Dr. John Granger and Nick Jeffery explore the theme of pregnancy traps and coercive love as a golden thread running through all the published works of J. K. Rowling. After detailing the number and importance of this plot point in everything from the Harry Potter series to the latest Cormoran Strike novel — even the Christmas Pig and The Ickabog! — John and Nick explore the possibilities of what this means for understanding Rowling’s artistry and meaning from a ‘Lake and Shed’ perspective.

The seven Hogwarts Professor weblog posts that John and Nick reference in their conversation can be found here:

Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Merope Gaunt

Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Casual Vacancy’s Krystal Weedon, Kay Bawden

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Bellatrix Lestrange and the Cursed Child Delphini

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Leda Strike

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Four Strikes

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Last Strikes

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, The Christmas Pig

John and Nick discuss the four generations of Rowling studies, and applies their principles to the new video’s “On Writing”. From the Lake and Shed metaphor to shocking DNA predictions, join Rowling Studies for episode five.

Join John and Nick as they explore the strange and quirky island of Sark, take a look at the latest J. K. Rowling twitter storms and stand in admiration of her heroic stand against judicial free-speech suppression in Scotland.

Join John and Nick as they tackle a controversial subject. Using the ‘lake and shed’ analysis of J. K. Rowling’s compete cannon to understand if Robin Ellacott might turn out to be sterile.

The thesis is that Robin Venetia Ellacott will not have children with Murphy, Strike, or any other partner, because she cannot, at least not without some extraordinary efforts via in vitro conception and surrogacy. John tried in his Substack post a month ago to explain how this infertility is possible, to detail the ‘Lake’ suggestions from Rowling’s life and personal experience that shows she is more than familiar with this condition among women, and to share the ‘Shed’ literary markers in Running Grave and Rowling’s other novels that this is indeed what she has in mind for Strike’s partner Robin.

Welcome to the second episode of our Rowling Studies podcast, this time a discussion on The Christmas Pig. Nick’s ‘Top Three’ books per the Lake or biographical and bibliographical perspective, Rowling’s life and literature influences, and John’s ‘Top Three’ books along Shed or ‘artistry and meaning’ lines only have one book in common: The Christmas Pig.

Join ‘Mystic Nick’ as he explains his prediction that this book was coming one year before the announcement and John - The Dean of Harry Potter Scholars as he explores the allegorical meaning behind Rowling’s masterpiece.

Let us know what you think of episode two and what you’d like to hear more of in our next episodes by dropping us a line in the comments spaces below or in the chat option at RowlingStudies.com!

Welcome to ‘Rowling Studies,’ a Hogwarts Professor podcast!

In the pilot episode, Nick Jeffery and John Granger discuss the aim of ‘Rowling Studies’ before jumping into a conversation about Nick’s theory that Charlotte Campbell did not commit suicide in Running Grave but was murdered. Their choice of methodology in exploring this speculative subject — ‘Lake’ biographical exploration (Simon Peter did it!), ‘Shed’ artistry (structure!), intertextual allusion (Romeo and Juliet!), and a look across the full canon of Rowling work — is precisely their point, but they make a pretty compelling case that Strike really blew it in his Epilogue interview with Emilia Crichton.

Nick and John’s full written discussions of the mysterious death of Charlotte Campbell can be read here and here. Let them know what you think of their first podcast and what you’d like to hear more about in their next episodes by dropping them a line in the comments spaces below or in the chat option at RowlingStudies.com!