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Showing posts from 2013

A Year in Blogs

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I always like to do a review of the year, so at the end of 2013, I thought I would have a look through my blogs from the last 12 months.  Here are some of the things I have explored during my writerly journey this year: Hairy worms 18th century music therapy The natural partnership between writing and handicrafts Locations in Britain and Japan that inspired Silver Hands Comparing handless maidens with Juliet Marillier Similarities between Shirley and Anne Lister Al fresco flute playing Androgynous hares Head-banging in Gulliver's Travels The magic of Swanwick Writers' Summer School Fantastic short stories Hidden dragons Classical gods in Paris Platonic love A man without desire Light-filled fairy tales Narnian Christmas presents Quite a year!  I hope you will join me next year for whatever 2014 will bring. 

Christmas Presents: Bear Them Well.

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For Christmas this year, I have returned to an old seasonal favourite: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.   I am a huge fan of Narnia and of CS Lewis, and on this 50th anniversary of his death, it seems appropriate to write something about Narnia, as well as about Christmas. You know what's coming, don't you?  Yes, I'd like to take a few moments to think about the gifts Father Christmas gives the children in Narnia, and some of the symbolism attached to them. Peter's sword and shield  Who wouldn't want to get these for Christmas?  These presents are a sign to Peter that he will become a knight.  There's an obvious connection with St Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes". (1) Peter will ultimately be called upon to fight evil in the form of the White Witch and her army.  The rampant red lion on the shield shows not only his alliegance to Aslan, but Aslan'

Curtains to the Darkness

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As winter draws in, I become more and more inclined to read fairy tales.  Winter is a time for telling tales round the fire, snuggling up on the sofa with a favourite book, and revisiting all those old films, ballets and pantomimes.  I've always been a huge fan of fairy tales.  I'm not alone.  Stories that have stood the test of time and can mean so many different things at different times of one's life will always have avid listeners and readers. But sometimes I wonder if I'm reading the same tales as everyone else.  There seem to be a lot of people out there (people I like and admire) who are always talking and writing about the darkness in fairy tales.  People like to say that the earlier versions of familiar tales are "much darker".  Short story writers are praised for "a wonderfully dark tale".  Now, there's nothing wrong with that.  I can admire a dark tale as well as the next reader.  But it upsets me when all people seem to see is darknes

The Man Without Desire

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watching the film in the mediatheque Last week, I went to try out the new mediatheque at the National Media Museum .  The film I watched made a huge impact on me.  It was a silent film from 1923 starring Ivor Novello, called The Man Without Desire . It reminded me of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, so it was interesting that the director, Adrian Brunel, based the story on an idea from an Irish playwright, Monckton Hoffe.  It also seems to draw inspiration from a poem of Robert Browning's,  "A Toccata of Galuppi's", a stanza of which is quoted in the film: As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop, Here on earth they bore the fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop: What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?  (1) Like a true fairy tale, The Man Without Desire  can be read many ways, but as it contains themes especially dear to me, those are the ones I will concentrate on in my review. The plot An Englishman

What Plato really said about love...

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Like most people, I'd heard of Platonic love, but I didn't really know what it was.  I had some vague idea it was about being "just friends".  I also knew that Oscar Wilde defended himself against charges of homosexuality by invoking some ancient ideal of a noble friendship between an older and younger man, but I didn't really know what that was about either, or that the two were related. Things only changed the other week when I was reading a book about Leonardo and Michelangelo - The Lost Battles by Jonathan Jones.  It says that Michelangelo defended himself against gossip over his male/male friendships by invoking Plato's Symposium. It also quotes a poem by Michelangelo, which says: Well, alas!  How will it be heard? the chaste desire that burns the interior of my heart by those who in others always see themselves? This certainly struck a chord with me, and is very relevant for Carlo and Tammo's coming relationship in the next episode of my Angelio tr

Apollo & Diana in Paris

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                                 There seems to have been something almost mythical about my recent trip to Paris.  Three days.  Three Apollos.  Three Dianas.  The sun god and the moon goddess.  And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Apollos were overtly on show, while the Dianas kept creeping up on me. The first Apollo was that of the Palais Garnier, home of the National Opera of Paris, and also the Phantom of the Opera.  Apollo stands on the roof, holding up his golden lyre in his role as god of music and poetry.  And the whole building - inside and out - is a fairytale temple to the arts of opera and ballet.        Interestingly, the most magical rooms for me were the little circular Salons de la Lune and du Soleil (sun and moon rooms), where stars fall down from the ceiling and you feel like you're in the portal to an enchanted world. Apollo turned up again as patron of the arts in the Louvre, and the  Galerie d'Apollon (Apollo Gallery).  Again, this room celebrates artists of ma

Reporting Live from Bradford Dragon Hunt!

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Today I'm trying something new - a live blog!  I'm in City Park, Bradford on Positive Bradford Day, manning a stall with my husband for something we call Bradford Dragon Hunt. This actually started with my Bradford: City of Fantasy short story reading at Ilkley Literature Festival, in which I read stories inspired by aspects of Bradford, accompanied by a slide show of fantastical architecture in Bradford.  As a booming city in the Industrial Age, Bradford contains loads of Victorian gothic, which is full of stone dragons and other mythological creatures.  As a result, my husband became really interested in stone dragons in the city centre and started photographing them.  Today's stall encourages people to take part in a dragon hunt around the city, counting the dragons in three "hot spots" to receive a certificate.  We're hoping it will encourage people to look at Bradford in a new way. As a little extra, I've also added a "find the hidden dragon"

7 Magical Short Stories

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I recently read a Top Ten of short stories from The Guardian , and I hadn't read any of them!  So I thought I would post a list of short stories that made a lasting impression on me.  They're all fantasy stories, and 7 is a magic number, so it seemed to fit together well.   Smith of Wootten Major by JRR Tolkien From Tales from the Perilous Realm On a completely different scale from the epic Lord of the Rings , but with the same heart, this is a beautiful story about a boy who swallows a star which enables him to walk in the land of Faery as an adult.  For anyone who has ever felt, like me, that "I'm walking in the wrong land.  My generation doesn't understand". The Kith of the Elf-Folk by Lord Dunsany From Time and the Gods (Fantasy Masterworks) It's very hard to choose just one story by "the master", Lord Dunsany, but this one really does linger. The little Wild Thing of the marshes wishes for a soul when she hears singing in the cathedral, so h