Cormoran Blue Strike was born on 23 November 1974, in Truro, Cornwall, England, although his family lived in St. Mawes. He spent half his childhood there and half in London (as well as time at a “quasi-mystical commune in Norfolk”), according to the whims of his mother’s itinerant lifestyle. She had Strike’s natal horoscope done when he was born. His star sign is Sagittarius, Scorpio rising, with the sun in the first house, meaning “independent” and “leadership.” However, Strike has nothing but contempt (“It means nothing, it’s all bollocks”) for astrology. Named after a Cornish giant who was from St. Michael’s Mount, Strike has always been a large person — he was the biggest boy in his class every year, and often bigger than those in the class ahead.
Always very bright and a determined student, Strike attended Oxford University and studied for a history degree for about two years.
He dropped out of Oxford at age 20 to join the British military. There, he served in the the Special Investigation Branch, specifically the Royal Military Police. While in the military, he spent time in Afghanistan, Angola, the Balkans (including Bosnia), Cyprus, Germany and Iraq (his first assignment. He also was involved in an investigation in Basra). He earned a life-saving medal for an incident that has not yet been revealed (It’s not the Anstis-saving incident).
In The Cuckoo’s Calling, Strike gives Robin Ellacott the password to his computer, which is ‘Hatherill23′. A possible inspiration for the name is the Detective Chief Inspector George Hatherill, who recommended forming the Special Investigation Branch in the Royal Military Police in 1940. He is also known for his investigation of serial killers John Reginald Christie and John George Haigh, and also the Great Train Robbery in 1963. It’s apparent why Strike might idolize Hatherill and use his name for his computer password, along with the number ’23’ which is his date of birth in November. In the TV series adaptation, Strike’s password is ‘Hatherill123’.
Physical Description
Strike is described as a 6-foot-3, 16-stone (about 225 pounds) giant of a man with short compact hair that is extremely curly, earning him his nickname “pubehead” at school. Half of his right leg is missing, which was blown off in Afghanistan whilst investigating a Killed In Action during his time in the Special Investigation Branch of the Army. He wears a prosthetic leg that often gives him discomfort, if not overwhelming pain; sometimes, when his knee is very sore, he abandons the prosthetic leg and uses crutches instead.
Strike is described as very hairy. “Looking down, he saw that he had done up the buttons on his shirt wrongly, and was exposing a patch of belly so hairy that it resembled black coconut matting.” – The Cuckoo’s Calling. Some of his book descriptions have included him being compared to a grizzly bear and a bison.
Personality
Although Strike can be grumpy and judgmental of others, he does have an outgoing, mischievous personality and a good sense of humour that can sometimes be described as gallows humour. Because of the frequent moves he made as a child, he developed “an advanced set of social skills” that made him know “how to fit in, to make people laugh, to render himself acceptable to almost anyone.” And, of course, his personality is driven by a strong sense of curiosity and desire to find the truth.
Nicknames
Bluey – Charlotte Campbell is the only person who has ever called him this, after his middle name Blue.
Bunsen – Shanker calls Strike this nickname. Strike can’t remember why Shanker started calling him this and he can’t remember the origins of Shanker’s nickname either.
Corm – A nickname that would naturally occur, Al, Nick and Ilsa call him this.
Cormy – Helly Anstis calls Strike this. Strike very much dislikes both the nickname and her.
Diddy – Dave Polworth calls Strike this nickname, which refers to “didicoy,” the Cornish word for “gypsy.” Strike’s “endless comings and goings” from St. Mawes due to his mother’s itinerant lifestyle reminded Dave of how gypsies are.
Federico or Fed – Spanner calls Strike this name, and we don’t know why.
Hopalong – A nickname bequeathed upon Strike by Robin’s younger brother, Martin, whom Strike doesn’t actually meet until Lethal White.
Monkey Boy – This nickname is mentioned in a voicemail left for Strike and heard by Robin in The Cuckoo’s Calling.
Mystic Bob – Richard Anstis’ nickname for Strike. The “mystic” aspect of the name has to do with Strike’s sixth sense that alerted him to the IED that was about to explode in front of their vehicle in Afghanistan. His intuition prompted Strike to grab Anstis and haul him into the backseat with him, thus saving his life.
Oggy – Graham Hardacre and Nick Herbert are known to call him this. We don’t know why, but we suspect it has to do with the sporting Cornwall chant “Oggy! Oggy! Oggy!” “Oggy” is a nickname for a Cornish pasty that somehow ended up being chanted at Cornish rugby matches, political rallies and beyond.
Pubehead – A nickname given to Strike at school for having compact, curly hair.
Stick – Lucy’s nickname for her brother.
When people get his name wrong, it’s typically as “Cameron Strick.”
Family Background
Strike’s parents were rock star Jonny Rokeby and Leda Strike, super groupie. He has met his father only twice — when he was seven years old and Leda surprised Rokeby at a recording studio, and when he was eighteen years old and headed off to uni. Neither encounter was positive. Strike looks nothing like his father – instead, he’s a self-described “spitting image” of his mother’s brother, Ted Nancarrow.
In all, Strike has eight half-siblings from his parents’ numerous pairings:
Maimie Rokeby
Gabriella “Gabi” Rokeby
Daniella “Dani” Rokeby
Edward “Eddie” Rokeby
Switch LaVey Bloom Whittaker
Lucy is the only sibling Strike grew up with, and although she often frustrates him at times, she’s described as one of the people in his life of whom he’s most fond. He prefers her company when she’s not with her husband, Greg, or three sons, Luke, Jack and Adam. She’s also a better driver when she hasn’t got her kids in the car. Although Strike is self-described as not good with children, the middle son Jack has particular affection for his uncle and Strike returns that affection; their bond becomes stronger as the series progresses.
Al is Strike’s only other sibling with whom he has much interaction, and with him it’s quite limited.
During his mid to late teens, Strike’s mother met and married Jeff Whittaker. They moved around a lot, living in squats where Leda and Whittaker would get high on drugs and sleep on dirty mattresses on the floor. The Charles Manson album LIE: The Love and Terror Cult formed the soundtrack to Strike’s GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) year, as his stepfather was obsessed with the American cult leader. Because of Whittaker’s behaviour and threats, Lucy went to live with Aunt Joan and Uncle Ted. Strike chose to stay, refusing to leave his mother alone with his stepfather. When Strike was twenty, his mother was found dead in the squat, having overdosed on heroin. Strike continues to believe that it is Whittaker who killed her.
Friends
Strike’s oldest and one of his best friends is Dave Polworth. They first met at St. Mawes Primary School when they were four-and-a-half years old. Two other of Strike’s dearest friends are Nick and Ilsa Herbert, a gastroenterologist and lawyer, respectively. He and Ilsa grew up together in Cornwall; Strike met Nick at school in London, and it’s because of him that Ilsa and Nick meet, at his 18th birthday party.
Graham Hardacre is a friend of Strike’s through work in the SIB. Strike is also friends with Richard Anstis, although the friendship is weighted far more on Richard’s side of things. Mentioned in The Cuckoo’s Calling is Strike’s childhood friend Charlie Bristow, who Strike knew at Blakeyfield Prep School when they were nine years old. Through the events that take place in Career of Evil, Strike becomes good mates with Eric Wardle of the Metropolitan Police. On the other side of the law enforcement divide, Strike is longtime friends with a fellow simply known as Shanker, whom he has known since they were both seventeen years old.
Love Life
Strike’s love life can be summed up by the opening paragraph of chapter 13 in The Silkworm: “Experience had taught Strike that there was a certain type of woman to whom he was unusually attractive. Their common characteristics were intelligence and the flickering intensity of badly wired lamps. They were often attractive and usually, as as his very oldest friend Dave Polworth liked to put it, ‘total fucking flakes.’ Precisely what it was about him that attracted the type, Strike had never taken the time to consider, although Polworth, a man of many pithy theories, took the view that such women (‘nervy, overbred’) were subconsciously looking for what he called ‘carthorse blood.'”
Charlotte Campbell – Strike’s long-term girlfriend of 16 years, on and off.
Tracey – ‘fellow SIB officer and the girl whom Lucy had hoped her brother would marry.’
Ciara Porter – A one-night stand in The Cuckoo’s Calling.
Nina Lascelles – Strike’s girlfriend in The Silkworm.
Elin Toft – Strike’s girlfriend in Career of Evil.
Lorelei Bevan – Strike’s girlfriend in Lethal White.
Madeline Courson-Miles – Strike’s girlfriend in The Ink Black Heart. She looks like Robin.
Interests/Preferences
Strike’s favourite beer, which he drinks quite often, is Cornwall-brewed Doom Bar. He’s also been known to down the following beers: Nicholson’s Pale Ale, Sam Smith, Spitfire, John Smith’s, Hophead, Tennent’s, London Pride, Arkell’s Wiltshire Gold, Sussex Best, and Badger. Strike was known in the army for being able to bounce back the quickest from a hard night of drinking. He does not enjoy drinking champagne, however.
Strike smokes like a chimney, and the one brand of cigarettes he’s said to smoke is Benson & Hedges Gold. In The Ink Black Heart, Strike starts thinking seriously about stopping.
Strike’s favourite book is the works of the Roman poet Catullus, which he quotes twice in The Silkworm. He also is known to read James Ellroy’s crime fiction. He seems to read the newspaper at every opportunity. Also, as Robin describes it, Strike has an “odd, occasional habit of quoting Latin,” even though he did not study Latin at university.
From his youth through the military, Strike was a boxer. He was once in the ring at Aldershot with one of the Career of Evil suspects, Donald Laing.
Strike supports the football team Arsenal. He adopted this from his Uncle Ted, who is also a fan.
One of his favourite films is The Godfather Part II. In Lethal White, an exhausted Strike muses that “like the character of Hyman Roth in one of his favourite films, he had chosen this business freely. If, like the Mafia, private detection made demands beyond the ordinary, certain concomitants had to be accepted along with the rewards” (chapter 45).
Strike’s favourite Scotch whisky is Arran Single Malt, although he also has been known to drink Famous Grouse. In The Silkworm, his friends Nick and Ilsa give him a bottle of Arran for his birthday. Strike prefers his tea sweet and the colour of creosote, not unlike his creator Robert Galbraith. He drinks his coffee black with two sugars, and he has a double espresso on occasion.
Some food that Strike is known to eat includes fish and chips (with ketchup), pie and mash, steak and chips, fillet of beef, Yorkshire pudding, Singapore noodles, puntarelle with anchovies, pork, ham and cheese panini, Madras curry with naan, sticky toffee pudding, apple crumble, strawberry and apple crumble, bacon roll, Club biscuits, salt and vinegar crisps, chewing gum, full English breakfast, a burger with blue cheese on it, cold roast beef, boiled potatoes, croissants, mozzarella and salami roll, chicken jalfrezi, and a steak and cheese sandwich from Subway. He’s particularly fond of chocolate and sweets and is known to carry a Twix in his pocket (which he offers to Robin in the hospital in Career of Evil). J.K. Rowling mentioned in a tweet that Strike’s favourite cake is fruit cake, like Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s favourite cake, however, is lemon drizzle cake).
By The Ink Black Heart, Strike decides to go on a health kick — to stop smoking, eat healthier, and lose weight.
As for music, Strike is known to listen to Tom Waits and Elbow – two musical acts that apparently were not among those that reminded Strike of his years with Charlotte. He also, without much say in the matter, grew up listening to his mother’s favourite band Blue Öyster Cult. During his GCSE year, Strike was also listening to Charles Manson’s music, since his step-father at the time, Jeff Whittaker, was obsessed with the cult leader.
In Lethal White and onwards, Strike drives a 13-year-old blue automatic BMW 3 series. He can’t afford a specially adapted automobile.
In the TV series adaptation, Strike (or C.B. Strike), Cormoran Strike is portrayed by actor Tom Burke. You can watch our exclusive interviews with Tom here.
