Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation is about Rowling’s remarkable “fairy-tale” and the history and meaning of its release during the “pandemic” hysteria of 2020. The Ickabog, along with Casual Vacancy and Ink Black Heart, is not only one of Rowling’s most autobiographical works, but, with the Lake and Shed interview, the Solve et Coagula tattoo, her RFK Award speech, and the Trans Tweet Heard Round the World, a key to her self-understanding in the critical year 2019-2020. Nick takes the ‘Shed’ point and lays out the controlled demolition of her reputation among Group Thinkers on the Left in the lead up to Ickabog’s publication and John shares the meaning of ‘The Ickabog’s Song,’ the embedded text of the tale, as interpreted by Daisy Dovetail (an embedded author?).

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? Perhaps the best single book by Rowling-Galbraith, Troubled Blood. Nick will be sharing Rowling’s skills in and beliefs about astrology which plays an outsised role in the fifth Strike novel. John talks about the “Best Mate” scene in the Agency office and its important mythological backdrop. Stay tuned!

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

Nick Jeffery: Beginning at the Beginning A History of ‘Ickabog’ and Christmas Pig

Ink Black Heart and Deathly Hallows: The Heart is Not About Emotions and Affection but the Human Spiritual Center

Week Seven of the Ickabog! Hurrah!

* Last Chapters Comment

‘The Song of the Ickabog’ — Three Notes

Rowling Writes Trans Views Tell All Post; Fandom Divides ‘Team Jo,’ ‘Team Trans’

Reading, Writing, Rowling 44: Ickabog! John Granger’s Last MuggleNet Podcast

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

Rowling Tweets Potter Fandom, Ickabog

The Ickabog: Rowling Facebook Event

Guest Post: Ickabog Notes & Predictions

The Ickabog: JKR’s Political Fairy Tale

Was 2020 A Bad Year for J. K. Rowling? Nominated for 3 British Book Awards

Groves: The Rowling-Norton Interview

The Names of “The Ickabog” – Part 1 (Beatrice Groves

The Names of “The Ickabog” – Part 2: Ichabod (Beatrice Groves)

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