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...

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....

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 don't normally write about stuff like this on my blog - I hate controversy and arguments of every kind, which I find distressing - but I felt I must respond to the many adults I read of who have expressed the opinion that educating children about gender diversity somehow amounts to "child abuse." To that end, I would like to share with you some extracts from The Fieldway Five , a story I wrote when I was about nine years old.  It is my homage to the Famous Five stories, an improbable tale of gypsies and gold mines, which ends with the children triumphantly pushing enormous slabs of gold home to their parents. In my very un-subtle homage to Enid Blyton, Timmy the dog is replaced by Ann the cat, and tomboy Georgina, who you will remember dresses as a boy and insists on being called George, is replaced by Philip, who prefers to wear a dress while being addressed as Philipa.  As a child, I saw nothing sinister in this; I was just being creative.  Also, my best fr...

I'm writing this little blog in response to a blog by Book Riot.  http://bookriot.com/?p=109205 You know the sort of thing: if you could go back in time and hand some books to your 12-year-old self...?  So, without further ado, here's my list (in no particular order): 1.  Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne I was about 18 when I first read it, and knew I would have loved it earlier. 2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien My young self actually thought this was a rival to Narnia, and had no idea Lewis and Tolkien were friends. 3. The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder The book that turned me back to contemporary fiction, after about a decade hiding in the 19th century in case Angela Carter jumped out at me again. 4. Overcoming Low Self-Esteem by Melanie Fennel Enough said. 5. The Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones How did I miss her at time of writing?? 6. The Lais of Marie de France So I wouldn't have to wait until uni to know I didn't need to give up fairy...