Cormoran Strike's Series

J.K. Rowling remembers how her Robert Galbraith pseudonym was discovered

In an interview to BBC Radio 2, J.K. Rowling revealed she was suspicious that the identity behind her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, was leaked by BBC itself. Rowling thought that the TV station made the connection after her publisher was addressed about a TV adaptation of Cormoran Strike‘s first police novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling.

“The BBC actually approached Robert without knowing it was me, which put me in a real quandary,” Rowling remembers. “I had this bizarre meeting with my agent and editor and I said to them “Well, what do we do? This is an amazing thing that they’ve contacted us to try and adapt it for TV, but I obviously can’t take this meeting.”

When her identity was revealed in 2013, only the first volume of the policial series had been published. Her goal was to stay anonymous until some other volumes from the series were published. “My ambition was to try and get three [novels] out without being unmasked”, she explained. “When it leaked initially, for about four horrible days actually, we didn’t know how it had leaked because so few people knew the secret,” she said.

Rowling’s identity was revealed after a partner in the law firm who represented her told the secret to his wife’s best friend. She then contacted a journalist from the Sunday Times.

As Robert Galbraith, J.K. Rowling has already published four books about the private detective Cormoran Strike: The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil and Lethal White. The author hopes to write at least ten books from the series and already has ideas for the next two books.

Translated into English by Nuara Costa
Edited by Aline Michel