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Strike 8: The Hallmarked Man

Strike 8: The Hallmarked Man

Saturday 16 March 2024

Strike 8: The Hallmarked Man

Saturday 16 March 2024


JK Rowling appears to have paid a secret visit to Sark - and she's confirmed she's scared of heights saying the Coupee is "the kind of place (she) has nightmares about".

The famed author thanked Sark and said "you and your people are wonderful" in a post to X (formerly Twitter).

She also revealed that her husband had bought her a Sark hallmarked bracelet from Sark Silver Studio.

The post was shared on Friday afternoon, suggesting her trip had been earlier in the week.  

In subsequent posts, replying to followers the Harry Potter author expressed her pleasure at meeting some Sark locals and seeing some of the island's sights, including La Coupee.

She had recently sparked interest in the island when she used a photograph of the isthmus taken by Chris George as her cover photo on X.

Mr George's photograph of La Coupee was taken in 2009, and Ms Rowling shared it on X in February this year. 

JK Rowling Sark

When the author chose to use his image of La Coupee on X, no one was more surprised than Mr George.

When he then saw the original Express story questioning why JK Rowling had used a photo of La Coupee, he immediately recognised it as one of his own and checked his archives. 

"I took that photo for Visit Guernsey on 18 June 2009," he confirmed.

"I was over there taking shots for Visit Guernsey. It was a beautiful hot summer day and I just walked around taking photos. There will be thousands of photos of La Coupee but I just recognised it and knew it was mine. I checked my archive and there it was!

"I'm delighted she's used it. It was taken for tourism purposes so it is a royalty free image and I'm quite happy it's been used. It might encourage other people to visit too."

As well as Harry Potter, Ms Rowling has written a series of books around the work of detective Cormoran Strike under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Readers of those novels suspected Ms Rowling may be setting a story in Sark as she has previously dropped hints and teased locations.

There are already seven books in the Galbraith 'Strike' series: The Running Grave, The Ink Black Heart, Troubled Blood, Lethal White, Career of Evil, The Silkworm, and The Cuckoo's Calling.

The most recent - The Running Grave - was published last year and told how Private Detective Cormoran Strike helped in the search for a missing man who had joined a religious cult.

Some of the past Strike novels have involved mysteries around cold cases, and more recent murders and unexplained deaths.

The first five Strike novels have been adapted for television.

JK Rowling

Pictured: The Robert Galbraith website details the characters and storylines in the Strike series of novels.

JK Rowling has sold an estimated 600million books, the bulk of which are in her wildly popular Harry Potter series.

The confirmation that her series of Strike stories will be coming to Sark was met with positivity from many people replying to her on X on Friday.

Many of the comments also praised the jewellery she was advertising.

Other comments referred to Ms Rowling's well publicised feminist views which include keeping safe spaces for women and not considering transwomen to be women. 

At the time of writing, Ms Rowling's post about visiting Sark had been viewed by nearly 300,000 people, in less than three hours. 

READ MORE...

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to...visit Sark? 

Strike set to visit Sark? 

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