JK Rowling has revealed that her new crime novel’s plot “genuinely wasn’t” inspired by the backlash to her comments about the trans community.
The 57-year-old author’s new novel The Ink Black Heart is the latest installment in her Cormoran Strike crime thriller series which she writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The latest book has a storyline about a woman who is killed after being accused of transphobia.
In recent years, Rowling has made headlines for sharing her views on transgender rights. She was first met with backlash in June 2020 after calling out an article’s use of the phrase “people who menstruate”. “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” she wrote, adding: “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Since then, Rowling has repeatedly come under criticism for various social media posts which many have accused of being transphobic.
In a new podcast interview with Graham Norton on Virgin Radio, Rowling said parallels between her new book’s plot and her life are nothing more than coincidences.
“I’d written the book before certain things happened to me online,” she said. “I said to my husband, ‘I think everyone’s going to see this as a response to what happened to me,’ but it genuinely wasn’t.
“The first draft of the book was finished at the point certain things happened.”
Through the years, Rowling has repeatedly rejected the idea that she is “transphobic” and has said she “knows and loves” trans people. The author has also received death threats due to her posts and previously had her Scotland address leaked online by activists.
During the podcast, the Harry Potter writer also described social media as “a gift for people who want to behave in a malign way”.
“I think on one level I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure any individual can. I try and behave online as I would like others to behave,” she said. “I wouldn’t ever want to… I’ve never threatened anyone obviously and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go to their houses or anything like that.
“Social media can be a lot of fun and I do like the pub argument aspect of it. That can be a fun thing to do. But there’s no doubt that social media is a gift for people who want to behave in a malign way.”
