It’s common knowledge that best- selling author JK Rowling penned the ideas for her insanely successful Harry Potter books whilst sitting in coffee shops – but did one of the Worlds’ most famous writers actually spend time writing her latest novel in a café in Barrow?

Sounds far- fetched doesn’t it? But the chances are that she could well have done just that. 

Rowling’s latest book (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) Career of Evil – a Cormoran Strike novel, sees the title character and his detective partner Robin Ellacott travel to the deepest corners of Barrow In Furness.

In the book, the duo pass by Craven Park – the home of Barrow Raiders. They also head to Cavendish Street, where they have a bite to eat in The Last Resort coffee shop.

The Crows Nest Pub, Olympic Takeaway, Barrow Grammar School for Boys and BAE Systems also get mentioned. Ulverston’s not left out either with a reference to the town being ‘The birth place of Stan Laurel’

A passage in the book describes Barrow: “The initial impression was of a gigantic out-of-town retail centre, where the garish facades of high-street outlets confronted them on all sides, except that here and there, standing proud and incongruous between the DIY stores and pizza restaurants, were architectural gems that spoke of a prosperous industrial past.

“A little further and they came across rows and rows of terraced housing, the kind of cityscape Lowry painted, the hive where workers lived.

“Notwithstanding its unpropitious name, The Last Resort was cosy and clean, full of chattering old ladies, and they returned to the car park feeling pleasantly well fed.”

The series of books has been given the green light to be turned into a television series, so there’s also hope that filming will take place in the town, which would be amazing for the area.

It’s fantastic to think that someone as internationally well known, and as famous as JK Rowling may have visited the town, and even spent time writing in a café in Barrow. No-one really knows if she did or not, it remains a bit of a mystery, but it makes one hell of a good story!