Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

31st May is blog link-up day for fairy tale anthology  The Forgotten and the Fantastical II,  published by Mothers' Milk Books.   For the link-up, I'd like to share with you this video from the Royal Ballet, about reviving the 1946 production of  Sleeping Beauty. My contribution to the anthology, a re-imagining of  Sleeping Beauty  called   Rêve/Revival,  was partly inspired by footage of an old Royal Ballet production of  Sleeping Beauty , starring Margot Fonteyn. The version I watched was recorded especially for TV in 1955, but the live theatre version was staged in 1946, to re-open the Royal Opera House after the Second World War. I didn't know about the 1946 version when I wrote  Rêve/Revival , so it's fascinating to discover more connections between  Sleeping Beauty , war and new beginnings.  In my story, both the Napoleonic and First World Wars change the map forever, while humans and fairies fin...

In my last blog, I talked about a book I read while I was ill ( The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee). Well, as it happens, I read quite a lot of books while I was ill - there wasn't much else to do! One of them was the very influential I Am Malala, which led me to produce this re-write of Cinderella, highlighting the difficulty of education for girls in many parts of the world. Please watch and share!  And if you want to know more about the work of the Malala Fund, and how you can help make a difference, visit them at malala.org.

The Silver Metal Love r, here pictured with another unusual romance, The Ghost Bride. During the colder months - while I was ill, in fact - I read Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover for the first time. It was an emotional read, and it's only now that enough time has passed for me to be able to write about it objectively. Briefly, the book is about a girl called Jane, who falls in love with a robot called Silver.  Silver is basically the perfect man - he's been designed to bring pleasure and happiness to people.  But Jane finds it hard to believe that a robot could genuinely be in love with her.  Meanwhile, Silver's creators have pronounced him "faulty" and want to destroy him. It was only when I went looking for fan art of Silver, that I saw someone had suggested the tale is based on the myth of Persephone.  This got me thinking about other aspects of the story, and realising that the book is actually packed with references to Greek myth (and a little bit to ...

Yesterday, I read this excellent blog post by Liberty Hardy (aka @MissLiberty) on Bookriot, listing 100 strange and unusual novels. http://bookriot.com/2016/04/11/i-got-your-weird-right-here-100-wonderful-strange-and-unusual-novels/ I was rather disappointed that I'd only read three-and-a-bit out of 100 (I'm actually in the middle of one right now!) But then I remembered that I've read plenty of other bizarre books. And enjoyed most of them -I do love a bit of weird! So I thought I'd make my own list in response, beginning with the original four and going on from there. Sadly, I could only come up with 30 at short notice (it's Monday morning!) but it's been fun to reminisce. 30 Weird Books I Have Read 1. Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre I believe Bookriot described this as "if David Bowie wrote historical fiction." 2. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen So, this author vanishes in a flurry of snow, and... 3. Brave Story by Miyuki ...

     Some time last year, I was in a second hand bookshop, when a title leapt out at me: The Fool Beloved  by Jeffery Farnol.  Regular readers will know how much Robin Hobb's Fool, Beloved, means to me.  So, I simply had to buy the book, just because of its title. I asked Robin Hobb on Twitter if there was any connection between this book and her work, and she said she knew nothing of it.  But she would like to know what it was about.  Now, there is a challenge!  I set about reading the book and finding out what I could about its author. According to Wikipedia: "Jeffery Farnol  (10 February 1878 – 9 August 1952) was a British writer since (sic) 1907 until his death, known for writing more than 40  romance novels , some formulaic and set in the  Georgian Era  or  English Regency  period, and  swashbucklers . He, with  Georgette Heyer , founded the Regency romantic genre." The Fool Beloved was published i...

I have always loved "Women in Towers" stories.   Rapunzel , Marie de France's Yonec , and especially Tennyson's Lady of Shallo t.  Even Disney's Tangled .  (What's not to like about Flynn Rider?) The woman in the tower has always been a figure I can relate to.  Sometimes for negative reasons - being too shy and anxious to communicate with the world, or knowing the "invisible bubble" that separates you from the world during periods of intense depression.  Sometimes for positive reasons - I associate the tower with the Inviolate Female, and the symbolism of virginity, chastity and asexuality.  I have always wanted to live in a tower and, even now, can't imagine not choosing to have my bedroom in the attic. This week, my very own "Women in Towers" fairy tale, The Ice Queen and the Mer-King , was re-released in Venn , an anthology from Unstapled Press devoted to different ideas of gender and sexuality.   The Ice Queen  is very...

Today is St Valentine's Day, the day when, by tradition, the birds choose their mates, and people in many countries celebrate love. In recent years, people have started to comment on the fact that Valentine's Day has become insular.  More often nowadays, the focus is on relationships we are already in, with spouses, partners etc.  Single people can feel left out and lonely. I think it's time to reinstate the kind of Valentine's Day Samuel Pepys knew and wrote about in his diary.  In his day, Valentine's Day was more like Secret Santa.  You chose someone from among your friends and acquaintances (someone of the opposite sex) to be your Valentine for the day.  You then gave them a little present. Here's an entry from Pepys's diary, 13th February 1662/63.  (Two different years are given because of the Calendar Shift of the late 18th century, changing the beginning of the year from springtime to January):- This evening my wife had a great mind to choose  V...