More I Heart...

Do You Believe in Magic?

There is a part of me that refuses to grow up. I'm not sure that I'll ever outgrow the fairy tales I loved dearly as a child, and the film versions of them. I can rewatch and reread these stories and always I am transported to another world, one where I am a child and everything seemed to magical, anything possible. I fully admit that I still like going to Disneyland too.
Of course there are fairy tales for adults; indeed many of the original fairy tales that we all kow and love were originally intended for adults, and were a lot darker than their Ladybird book/Disney versions.
So for all you grown-ups who still love magic, I have compliled a list of my favourite films and books that are sprinkled with princesses, witches and unicorns. For further reading go to http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ a wonderful website with an in-depth list of fairy tales, and the many versions available of them.

Films:
Legend
Willow
Ladyhawke
The Dark Crystal
The Princess Bride
Labyrinth
Amelie (not a typical fairy tale but I still consider it one)
The Company of Wolves
Snow White: A Tale of Terror
Hansel & Gretal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Wizard of Oz
Return to Oz
Stardust
The Chronicles of Narnia films and original BBC series
The Neverending Story
Red Riding Hood
Alice in Wonderand (Disney)
La Belle et le Bete
Beauty and the Beast (Disney)
Splash
The Little Mermaid (Disney)
Sleeping Beauty (Disney)
Donkey Skin
Cinderella (Disney)
The Sword and the Stone (Disney)
Ponyo
Spirited Away
Peter Pan (Disney)
Ondine
The 10th Kingdom (TV show)
Edward Scissorhands
Big Fish
The City of Lost Children
The Red Shoes

I've been recommended to watch No Such Thing, Alice, Paperhouse, Valerie and her Week of Wonders, Bluebeard, Suspiria and Wild at Heart also (the latter two aren't exactly fairy tales but are supposed to have an element of them in the story).
You check out more info on these films here http://www.imdb.com/

Books:
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Charles Perrault's Fairy Tales
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Book of Lost Things
The Princess Bride
The Land of Oz Books
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Rose and the Beast
The Secret Garden
Tom's Midnight Garden
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

Also, of course the Harry Potter books and films. I read half of the first book many years ago, and watched the first film, but I need to do some serious catching up.

Coming Soon

I've been scribbling away writing some modern fairy tales and I'm going to start uploading them here this week! Look out for forests, mermaids, magic and the odd sprinkle of fairy dust for good measure.

Book Review: Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

I first discovered Angela Carter's writing at university, studying her collection of short stories 'The Bloody Chamber'. This was Carter's take on fairy tales, but not the saccarine fairy tales of childhood and Disney films, rather bloodthirsty, dark and erotic tales written for adults, just as the original fairy stories were intended. She later edited collected volumes of traditional and international fairy stories.
Carter was a British writer and jounalist, known largely for her feminist and magic-realism works. She was a true lover of language, and this is evident in the beautiful, complex vocabulary used in her writing. She is one of my heroes for this, and of course because of her gothic stories which questioned society, culture, sexuality and most importantly, gender. Sadly, Carter died aged 51 in 1992 from lung cancer, but is considered one of Britain's greatest writers.
'Heroes and Villains' is a dystopian gothic fantasy where society has split into goups of Professors, Barbarians and deformed 'Out People'. Marianne is the feisty heroine who embarks on a journey away from a life she knew in the Professors' towers, to an unfamiliar decaying world, and a twisted romance with a beautiful Barbarian named Jewel.
As always, Carter's language is lush, bringing this nightmarish world to vivid reality. Marianne makes for an unconventional protaganist; fearless except for the prospect of losing her autonomy. Jewel is a deliciously sordid love interest and antagonist.
Sublime imagery and rich language.
A must read for anyone who loves gothic and magic-realism.