Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

  “This is where the wealthy and the powerful rule...” The words that put a shiver down my teenage spine.  Last Christmas I was given a full box set of the 1980s TV drama Beauty and the Beast. And surprisingly given the lack of activities available in 2020, I’m still working my way through it. For those not in the know, the series followed the story of Catherine, a wealthy lawyer in New York, and Vincent, a sensitive and troubled man-beast who was part of a secret colony below the city streets. It absolutely rocked my world in the 80s and early 90s. I still have the novelisation, cassette of poetry and music from the show, and unwatchable VHS tapes of four selected episodes. But mainly, I hadn’t watched it since my teens. These are my thoughts on revisiting it as a 40-something in the year 2020. 1. So many episodes! I remember going to the USA as an au pair in 1994 and discovering episodes of Beauty and the Beast I had never seen before. Well, here’s some news for myself: ther...

"Zellandine and Troylus" by Anna Hopkinson, 2019 [Warning: contains sexual content] As Asexual Myths & Tales comes out this week, I would like to return to one of the most controversial stories from Asexual Fairy Tales , “Zellandine and Troylus”. The reaction of some readers to this story almost caused me to abandon writing the second volume of tales. Opinions were raised about the "lack of consent" in the story and how offensive it was. (Yes, yes, I know. Never read your own reviews). Be assured, I take this kind of thing very seriously. I've tried very hard to put trigger warnings into Myths & Tales . And there is also a story - "The True Love Knot" which could be considered the antithesis of "Zellandine". I won't give any spoilers here. As I wrote in Asexual Fairy Tales : “Zellandine and Troylus” is one of the earliest known versions of “Sleeping Beauty” and comes from the medieval French romance Perceforest (c.1330-44). It als...

  Warning: contains spoilers A while back, I wrote a blog entitled Let’s Talk About Narnia  in which I bemoaned the fact that many authors seem to express disappointment with Narnia because of its “Christian allegory”. I’ve always felt that to say so is to not really “get” Narnia. For a start, it’s not even an allegory! And it has so many hidden depths, so many influences. If you want to truly understand Narnia, you must understand C.S. Lewis as an academic, an intellectual, apologist and medievalist, who debated with his fellow intellectuals, JRR Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams a.k.a. The Inklings, and absorbed their ideas into his own.  Or you could read Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi . It’s a strange tale of a man called Piranesi (although he’s sure that’s not his name) who lives in a House of Gormenghast-like proportions, filled with statues, birds and tides. Twice a week, he meets with “The Other”, a surprisingly well-dressed and well-equipped man, whom Piranesi ...

As my home district of Bradford goes back into lockdown, it might feel as if horizons are contracting. But thanks to the LGBTQIA community in the neighbouring city of Leeds, this last weekend mine expanded. It was last year (in 2019, when most of us couldn't have dreamt of the devastation of COVID-19) that I received a private message on Twitter from Leeds LGBT+ Literature Festival saying someone had recommended my book Asexual Fairy Tales for inclusion in the 2020 festival. My first festival! Well, I have read twice at the Fringe of Ilkley Literature Festival, but this was a proper, invited, paid author appearance! So exciting!! As it happened, none of the invited guests would actually get to appear in the usual way. But, like so many, the organisers of the festival put all their efforts into producing an online, virtual festival. Pre-recorded readings, zoom workshops, the lot. The benefit is, you didn't (and still don't) have to be in Leeds at a certain time to enjoy the ...

This isn't my usual sort of post, but I've just seen the BBC are getting through the lack of Wimbledon by showing and discussing matches and tournaments of the past. Wimbledon was a big part of my teenage/young adult life, and I remembered that I wrote a poem about Wimbledon 1992 when I was 18. See if this jogs a memory for anyone else... Wimbledon '92   Goodbye Connors - foiled again, Sanchez, Sanchez - back to Spain, Looks like Lendl really blew it, Sabatini - can she do it? Here's the line-up on Court One -  Strawberries and lots of sun, Umpire who is there to vex, Seles making sound effects. Thirty, fourty. What an ace! That lob was in the perfect place. Bops the net judge. Oh, I say! Wind it back - action replay. Here comes Britain's hope and glory, Pray it's not the same old story. Boris Becker - hearts on hold. Graf, Agassi - go for gold. Here are some results for you, Underdogs are pulling through. Top seed beaten. Oh, well played! Over to Virginia Wade....

The world is going through very tough times at the moment and there's a lot to make us cry, but there are always things that bring us joy in the midst of despair. For me, one of those things has been the successful crowdfunding of Asexual Myths & Tales   (the follow-up to last year's Asexual Fairy Tales ) right in the middle of Pride Month.  So, what better time to share my top five asexual icons. Just to clarify, I don't mean by this that I necessarily believe all these people and characters are historically/canonically asexual, but that to me they symbolise something about my asexuality; they are somehow poster people for my identity.  The Virgin Mary "Pearls and Roses" by Anna Hopkinson Trust me, as a Christian with both Protestant and Catholic friends and relations, I've heard all the arguments back and forth about whether Mary really was a lifelong virgin. To me, it matters less from a theological point of view than it does from a personal viewpoint....

I read a blog post this morning that I simply had to respond to. 101 books under 220 pages by Mols.  She listed some great books: some of which I've read, some of which I've heard of, and some which just sound intriguing. So, I thought I would make a blog of my own, in a similar style, listing some other books of under 220 pages. This is of especial interest to me, since my own book of  Asexual Fairy Tales  comes it at 132 pages, and I'm now crowdfunding a second volume. However, I decided to limit the list below to books that don't feature my work. I hope you find lots here to enjoy! Poetry Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage (114 pages)                    This story, first told in the late fourteenth century, is one of the most enthralling, enigmatic and beloved poems in the English language. Simon Armitage's version is meticulously responsive to the tact, sophistication and...

Authors generally have a way of talking about Narnia. I’ve noticed it at the various literature festivals I’ve been to and in articles I’ve read online. It goes something like this. “When I was a kid, I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and fell in love with it. Then, at the age of 13/18/32, I noticed all the Christian symbolism and felt betrayed. I’ve never enjoyed it in the same way since.” Whenever I hear/read this, it’s like a stab to the heart. I want to get a word in. Because my experience of Narnia is the complete reverse. I first heard the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  as told over several school playtimes by my best friend, the son of a local nonconformist minister. I went on to become completely obsessed by the whole series, reading the books over and over again. Now, I don’t know if my friend or his parents told me, or I just worked it out because I was such a religiously precocious child (I was!) but I can’t remember a time when I didn’t...

I’ve just come back from a new adventure: co-leading HF Holidays’ first ever Brontë Book Club Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.  I was one of three leaders (the three sisters!) leading guests through two hours of book club style discussion of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I was in charge of the latter book, which could have been the short straw, as Anne has often been the overlooked Brontë sister. But this year is Anne’s 200th birthday, so it’s a great time to look at her work. It was encouraging to hear many of the guests say this was their favourite of the three books, due to its realistic handling of surprisingly modern topics: toxic masculinity, alcoholism, women’s lives etc. Of course, I made sure that, when guests came to my session, they had maximum fun, so as well as deep discussion, we had games like “Which character am I?” and Pass the (Top) Hat. On Sunday afternoon we took our guests on a trip to Haworth Parsonage where, as predi...