Confessions of a Hunger Games Virgin

April 4, 2025 by 2 Comments

As a adult (not to say aged) Harry Potter fan, its perhaps a little surprising that I have never read any other YA fiction beyond the classics. And by classics I really mean written by dead authors. Since I rediscovered a love of fiction in 2018, my have-been-read list consists of: Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the first four volumes of the Swallows and Amazons series. In terms of children’s and YA literature my to-be-read list (think Emma Woodhouse) is completely empty. No Divergent, no Twilight, no Hunger Games.

Three things have coincided, to make me re-evaluate. I have just finished Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell, a children’s writer who has had some lovely things to say about J. K. Rowling’s work. She has a, very well received, list of children’s books, that look very intriguing. The Hogwarts Professor is agog with the latest instalment of the Hunger Games, and unless I want to be spoiled I cannot read any of the posts (dammit!). Finally some self reflection leads me to believe I am guilty of that fault that I deplore in others: believing myself above such childish things…

So in the spirit of turning turning over a new leaf I have allowed Katniss to take me by the hand and lead me into the series. More tomorrow!

Filed Under: Hunger Games, Nick Jeffery Tagged With: , , ,

Will the Real Sam Barclay Please Stand Up?

March 29, 2025 by 1 Comment

J. K. Rowling has been remarkably reticent to acknowledge real people who have inspired characters within her works. There is of course Gilderoy Lockhart, who she has admitted is based on someone she knows, but has never revealed who that person is. Speculation will continue as to whether the inspiration is our beloved Headmaster (it isn’t), until Rowling finally lets the cat out of the bag. (He really isn’t…) 

The only character who is deliberately based on a real person is Gilderoy Lockhart. [Laughter]. Maybe he is not the one that you would think of, but I have to say that the living model was worse. [Laughter]. He was a shocker! The lies that he told about adventures that he’d had, things he’d done and impressive acts that he had committed… He was a shocking man. I can say this quite freely because he will never in a million years dream that he is Gilderoy Lockhart. I am always frightened that he is going to turn up one day. He is just one of those people from your past whom you feel you have never quite shaken off. I will look up one day at a signing and he will say, “Hello, Jo”. [Laughter]. Other people have contributed the odd characteristic, such as a nose, to a character, but the only character who I sat down and thought that I would base on someone is Gilderoy Lockhart. It made up for having to endure him for two solid years.

J.K. Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival, in response to a question from the audience, through Accio Quote.

It was big news to fellow Rowling obsessives, when a few weeks ago, J. K. Rowling stated that Strike contractor Sam Barclay was 100% inspired by a friend of hers. In this case, I think we know enough about the character and looks of Sam Barclay to hazard a guess. Check out mine after the jump!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery

Audible Full Cast Recording – Draft Cover Art

March 28, 2025 by 2 Comments

Just a few moments ago, Audible sent me an email asking for my feedback on some proposed cover art for their full cast recordings due to be released starting later this year. My feedback was a little mixed. None of the covers really emphasise the full cast nature of the recordings, and the styles range from manga to comic cartoon. Let me know what you think in the comments!

 

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery

Harry Potter Interactive Illustrated Editions to Continue

February 20, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Fans of the Harry Potter illustrated editions from the design duo Mina Lima were left disappointed last August, when the artists announced that they had not been commissioned to illustrate the fourth in the series: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Collectors of the first three books will be relieved with yesterday’s announcement from Scholastic that Karl James Mountford will be illustrating the next book for release in October.

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery

Biography Illuminating Text: From Rowling to Ransome and ‘Amazons’

February 9, 2025 by 1 Comment

Readers of yesterday’s blog will know that I’m currently making my way through the Swallows and Amazons series of books, alternating them with the Strike-Ellacott series. Readers here and listeners to the Rowling Studies podcast will know that I have long had a particular interest in the biography of J. K. Rowling. Little as we know about Rowling, what we do know add a lot of depth and richness to the story telling. Reading about Robin’s experiences working as a temp. holds a great deal more authority, knowing that Rowling also worked as a temp. in London.

I knew precisely nothing about Arthur Ransome prior to reading the first two books, but the vivid make believe world that the children make (particularly Roger and Titty) had me pretty convinced that these were reminiscences of the author’s childhood games, perhaps from a man who never grew up. It was a conversation with Beatrice Groves (who with John Granger has frequently steered me well for my next read) that there exists a house in the Lake District that the ‘real’ Roger used to live in.

Wonderfully, the children were based on an Anglo-Syrian family, that Ransome met in the Lake District, and later visited in Aleppo. The first book was dedicated to them, and the eldest sister later recalled that “Titty and Roger were very true to life”.

During his childhood, the Altounyans visited their British grandparents (his grandfather was W. G. Collingwood) in the Lake District where they met the writer Arthur Ransome. Ransome named some of the primary characters in his famous book, Swallows and Amazons, after Altounyan and three of his four sisters; Roger became Roger Walker the ship’s boy. Ransome later stayed with the family in Aleppo, bringing them a small dinghy to sail, and writing most of Peter Duck there.

Roger Altounyan – Wikipedia

If I had relied on the text, my image would have been off. Ransome was a very talented communicator and observer of children, not a man-child with a vivid recollection. A Captain Flint in the childhood games of others. Now when I read the stories I can imagine little Roger Altounyan, in England for the first time, with bossy, but fun-loving older sisters.

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery