JK Rowling stuns Orkney Book Club after surprise visit

On Saturday, March 5th, JK Rowling dropped in to a small town library to discuss her 2013 book The Cuckoo’s Calling under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith

The award-winning Orkney Library has caused quite a stir recently. Renowned author JK Rowling paid a visit to the famous library this past Saturday, but it starts a little bit further back than that.

It started when Librarian Stewart Bain began advertising his library with humorous tweets. He began using Twitter as his tool to reach the masses, and at 24, 300 followers (more than the population of Orkney), you would be hard-pressed to find a library with more followers. A lot has to do with the nature of the humor as you would never expect to see a librarian publicly speaking about his bowels, poking fun at celebrities, or insinuating sexual references.

All this has garnered Bain enough attention to win Publishers’ Publicity Circles Librarian of the Year, and also enough attention to peek the interest of one the most famous authors today.

On Saturdays, the book club Saturday Slaughters usually gathers to discuss the weekly crime book of choice, and this week it was The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. Of course, Robert Galbraith is Rowling’s pseudonym and that’s where the connection began.

Amazingly, this was the beginning of the shocking visit from Rowling when she responded saying, “That sounds like a fun event.” After much back and forth between Bain and Rowling, she actually showed up to the small event that consists of 15 members.

After a tour of the library, Rowling joined the book club to discuss her story.

Bain spoke to how chatty the book club usually is, but when Rowling set foot within their group, the members were “gobsmacked” until the tea was boiled, to which they began to discuss the book and open up to Rowling. The members were able to take photos, receive autographs and bask in the glory of the gift Rowling was nice enough to give to the library.

The beloved Rowling has been known to connect with her fans through social media and various appearances, but this visit must be one of the most random and obscure drop ins she has ever been a part of. The award-winning Orkney Library has definitely gained its share of attention from the public from either Twitter or its recent awards, but now finally they can hold their “Sorting Hat” to the visit JK Rowling was able to pay them.