• A New Year and a New Twitter Header

    ByNick Jeffery
    1 Comment

    On Sunday 1st January, @CormStrikeFan who runs the wonderful Strike Fans website tweeted a cheeky request to J. K. Rowling: “Waiting for @jk_rowling to change her Christmas header photo to something Strikey”. Wonderfully and unbelievably she responded the following day!

     

    The new header is a picture of Cromer Pier a location we last saw in the header from 4th March 2022. After a brief visit to King’s Lynne in The Ink Black Heart, it now seems certain that Strike will return to Norfolk in book 7.

    The news about Montgomery was so cheering that Strike didn’t much mind his first glimpse of a windmill, or the change in landscape to wide flat fens and marshland. He never went voluntarily into Norfolk and in fact had a slight prejudice against the whole county, because the worst of all the many places to which Strike’s novelty-chasing, peripatetic mother had taken her son and daughter to live had been a Norfolk commune, a place Strike sincerely hoped no longer existed.

    The Ink Black Heart Ch. 48

    Let me know what you think of the new header in the comments down below.

     

  • Beira’s Place – J. K. Rowling’s Latest Project

    ByNick Jeffery
    2 Comments

    On Monday 12th December J. K. Rowling announced the launch of a new project : Beira’s Place, which provides support, advocacy and information for women survivors of sexual violence aged 16 and over in Edinburgh and the Lothians. The launch occurred precisely at 09:00 GMT with a simultaneous tweet from the new twitter account @beirasplace and a re-tweet from Rowling.

    In addition to Rowling’s personal charity Volante, Lumos, and the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, we have her latest project: Beira’s Place. Find out more after the jump:

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  • Pillar Post Updates

    ByNick Jeffery
    6 Comments

    The Hogwarts Professor has now amassed 2,774 posts (and counting) and regularly achieves more than 2,000 unique visits per day. There are scholarly articles of literary analysis both from our own eminent faculty and guest posts from leading lights among our close readers. This vast trove of material is a valuable resource for students of J. K. Rowling’s work and artistry (such as myself), but it can be frustrating to quickly find that article you know you read – but can’t remember the title. It is fun of course, to find that one new sweet at the bottom of the bag you thought you’d finished. My aim is to better signpost where those sweets might be hiding. Join me after the jump to find out more:

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  • Harry Potter Still Magic – Bloomsbury Reports

    ByNick Jeffery
    1 Comment

    The publisher for Harry Potter in the UK, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, reports a 35% increase in sales for the series in it’s interim financial report for 2022.

    Sales of Harry Potter titles were strong, up 35%. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the 2nd bestselling children’s book of the year to date on UK Nielsen Bookscan, on the 25th anniversary of its first publication, showing the enduring appeal of this classic series

    BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
    Unaudited Interim Results for the six months ended 31 August 2022

    In the last full year report for 2022 Harry Potter sales grew by 5% compared with a growth of 2% in other Children’s titles. How important the books are for Bloomsbury can be judged by the 2021 report which shows seven of their top ten best selling titles come from the series. Two of these, including the top spot are for complete boxed sets. Given that this report contains the year that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was given away free to the world as we struggled with Covid lockdown, it is amazing to think that sales increased 7% that year too.

    While idly checking out the company’s financial report, I thought it would be fun to check out the first mention of J.K. Rowling’s works in the 1997 report:

    … the Smarties prize [was awarded] for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne Rowling. …

    … The second in the children’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, will also be published later this year.

    BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
    Results for the twelve months ended 31 December 1997

    And compare it with the report for 2007, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published:

    2007 saw the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final title in the Harry Potter series. With 2,652,656 copies sold out of UK bookshops on the first day of release, the book exceeded all expectations. With all seven books in the series now published, the books are available in a range of box sets and formats. The series will remain a children’s classic for years to come.

    Revenue in Children’s increased 261.4% to £98.92m (2006, £27.37m). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published in July 2007, was the main contributor to the increase. Gross profit for Children’s for 2007 increased 198.9% to £39.60m (2006, £13.25m) with the contribution to administrative expenses up 219.6% to £30.01m (2006, £9.39m).

    BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
    Results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2007

    While the kind of performance shown in the 2007 report may belong to publishing folklore, Harry Potter is still a force in publishing, and growing stronger every year.

  • J. K. Rowling and Ngaio Marsh

    ByNick Jeffery
    3 Comments

    We know from Rowling’s interviews with fellow authors Val McDermid and J. J. Marsh that she both loves and re-reads Ngaio Marsh among the ‘big four’ of crime authors:

    Val McDermid: How did that love affair with crime start for you?

    JKR: Probably…I know I was reading Christies when I was quite young. All of the Big Four – Marsh, Allingham, Christie and Sayers – I’ve read and loved….

    Val McDermid Interviews Robert Galbraith at Harrosgate Festival

    J. J. Marsh: Are there any books you re-read?

    JKR: Lots and lots.  When I’m working, I find it incredibly difficult to read new books (although when I’m between my own novels, I devour other people’s).  So if I’m writing, I re-read.  I’ve re-read all of Jane Austen so often I can actually visualize the type on the page; I love Colette, Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, E. F. Benson and P. G. Wodehouse, all of whom are always beside my bed.  I read a lot of diaries and biographies, too; Chips Channon’s also a fixture on the bedside bookshelves, as is the afore-mentioned Secrets of the Flesh, and everything by Frances Donaldson is eminently re-readable.

    J. J. Marsh — J. K. Rowling Interview, August 2013

    This post attempts to argue that we have some non-textual evidence to suggest that to Rowling, Ngaio Marsh is a special case, certainly among crime authors. Join me after the jump to find out more!

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