• J. K. Rowling Quick Change Header

    Five days after updating her Twitter header to Wild Court alley, J. K. Rowling has changed her header again. The last time she changed headers this quickly was in January 2023, when she realised she had posted two headers for Cromer Pier. This photograph doesn’t look like it is The Hallmarked Man related, and looks like a personal photograph from Rowling’s Greenland getaway. Why the quick change? Why Greenland? I have three theories:

    1. J. K. Rowling obsessively haunts these pages and noticed that I had updated All J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Headers. In a spirit of mischief she decided to make the title wrong yet again. In the words of my under 16 Rugby coach when asked my chances of making the first team – possible but doubtful.
    2. Rowling has finished (after a long struggle with the final chapters) The Hallmarked Man! To celebrate she posted a sunset picture to mark the closure of her work on the book. Traditionally this celebration takes the form of a stack of manuscript pages, but this time she is having trouble with her printer. This was my preferred theory until:
    3. The owner of the photograph ianVisits noticed and, quite politely, wondered why she didn’t contact before using the image. I do hope she does contact. Copyright and image usage, especially on social media can be a minefield, and a signed book can do wonders to smooth ruffled feathers.

    Do you have a better theory? Let me know in the comments.

  • Hallmarked Headers

    Way back in March 2022, after recording an episode to The Strike and Ellacott Files podcast with Beatrice Groves, we discussed the possibility of creating a database of all the Twitter headers that J. K. Rowling has used to signal what has been on her mind. The fruit of that idea was the (newly update) All J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Headers. Reviewing the full list in all its glory prompts the fact that this year has been a vintage year for header clues, likely all hints for The Hallmarked Man. Any guesses as the what they mean? Let me know in the comments!

    1st February 2024 The façade of Freemason’s Hall in London. The headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England, discussed here.

    16th February 2024 Identified by @LudicrousMonica as La Coupee, a narrow isthmus that connects Greater and Little Sark.

    16th March 2024 A detail from a silver Nef, identified by @PoolsVB.

    7th April 2024  The Crieff Hydro Hotel, identified by @Badly_Wired.

    31st May 2024 an iron bridge called The Iron Bridge in Ironbridge.

    16th June 2024 The red lift at The Savoy in London, identified by @IrisThinksMeh. Discussed by Beatrice Groves here.

    27th June 2024 Identified as Gods Own Junkyard by @CasualNaming.

    10th August 2024 an excerpt from “The Golden Journey to Samarkand” by James Elroy Flecker, identified by the Strike and Ellacott Files podcast. Discussed by Beatrice Groves here.

    27th September 2024 Not a red herring, but a blue goldfish! A blue oranda, the meaning of whose name is parsed by John Granger here.

    11th October 2024 A second swan image after the 18th August 2017 one.

    1st December 2024 Wild Court alley in London WC2. John Granger discusses here.

  • Rowling Tweets Response to NYTimes’ “Rewriting” of Trans War History, Minimizing “True Cost of Speaking Out”

    Jeremy Peters wrote an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times late last month. The title suggests that Peters ‘gets’ just how out of line the Gender Theory Extremists have been in the ongoing Trans War about “transgender” rights versus the rights of biological women and of children.

    ‘Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach‘ points to some kind of reflection on just how bad the threats and cancellations were during the darkest days of the madness, when every influencer and twitter celebrity proclaimed “Transgender women are women” in Orwellian surety. The sub-title of Peters’ piece, though, points to it being a story focused on the ‘news’ that the activists are realizing that their attacks on the sane percentage of the population isn’t working: ‘Facing diminishing public support, some activists say all-or-nothing tactics are not working. “We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds”.’

    J. K. Rowling, however, is having none of this “rewriting of history.” Over a screen shot of Peters’ lede paragraphs in which she is mentioned, she wrote a long form response on her twitter account to stop the “mealy mouthed retconning” and minimization of the crimes committed by “trans activists” against those unwilling to chant in obedient conformity that “Men can be Women — and have to be allowed access to their safe spaces and sporting events (and children must be allowed to be surgically mutilated or chemically castrated).” She wrote: Read More “Rowling Tweets Response to NYTimes’ “Rewriting” of Trans War History, Minimizing “True Cost of Speaking Out””

  • Rowling’s Latest Twixter Header Pic: Wild Court, Freemason’s Hall, London

    Like every other Serious Striker, when I see a new Rowling twixter header, I think ‘Nick Jeffery’ but he was not online on a Sunday, so I searched for what the @CormStrikeFan twixter feed had to offer. Bingo!

    The link at this tweet takes the reader leads to a fascinating page about the Wild Court alley and its history through the centuries. Well worth the visit — thank you, @CormStrikeFan!

    I’ve spoken to Nick Jeffery since starting this post and he’s pledged an update to his massive index of Rowling’s twitter page headers to include the Hallmarked Man materials as early as Wednesday. Stay tuned!

  • Rowling Comes Out Hard Against Assisted Dying Bill in United Kingdom

    Last week Nick Jeffery and I were talking about suicide/sacrificial death as a Rowling ‘Golden Thread’ we need to explore, those ‘Threads’ being a plot point, theme, or literary device that runs through everything she has written. He told me that the UK was currently in the throes of a debate about an Assisted Dying or Euthanasia Bill. I confessed to him that I was very surprised that Rowling hadn’t checked in on this point given that it checks almost all her boxes for causes about the rights, even the lives of the vulnerable and unprotected.

    It turns out her husband has been all over the issue. Check out @Slowfinger45 for Dr Neil Murray’s tweets this month on the bill in question:

    Two weeks later Rowling checked in on the subject:

    She reposted Rosie Duffield, MP’s, statement about why she will be voting against the bill: Read More “Rowling Comes Out Hard Against Assisted Dying Bill in United Kingdom”