St. John the Baptist Church – Twitter Header

January 23, 2023 by Leave a Comment

New J. K. Rowling twitter headers are coming thick and fast, this time it is a lovely image of St. John the Baptist parish church in Aylmerton, Norfolk. Prof Groves quickly identified the church as a type typical of Norfolk and situated close to the A148 Cromer to Holt Road.

St. John’s is tantalisingly close to Cromer Pier, just 3 miles via a fairly busy main road. Two twitter headers showing Cromer Pier, and this new one showing Aylmerton church. We are sure to be seeing much of this area when The Running Grave is finally published.

Filed Under: Nick Jeffery, Twitter

Beatrice Groves – The Running Grave: Strike 7, the I Ching and the Yarrow Stalks

January 17, 2023 by 16 Comments

New information is coming thick and fast for Book 7, which we now know is called The Running Grave! Are you, like me, confused about ancient Chinese divination? Do you know your yarrow stalks from your divination coins? What on earth can this have to do with Norfolk? Help is at hand: 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: The Running Grave: Strike 7, the I Ching and the Yarrow Stalks.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Cormoran Strike, Twitter

A New Year and a New Twitter Header

January 3, 2023 by 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.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery, Twitter

Rowling OKs Legacy Boycott (Sort Of)

December 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s hypocritical of me to enjoy it when The Presence takes down with acid sarcasm people whose opinions I think are beyond satire when I recoil at her attacks on people who I think are beneath her notice, famous, nobodies, and infamous. I stand by my position that JKR would be better off if she entered another Twelve Step program or abstinence corner for her social media issues. @JessieGender really isn’t worth the time of a writer of her quality, even to earn the high five laughs and cheers from those, myself included alas, who agree with her about a Hogwarts Legacy boycott (and about the comedy of transgressive fandom activists still with attachment issues about Harry Potter books and movies).

I am, however, in light of her stands against the Iranian mullahs and for women’s safe spaces, having to reconsider my belief that the world would be a better place, too, if she just focused on writing her novels. The Beira’s Place website describes her, in language Rowling either wrote or approved, as “author, campaigner, and philanthropist.” That “campaigner” sobriquet I think is new as an aspect of her public identity, almost certainly revealing how the world’s most famous author-philanthropist now understands her legacy.

I was delighted to learn yesterday that Rowling’s new novel is nine Parts in length and that she is working on Part Seven’s chapters. While I wish that Robert Galbraith’s down time was spent playing Minesweeper as she did back in the day rather than trolling twitter, the breaks she takes seem to be fostering rather than diminishing her creative flow. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Twitter

Rowling’s New Twitter Header – and News of Book 7

December 16, 2022 by Leave a Comment

J. K. Rowling has updated her twitter header in the run up to Christmas. This time it is a partial image of a decorated Christmas tree. The last time she did this was in December 2015: All J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Headers.

Christmas trees are important to Rowling, so it is always worth paying close attention to hers, and this time there is an unusual decoration attached.

The decoration is in the form of a suffragette or member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), dressed in the Union colours of purple (for loyalty and dignity), white (for purity) and green (for hope). The colours also have the hidden meaning GWV – Green White Violet – Give Women Votes!

The suffragette colours have also been used by women organised to oppose attempts to reduce or remove protections for women’s sex in UK law, for example the Scottish Feminist Network. The decoration itself can be picked up online from quite a few places, particularly London based museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Hot on the heels of changing her header Rowling revealed that she is about two thirds of the way through writing Book 7 of the Strike series.

Following up this with the revelation last night that this means part six of (presumably) a nine part book.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Twitter