JK Rowling: ‘Galbraith name was not a trick’

JK Rowling has said she “wasn’t trying to trick or fool anyone” by writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

The Harry Potter creator, 52, penned crime story The Cuckoo’s Calling – one novel in the Strike detective series of novels – before her cover was blown by a legal firm.

The best-selling author said: “The pseudonym was a way of disconnecting myself from all of the baggage that comes with being me. Being me has many privileges, so this isn’t a complaint in the slightest.

“But at the same time, as I 0 Rowling wrote a book under the name Robert Galbraith entered this new genre, one that I’d always wanted to write in, I really wanted to go in without expectation.” She added: “I wanted to go back to the beginning. I wanted it to just be about the writing.”