Here is a list of all the real people and events which are mentioned in The Ink Black Heart.
Tom Waits
Tom Waits is a Blues singer/songwriter, and is Cormoran Strike’s favourite musician.
In The Ink Black Heart, for Strike’s 40th birthday, Robin gifts him with a rare test pressing of Waits’ first album, Closing Time.
The Closing Time album was released in 1976, two years after Strike was born.
Tom Waits’ music and Arsenal Football Club are the only two things Strike would call himself a “fan” of, the world of fandoms otherwise being somewhat alien to him.
Imran Khan
Imran Khan is a Pakistani politician and former Prime Minister of Pakistan (2018-2022).
In chapter 2 of The Ink Black Heart, Pat Chauncy tells Robin that their new subcontractor Dev Shah could give Imran Khan a run for his money. “Those eyes!”
Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne
In chapter 3, Strike is at Annabel’s club conducting surveillance when ‘Rather Be’ by Clean Bandit starts to play. The song is sung by Jess Glynne, a popular English singer/songwriter.
Charlie Hebdo shooting
In January 2015, two terrorist shooters killed 12 people and injured 11 in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly newspaper in Paris, France.
In chapter 12 of The Ink Black Heart, which is set around the time of the shooting, Robin refers to this horrific event after the murder of Edie Ledwell. Robin argues that this killing was different to the Charlie Hebdo shootings, as The Ink Black Heart cartoon wasn’t political.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is a British Conservative politician, former Mayor of London and former Prime Minister. At the time The Ink Black Heart is set (2015), Johnson is Mayor of London.
In chapter 8, when Strike and Madeline are in Nightjar, Strike jokes with Madeline that he is investigating the movements of Boris Johnson.
After Strike tells her he’ll be conducting surveillance in Sloane Square early the following morning, Madeline asks Strike what Boris was doing there. He replies “‘Nicking hub caps, mugging old ladies–the usual, … But he’s a wily bastard and I still haven’t managed to catch him in the act.’”
Copenhagen shootings
There were three Copenhagen shootings in February 2015 . Robin reads about two of these on the BBC website on her phone in chapter 14, shortly after learning of Edie Ledwell’s murder.
The first of these shootings was at an exhibition called “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression” at the Krudttønden cultural centre. It resulted in the death of a civilian.
The second shooting was at a synagogue later that night, which resulted in the death of a in Jewish man.
Reading the BBC article causes Robin’s misery to grow heavier, having also just heard of Edie Ledwell’s murder. She reflects on this: “Human beings slaughtered for writing words, for making drawings: Edie Ledwell couldn’t, surely, be one of them?”
Here is a BBC article about the first Copenhagen shooting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31472423.amp
Jan Pieńkowski
Pieńowski was a Polish-born British author and illustrator of children’s books. He was born in Poland in 1936 and sadly died in February 2022 at the age of 85.
His is best known for illustrating the Meg and Mog picture book series.
In chapter 14 of The Ink Black Heart, Robin watches the first interview with Edie Ledwell and Josh Blay on YouTube, dated June 2010. In this interview, on answering a fan question, Josh mentions how Jan Pieńowski’s work was an inspiration for their cartoon and that his mum had given him one of Pieńowski’s books as a kid, which he says was published in the ‘70s.
Edie then shows the camera Jan Pieńowski’s fairy tales book, published in 2005, and then shows the illustrations inside.
“‘See? He did these incredible silhouettes against marbled paper. Aren’t they amazing?’” – The Ink Black Heart, chapter 14
William Morris
William Morris was a textile designer and artist born in 1834.
In chapter 16, Robin tails Groomer and Legs to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. The gallery, which is the only public gallery devoted to Morris, was opened by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1950.
The building itself is a grand II listed building and was home to the Morris family between 1848 and 1856.
Edward Byrne-Jones
Sir Edward Byrne Jones was a British painter and designer born in 1833.
In chapter 16 of The Ink Black Heart, Robin follows Groomer and Legs to the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.
In the gallery, Robin overhears Groomer and Legs discussing the Christian symbolism of the pelican design by Edward Byrne-Jones, which shows a pelican feeding her chicks with her own blood.
Byrne-Jones designed this for a stained glass window which was made by Morris & Co for St Martin’s Church in Brampton, Cumbria. The pelican feeding her chicks with her own blood is Christian symbolism for Christ sacrificing himself on the cross.
Didier Drogba and Ricardo Fuller (Ch 9)
In Wally Cardew and MJ’s infamous 2012 ‘Cookies’ video, they discuss the football game the previous Saturday. MJ says it was a nice goal by Drogba.
Wally then asks if he saw what Fuller had done, to which MJ replies, “Yeah. Stamping on a guy’s fucking balls is not cool.” They are referring to a football game between Chelsea and Stoke City on 10th March 2012 in which Ricardo Fuller of Stoke City stamped on Chelsea player Branislav Ivonovic’s balls. Fuller got sent off.
Dzhokhar Anzorovich Tsarnaev (Ch 21)
On 9th April 2015, Anomie Tweets that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s mother says he’s the ‘best of the best’.
Tzarnaev is an American terrorist who was convicted of perpetrating the Boston Marathon bombing, 15th April 2013.
Jimmy Savile (Ch 24)
Savile was a DJ and TV and Radio personality who was outed as a predatory sex offended after hundreds of allegations were made against him after his death in 2011. He was exposed in 2012.
In chapter 24, Robin finds a tweet by Edie Ledwell that reads ‘How can all these people saying Savile abused them have been ignored? Why did nobody listen?’
Robin notices that Anomie had quote retweeted Edie’s comment with: ‘Gonna start claiming he was the one who did you? #trollingforsympathy.’
John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Ch 24)
Two of Sara Niven’s parrots are called John and Yoko, after John Lennon of The Beatles fame and singer/songwriter Yoko Ono. The lovebirds are seen in a YouTube video of Kea Niven that Robin watches in chapter 24.
Margaret Read (Ch 24)
Margaret Read, as mentioned by Kea Niven in a YouTube video, was a woman who was accused of witchcraft and was burned at the stake in the Tuesday Market Place in King’s Lynn in 1570. Her heart was supposed to have burst out of her chest and hit a wall. The point of contact is now marked by a painted black heart. Kea supposedly told Josh Blay this story when they were dating, and thinks he must have told Edie Ledwell about it before they started The Ink Black Heart cartoon. This is just one of the supposed inspirations Kea claims were stolen from her by Ledwell.
Cyril Scott (Ch 24)
Cyril Scott was an English writer, poet, composer and occultist in (1879-1970).
In chapter 24, Robin calls Allan Yeoman, Edie Ledwell’s agent, and asks him about Kea Niven and her plagiarism claims. Yeoman tells Robin: “‘Amazing how often two films come out at the same time, on the same subject. Nobody’s stolen anything. It’s just there, you know, in the ether. Cyril Scott would have said it was the devas, whispering into the ears of people who’re receptive.’”
Chairman Mao (Ch 27)
Mao Zedong was the President of the People’s Republic of China.
When Strike meets Dev Shah in Opium, the speakeasy cocktail bar in Chinatown, a picture of Chairman Mai is painted on a cabinet.
Werner Heisenberg, uncertainty principle (m, Ch 29)
Mineko Iwasaki (m, Ch 29)
Sylvia Plath (m, Ch 29)
Elizabeth Siddal (m, Ch 29)
1915 Battle of Neuve Chapelle
Mark Chapman (m, Ch 32)
Byron, Keats, Shelley and Dick Turpin (Ch 35)
Rachel Maddox (Ch 35)
Pete Best, the Beatles (Ch 38)
LaTavia Roberson (Ch 38)
Armenian genocide (Ch 39)
Henry Bartle Frere (Ch 41)
Jared Taylor (Ch 41)
Marc Lépine (Ch 46)
Margaret Read (Ch 49)
Karl Marx
Christina Rossetti
Elizabeth, Baroness de Munck
Mary Nichols
William Wombwell
Hannah Höch
Emile Durkheim
Luciano Becchio
Rio Ferdinand
Ringo Starr
Ariana Grande
Stephen Hawking
Catullus
John Baldwin
Zoltan Kodaly