Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation focuses in on the remarkable Strike-Ellacott novel, The Running Grave, the last book in our review of every work of fiction with either of Mrs Murray’s pseudonyms on the cover. Nick confesses to feeling stumped about what to say as his ‘Lake’ contribution to the discussion — before his epiphany on a long walk with Addie that almost every buoy or pillar in Rowling’s metaphorical place of inspiration finds its reflection in the seventh Galbraith mystery. John refuses to go into any detail about the work’s ‘wheels within wheels within wheels’ ring structure but shares instead the symbolic depth of Mama Mazu’s mother of pearl fish pendant.

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? We move into uncharted territory with an overview of the Lake material via John interviewing Nick about the various pillars and pertinent examples. Stay tuned!

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

The Running Grave’s Structure: A Master Class in Ring Composition

* Running Grave: Ring Reading Index

* Reading 'Running Grave' as the End of the Strike Series (A)

* Reading 'Running Grave' as the End of the Strike Series (B)

* Reading 'Running Grave' as the End of the Strike Series (C)

Hogwarts Professors’ Reviews of The Running Grave

* Nick Jeffery

* Elizabeth Baird-Hardy

* Evan Willis

The Christian Symbolism of Mama Mazu’s Mother of Pearl Fish Pendant

* The Meaning of Robin Ellacott’s fight with Mama Mazu in Part 9 of Running Grave

* The Beloved Caravaggio Painting In Which Rowling Encountered the ‘Christian Fish’ Symbolism

* The Symbolism of the Pearl in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series

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