Kate Forsyth's Blog, page 41
August 14, 2014
INTERVIEW: Kelly Gardiner, author of Goddess
Please welcome Kelly Gardiner, the author of the brilliant new historical novel Goddess!
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Tell me about your new book:
Goddess is based on the life of the extraordinary Mademoiselle de Maupin, also known as Julie d’Aubigny. She was born in 1673, and grew up (I think) in the stables at Versailles, where she learned to ride and fence. She dressed as a boy from a young age, ran away to Marseille and became an opera singer, and her life was a dazzling series of escapades: duels, crimes, affairs with famous men and women, stardom on the stage of the Paris Opera, and sheer celebrity. She was flamboyant and courageous and astonishing.
And I’m not making any of that up!
She has been portrayed many times over the centuries in print and on screen, but I think this is the first novel in English based on her life. I had to learn a great deal about her and her world, to get into her character and her voice, and it’s been a joy to spend the past five years writing about her.
What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I fenced when I was young, so I’ve always been interested in the history of fencing and duelling (I even collect historical swords). Julie is in all the books on the history of duelling and of opera, and once a figure like that is in your head, believe me, she won’t let go.
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What do you love most in the world?
Exploring the natural and historic wonders of the world with my partner. (I admit that I can get a little carried away peeking into the historic nooks and crannies of any place we visit.) We recently sailed along the Kimberley coast and it was truly amazing.
What do you fear most in the world?
Sharks. And we saw some there! Very large, very close. And I was very brave.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Smith by Leon Garfield
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Hill End by Ivan Southall
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe.
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What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantell
The Dreams of Scipio by Iain Pears
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What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
I have an awful lot of military history books but I promise they will come in handy one day.
How would you describe perfect happiness?
There’s a thing that happens sometimes when you’re writing, when you are right there – where you need to be – with the characters’ voices sounding clearly in your head, and the setting, the furniture, the clothes all perfectly visible to you; and yet you also know that nobody else can see what you’re seeing unless you do your job properly. And some days it just seems to come out as if it that’s the only thing on earth you should be doing, and you’re the only person on earth who can tell that story.
Want more? Read the interview I did with Kelly last year
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
[image error]
Tell me about your new book:
Goddess is based on the life of the extraordinary Mademoiselle de Maupin, also known as Julie d’Aubigny. She was born in 1673, and grew up (I think) in the stables at Versailles, where she learned to ride and fence. She dressed as a boy from a young age, ran away to Marseille and became an opera singer, and her life was a dazzling series of escapades: duels, crimes, affairs with famous men and women, stardom on the stage of the Paris Opera, and sheer celebrity. She was flamboyant and courageous and astonishing.
And I’m not making any of that up!
She has been portrayed many times over the centuries in print and on screen, but I think this is the first novel in English based on her life. I had to learn a great deal about her and her world, to get into her character and her voice, and it’s been a joy to spend the past five years writing about her.
What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I fenced when I was young, so I’ve always been interested in the history of fencing and duelling (I even collect historical swords). Julie is in all the books on the history of duelling and of opera, and once a figure like that is in your head, believe me, she won’t let go.
[image error]
What do you love most in the world?
Exploring the natural and historic wonders of the world with my partner. (I admit that I can get a little carried away peeking into the historic nooks and crannies of any place we visit.) We recently sailed along the Kimberley coast and it was truly amazing.
What do you fear most in the world?
Sharks. And we saw some there! Very large, very close. And I was very brave.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Smith by Leon Garfield
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Hill End by Ivan Southall
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe.
[image error]
What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantell
The Dreams of Scipio by Iain Pears
[image error]
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
I have an awful lot of military history books but I promise they will come in handy one day.
How would you describe perfect happiness?
There’s a thing that happens sometimes when you’re writing, when you are right there – where you need to be – with the characters’ voices sounding clearly in your head, and the setting, the furniture, the clothes all perfectly visible to you; and yet you also know that nobody else can see what you’re seeing unless you do your job properly. And some days it just seems to come out as if it that’s the only thing on earth you should be doing, and you’re the only person on earth who can tell that story.
Want more? Read the interview I did with Kelly last year
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
August 12, 2014
SPOTLIGHT: Warrior Women of History
Please welcome Kelly Gardiner, author of Goddess, to the blog today, to celebrate true life warrior women of history!
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So many historical novels are written about real and remarkable women in history – queens and would-be queens, empresses, noblewomen, inspiring leaders, and, more and more, scientists, thinkers, musicians, and inventors. Of course, some of our favourite historical fiction is about ordinary but equally remarkable women who get caught up in the happenings of their day, whose lives are affected by war or revolution or politics or the machinations of people more powerful than they are.
My most recent novel, Goddess, is my first about a real historical character – my previous characters have all been imagined, even if they were inspired by the idea of real people. She was Mademoiselle de Maupin, also known as Julie d’Aubigny, a seventeenth century French swordswoman and opera singer. She fought duels, had affairs with both men and women, starred on the stage of the Paris Opera, committed one or two crimes, and was a celebrity in her lifetime and ever since.
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In researching her life, and my earlier pirate stories for children, I delved into a fascinating tradition of women who went to war or fought in combats of various kinds. You might have read about Boudicca, the famous early Briton who took on the Roman conquerors, or Joan of Arc and her campaign to save France. But how about these amazing women?
Artemisia was the world’s first female naval fleet commander – or, at least, the first we know about. Many women commanded ships and even fleets in antiquity and throughout history, but she is one of the few whose deeds were documented – in her case, by Herodotus. Artemisia ruled over the kingdom of Halicarnassus (known as Bodrum today, one of the most beautiful of the fortified Turkish ports), as a vassal of the great Persian emperor Xerxes. After the famous battle with the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae in 480BC, Xerxes decided to attack the Greeks by sea. Not a good idea, warned Artemisia.
But Xerxes wouldn’t listen. He attacked the Greek fleet in what became known as the Battle of Salamis. Artemisia and her ships fought with skill and courage, while all around them the Persian fleet was smashed to pieces. But all her efforts were in vain. The battle was lost, and at the last minute Artemisia managed to rescue Xerxes’ family and take them to safety. So amazed was he by her courage, that Xerxes announced, ‘My men have become women, and my women, men!’
Kenau Hasselaar was a timber merchant in the Dutch town of Haarlem, just near Amsterdam, in the years when the Low Countries were under the thumb of Spain. In 1567, a vast Spanish army arrived to quell unrest, and the Dutch people rose in rebellion. In 1573, 12,000 Spanish troops besieged Haarlem, assuming the town would fall to them in a week. But they didn’t reckon on the people of the town. 300 women joined the fight, and among them was Kenau Hasselaar. Whenever the Spanish army breached the city walls with their cannonballs, Kenau was there on the ramparts, helping to shore up the defences and mending the shattered walls with earth and timber from her warehouse. It is said (although accounts differ) that she organised care for the wounded and supplies for the artillery, helped get food and water into the city, and kept everyone’s spirits high. The siege lasted seven months, not seven days, but the town eventually had to surrender and its garrison was butchered. The name Hasselaar became a symbol of courage in defeat.
One of my favourite moments in history is the meeting between Queen Elizabeth I and Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille), the Irish pirate queen whose ships had plagued the English trading routes for decades. O’Malley had fought off English troops at her island castle, talked her way out of prison, attacked and beaten Turkish pirates in distant waters, raided castles, kidnapped a young baron, and was, according to Sir Richard Bingham, ‘nurse to all Rebellions in the province’. When Bingham arrested her sons, O’Malley petitioned the queen for their release, which led to the summit between two of the most remarkable, if now elderly, women of their time.
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It happened at Greenwich Palace on 6 September 1593, and before the meeting, the guards had to wrestle O’Malley’s dagger off her. We don’t know what these two wily warrior queens said to each other, but it appears they got on famously, and Elizabeth ordered Bingham to release Grace’s sons and granted her a pensions. O’Malley turned her pirate skills to the queen’s advantage, becoming one of Elizabeth’s privateers instead of her enemy.
There are so many fascinating stories like these. What are your favourite historical novels about women who take up swords or banners instead of (or as well as) sewing needles?
Here's my review of Goddess!
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
August 10, 2014
BOOK REVIEW: Goddess by Kelly Gardiner
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Title: Goddess
Author: Kelly Gardiner
Publisher: Fourth Estate (Harper Collins)
Age Group & Genre: Historical/Contemporary Novel for Adults
Reviewer: Kate Forsyth
Source of Book: An ARC from the publisher
The Blurb:
Versailles, 1686: Julie d'Aubigny, a striking young girl taught to fence and fight in the court of the Sun King, is taken as mistress by the King's Master of Horse. Tempestuous, swashbuckling and volatile, within two years she has run away with her fencing master, fallen in love with a nun and is hiding from the authorities, sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Within another year, she has become Mademoiselle de Maupin, a beloved star at the famed Paris Opéra. Her lovers include some of Europe's most powerful men and France's most beautiful women. Yet Julie is destined to die alone in a convent at the age of 33.
Based on an extraordinary true story, this is an original, dazzling and witty novel - a compelling portrait of an unforgettable woman.
For all those readers who love Sarah Dunant, Sarah Waters and Hilary Mantel.
What I Thought:
I’m been a big admirer of Kelly Gardiner’s gorgeous historical novels for young adults, Act of Faith and The Sultan’s Eyes, both of which are set in the mid-17th century, one of my favourite historical periods for fiction. Goddess is Kelly’s first novel for adults, based on the fascinating true life story of Julie d'Aubigny, a woman out of step with her own time (The court of the Sun King, Louise XIV, in Paris during the 1680s) Raised like a boy by her swordsman father, Julie likes to dress like a man and will fight a duel with anyone who crosses her. One night she fights three duels back-to-back, winning them all. She elopes with a young nun and is sentenced to be burned at the stake, but escapes and becomes a famous opera star. The story of her adventures seems too incredible to possibly be true. The book is told in Julie’s voice – witty, intelligent and wry - and the whole is pulled off with wit and flair.
Writer’s website: http://kellygardiner.com/
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT – I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
August 7, 2014
INTERVIEW: Kimberley Freeman, author of Evergreen Falls
Today I am very happy to welcome one of my all-time favourite writers to my blog. A new Kimberley Freeman book is something to grab joyfully with both hands. They weave together two narrative threads - one in the present and one in the past - and never fail to delight and move me. Today Kim is talking about her new book, Evergreen Falls.
Tell me about your new book:
Evergreen Falls is set in the 1920s in a luxury hotel in the Blue Mountains. A forbidden love affair precipitates a great tragedy as the snow moves in. When the snow melts none of those involved ever speak of it again. In the present, a young woman fleeing her own family tragedy finds a bundle of old love letters and tries to find out what happened in 1926.
What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I read my grandmother's memoir, which she wrote before she died. In the 1920s she had worked in posh hotels in Sydney including the Wentworth, and she wrote all about it. She wrote about colourful characters, famous people of the time including opera singers and beauty queens, and of course many beautiful frocks she wore in rich detail. There is a story in her memoir about two young people, a brother and sister from a rich farming family, who are at dinner one night. The sister's pearl necklace breaks and my grandma found herself scrabbling on the floor helping her find pearls, when the brother climbed down onto the floor to do the same. In grandma's memoir, that's the end of the story. In my novel, it's just the beginning.
What do you love most in the world?
I love being immersed in a story, whether reading it or writing it. All the better if that story has mystery, history, or a sense of the mystical or the divine. I love sunny windy days and rainy nights and tea brewed properly in pots and being with my loved ones and pets. I'm a very simple woman.
What do you fear most in the world?
A life without imagination.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
Anne of Green Gables
The Magic Faraway Tree
The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
The Hobbit
The Secret Garden
What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
Gone with the Wind
The Mists of Avalon
Beowulf
The Lord of the Rings
Jane Eyre
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
I don't know that it's particularly surprising, but I do read very eclectically. I love chick lit much as I love Old English poetry, and I read masses of non-fiction.
How would you describe perfect happiness?
In bed with book, a cup of tea, and a sunbeam on my shoulder.
What are your dreams for the future?
I'm bristling with ideas for books that I want to write. I'd like time to write all of them, time to be with my loved ones, and time to walk barefoot on the beach as well.
Read my review of Evergreen Falls or read my longer interview with Kimberley Freeman from 2013.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
Tell me about your new book:
Evergreen Falls is set in the 1920s in a luxury hotel in the Blue Mountains. A forbidden love affair precipitates a great tragedy as the snow moves in. When the snow melts none of those involved ever speak of it again. In the present, a young woman fleeing her own family tragedy finds a bundle of old love letters and tries to find out what happened in 1926.
What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I read my grandmother's memoir, which she wrote before she died. In the 1920s she had worked in posh hotels in Sydney including the Wentworth, and she wrote all about it. She wrote about colourful characters, famous people of the time including opera singers and beauty queens, and of course many beautiful frocks she wore in rich detail. There is a story in her memoir about two young people, a brother and sister from a rich farming family, who are at dinner one night. The sister's pearl necklace breaks and my grandma found herself scrabbling on the floor helping her find pearls, when the brother climbed down onto the floor to do the same. In grandma's memoir, that's the end of the story. In my novel, it's just the beginning.
What do you love most in the world?
I love being immersed in a story, whether reading it or writing it. All the better if that story has mystery, history, or a sense of the mystical or the divine. I love sunny windy days and rainy nights and tea brewed properly in pots and being with my loved ones and pets. I'm a very simple woman.
What do you fear most in the world?
A life without imagination.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
Anne of Green Gables
The Magic Faraway Tree
The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
The Hobbit
The Secret Garden
What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
Gone with the Wind
The Mists of Avalon
Beowulf
The Lord of the Rings
Jane Eyre
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
I don't know that it's particularly surprising, but I do read very eclectically. I love chick lit much as I love Old English poetry, and I read masses of non-fiction.
How would you describe perfect happiness?
In bed with book, a cup of tea, and a sunbeam on my shoulder.
What are your dreams for the future?
I'm bristling with ideas for books that I want to write. I'd like time to write all of them, time to be with my loved ones, and time to walk barefoot on the beach as well.
Read my review of Evergreen Falls or read my longer interview with Kimberley Freeman from 2013.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
August 5, 2014
WRITER INSPIRATION: The story behind the writing of Evergreen Falls by Kimberley Freeman
Today on the blog, Kimberley Freeman tells us the beautiful story behind the writing of her new novel Evergreen Falls.
My maternal grandmother and I were very close. Before she died she wrote down all her memories. Many of my cousins have read her memoir but I didn't for a really long time. We had had so many deep discussions I felt like I knew everything there was to know about her. Then I told my mother last year that I was going to write a story set in a luxury hotel in the 1920s, and she said to me, "your grandmother worked in luxury hotels in the 1920s; you should read her memoir." So I did. And in those 50 pages that dealt with her time working at the Wentworth hotel and other fancy hotels around Sydney I gathered all of the inspiration I needed to write Evergreen Falls.
She told stories of the famous and glamorous people whom she waited upon in the gleaming dining room: beauty queens, filmstars, famous authors, and even Dame Nellie Melba (who she described as having a sweet voice but a sharp tongue). She described the beautiful dresses that she wore in rich detail, and every single one of those gowns makes an appearance in my novel.
But there was one story she told that really captured my imagination. A brother and sister, the children of a rich grazing family, were at dinner one night. The sister wore a long string of pearls around her neck and she was worrying them over her fingers when the string broke and the pearls went bouncing off all over the floor. Grandma went under the table to help collect the pearls, and the handsome brother also went under there to find pearls. Their eyes met.
In grandma's story, that's the end: she goes back to serving dinner and he goes back to his seat. In Evergreen Falls, that is only the beginning. I felt like grandma was with me the whole time I was writing it, and I think she'd be really proud.
In grandma's story, that's the end: she goes back to serving dinner and he goes back to his seat. In Evergreen Falls, that is only the beginning. I felt like grandma was with me the whole time I was writing it, and I think she'd be really proud.
A photo of Kim's grandmother, Stella - I think she's gorgeous!
You can read my review of Evergreen Falls here
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
August 3, 2014
BOOK REVIEW: Evergreen Falls by Kimberley Freeman
Title: Evergreen Falls
Author: Kimberley Freeman
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Age Group & Genre: Historical/Contemporary Novel for Adults
Reviewer: Kate Forsyth
Source of Book: An ARC from the publisher
The Blurb:
A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever - Evergreen Falls is the captivating new novel from Kimberley Freeman.
1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No one could have predicted what would unfold. When the storm clears they must all keep the devastating secrets hidden.
2014: After years of putting her sick brother's needs before her own, Lauren Beck leaves her home and takes a job at a Blue Mountains cafe, the first stage of the Evergreen Spa Hotel's renovations. There she meets Tomas, the Danish architect who is overseeing the project, and an attraction begins to grow. In a wing of the old hotel, Lauren finds a series of passionate love letters dated back to 1926, alluding to an affair - and a shocking secret.
If she can unravel this long-ago mystery, will it make Lauren brave enough to take a risk and change everything in her own life?
Inspired by elements of her grandmother's life, a rich and satisfying tale of intrigue, heartbreak and love from the author of the bestselling LIGHTHOUSE BAY and WILDFLOWER HILL.
What I Thought:
I love Kimberley Freeman’s books. They are absolutely compulsively readable. The pages just race past as I read as fast as is humanely possible - I’m always desperate to find out what happens. I always love a novel that interweaves a contemporary narrative with a historical one, but often you find one narrative thread is much more interesting than the other (with me, I usually love the story set in the past the best). This isn’t true of Kimberley, though. Her contemporary story is as always as interesting and compelling as the other. I love her mix of romance and mystery and family drama, and can only wish that she could write just a little faster! I always get that little prickle of tears at the end of one of her books that show I’ve been really moved.
I also love her setting of the Blue Mountains outside Sydney as this is a place I know well. The setting of a glamorous hotel in the 1920s – and the same hotel, now decayed and half in ruins – is incredibly atmospheric and reminded me of an Agatha Christie book.
In short: I loved it! A must read for anyone who loves a big, fat, heart-warming read.
Writer’s website: http://kimberleyfreeman.com/
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT – I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
Author: Kimberley Freeman
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Age Group & Genre: Historical/Contemporary Novel for Adults
Reviewer: Kate Forsyth
Source of Book: An ARC from the publisher
The Blurb:
A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever - Evergreen Falls is the captivating new novel from Kimberley Freeman.
1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No one could have predicted what would unfold. When the storm clears they must all keep the devastating secrets hidden.
2014: After years of putting her sick brother's needs before her own, Lauren Beck leaves her home and takes a job at a Blue Mountains cafe, the first stage of the Evergreen Spa Hotel's renovations. There she meets Tomas, the Danish architect who is overseeing the project, and an attraction begins to grow. In a wing of the old hotel, Lauren finds a series of passionate love letters dated back to 1926, alluding to an affair - and a shocking secret.
If she can unravel this long-ago mystery, will it make Lauren brave enough to take a risk and change everything in her own life?
Inspired by elements of her grandmother's life, a rich and satisfying tale of intrigue, heartbreak and love from the author of the bestselling LIGHTHOUSE BAY and WILDFLOWER HILL.
What I Thought:
I love Kimberley Freeman’s books. They are absolutely compulsively readable. The pages just race past as I read as fast as is humanely possible - I’m always desperate to find out what happens. I always love a novel that interweaves a contemporary narrative with a historical one, but often you find one narrative thread is much more interesting than the other (with me, I usually love the story set in the past the best). This isn’t true of Kimberley, though. Her contemporary story is as always as interesting and compelling as the other. I love her mix of romance and mystery and family drama, and can only wish that she could write just a little faster! I always get that little prickle of tears at the end of one of her books that show I’ve been really moved.
I also love her setting of the Blue Mountains outside Sydney as this is a place I know well. The setting of a glamorous hotel in the 1920s – and the same hotel, now decayed and half in ruins – is incredibly atmospheric and reminded me of an Agatha Christie book.
In short: I loved it! A must read for anyone who loves a big, fat, heart-warming read.
Writer’s website: http://kimberleyfreeman.com/
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT – I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
August 2, 2014
BOOK LIST: Books Read in June 2014
BOOK READ IN JUNE
I came home from the ANZ Festival of Literature & the Arts in London with a whole bag of books and am slowly reading my way through them. Quite a few of them are by Australian writers who were speakers at the festival – it seems ironic that I had to travel 17,000 kilometres to discover books I could have bought at my local bookstore!
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Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy – Karen Foxlee
I really loved Karen’s mysterious and beautiful novel The Midnight Dress, and once I heard Karen speak about her new book Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy I knew at once that it sounded like my kind of book. I bought the gorgeous hard-back in London, and am glad that I did as the production is just exquisite.
The story revolves around eleven-year-old Ophelia who is smart and scientifically minded. She and her sister and father have moved to a city where it never stops snowing, as her father – who is an expert on swords – has taken up a position in a huge, dark, gothic museum filled with secrets and strange things. Ophelia sets out to explore, and finds a locked room hidden away in the depths of the museum. She puts her eyes to the keyhole … and sees a boy’s blue eyes looking out at her. He tells her that he has been a prisoner for three-hundred-and-three-years by an evil Snow Queen and her clock is ticking down towards the end of the world. Only he can stop her … but first he must escape.
A gorgeously written and delicate fairy tale, Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy reminded me of some of my favourite children’s writers such as Cassandra Golds and Laura Amy Schlitz, who are themselves inspired by Nicholas Stuart Grey and George Macdonald. (You can read my interview with Karen Foxlee here)
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Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes – Mary M Talbot & Bryan Talbot
Another book I bought in London was what I can best describe as a graphic memoir/biography. Told in comic book form, the story compares the life stories of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of the famous writer James Joyce, and that of the book’s author Mary Talbot, daughter of the foremost Joycean scholar, James S. Atherton. Both narratives begin with the girls’ childhood and show their struggles to grow up in the shadows of difficult and demanding fathers. Lucia wants to dance, but is confined by the petty societal rules of her time. She ends up confined in a madhouse. Mary rebels against her father, and forges a life for herself. The book shows how she fell in love with a young artist and married him – he is, of course, Bryan Talbot, the illustrator whose incredible artwork adorns every page. The book is acutely intelligent but highly readable, illuminating both the heartbreakingly sad story of Lucia James and the work of two exceptional contemporary artists. Not surpisingly, Dotter of My Father’s Eyes won the 2012 Costa biography award.
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The Spare Room – Helen Garner
I heard Helen speak in London and thought she was warm and funny and beautifully articulate, so I was very pleased to have her sign my copy of her first novel in sixteen years, The Spare Room. Published in 2008, the novel won a swathe of awards including the Barbara Jefferis Award. It reads more like a memoir, being told from the first person point of view of a writer named Helen living in Melbourne and being inspired by events that actually happened in Helen Garner’s life. However, no doubt many of the people and incidents have been changed during the writing process. The story is driven by the narrator Helen’s fear and distress, after a dear friend who is dying of cancer comes to stay with her for three weeks while undertaking some kind of quack treatment. The writing is crisp and strong and poised, and the characters spring to life on the page with only a few deft strokes. I loved it.
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Goddess – Kelly Gardiner
I’m been a big admirer of Kelly Gardiner’s gorgeous historical novels for young adults, Act of Faith and The Sultan’s Eyes, both of which are set in the mid-17th century, one of my favourite historical periods for fiction. Goddess is Kelly’s first novel for adults, based on the fascinating true life story of Julie d'Aubigny, a woman out of step with her own time (The court of the Sun King, Louise XIV, in Paris during the 1680s) Raised like a boy by her swordsman father, Julie likes to dress like a man and will fight a duel with anyone who crosses her. One night she fights three duels back-to-back, winning them all. She elopes with a young nun and is sentenced to be burned at the stake, but escapes and becomes a famous opera star. The story of her adventures seems too incredible to possibly be true. The book is told in Julie’s voice – witty, intelligent and wry - and the whole is pulled off with wit and flair.
A Stranger Came Ashore – Mollie Hunter
Mollie Hunter is a wonderful Scottish writer for children who is not nearly as well-known as she deserves to be. I have many of her books – some collected when I was a child and some (including a signed first edition) collected as an adult. I first read A Stranger Came Ashore when I was about eleven, after borrowing it from my school library. I’ve been looking for it ever since, but could not remember its name. Then, a month or so ago, I read a brief review of it on an English book blog and at once remembered how much I had loved it, and orderd a copy straightaway.
It’s a Selkie tale, set in the Highlands of Scotland sometime in the 19th century. The novel begins with a storm, and a shipwreck, and a handsome, young stranger washed ashore. As his sister begins to fall in love with the stranger, forgetting her childhood sweetheart, 12-year old Robbie Henderson finds himself becoming more and more suspicious. He remembers an old tale his grandfather used to tell him about seals that turn into humans, but cannot believe it could be true. Soon he is caught up in a dark and suspenseful adventure as he tries to save his sister. A Stranger Came Ashore was rightly acclaimed when it was published in 1975, winning many awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.
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The Color Purple - Alice Walker
I saw Alice Walker speak at the Sydney Writers Festival in May, and bought The Color Purple which I had read and adored about thirty years ago (it was first published in 1982 – impossible to believe it’s been so long!) I read it all in one gulp and loved it just as much as I did when I was a teenager. I loved the movie too. This book will always be on my list of all-time favourite books.
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Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
I finally had a chance to read this brilliant historical novel by debut author Hannah Kent. Burial Rites been a critical and a commercial success, and deservedly so. The writing is so precise and vivid, and the story so compelling. I found myself stopping to read certain sentences again, just for the pleasure of the words: ‘it is as though the winter has set up home in my marrow.’ Burial Rites is set in Iceland in 1830, the last year in the life of a woman condemned to be executed for murder. The use of real historical documents as epigraphs at the beginning of each section adds to the sense of truth and awfulness. A clever and truly beautiful book.
Meanwhile, my research into Nazi Germany continues. Two stand-out books I read this month:
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Some Girls, Some Hats & Hitler – Trudi Kanter
Sifting through a second-hand bookshop in London, an English editor stumbled upon this self-published memoir of a young Jewish woman in Vienna and – enchanted by her romantic love story and vivid writing style – republished the book.
In 1938 Trudi Kanter was a milliner for the best-dressed women in Vienna. She was beautiful and chic and sophisticated, travelling to Paris to see the latest fashions and selling her hats to some of the most wealthy and aristocratic ladies of Europe. She was madly in love with a charming and wealthy businesseman, and had a loving and close-knit family. Then the Nazis marched into Austria, and everything Trudi knew was in ruins. She and her new husband had to try and find some way to escape and make a new life for themselves … and Trudi would need all her wits and panache just to survive.
Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of The Woman Who Defied Hitler – Frank McDonough
The heart-breaking story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, a group of young university students who protested against the crimes of the Nazi regime and paid for it with their lives.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
I came home from the ANZ Festival of Literature & the Arts in London with a whole bag of books and am slowly reading my way through them. Quite a few of them are by Australian writers who were speakers at the festival – it seems ironic that I had to travel 17,000 kilometres to discover books I could have bought at my local bookstore!
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Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy – Karen Foxlee
I really loved Karen’s mysterious and beautiful novel The Midnight Dress, and once I heard Karen speak about her new book Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy I knew at once that it sounded like my kind of book. I bought the gorgeous hard-back in London, and am glad that I did as the production is just exquisite.
The story revolves around eleven-year-old Ophelia who is smart and scientifically minded. She and her sister and father have moved to a city where it never stops snowing, as her father – who is an expert on swords – has taken up a position in a huge, dark, gothic museum filled with secrets and strange things. Ophelia sets out to explore, and finds a locked room hidden away in the depths of the museum. She puts her eyes to the keyhole … and sees a boy’s blue eyes looking out at her. He tells her that he has been a prisoner for three-hundred-and-three-years by an evil Snow Queen and her clock is ticking down towards the end of the world. Only he can stop her … but first he must escape.
A gorgeously written and delicate fairy tale, Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy reminded me of some of my favourite children’s writers such as Cassandra Golds and Laura Amy Schlitz, who are themselves inspired by Nicholas Stuart Grey and George Macdonald. (You can read my interview with Karen Foxlee here)
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Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes – Mary M Talbot & Bryan Talbot
Another book I bought in London was what I can best describe as a graphic memoir/biography. Told in comic book form, the story compares the life stories of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of the famous writer James Joyce, and that of the book’s author Mary Talbot, daughter of the foremost Joycean scholar, James S. Atherton. Both narratives begin with the girls’ childhood and show their struggles to grow up in the shadows of difficult and demanding fathers. Lucia wants to dance, but is confined by the petty societal rules of her time. She ends up confined in a madhouse. Mary rebels against her father, and forges a life for herself. The book shows how she fell in love with a young artist and married him – he is, of course, Bryan Talbot, the illustrator whose incredible artwork adorns every page. The book is acutely intelligent but highly readable, illuminating both the heartbreakingly sad story of Lucia James and the work of two exceptional contemporary artists. Not surpisingly, Dotter of My Father’s Eyes won the 2012 Costa biography award.
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The Spare Room – Helen Garner
I heard Helen speak in London and thought she was warm and funny and beautifully articulate, so I was very pleased to have her sign my copy of her first novel in sixteen years, The Spare Room. Published in 2008, the novel won a swathe of awards including the Barbara Jefferis Award. It reads more like a memoir, being told from the first person point of view of a writer named Helen living in Melbourne and being inspired by events that actually happened in Helen Garner’s life. However, no doubt many of the people and incidents have been changed during the writing process. The story is driven by the narrator Helen’s fear and distress, after a dear friend who is dying of cancer comes to stay with her for three weeks while undertaking some kind of quack treatment. The writing is crisp and strong and poised, and the characters spring to life on the page with only a few deft strokes. I loved it.
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Goddess – Kelly Gardiner
I’m been a big admirer of Kelly Gardiner’s gorgeous historical novels for young adults, Act of Faith and The Sultan’s Eyes, both of which are set in the mid-17th century, one of my favourite historical periods for fiction. Goddess is Kelly’s first novel for adults, based on the fascinating true life story of Julie d'Aubigny, a woman out of step with her own time (The court of the Sun King, Louise XIV, in Paris during the 1680s) Raised like a boy by her swordsman father, Julie likes to dress like a man and will fight a duel with anyone who crosses her. One night she fights three duels back-to-back, winning them all. She elopes with a young nun and is sentenced to be burned at the stake, but escapes and becomes a famous opera star. The story of her adventures seems too incredible to possibly be true. The book is told in Julie’s voice – witty, intelligent and wry - and the whole is pulled off with wit and flair.
A Stranger Came Ashore – Mollie Hunter
Mollie Hunter is a wonderful Scottish writer for children who is not nearly as well-known as she deserves to be. I have many of her books – some collected when I was a child and some (including a signed first edition) collected as an adult. I first read A Stranger Came Ashore when I was about eleven, after borrowing it from my school library. I’ve been looking for it ever since, but could not remember its name. Then, a month or so ago, I read a brief review of it on an English book blog and at once remembered how much I had loved it, and orderd a copy straightaway.
It’s a Selkie tale, set in the Highlands of Scotland sometime in the 19th century. The novel begins with a storm, and a shipwreck, and a handsome, young stranger washed ashore. As his sister begins to fall in love with the stranger, forgetting her childhood sweetheart, 12-year old Robbie Henderson finds himself becoming more and more suspicious. He remembers an old tale his grandfather used to tell him about seals that turn into humans, but cannot believe it could be true. Soon he is caught up in a dark and suspenseful adventure as he tries to save his sister. A Stranger Came Ashore was rightly acclaimed when it was published in 1975, winning many awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.
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The Color Purple - Alice Walker
I saw Alice Walker speak at the Sydney Writers Festival in May, and bought The Color Purple which I had read and adored about thirty years ago (it was first published in 1982 – impossible to believe it’s been so long!) I read it all in one gulp and loved it just as much as I did when I was a teenager. I loved the movie too. This book will always be on my list of all-time favourite books.
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Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
I finally had a chance to read this brilliant historical novel by debut author Hannah Kent. Burial Rites been a critical and a commercial success, and deservedly so. The writing is so precise and vivid, and the story so compelling. I found myself stopping to read certain sentences again, just for the pleasure of the words: ‘it is as though the winter has set up home in my marrow.’ Burial Rites is set in Iceland in 1830, the last year in the life of a woman condemned to be executed for murder. The use of real historical documents as epigraphs at the beginning of each section adds to the sense of truth and awfulness. A clever and truly beautiful book.
Meanwhile, my research into Nazi Germany continues. Two stand-out books I read this month:
[image error]
Some Girls, Some Hats & Hitler – Trudi Kanter
Sifting through a second-hand bookshop in London, an English editor stumbled upon this self-published memoir of a young Jewish woman in Vienna and – enchanted by her romantic love story and vivid writing style – republished the book.
In 1938 Trudi Kanter was a milliner for the best-dressed women in Vienna. She was beautiful and chic and sophisticated, travelling to Paris to see the latest fashions and selling her hats to some of the most wealthy and aristocratic ladies of Europe. She was madly in love with a charming and wealthy businesseman, and had a loving and close-knit family. Then the Nazis marched into Austria, and everything Trudi knew was in ruins. She and her new husband had to try and find some way to escape and make a new life for themselves … and Trudi would need all her wits and panache just to survive.
Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of The Woman Who Defied Hitler – Frank McDonough
The heart-breaking story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, a group of young university students who protested against the crimes of the Nazi regime and paid for it with their lives.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
FILM REVIEW: Tangled by the Disney Animated Studios
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'Rapunzel', by Kevin Nichols
Many of you may not know I have spent the last few years working away steadfastly on a Doctor of Creative Arts. My novel Bitter Greens ( a telling of the ‘Rapunzel’ fairy tale interwoven with the true life story of the woman who first wrote the tale) was written as the creative component of this doctorate.
As my theoretical component, I also wrote a mythic biography of Rapunzel. I traced the story’s genealogy from its ancient mythological roots to contemporary reimaginings of the tale, including Disney’s recent animated musical fantasy Tangled.
I am always being asked what I think about Tangled, and so I thought I’d share some of my thinking with you all.
Released on 24 November 2010, Tangled was Walt Disney Animation Studio’s 50th animated motion picture and their first to be shot in 3D. It cost the studio $260 million to create, making it the most expensive animated film ever to be made, but earned more than $590 million worldwide. The studio promoted it with the tagline: ‘Tangled is the ultimate story of breaking free after being grounded for life.’
The story, the studio announced in its publicity material, ‘is based on the classic German fairy tale 'Rapunzel' by the Brothers Grimm.’ Most journalists added the adverb ‘loosely’. That is probably an understatement. There is little remaining of the original story except for a girl in a tower, a witch, and a whole lot of hair.
The story is funny, light-hearted and visually rich. It features a girl who can use her magical hair as a lasso, and a wise-cracking thief as the hero.
It seems clear to me that the screenwriter, Dan Fogelman, must have previously encountered the brilliantly witty graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge, written by husband-and-wife team Dean and Shannon Hale, and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation). Shannon Hale certainly noticed the resemblances herself, tweeting in January 2011: ‘Just watched Tangled. Feeling slightly violated.’ (@haleshannon, twitter post, 9/1/11).
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So what do I think about Tangled?
I have to say that I think Disney Animation Studios adroitly sidestepped most of the key moral dilemmas in the tale. Their heroine is not a poor girl sold for a handful of lettuce, but a beloved princess kidnapped from her bed. The tower is not a prison, but a vast and luxurious palace. Most importantly, it is not difficult for Rapunzel to leave her tower – she can simply abseil her way out anytime she pleases, thanks to the magical properties of her glowing, golden hair. The only bar to her freedom is her duty to the woman she thinks is her mother.
The film deliberately sets out to be light-hearted, fast-paced, and sentimental. It makes the occasional nod to its forebears, but always in as frivolous and amusing way as possible, as in the following dialogic exchange:
Flynn Rider: Alright, blondie ...
Rapunzel: Rapunzel.
Flynn Rider: Gesundheit!
The narrative purpose of the movie is not to recount Rapunzel’s escape from the tower – this occurs easily and joyously in a matter of seconds – but rather her journey towards the unmasking of her false mother and finding her true parents.
Tangled has its moments of charm, despite its abandonment of many of the key motifemes of the plot, but the character of Mother Gothel is not one of them. She remains a cartoonish character, shallow and manipulative, with no moral ambiguity. As Mother Gothel says in Tangled, ‘You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, now I'm the bad guy.’
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One consequence of changing Rapunzel from a surrendered child to a stolen child is the alteration of the whole power mechanics of the tale. It is no longer what Bottigheimer calls ‘a rise fairy tale’, but rather becomes ‘a restoration fairy tale’. The key difference, Bottigheimer explains in Fairy Tales: A New History is that in a restoration tale, the protagonist first loses, then - after a series of adventures and lessons - is returned to their proper social and economic status. However, in a ‘rise fairy tale’, the story begins with ‘a dirt-poor girl or boy who suffers the effects of grinding poverty and whose story continues with tests, tasks, and trials until magic brings about a marriage to royalty and a happy accession to great wealth’. The former upholds the socio-political status quo. The latter holds out the hope for social-political change.
Jack Zipes said in an interview in 2013 that ‘the Disney promoters should have called the film Mangled because of the way it slaughtered and emptied the meaning of the Grimms’ and other ‘Rapunzel’ folk tales … The major conflict is between a pouting adolescent princess and a witch. The Disney films repeatedly tend to demonize older women and infantilize young women. Gone are any hints that ‘Rapunzel’ might reflect a deeper initiation ritual in which wise old women keep young girls in isolation to protect them’ (Interstitial Journal 2013, p3).
Disney’s abandonment of the key motifemes of the ‘Rapunzel’ tale and its messages about growth, transformation, and the hard journey towards wisdom shows that there is no steady ‘evolution’ from conservative attitudes to less conservative ones with the passing of time. Each teller makes their own individual choices in what aspects of the tale are to be preserved or abandoned, and thus even a story as full of camouflaged mythic power as ‘Rapunzel’ has the potential to be drained of all meaning whatsoever.
That said, I did enjoy the movie and my daughter loved it. The character of Rapunzel is at least a little feistier than earlier Disney heroines, and the story was in turns funny, poignant, and romantic. I would have liked a greater sense of the horror of being locked away in a tower, and I certainly would have liked Rapunzel not to have been turned into a Disney princess but to have remained an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances.
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'Rapunzel, Forgotten' by Sarah Schloss
July 31, 2014
INTERVIEW: Karen Foxlee author of Ophelia & the Marvellous Boy
Please welcome Karen Foxlee to the blog as she answers a few quick questions:
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Tell me about your new book:
My new book is called OPHELIA AND THE MARVELLOUS BOY and it’s about a little girl named Ophelia who only believes in things that can be proven by science. She’s mourning the loss of her mother when she stumbles upon a magical boy locked away in a museum, kept prisoner by an evil Snow Queen.
Everything she believes is challenged as she goes on a tremendous journey to rescue the boy and save the world.
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What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I was having a lot of trouble writing my second novel (which would ultimately become THE MIDNIGHT DRESS) so I gave up and decided to explore other things. I wanted to write something that made me happy – something for me alone! In short I needed to rediscover what I loved about writing.
I was lying on my sofa thinking about something I once saw in a museum many years ago. It was somewhere in Eastern Europe although the friend I was travelling with and I still fight over which city it was. In this museum I peeked through a door which had been left slightly ajar into a room that wasn’t meant to be on display. It was a very cluttered storeroom but in that storeroom there was a glass coffin and in that coffin there was a skeleton with a crown on its head. I’m not kidding. A man came along and shooed us away. Lying on my sofa it made me think of all the amazing things that might be hidden away in such places. The story kind of grew from there.
What do you love most in the world?
I love my little girl Alice. I love when she explains the world to me. The world would be a much better place if Alice ruled it.
What do you fear most in the world?
I get really scared that compassion is leaching out of the world. I think compassion is a taught thing and maybe people aren’t being taught it anymore. OR maybe it’s empathy. My mother always said imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes. It was drummed into us. That’s my whine. On a very personal level I’m 43 and I still have a terrible fear of the dark. You’d think I would have got over it by now.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
My overall 5 favourite? I could be here forever so I’m just going to list the first that come to mind.
I loved:
1. Sinuhe the Egyptain (by Mika Walteri) which I read and read the summer I was twelve. It’s a rollicking adventure about Sinuhe, the physician to the Pharaoh. I’m not even sure it was a children’s book. There was war and friendship and love and betrayal. And there was this beautiful woman Nefernefernefer – who wore hardly any clothes. Scandalous!
2. The Magic Wishing Chair (by Enid Blyton). My sister and I used to laugh and laugh at the antics of that chair. Actually – most stuff by Enid Blyton. I was kind of raised on those stories. And they were the first kind of stories I tried to emulate when writing as a child.
3. The Doll’s House (Rumer Godden) – oh so beautiful. Plain good little Tottie and the deliciously evil Marchpane.
4. The Princess and the Goblin (George MacDonald). I loved, loved, loved this as a child. The adventures of lonely Princess Irene and of course, the lovely Curdie, a little miner boy, who I think was my first literary crush. He was so simple and kind and brave!
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5. Andersen’s Fairy tales – in particular The little Mermaid and The Snow Queen which were read to us again and again by our mum. We used to weep over the ending of The little Mermaid – literally, a big huddle of weeping children and our mum. It was so….good for us.
What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
Again the first five that come to mind. They all affected me in different ways
1. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
2. Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson
3. Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman
4. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
5. Close Range – Annie E Proulx
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Wow, all female bar one. And all American except one. Oh no! Now I want to do a list of Australian favourites…..
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
The complete Red Dwarf series of books. Lots and lots of books about saints (it seems I collect them).
The complete set of crumbling and decaying Merit Students Encyclopaedia which was our childhood encyclopaedia and which featured prominently in my first novel The Anatomy of Wings. Lots of books on sewing. I can’t sew. Never sew. But I love looking at books about sewing. They are just so mysterious.
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How would you describe perfect happiness?
I would say lunch at my mum’s house on a sunny day. All of us together. My siblings, our kids. Everyone eating and talking and laughing. The shrieking, wild, sugar-fuelled galumphing of cousins. I think that happiness comes from feeling like I belong there. We all belong.
(PS: A note from Kate: I am psychic! When I reviewed Karen's book Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy I said that it reminded me of George Macdonald!
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Tell me about your new book:
My new book is called OPHELIA AND THE MARVELLOUS BOY and it’s about a little girl named Ophelia who only believes in things that can be proven by science. She’s mourning the loss of her mother when she stumbles upon a magical boy locked away in a museum, kept prisoner by an evil Snow Queen.
Everything she believes is challenged as she goes on a tremendous journey to rescue the boy and save the world.
[image error]
What was the first flash of inspiration for it?
I was having a lot of trouble writing my second novel (which would ultimately become THE MIDNIGHT DRESS) so I gave up and decided to explore other things. I wanted to write something that made me happy – something for me alone! In short I needed to rediscover what I loved about writing.
I was lying on my sofa thinking about something I once saw in a museum many years ago. It was somewhere in Eastern Europe although the friend I was travelling with and I still fight over which city it was. In this museum I peeked through a door which had been left slightly ajar into a room that wasn’t meant to be on display. It was a very cluttered storeroom but in that storeroom there was a glass coffin and in that coffin there was a skeleton with a crown on its head. I’m not kidding. A man came along and shooed us away. Lying on my sofa it made me think of all the amazing things that might be hidden away in such places. The story kind of grew from there.
What do you love most in the world?
I love my little girl Alice. I love when she explains the world to me. The world would be a much better place if Alice ruled it.
What do you fear most in the world?
I get really scared that compassion is leaching out of the world. I think compassion is a taught thing and maybe people aren’t being taught it anymore. OR maybe it’s empathy. My mother always said imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes. It was drummed into us. That’s my whine. On a very personal level I’m 43 and I still have a terrible fear of the dark. You’d think I would have got over it by now.
What are your 5 favourite childhood books?
My overall 5 favourite? I could be here forever so I’m just going to list the first that come to mind.
I loved:
1. Sinuhe the Egyptain (by Mika Walteri) which I read and read the summer I was twelve. It’s a rollicking adventure about Sinuhe, the physician to the Pharaoh. I’m not even sure it was a children’s book. There was war and friendship and love and betrayal. And there was this beautiful woman Nefernefernefer – who wore hardly any clothes. Scandalous!
2. The Magic Wishing Chair (by Enid Blyton). My sister and I used to laugh and laugh at the antics of that chair. Actually – most stuff by Enid Blyton. I was kind of raised on those stories. And they were the first kind of stories I tried to emulate when writing as a child.
3. The Doll’s House (Rumer Godden) – oh so beautiful. Plain good little Tottie and the deliciously evil Marchpane.
4. The Princess and the Goblin (George MacDonald). I loved, loved, loved this as a child. The adventures of lonely Princess Irene and of course, the lovely Curdie, a little miner boy, who I think was my first literary crush. He was so simple and kind and brave!
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5. Andersen’s Fairy tales – in particular The little Mermaid and The Snow Queen which were read to us again and again by our mum. We used to weep over the ending of The little Mermaid – literally, a big huddle of weeping children and our mum. It was so….good for us.
What are your 5 favourite books read as an adult?
Again the first five that come to mind. They all affected me in different ways
1. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
2. Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson
3. Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman
4. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
5. Close Range – Annie E Proulx
[image error]
Wow, all female bar one. And all American except one. Oh no! Now I want to do a list of Australian favourites…..
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
The complete Red Dwarf series of books. Lots and lots of books about saints (it seems I collect them).
The complete set of crumbling and decaying Merit Students Encyclopaedia which was our childhood encyclopaedia and which featured prominently in my first novel The Anatomy of Wings. Lots of books on sewing. I can’t sew. Never sew. But I love looking at books about sewing. They are just so mysterious.
[image error]
How would you describe perfect happiness?
I would say lunch at my mum’s house on a sunny day. All of us together. My siblings, our kids. Everyone eating and talking and laughing. The shrieking, wild, sugar-fuelled galumphing of cousins. I think that happiness comes from feeling like I belong there. We all belong.
(PS: A note from Kate: I am psychic! When I reviewed Karen's book Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy I said that it reminded me of George Macdonald!
July 29, 2014
SPOTLIGHT: Karen Foxlee on the wonderment of fairy tales
Today on the blog I am delighted to welcome Karen Foxlee, an Australian writer whose work I admire immensely - it is achingly beautiful, mysterious, and edged with darkness. She's come to talk about one of my favourite topics of all .... yes, you've guessed it.
Fairy tales!
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Here she is:
Why do writers turn again and again to fairy tales for inspiration?
There’s an evil Snow Queen in my children’s novel Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy and I’ve been asked lots of questions about her recently. Why did I choose to feature her in my story, was Andersen’s Snow Queen a favourite of mine, am I a lover of fairy-tales in general?
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The funny thing was the snow queen wasn’t there when I first started out. I was writing about a boy being kept prisoner in a museum which seemed like a strange yet exciting idea with endless possibilities. I was asking myself questions about why he might be there and who might be keeping him prisoner when she suddenly appeared all ice and snow, teeth like razor blades and hair like a blizzard. She gave me quite a fright.
The thing about fairy tales is I think they seep into your blood when you are small. They lie there dormant for years. I’d say the Snow Queen had been lurking around inside me for decades, much like half a dozen or so other fairy-tales, imprinted on my mind from childhood.
When I was small my mother would read us fairy-tales and we loved them. We huddled around her in my little bedroom, in our tiny house, in our dusty, faded town in the middle of nowhere…. and each night she opened up new and miraculous worlds to us.
Fairy tales were my introduction to the raw, pure, emotional punch of literature.
The Snow Queen - Michael Whelan
Within those fairy tales she told us I experienced fear and longing, sadness and anger. We wept together at the end of The Little Mermaid. The betrayal!! And again and again we returned to that story to revel in that emotional response. And the wind was knocked out of me when the snow queen’s sleigh slid to a stop beside Kai. The horror! A beautiful woman, perfectly respectable, stealing children.
In fairy-tales, I first encountered magic. Wild, pulse-quickening magic. A girl breathing life back into a dead swallow, a mermaid giving her tongue away in exchange for legs, boys turned into swans, climbing suddenly up into the sky, shoes that dance you to death, magical mirrors smashed to a million pieces, the glittering shards wrecking lives. I’ve sought that magic out, searched for it in pages ever since.
And in fairy tales I think I experienced my first tremors of wonderment at the art of story-telling. My budding interest in writing began there among those old yellowing pages, among those illustrations hiding behind their paper veils.
In The Snow Queen I loved that Gerda set off to rescue her friend Kai without thought of the peril. That the journey is the story! I loved that I travelled with her. That each page I turned she was arriving somewhere new, or leaving somewhere behind. That each page I was itching for her to make it to the snow queen’s castle even though I was terrified. In fairy tales I first experienced the narrative arc, tension, the quest, good versus evil. I fell in love with that journey.
So these are some of the reasons fairy tales inspire my writing. I don’t turn to them so much as they bubble up to the surface, into my words, all tangled and emotion-filled from my childhood.
Fairy tales!
[image error]
Here she is:
Why do writers turn again and again to fairy tales for inspiration?
There’s an evil Snow Queen in my children’s novel Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy and I’ve been asked lots of questions about her recently. Why did I choose to feature her in my story, was Andersen’s Snow Queen a favourite of mine, am I a lover of fairy-tales in general?
[image error]
The funny thing was the snow queen wasn’t there when I first started out. I was writing about a boy being kept prisoner in a museum which seemed like a strange yet exciting idea with endless possibilities. I was asking myself questions about why he might be there and who might be keeping him prisoner when she suddenly appeared all ice and snow, teeth like razor blades and hair like a blizzard. She gave me quite a fright.
The thing about fairy tales is I think they seep into your blood when you are small. They lie there dormant for years. I’d say the Snow Queen had been lurking around inside me for decades, much like half a dozen or so other fairy-tales, imprinted on my mind from childhood.
When I was small my mother would read us fairy-tales and we loved them. We huddled around her in my little bedroom, in our tiny house, in our dusty, faded town in the middle of nowhere…. and each night she opened up new and miraculous worlds to us.
Fairy tales were my introduction to the raw, pure, emotional punch of literature.
The Snow Queen - Michael Whelan
Within those fairy tales she told us I experienced fear and longing, sadness and anger. We wept together at the end of The Little Mermaid. The betrayal!! And again and again we returned to that story to revel in that emotional response. And the wind was knocked out of me when the snow queen’s sleigh slid to a stop beside Kai. The horror! A beautiful woman, perfectly respectable, stealing children.
In fairy-tales, I first encountered magic. Wild, pulse-quickening magic. A girl breathing life back into a dead swallow, a mermaid giving her tongue away in exchange for legs, boys turned into swans, climbing suddenly up into the sky, shoes that dance you to death, magical mirrors smashed to a million pieces, the glittering shards wrecking lives. I’ve sought that magic out, searched for it in pages ever since.
And in fairy tales I think I experienced my first tremors of wonderment at the art of story-telling. My budding interest in writing began there among those old yellowing pages, among those illustrations hiding behind their paper veils.
In The Snow Queen I loved that Gerda set off to rescue her friend Kai without thought of the peril. That the journey is the story! I loved that I travelled with her. That each page I turned she was arriving somewhere new, or leaving somewhere behind. That each page I was itching for her to make it to the snow queen’s castle even though I was terrified. In fairy tales I first experienced the narrative arc, tension, the quest, good versus evil. I fell in love with that journey.
So these are some of the reasons fairy tales inspire my writing. I don’t turn to them so much as they bubble up to the surface, into my words, all tangled and emotion-filled from my childhood.
