Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation is once again about The Christmas Pig. Nick by the Lake shares the history of the Murray Family and their beanie pig toys as well as a likely source for the defenestration of DP (in Esquire magazine, no less). John talks about the promise and the limits of reading literature through a biographical lens and then explains the anagogical meaning of the Power palace kangaroo court trial of CP and Jack. Both share their reasons for thinking that The Christmas Pig is the perfect distillation of everything Rowling is doing as a writer, to include the relationship of her Lake inspiration to her final Shed product.

New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here’s what we’re doing:

On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth’ in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR’s Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling’s twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author’s writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed’ metaphor. The ‘Lake’ is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed’ is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.

Tomorrow? Our look at the Steve Kloves “complete screenplay” Secrets of Dumbledore, one based on an “original story” by J. K. Rowling. Stay tuned!

Links to posts mentioned in today’s Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:

* The Christmas Pig and Old Rabbit (Nick Jeffery)

* The Quadrigal Reading of Christmas Pig (John Granger)

* The Velveteen Rabbit and Christmas Pig (Beatrice Groves, pp 17-18)

* The Faerie Queene and The Christmas Pig (Elizabeth Baird-Hardy)

* The Rowling Studies podcast dedicated to Christmas Pig subjects

* Warner Bros Adapting ‘Christmas Pig:’ Will It Become Rowling’s Best Loved Book? A Second ‘Christmas Carol’?

The Perennialist Reading of Christmas Pig Series of HogwartsProfessor posts:

* Part 1: John, Peter, and Jack Jones

* Part 2: Dante, Sacred Art, and the Symbolism of the Tree and Its Angels

12/22: Whence Holly’s Hatred in Christmas Pig? The Symbolism of the ‘Broken Angel’

* Part 3: The Quadrigal Reading

* Part 4: The Magic In Things

1/5: Rowling on Love, Hope, Happiness 2018

* Part 5: The Blue Bunny

1/15 Rowling, Ring Writing, and Maternal Love

* Part 6: The Ring Composition

Post Publication Christmas Pig HogwartsProfessor Pieces:

10/4: The Christmas Pig – The First Reviews

10/10: Beatrice Groves: Unlocking Clues to The Christmas Pig

10/13: “For the Straightforward Path Was Lost”: A Few Starting Notes on The Christmas Pig (Evan Willis)

10/13: The Christmas Pig and Old Rabbit

10/17: Alexandra Palace, JKR, Christmas Pig

10/18: J. K. Rowling’s Christmas Pig Interviews

12/14: Rowling Talks About ‘Christmas Pig’

12/17: The Original Christmas Pig was Blind Pig

12/26: The Faerie Queene and The Christmas Pig

12/27: The Christmas Pig: Amateur AudioBook

12/28: Christmas Pig’s Chapter Thirteen

1/2: Does Anyone “Really” Die in Stories?

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