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  • The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part Two)

    The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part Two)
    Feb 6 2026
    Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts Professor, the genius behind AppalachianInkling.com, Hunger Games expert, and author of Milton, Spenser and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels, joined Nick and John to discuss the Charm Bracelet that J. K. Rowling posted on her Twixter home page as a Christmas gift to her readers. She said that that the thirteen charms on nine links were a set of clues about the next Strike novel, the ninth in a ten book series.In the first Part of Elizabeth, Nick, and John’s conversation, they discussed Rowling’s charm bracelet history, speculated about why she posted this picture when she did, decided to look at each charm on the bracelet for its stand-alone meaning and its place in the nine link set, and to read the whole series as if it were a ring composition, one reflecting a nine Part structure in Strike 9. They then made deep dives into the details of each charm: the heart shaped box containing a ‘You and Me’ engagement ring, a golden diamond-laden egg, a foul anchor, two angels, and a Trojan horse.In this second Part of that conversation, the trio of Serious Strikers continue with the remaining charms on the bracelet, namely, a Jack-in-the-box, an Hourglass, a White Rose and Crocodile, a Corvid head, and a Psalter paired on the last link with the Head of Persephone. They share their thoughts, too, about the bracelet as a symbolic integer and its ring meaning.The notes below are in support of references they make mid-flight and to other resources of interest to Magic Charm Decoders! Enjoy.Thank you to all our subscribers with special gratitude and appreciations for our paid subscribers; you are the wind in our sails, the heat from our vents… Serious Strikers are reading Browning’s The Ring and the Book, charting Hallmarked Man Part Six, and reviewing the Myth of Cupid and Psyche to look for parallels in the Strike-Ellacott series. See you soon!Jack-in-the-Box Charm* Rowling claims this as her favorite charm (Nick and John in the conversation mistakenly attribute this preference to the Psalter charm):* Badly Wired Lamp ID’d it* Is it a devil — or a Racoon?* The jack in the box toy, the 'Jack' being a devil, was invented in Germany in the 16th century as a mockery of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. * The shape of this charm, the golden circular center in the inside of the open box top, represents the transcendent spiritual realm and the square bottom with its four directions, the fallen world. The ‘jack’ devil lives in the latter but is from the former.* The charm is the third latched object in the chain, the heart box and Trojan horse preceding it and the psalter at chain’s end following it — which means the ring latch and center are latched objects with surprises inside. The two interior objects at center have deadly surprises and the beginning and end eternal life interiors. The symbolism here is of the human being and its capacity via choice for either spiritual perfection in sacrificial love (anteros) or consumption by individual desires (eros). The thing hidden inside, man’s spiritual capacity or heart, is either light or darkness, the inside bigger than the outside. (John)* What is the Strike 9 connection, the analogue to the demonic Jack in the box? Is it RFM? Uncle Ted? Ilsa’s husband Nick? Polworth?* The Jack’s position is at the center of the bracelet and between the hourglass and the Trojan horse. So it’s placed between cleverness and craftiness and things that we can control and bad surprises, but also time, because we can’t control time. (Elizabeth)Hourglass Charm* tempus fugit ‘like sand in an hourglass’* memento mori* infinite symbol* The Strike series may be a collection of mystery-story genres, each one illustrating a unique type of story, different from all the others while keeping the same core of characters and overarching narrative (cf., Rowling’s note in The Running Grave acknowledgements that that book was her “cult” book). The hourglass, then, may be Rowling’s pointer to Strike9 being a suspense drama in which the good guys not only have a challenging mission (find and rescue the missing Robin, Strike, Lucy, Pat, whomever) but have to do it before a literal deadline arrives. The Ticking Clock plot device.* If the Jack at link five is the center of the bracelet ring of nine links, how does the hourglass mirror the Trojan horse? It’s two parts? The deadline aspect? “Reveal the crazies inside before the hourglass empties”?White Rose Charm* White Rose of Yorkshire* The interior of the flower charm is a literal Turtleback or ring composition diagram.* White Rose of Dante: Paradiso Cantos XXXI and XXXIIThe true home of all the blessed is with God in the Empyrean, a heaven of pure light beyond time and space. Dante sees the blessed systematically arranged in an immense white rose: like a hologram, a ...
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    1 h et 10 min
  • The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part One)

    The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part One)
    Feb 4 2026
    On 23 December last year, Rowling changed her Twixter home page header and cameo with this tweeted explanation:The Charm Bracelet header features thirteen charms on nine links:Rowling tweeted an addendum about the Psalter and Jack in the Box charms:Nick Jeffery dropped an explanatory post two days later at the Hogwarts Professor weblog: J. K. Rowling Drops All the Strike 9 Clues for Christmas! It remains the only complete survey of the pieces and compendium of what Serious Strikers around the world have discovered about them.Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, wrote up her charm bracelet thoughts at ‘The Strike Ellacott Files’ a month later. In ‘Charms, Psalms & Golden Clues: A brace(let) of clues for Strike 9,’ Prof Groves discusses the magical quality of charms as talismans and even incantational song:Rowling points out in this 2013 piece the link between the name given to charm bracelets and the magical world: ‘Why do we call those little masterpieces “charms” if not in allusion to their talismanic properties?… they are personal amulets.’ To charm someone is also to slightly to bewitch them, something Rowling plays with when Riddle exerts his charm on Ginny and literally possesses her: ‘If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed.’ Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award is given to a smile that is both literally, as well as metaphorically, bewitching.The word ‘charm’ comes, through French, from the Latin ‘carmen’ which means ‘song, verse, oracular response, incantation.’ Its first meaning in English, therefore, was the magical one: ‘the chanting or recitation of a verse supposed to possess magic power or occult influence; incantation, enchantment; hence, any action, process, verse, sentence, word, or material thing, credited with such properties; a magic spell; a talisman, etc.’ (Oxford English Dictionary). From the sixteenth century onwards, ‘charm’ meant ‘anything worn about the person to avert evil or ensure prosperity’ because such amulets might contain the text of such a charm. And thinking about this made me aware for the first time of how in the most important charms in Harry Potter – the Fidelius Charm and the Patronus Charm – the word is not simply a synonym for spell but encodes this original, protective meaning. These magical ‘Charms’ like the charms on charm bracelets encode what Rowling calls ‘talismanic properties.’Nick and John invited Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts Professor, the genius behind AppalachianInkling.com, Hunger Games expert, and author of Milton, Spenser and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels to talk about these charms, especially about what she had written briefly on the subject. The goals of this conversation? * To introduce the subject to everyone not familiar with the Christmas tweets and bracelet-header, * to discuss the ‘Why?’ of this present to Strike fans everywhere, * to speculate about the meaning of the bracelet pieces individually and in a series, and * to brainstorm their qualities as clues for Strike9, the penultimate novel in the decalogy.Which is a lot! The good news is that the conversation never flagged and the revelations and possible meanings of the charms, thirteen in total on nine links, reward anyone listening in.Nick starts off the conversation with a review of the six charm bracelets in Rowling’s life and writing, one of which was a long forgotten piece in the margins of a Rowling web site:[You can read about those internet ‘Easter Eggs’ in ‘Hidden Photos at Rowling’s Website’ here, here, here, and here.]Nick offered as a guiding idea for our conversation the likelihood that the nine links in the bracelet were meaningful, i.e., that they reflected the structure of the book for which the bracelet is meant to be a clue. There are thirteen charms, he noted, but certainly Rowling-Galbraith could have had a thirteen link chain made if she hadn’t thought the nine links more than sufficient, even a pointer to Strike 9 being a nine Part mystery. Since, as Nick noted, she has trouble even passing up a shop selling charms, it seems likely she has been collecting the pieces for this one for some time. Perhaps this bracelet is a “target” toward which she has been writing with these books. It is certainly not something she just threw together for a header photo shoot. The trio elected to read the circular collection of charms, consequently, as pieces with individual meaning — as magical talismans of sorts per Prof Groves — and as a ring composition, with both aspects indicating the place and meaning of the piece in the book.After a brief discussion of why Rowling, Inc., would release this set of clues now, with another Strike novel or Bronte Studios television adaptation in the distant future — John offered the possibility that this bit of fan servicing...
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    1 h et 22 min
  • Robin Ellacott's Imminent Death and Its Out of This World Effect on Strike

    Robin Ellacott's Imminent Death and Its Out of This World Effect on Strike
    Jan 22 2026
    Running Grave, book Seven of the ten novel Cormoran Strike murder mystery series by Joanne Murray (‘J. K. Rowling’) writing as ‘Robert Galbraith,’ is what the author described as her “cult novel.” The cult in question is the Universal Humanitarian Church led by Jonathan Wace; the Strike-Ellacott Agency is hired by a father to rescue his youngest son who has disappeared into the UHC’s Chapman Farm property. Robin Ellacott successfully infiltrates the compound and she and the young man escape.Soon after Robin’s near-thing deliverance and return to London, Strike attends a UHC rally in that city with hopes that he will be spotted by Wace and invited to meet back-stage. ‘Papa J’ takes the bait and he and Strike square off in the cult leader’s dressing room. Strike reveals much of what Robin and he have learned about the UHC’s criminal past and present in that verbal confrontation. Strike exits only after delivering a warning; stay away from his partner or “I will burn your church to the f*****g ground” (Part 8, chapter 112, 808; italics in original).In the midst of this tense back-and-forth between private detective and religious guru, Strike thrice mentions a book published in 1930, Who Moved the Stone?, a relatively short work of popular Christian apologetics:‘I see you’re one of those who prides themselves on disrespecting rites, mysteries, and religious observance,’ said Wace, smiling again. ‘I shall pray for you, Cormoran. I mean that sincerely.’‘I’ll tell you one book I’ve read, that’s right up your street,’ said Strike. ‘Came across it in a Christian mission where I was spending a night, just outside Nairobi. This was when I was still in the army. I’d drunk too much coffee, and there were only two books in the room, and it was late, and I didn’t think I’d be able to make much of a dent in the Bible, so I went for Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison. Have you read it?’‘I’ve heard of it,’ said Wace, sitting back in his chair, still smiling. ‘We recognise Jesus Christ as an important emissary of the Blessed Divinity, though, of course, he’s not the only one.’‘Oh, he had nothing on you, obviously,’ said Strike. ‘Anyway, Morison was a non-believer who set out to prove the resurrection never happened. He did an in-depth investigation into the events surrounding Jesus’ death, drawing on as many historical sources as he could find, and as a direct result, was converted to Christianity. You see what I’m driving at?’‘I’m afraid not,’ said Wace.‘What questions d’you think Morison would’ve wanted answered, if he set out to disprove the legend of the Drowned Prophet?’ (805)This calling into question of the UHC’s historical claim to other-worldly power causes those of Wace’s inner-circle minions to chafe and counter with traditional Oriental wisdom about wrestling with pigs. Strike again alludes to Morison’s book:‘Is that from the I Ching?’ asked Strike, looking from Zhou to Mazu. ‘Funnily enough, I’ve got a few questions on the subject of degradation, if you’d rather hear those? No?’ he said, when nobody answered. ‘Back to what I was saying, then.’‘Let’s suppose I fancy writing the new Who Moved the Stone? – working title, “Why Paddle in the North Sea at Five a.m.?” As a sceptical investigator of the miraculous ascension into heaven of Daiyu, I think I’d start with how Cherie knew Jordan Reaney would oversleep that morning. Then I’d be finding out why Daiyu was wearing a dress that made her as visible as possible in the dark, why she drowned off exactly the same stretch of beach as your first wife and – parallels with Who Moved the Stone? here – I’d want to know where the body went. But unlike Morison, I might include a chapter on Birmingham’ (805-806).John Granger and Nick Jeffery, as part of their Kanreki celebration of Rowling-Galbraith’s 60th birthday last July, discussed Texts-Within-the-Text as a Golden Thread that runs through all of the author’s work. Most of those embedded texts, though, are of Rowling’s invention, e.g., Dumbledore’s Chocolate Frog Card, Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bombyx Mori, The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus, Wace’s The Answer, etc. It’s fairly rare for Rowling-Galbraith to drop a reference to a real world book even in the relatively non-magical Strike series.In addition to the I Ching, however, Running Grave has Prudence Donleavy recommend two psychology texts to Robin (Lifton’s Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brain Washing in China and Hassan’s Combatting Cult Mind Control: Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults) in addition to Strike’s weaponization of Morison’s Who Moved the Stone?John and Nick chose to discuss Who Moved the Stone? this week rather than an embedded text that works as a template (cf., Aurora Leigh) or a Rowling favorite-book that shaped her perspective (e.g., I ...
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    2 h et 10 min
  • Blood! The Crimson Thread

    Blood! The Crimson Thread
    Jan 12 2026
    Nick is joined by John Granger and special guest star Guido in their temporary headquarters as they await the move to Granger Towers. We discuss the revelation that J. K. Rowling has an inherited blood clotting disorder, and speculate that this could be von Willebrand Disease, and discuss what this could mean for a Golden Thread that John first explored more than five years ago. Nick surveys the instances of blood in all her published work, and John identifies a theme that Nick has missed - the Eucharist. Could this be the key to understanding the final narrative arch of the Strike series?Links Discussed in this Episode:The revelation of J. K. Rowling’s condition:https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/j-k-rowling-and-the-roy-phipps-connection/John discusses the Golden Thread on the Reading Writing Rowling Podcast in 2020.https://audioboom.com/posts/7566531-episode-37-troubled-blood-and-the-faerie-queene-strike-5John Granger’s book How Harry Cast his Spell exploring the Christian content and meaning in Harry Potter.https://www.amazon.com/How-Harry-Cast-His-Spell/dp/1414321880John’s visit to Denmark Street and St Giles-in-the-Fields in 2016.https://web.archive.org/web/20171130161236/https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/visiting-cormoran-strikes-pub-and-denmark-street-premises-in-london/Victor Turner - Colour Classification in Ndembu Ritual (1966)https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/vision/1966-turner.pdfThe Blood Survey:Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s StoneThe word “Blood” appears 33 times.dragon’s bloodThe Bloody BaronHarry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him.One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood.That’s unicorn blood.It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone.Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsThe word “Blood” appears 46 times.not a drop of magical blood in their veins‘Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere –’No Malfoy’s worth listenin’ ter. Bad blood, that’s what it is.‘No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,’ he spat.who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood.Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway.‘… I smell blood … I SMELL BLOOD!’Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanThe word “Blood” appears 21 times.‘It all comes down to blood, as I was saying the other day. Bad blood will out. Now, I’m saying nothing against your family, Petunia’Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops.‘BLOOD!’ Ron yelled into the stunned silence. ‘HE’S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?’Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireThe word “Blood” appears 37 times.Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep, blood red.‘B-blood of the enemy … forcibly taken … you will … resurrect your foe.’I wanted Harry Potter’s blood. I wanted the blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago, for the lingering protection his mother once gave him, would then reside in my veins, too …Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixThe word “Blood” appears 85 times.‘Yoooou!’ she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. ‘Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!’‘Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal‘The pure-blood families are all interrelated,’ said Sirius. ‘If you’re only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods your choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left.‘Terrified? I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in my life! The noble blood that runs in my veins –’Again and again Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realise was not ink, but his own blood.‘It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake’s fangs that keeps wounds open. They’re sure they’ll find an antidote, though; they say they’ve had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour.‘While you can still call home the place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refugeHarry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceThe word “Blood” appears 105 times.‘If I had murdered Harry Potter, the Dark Lord could not have used his blood to regenerate, making him invincible –’Harry had never hated Malfoy more than as he lay there, like an absurd turtle on its back, blood dripping sickeningly into his open mouth.‘My daughter – pure-blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin – hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?’It was as though something large and scaly erupted into life in Harry’s stomach,...
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    2 h et 2 min
  • A Hogwarts Professor New Year Celebration!

    A Hogwarts Professor New Year Celebration!
    Dec 31 2025
    Welcome to the Hogwarts Professor New Year’s Celebration! John and Nick look back to a packed 2025, as John looks forward to big changes in 2026. From the marathon Kanreki celebration in July to the joys of sharing The Hallmarked Man with friends around the world and plans for The Hogwarts Professor in 2026. John Granger, Nick Jeffery and the HogPro faculty wish you and your families a happy, healthy and fulfilled new year!1.) John, this time last year you said “I’m hopeful that 2025 will be the most exciting year in Hogwarts Professor’s 20+ year history, at least the busiest since the madhouse period following the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” As someone who was part of the initial fandom frenzy, how did this year compare?Not anything like 2007 which was a continuous love fest for Harry Potter and that series’ author, Woman of the Year, etc. I was on national teevee repeatedly in the run-up to Deathly Hallows publication and the weblog and podcasts and book sales and speaking dates all did numbers they will almost certainly never do again. Rowling world was the world undivided and I rode that tsunami wave for several years afterwards.Times have changed. Rowling is a much more influential and consequently divisive figure. Her legacy is proving to be at least as great in the political realm as it is in literature with almost 14 million people reading her tweets and her books not selling that well if very well by any other measure.And our role at Hogwarts Professor has changed correspondingly. We sided with Team Rowling against the Gender Theory Extremists in 2020 and were cancelled in consequence. No book deals, no speaking dates, and no podcasts because I refused to bend the knee to Potter fandom’s collective effort to cancel Rowling as a transphobic murderer for stating simple biological and psychological truths.In 2025, though, as I hoped last December and January, we re-emerged as leaders of the Royal Society of Rowling Readers. I am still ostracised, of course, from Potter fandom conventions and the like as well as from Strike podcasts, but our conversations, Nick, have an ever growing following globally and locally and one participating in the best conversations anywhere about the artistry and meaning of Rowling’s work.It’s been a great year and I am again hopeful, especially in light of our move east, that 2026 will be another break through year at Hogwarts Professor.Nick and John share their highlights of 2025 - 2.) Non-Rowling HogPro HighlightNick - Suzanne Collins - Sunrise on the Reaping Elizabeth Baird-Hardy’s posts inspired me to not just read the Hunger Games series, but Gregor the Overlander as well.John: The closing of ‘The Rowling Library’ magazine3.) Highlight from the Lake:Nick - Rowling’s blood disorder - von Willebrand DiseaseJohn: Tough Call! High on my list were (1) Rowling’s legal fund for defending women discriminated against for gender critical beliefs and (2) Rowling in Greenland but I’m going to go with both Rowling’s 7 August ‘Lake and Shed’ Tweets and Rowling’s 12 September ‘Changes in Beliefs’ tweeting post Charlie Kirk.4.) Highlight from the Shed:Nick - the Golden Threads! We have shared “Pregnancy Traps” and “Lost Child” threads this year which join “Bad Dad” and “Ghosts” which feature front and centre in “Hallmarked Man” John: Mythology – the forgotten Shed tool or more precisely the one neglected by even the most serious Strikers and Potter Pundits despite our efforts here really came to the fore in the wake of Rowling’s tweet post Hallmarked Man kerfuffle along with the advent of mythological mavin Dimitra Fimi’s into our conversations.5.) Highlight from Rowling Inc:Nick - The all-cast audio editions of Harry PotterJohn: Casting decisions about Bronte Studios/Netflix casting decisions for the small screen teevee adaptations – Black Snape!6.) Highlight from The Hallmarked Man release:Nick - That first English language sneak peek from Germany and the Robin ectopic pregnancy reveal!John: The realisation that for the first time Rowling wasn’t writing a self-contained Strike mystery with over-arching story details but the first of a three-part series-ending piece in which many of the players from the book will be returning in feature roles.7.) Highlight book 9 and 10 tease:John - Cupid and PsycheNick - J. K. Rowling’s fourth (or fifth) charm bracelet.8.) John Introduces the Kanreki Project and its relationship to fourth generation potter scholarship….· 55 total Substack posts 2023-2024· 3 posts Jan-June 2025…· 31 posts in July and 34 since (today #69)The Goal: Shift the Rowling Reader focus from latest book to work as a whole with the three critical taxonomy categories of Lake springs, Shed tools, and Golden Thread as our guides or lensesThe Means: the Kanreki blitz of Lake, Shed, and Golden Thread highlights from all of Rowling’s work in celebration of Rowling’s ...
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    1 h et 51 min
  • The Most Influential Book Rowling Read as a Child Wanting to Be a Writer is Dodie Smith's 'I Capture the Castle'

    The Most Influential Book Rowling Read as a Child Wanting to Be a Writer is Dodie Smith's 'I Capture the Castle'
    Dec 24 2025
    Merry Christmas! In between looking at houses to rent and packing up the Granger house in Oklahoma City, Nick and John put together this yuletide conversation about perhaps the most neglected of Rowling’s influences, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. John was a reluctant reader, but, while listening to the audio book, reading the Gutenberg.com file on his computer, and digging the codex out of his packed boxes of books, the author of Harry Potter’s Bookshelf was totally won over to Nick’s enthusiasm for Castle.In fact, John now argues that, even if Rowling didn’t read it until she was writing Goblet of Fire as some have claimed, I Capture the Castle may be the best single book to understand what it is that Rowling-Galbraith attempts to do in her fiction. Just as Dodie Smith has her characters explain overtly and the story itself delivers covertly, When Rowling writes a story, like Smith it is inevitably one that is a marriage of Bronte and Austen, wonderfully accessible and engaging, but with important touches in the ‘Enigmatist’ style of Joyce and Nabokov, full of puzzles and twists in the fashion of God’s creative work (from the Estecean logos within every man [John 1:9] continuous with the Logos) rather than a portrait of creation per se. Can you say ‘non liturgical Sacred Art’?And if you accept, per Nick’s cogent argument, that Rowling read Castle many times as a young wannabe writer? Then this book becomes a touchstone of both Lake and Shed readings of Rowling’s work — and Smith one of the the most important influences on The Presence.Merry Christmas, again, to all our faithful readers and listeners! Thank you for your prayers and notes of support and encouragement to John and for making 2025 a benchmark year at Hogwarts Professor. And just you wait for the exciting surprises we have in hand for 2026!Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Twelve Questions and ‘Links Down Below’ Referred to in Nick and John’s I Capture the Castle Conversation:Question 1. So, Nick, we spoke during our Aurora Leigh recording about your long term project to read all the books that Rowling has admitted to have read (link down below!), first question why? and secondly how is that going?Rowling’s Admitted Literary InfluencesWhat I want is a single internet page reference, frankly, of ‘Rowling’s Admitted Literary Influences’ or ‘Confessed Favorites’ or just ‘Books I have Read and Liked’ for my thesis writing so I needn’t do an information dump that will add fifty-plus citations to my Works Cited pages and do nothing for the argument I’m making.Here, then, is my best attempt at a collection, one in alphabetical order by last name of author cited, with a link to at least one source or interview in which Rowling is quoted as liking that writer. It is not meant as anything like a comprehensive gathering of Rowling’s comments about any author; the Austen entry alone would be longer than the whole list should be if I went that route. Each author gets one, maybe two notes just to justify their entry on the list.‘A Rowling Reading of Aurora Leigh’ Nick Jeffery Talking about ‘A Rowling Reading of Aurora Leigh’ Question 2. ... which has led me to three works that she has read from the point of view of writers starting out, and growing in their craft. Which leads us to this series of three chats covering Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and the Little Women series by Louisa May Alcott. I read Castle during the summer. Amid all the disruptions at Granger Towers, have you managed to read it yet? How did you find it?Capturing Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle: Elizabeth Baird-Hardy (October 2011)Certain elements of the story will certainly resonate with those of us who have been to Hogwarts a fair few times: a castle with an odd combination of ancient and modern elements, but no electricity; eccentric family members who are all loved despite their individual oddities (including Topaz’s resemblance to Fleur Delacour); travel by train; a character named Rose who may have been one of the reasons Rowling chose the name for Ron and Hermione’s daughter; descriptions of food that make even somewhat questionable British cuisine sound tasty; and inanimate objects that have their own personalities (the old dress frame, which Rose and Cassandra call Miss Blossom, is voiced by Cassandra and sounds much like the talking mirror in Harry’s room at the Leaky Caldron).But far more than some similar pieces, I Capture the Castle lends something less tangible to Rowling’s writing. The novel has a tone that, like the Hogwarts adventures, seamlessly winds together the comic and the crushing in a way that is reflective of life, particularly life as we see it when we are younger. Cassandra’s voice is, indeed, engaging, and readers ...
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    1 h et 25 min
  • Why Hallmarked Man is the Best Cormoran Strike Novel and Will Be Considered the Key to Unlocking the Series' Mysteries

    Why Hallmarked Man is the Best Cormoran Strike Novel and Will Be Considered the Key to Unlocking the Series' Mysteries
    Dec 20 2025
    John Granger Attempts to Convince Nick (and You!) That The Hallmarked Man will be Considered the Best of the Series.We review our take-away impressions from our initial reading of The Hallmarked Man. Although we enjoyed it, especially John’s incredible prediction of Robin’s ectopic pregnancy, neither of us came away thinking this was the finest book in the series. For Nick, this was a surprise, as enthusiastic J. K. Rowling fan that he is other than Career of Evil every book he has read has been his favourite. Using an innovative analysis of the character pairs surrounding both Cormoran and Robin, John argues that we can’t really appreciate the artistry of book number eight until we consider its place in the series. Join John and Nick as they review the mysteries that remain to be resolved and how The Hallmarked Man sets readers up for shocking reveals in Strike 9 and 10!Why Troubled Blood is the Best Strike Novel:* The Pillar Post Collection of Troubled Blood Posts at HogwartsProfessor by John Granger, Elizabeth Baird-Hardy, Louise Freeman, Beatrice Groves, and Nick JefferyTroubled Blood and Faerie Queene: The Kanreki ConversationBut What If We Judge Strike Novels by a Different Standard than Shed Artifice? What About Setting Up the ‘Biggest Twist’ in Detective Fiction History?* If Rowling is to be judged by the ‘shock’ of the reveals in Strike 10, then The Hallmarked Man, the most disappointing book in the series even to many Serious Strikers, will almost certainly be remembered as the book that set up the finale with the greatest technical misdirection while playing fair.* The ending must be a shock, one that readers do not see coming, BUT* The author must provide the necessary clues and pointers repeatedly and emphatically lest the reader feel cheated at the point of revelation.* If the Big Mysteries of the series are to be solved with the necessary shock per both Russian Formalist and Perennialist understanding, then the answers to be revealed in the final two Strike novels, Books Two and Three of the finale trilogy, should be embedded in The Hallmarked Man.* Rowling on Playing Fair with Readers:The writer says that she wanted to extend the shelf of detective fiction without breaking it. “Part of the appeal and fascination of the genre is that it has clear rules. I’m intrigued by those rules and I like playing with them. Your detective should always lay out the information fairly for the reader, but he will always be ahead of the game. In terms of creating a character, I think Cormoran Strike conforms to certain universal rules but he is very much of this time.* On the Virtue of ‘Penetration’ in Austen, Dickens, and Rowling* Rowling on the Big Twist’ in Austen’s Emma:“I have never set up a surprise ending in a Harry Potter book without knowing I can never, and will never, do it anywhere near as well as Austen did in Emma.”What are the Key Mysteries of the Strike series?Nancarrow FamilyWhy did Leda and Ted leave home in Cornwall as they did?Why did Ted and Joan not “save” Strike and Lucy?Was Leda murdered or did she commit suicide?If she was murdered, who dunit?If she commited suicide, why did she do it?What happened to Switch Whittaker?Cormoran StrikeIs Jonny Rokeby his biological father?What SIB case was he investigating when he was blown up?Was he the father of Charlotte’s lost baby? If not, then who was?Why has he been so unstable in his relations with women post Charlotte Campbell?Charlotte CampbellWhy did her mother hate her so much?What was her relationship with her three step-fathers? Especially Dino LongcasterWho was the father of her lost child?Was the child intentionally aborted or was it a miscarriage?What was written in her “suicide note”?Was Charlotte murdered or did she commit suicide?If she was murdered, who done it?If she committed suicide, why did she do it?What happened to the billionaire lover?What clues do we get in Hallmarked Man that would answer these questions?- Strike 8 - Greatest Hits of Strikes 1-7: compilation, concentration of perumbration in series as whole* Decima/Lion - incest* Rupert’s biological father not his father of record (Dino)* Sacha Legard a liar with secrets* Ryan Murphy working a plan off-stage - Charlotte’s long gameStrike about ‘Pairings’ in Lethal WhiteStrike continued to pore over the list of names as though he might suddenly see something emerging out of his dense, spiky handwriting, the way unfocused eyes may spot the 3D image hidden in a series of brightly colored dots. All that occurred to him, however, was the fact that there was an unusual number of pairs connected to Chiswell’s death: couples—Geraint and Della, Jimmy and Flick; pairs of full siblings—Izzy and Fizzy, Jimmy and Billy; the duo of blackmailing collaborators—Jimmy and Geraint; and the subsets of each blackmailer and his deputy—Flick and Aamir. There was even the quasi-parental pairing of Della and Aamir. This left two people...
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    1 h et 48 min
  • Full Cast Audio Harry Potter: Is It Worth a Listen?

    Full Cast Audio Harry Potter: Is It Worth a Listen?
    Dec 8 2025

    John Granger rarely listens to audio adaptations of books unless he’s on a long drive, though he admits they have played an important part in his life as a reader.

    Nick Jeffery listens to audio books everyday and often for hours at a time; he credits the medium for his mid-life rebirth as a reader (re-reader!).

    Zossima Granger, writer in residence at ProtagonistBook.com (Give the gift of an unforgettable story!) and host of Teller Talk interview series at Zossima’s Story Stack Substack page, cannot remember a time when Harry Potter and audio books were not an important part of his life. He like Nick listens to one book per week or more.

    So — what do these Potter Pundits and Serious Strikers think of the new Audible ‘Full Cast Audio’ (FCA) unabridged dramatization of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which in the UK and Commonwealth nations is Philosopher’s Stone?

    They loved it! No, the adaptation wasn’t perfect, and, yes, there are a few jarring miscues and disappointments. As they explain in their ten point discussion of their experience listening to the Audible production, however, there’s reason to be very excited about this audio version of the first Potter novel and the six promised FCA dramatizations.

    Nick lays out the audio adaptation history of the Hogwarts Saga, to include, in addition to the background of the new FCA books, the Stephen Fry and Jim Dale legacies. And then he asks the questions below!

    * What is your relationship with audio books? Are you a frequent listener?

    * Were the Fry/Dale Potter adaptations an important part of your experience of the Hogwarts Saga?

    * Did you listen to the ‘full cast audio’ adaptation of Christmas Pig? Other books?

    * What were your expectations -- fears and hopes -- for the Sorcerer’s Stone full cast audio adaptation?

    * What was the biggest surprise you experienced in your first listening?

    * Which of the voice actors brought out a different dimension of the text than you expected?

    * What is your favorite scene in Stone and was the full cast audio depiction of it a delight or a disappointment?

    * Fry, Dale, or Full Cast: will you listen to all three versions in the future? Do you have a strong preference?

    * Thumbs up or down: one to five stars, please, for the Audible production and your biggest grins and gripes.

    * What changes do you hope the producers will make before they release the next six adaptations?

    Please join in the conversation by sharing your answers to these questions in the comment boxes below. What is your relationship with books you listen to rather than read? What do think of the new FCA dramatization?

    And, when you’ve made your contribution to this conversation and you’d like more conversation between Nick Jeffery and Zossima Granger for dessert, check out Teller Talk #4, ‘Harry Potter and the Skill of Reading’!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 h et 36 min