021 CWA Gold Dagger was won by Christ Whitaker for We begin at the End who also won the CWA New Blood Dagger for Tall Oaks in 2017.

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

New Cover Reveal for the Christmas Pig

July 1, 2021 by 13 Comments

On 29th June 2021, J.K. Rowling announced that the cover of her new children’s book – The Christmas Pig had been revealed. Designed by Jim Field the award-winning illustrator, character designer and animator.

“The new book will be published as a “gorgeously gifty hardback”, with full-colour jacket and featuring nine black and white spreads and decorative inside art from illustrator Jim Field. The jacket design will be revealed in the coming months.” The Bookseller

Jim would seem to be the ideal choice for a project that looks like a very promising animated film, and at least to me the cover has more than a little of the movie poster about it. Far more interesting to me will be the nine black and white spreads that Mr Fields has been commissioned to do. Look around his website to get an idea of some of the beautiful monochrome work he is capable of.

“Jim’s illustrations are simply perfect. It really is as though he got inside my head and drew what he saw there. I gasped out loud when I saw one particular illustration — I can’t say which it is without giving spoilers — because it was such a perfect representation of one of my favourite scenes.”  JK Rowling

 

“It was ever so slightly daunting when I thought about the number of people who are going to see this cover around the world. I wanted to create something filmic, timeless, that captures the excitement of J K Rowling’s incredible story and the wonder of Christmas, where the adventure begins. It is really a dream project and I’m so chuffed to be part of it.” Jim Field

Ms Rowling seems more than happy and given that Jim Field is aiming for the filmic look it is possible that we may be looking at an animated film ready for Christmas 2023.

In a comment on another thread I mentioned that Rowling tweeted about this pig before: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/727407744161071105?s=20, she was replying to her friend Jenny Colgan who had lost her daughter’s toy puffin called Neil at an airport. Ms Colgan is a very accomplished author of both romantic fiction and science fiction writing for the iconic Dr. Who series. She is also a member J.K. Rowling’s circle of friends within Edinburgh. Neil the Puffin first appears in Jenny’s romantic fiction book The Little Beach Street Bakery, published in 2014 and set in fictionalised Marazion and St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. In 2015 she began publishing a spin off series of children’s books based on the characters she had created, principally the daughter Polly and the Puffin Neil. This series is Jenny’s first foray into children’s stories and seems to be very successful. Neil now has his own twitter account which consists principally of tweeting “eep!”, so much more tolerable than most celebrity accounts.

As a post script the original Neil the Puffin was never found, but a replacement miraculously appeared to take his place. Could J.K. Rowling be planning a similar series of adventures for the Christmas Pig? let me know in the comments.

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery