Jul
25
The Harry Potter fandom and the publishing world had a big surprise earlier this month when The Sunday Times revealed that a little known book called The Cuckoo’s Calling, supposedly written by début author Robert Galbraith, was in fact the work of the one-and-only J.K. Rowling!
The crime novel was published in April and garnered some rave reviews before the outing of the real author. The news spread like wildfire and its modest sales skyrocketed, sending it straight to the top of bestseller lists.
Some speculated whether it was all a clever marketing strategy by the publisher, but the real story was soon revealed: a partner at a legal firm working with Rowling on the novel had told his wife about the true identity of Robert Galbraith, who disclosed it to her friend, who then informed a Sunday Times journalist.
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Sep
27
JK Rowling’s new book for adults The Casual Vacancy, her first novel since Harry Potter, hit store shelves throughout the world this morning!
With millions of pre-orders and most critics so far giving it favourable reviews, it looks like the book is going to be a resounding success. (Did anyone ever doubt that?) Congratulations to Jo in this new stage of her amazing career. We look forward to reading it!
Here is a great picture from the Waterstones bookshop in Oxford Street:
Sep
22
As the release of her first post-Potter book The Casual Vacancy approaches, Jo Rowling has begun a series of interviews and appearances with a lengthy piece in The Guardian in which she discusses her life before, during and after Harry Potter, and politics and society and how it ties into the new book. And she says that having dreamed up Harry Potter on a train, the idea for The Casual Vacancy came to her on a plane this time! She also reveals that her next book to publish will most likely be another children’s story, and that the long awaited ‘political fairytale’ is still sitting on her laptop, almost finished.
The video below summarizes the interview nicely, but you can read the whole thing over on the Guardian website. Spoiler warning: the article contains a lot of detail about the contents of The Casual Vacancy. We’ve included some highlight quotes below.
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