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Harry Potter author JK Rowling appears to have paid a secret visit to Sark – suggesting that there may be some truth to rumours that her new book is to be set in the Channel Islands.
The famed author thanked Sark and said "you and your people are wonderful" in a post to X (formerly Twitter).
The post was shared on Friday afternoon, suggesting her trip had been earlier in the week.
Thank you, Sark ???? You and your people are wonderful, and I'm leaving with a very appropriate souvenir, given the title of #Strike8: #TheHallmarkedMan (bracelet from https://t.co/D91e1URBo0) pic.twitter.com/3eEAS1xfNR
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 15, 2024
She also revealed that her husband had bought her a Sark hallmarked bracelet from Sark Silver Studio.
Replying to followers, the Harry Potter author expressed her pleasure at meeting some Sark locals and seeing some of the island's sights, including La Coupee.
Ms Rowling had recently sparked interest in the island when she used a photograph of the isthmus taken by a Guernsey photographer as her cover photo on social media.
Chris George's photograph of Sark's La Coupee was taken in 2009, and Ms Rowling shared it on X in February this year.
When the author chose to use his image of La Coupee on X, no one was more surprised than Mr George.
When he then saw the original story questioning why JK Rowling had used a photo of La Coupee, he immediately recognised it as one of his own and checked his archives.
"I took that photo for Visit Guernsey on 18 June 2009," confirmed Mr George.
"I was over there taking shots for Visit Guernsey. It was a beautiful hot summer day and I just walked around taking photos.
"There will be thousands of photos of La Coupee but I just recognised it and knew it was mine. I checked my archive and there it was!
"I'm delighted she's used it. It was taken for tourism purposes so it is a royalty free image and I'm quite happy it's been used.
"It might encourage other people to visit too."
As well as Harry Potter, Ms Rowling has written a series of books around the work of detective Cormoran Strike under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Readers of those novels suspected Ms Rowling may be setting a story in Sark as she has previously dropped hints and teased locations.
There are already seven books in the Galbraith 'Strike' series: The Running Grave, The Ink Black Heart, Troubled Blood, Lethal White, Career of Evil, The Silkworm, and The Cuckoo's Calling.
The most recent – The Running Grave – was published last year and told how Private Detective Cormoran Strike helped in the search for a missing man who had joined a religious cult.
Some of the past Strike novels have involved mysteries around cold cases, and more recent murders and unexplained deaths.
The first five Strike novels have been adapted for television.
Pictured: The Robert Galbraith website details the characters and storylines in the Strike series of novels.
JK Rowling has sold an estimated 600million books, the bulk of which are in her wildly popular Harry Potter series.
The confirmation that her series of Strike stories will be coming to Sark was met with positivity from many people replying to her on X on Friday.
At the time of writing, Ms Rowling's post about visiting Sark had been viewed by nearly 500,000 people, in less than 24 hours.
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to...visit Sark?
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