The Running Grave Teaser Header
J. K. Rowling's New Twitter Header
On August 16th J. K. Rowling updated her Twitter header with a picture of a collection of objects that all seem to have some connection to the upcoming Strike novel The Running Grave.
I have long been interested in the clues that Rowling drops into her Twitter headers, and this looks to be a vintage one. It has several unusual features: It appears to be a professional photograph, neither sourced from the internet, nor self snapped by the author. The last time we saw this type of header was way back in 2014 to early 2016, in a series of messy desk headers, very similar to the current one. The messy desk theme is carried over to her websites, for both adults and children, and the designer for those is likely also responsible for these headers.
The other unusual fact with this header change is the lack of activity on Twitter other than the header and profile image change. Rowling’s last post or like occurred on August 3rd, nearly two weeks before the change. It is at least possible, even likely, that this change was pre-arranged by Rowling and her team while she is currently on a planned Twitter break.
The Clues
The Twitter fan community leaped into action very quickly to identify the different elements in the image (so many and so quickly that I will not attempt to credit who spotted what first). The only item in Rowling’s own hand is what appears to be the logo for the Universal Humanitarian Church formed by two hands in the shape of a heart. @CormStrikeFan who runs the popular StrikeFans website identified the book as George Barker’s Dialogues etc.
George Barker (1913 - 1991) was an English poet who spent the latter years of his life in Norfolk. Strike superfan @suekmoorhen found a poem by Barker that uses the term Running Grave and Cromer in the same line, although I can’t yet confirm that this poem is in Dialogues etc.
There are two ways of casting I Ching hexagrams with both yarrow stalks and Yau staves pictured.
The cards are from an I Ching divination set:
The visible card 29 Repeating Chasms was found by suekmoorhen to to have a link to running water here. Strike sleuth @LudicrousMonica found the glass pig with a five pence piece trapped inside, as well as this piece of folklore:
@msnomdeplume identified the carving as a Japanese Netsuke featuring the Chinese zodiac:
The picture of the rooster, and the two model pigs, may be a reference to the old sailors custom of having a pig and a rooster tattooed on the feet as a ward against drowning. Livestock was stored on deck in wooden crates and were often the only survivors from shipwreck.
Conclusion
As with all the best clues we will only know the references for sure, when The Running Grave is published. I will however make one non-TRG related prediction. The lack of twitter activity, and the (it appears to me) planned release of the twitter header and profile picture without comment, indicated that she is working hard on something against a deadline. It is now far too late for last minute edits to TRG, which means this is something else. Back in May Rowling was asked what her next non-Strike book would be.
My guess is that we may be seeing a collection of short stories titled Love Stories for the Rich and Desperate before Christmas.
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Her Twitter absence could actually coincide with a family holiday. Hasn’t she sometimes gone for a prolonged holiday in the past before school begins?
In the Chinese zodiac, Strike would be a Tiger. Robin would be a Rat.