Guest Post: Who is Jonny Rokeby? Pt 1

February 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Who is Jonny Rokeby? Marlowe’s Faustus and the Cormoran Strike Mysteries

A HogwartsProfessor Guest Post by ChrisC, Part 1 of 5

In a previous HogwartsProfessor guest post, I pointed out how Rowling left little textual clues as to the nature of detective Cormoran Strike’s supposed biological father, rock star Jonny Rokeby, lead singer of The Deadbeats.  What I didn’t consider was that in addition to a hidden symbolism behind the trio of Duke Ellington, Robert Plant, and William Blake, there was in fact a fourth level of significance to the scene where Strike ponders a photo of his dear old dad in a booth of the Albion Restaurant (The Silkworm, p 213/303)

The name of this unseen fourth symbol is Christopher Marlowe, and what I now realize is the exact literary echo Rowling leaves behind in the scene between Strike and the picture of his dad.  I’d like to suggest that once we dig up this hidden fourth symbol, and explore its thematic importance, we will have a final clue to exact nature of Jonny Rokeby, as well as a major clue as to how may be portrayed when he makes his onstage debut within the series.

Join me after the jump, won’t you, as we unpack the hidden message of “The Fourth Man.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Guest Posts

Beatrice Groves on ‘Cuckoo’ Allusions, Censorship, and Live at LondonMoot

February 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Four Notes for Beatrice Groves Fans out there! If you enjoyed Nagini Maledictus and ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ you’ll love these new posts —

(1) Oxford University Research Fellow and Lecturer in Renaissance Studies Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has turned her significant learning and great love for Rowling’s work to the Galbraith murder mysteries. In two posts up now at MuggleNet.com, she explains the depths of the poems that bracket the action of The Cuckoo’s Calling, Rossetti’s A Dirge and Tennyson’s Ulysses.

In the first, ‘Literary Allusion in The Cuckoo’s Calling: Christina Rossetti’s A Dirge,’ Prof Groves opens up the mysterious and relatively obscure Rossetti poem that serves as epigraph to the first Strike novel and perhaps to the whole series. If you were left scratching your head about the ‘Cuckoo’ part of that book and its relationship to the poem, prepare your mind for illumination!

In the second, ‘Literary Allusion in The Cuckoo’s Calling: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses,‘ she parses the closing reading from memory the peg-legged private eye makes to that poem and the meaning of ‘I am Become a Name.’ More after the jump —

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Cormoran Strike

Lethal White: What We Can Expect

February 5, 2018 by 2 Comments

J. K. Rowling’s Twitter feed last week was a veritable flood of tweets on the status of the fourth Cormoran Strike novel, how she plans her books (a bit more on that), and even the physical tools she uses to write. Sadly, no news on when we can expect to read Lethal White.

We’re overdue, though, for a review here of what we know already about the fourth book. [For a collection of every post here at HogwartsProfessor about the Strike mysteries, enjoy the 49 listed and linked here: Cormoran Strike HogwartsProfessor Posts]

We know quite a lot, I think, if the knowledge cannot be certain. Here is a survey for your comment, amendment, and correction! 

(1) The Office Chain of Command — We know, because Rowling posted it on her Robert Galbraith site, that she has sketched the story of an office drama in which Robin goes undercover as the Personal Assistant to the CEO of a company.


Is this Lethal White? It’s the best bet going, of course, but we don’t know much beyond the personalities involved. Even the crime Robin is investigating is not revealed. Or, for that matter, if she’s working for Strike still or on her own.

Perhaps she is a PA because she has left Strike to appease Matt and she was able to get the PA job she’d turned down in Calling? Keep your eye on that office manager, though. “Young, well-intentioned, unhappy” and circled in Galbraith’s notes.

For more on this chart and other Robert-Galbraith.com home-page hints and revelations, check this out. Note, too, the dog-eared magazine article on the subject of Barley Hall in York. Do we have a location predominantly outside London for the fourth mystery?

(2) The Timing — July, maybe August 2011

Rowling revealed in an interview post Career of Evil that we won’t be left wondering about what happened at the wedding after Robin says, “I do.” We know from the very helpful timelines posted at StrikeFans.com that the wedding was on 2 July 2011 and that the first three novels were about 1 month, 1 month, and 2 1/2 months, respectively, in duration.

Taking a look at news highlights in the UK for July and August, then, might give us an idea of the background noise likely to be heard in Lethal White. That may or may not be significant, but the Royal Wedding we kept hearing about certainly served as a perumbration of Robin and Matt’s nuptials in Career.

Three things jump out, frankly, as possibilities. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Guest Post: ‘Authentic’ Cormoran Strike

February 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Sleuthing for Truth in Albion: William Blake and Concerns with Authenticity in the Cormoran Strike Series

By ChrisC.

The solitary handful of souls who managed to tune in found a left-field surprise waiting for them in the BBC’s adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling.  Near the 20-minute mark of the second episode, rock musician Evan Duffield has dropped into the private consulting office of one, C.B. Strike.  The detective is not in at the moment, but his secretary is holding the fort.  With that in mind, Evan decides now is the perfect moment to demonstrate the mating rituals of the English “Right Prat” in his natural habitat.

What’s remarkable about this scene is how it tosses a curveball to its audience.  What we are given is an immature little boy in a man’s clothing trying to put the moves on Holiday Granger’s Robin, Strike’s resident Girl Friday.  We expect Evan to reveal himself as a complete fool, we don’t expect to him to use a Hermetic English poet to do it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Guest Posts

BBC1 Strike: The Silkworm Episode 2

September 22, 2017 by 3 Comments

Thanks to Candice — and to our Friend in Iraq who captures and uploads the shows for us outside BBC1 broadcast range! Again, watch while you can; it may be taken down at any time.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike