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THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS
by Leslie WilsonWhen my novel Last Train from Kummersdorf was published, my brother read it and then said to me: ‘It’s not at all a realistic novel, is it?’ And indeed, it isn’t, though I’m not sure...
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The House of Dreams
I'm guest-posting today over at Jenny Alexander's thoughtful, creative blog 'Writing in the House of Dreams'. Jenny asked me to share a recurrent dream I used to have as a child: one which I inherited...
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BONELAND by ALAN GARNER
I got interested in star-watching years ago, when I lived in a Yorkshire Dales village with no streetlights anywhere much nearer than Skipton, eleven miles away. On a clear night you could see as...
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On Bedtime Stories
When my daughters were small I used to read aloud to them every evening, just as my mother used to read to me, and her mother to her, I dare say…generation before generation. It’s something I miss,...
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RAVEN HEARTS by Fiona Dunbar
My friend Fiona Dunbar's lively and exciting children's adventure stories leap boundaries and span genres: for example her brilliant ‘Silk Sisters’ trilogy, which mixes genome research and...
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"The Provenson Book of Fairytales" (with scary pictures)
by Megan Whalen TurnerWhen Katherine asked if I might like to write a blog post about my favorite fairy tale, I drew a blank. I’m almost afraid to admit this, but I didn’t like fairy tales when I was...
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Folklore Snippets: The Troll who built a Church
Esbern Snare, 1127 to 1204, was a daring Danish nobleman and commander who, around 1170, fortified the town of Kalundborg, Zealand, with a castle and towers, and also set about building a rather...
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ON FAIRYTALES
by Terri WindlingI've been asked to reflect on fairy tales – which, as it happens, is something that I've been doing my entire professional life: thirty years of championing re-told fairy tales as a...
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A Hobbity Weekend
As I'm sure you know, 'The Hobbit' was seventy-five on Friday last. Quite clearly the only possible response was to hurry off to a Party of Special Magnificence. Which was the reason I found myself...
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The Princess As Role Model
by Gwyneth JonesI’ve always been attracted to fairytales. I knew I was a storyteller long before I knew I’d be a writer: I took on my father’s mantle, and told epic bedtime stories to my brother and...
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Unsettling Wonder
We craft and tell stories because we’ve stood on the uncertain edge between the waking world and our imagination, between enchantment and fear. And we remember other stories that help us build our own...
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Publication Day
AFTERIt's publication day! And I'm doing a happy dance. Just take a look at this. I can’t tell you how downright honoured I feel to be a part of this YA anthology of stories about what happens after...
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In Defence of Poesie
Here is that very perfect knight Sir Philip Sidney, Elizabethan golden boy, courtier, soldier, poet and all-round Renaissance man. Looking a bit stern here, not a lot of fun perhaps - but I think we...
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Wayland's Smithy: a tangle of tales...
by Penny DolanWayland's SmithyAll that was needed, so people said, was a single coin placed on a stone beside your tethered horse. Have faith, leave the horse there all night and when you came back...
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Folklore Snippets: The Silver Cup
The Silver Cup from Dagberg DaasFrom Scandinavian Folklore, ed William Craigie, 1896Here’s a version of an old tale I used in ‘Troll Fell’, although for my version the cup was golden, and my troll girl...
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Dick Whittington and His Cat: (or The Magic of Cats)
by Nick GreenTurn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London!Turn again, Whittington, thrice Mayor of London!Is ‘Dick Whittington and his Cat’ really a fairytale? I’m going to call it one. Even though...
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Stolen by the Fairies
From ‘The Western Island’ by Robin Flower, Clarendon Press, 1944A tale of Tomàs O Crithin from the Great BlasketIt is not so long ago (said he), that a woman of my mother’s kin, the O’Sheas, was taken,...
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Inglorious Miltons
Sara Allgood as Maurya, photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1938Maurya: (raising her head and speaking as if she did not see the people around her) They're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea...
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Talking of trolls
I'm taking the weekend off from Steel Thistles, as today you will find me talking about trolls to my friend Lucy Coats, over at Scribble City Central, her wonderful blog devoted to all things mythic....
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"Have a soul, All Souls!"
This Saturday, the 10th of November, there was a protest outside the prestigious gold-leaf-covered gate of All Souls College, Oxford. As an Oxford-based author, I went along to show some solidarity,...
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