Review | Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodríguez McRobbie

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings

by Linda Rodríguez McRobbie

My Rating: 

You think you know her story. You’ve read the Brothers Grimm, you’ve watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn’t be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders—but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a Nazi spy. Empress Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian empire slept wearing a mask of raw veal. Princess Olga of Kiev murdered thousands of men, and Princess Rani Lakshmibai waged war on the battlefield, charging into combat with her toddler son strapped to her back. Princesses Behaving Badly offers minibiographies of all these princesses and dozens more. It’s a fascinating read for history buffs, feminists, and anyone seeking a different kind of bedtime story.

Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones | Wordery | Quirk Books

I received an eARC of Princesses Behaving Badly from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book combines two of my favourite things: women and history. I've been a history nerd since my childhood and was lucky enough to spend many days out at museums, castles and abbeys that my parents took me to. Looking back, it makes me sad that the only women ever really mentioned in my history lessons at school were Boadicea, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. All amazing women in their own right, of course, but what about all the other women who contributed to the world's history who have been completely overshadowed by their male contemporaries?

Princesses Behaving Badly aims to set this bias right, and I think it does a decent job of it; there are lots of women in here I'd heard of before, but there were plenty more I'd either never heard of or had heard of but didn't really know anything about.  For example, I never knew just how tragic the life of George I's wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, was. Let's just say George I has quickly become one of my least favourite British monarchs.

There are princesses from all over the world in this book, from many different cultures, races and religions, which I really enjoyed. When we hear 'princess' I think it's easy for us to picture a white, European Guinevere-esque figure - someone from a fairy tale rather than history - so I admire the amount of research that must have gone into the creation of this book to make it so diverse.

I also loved that McRobbie didn't choose to only include the 'nice' princesses, or even the ones that were particularly good at their job. There are women in this book who died defending their country and others who cared more about their wardrobe than war, and by including all of them she hasn't put women on a pedestal but proved that we have been just as diverse as men throughout the centuries.

Having said that, there were some parts that grated on me a little bit. McRobbie has a rant about Disney Princesses in the introduction which I thought was unnecessary, especially as, to me, it came across as 'I'm not like other girls, I don't like Disney princesses because I'm not silly'. I'm not a fan of the belief that Disney teaches girls that they're only worth how pretty other people think they are; I've been a Disney fanatic all my life, so perhaps I'm biased, but one of the reasons I adore Beauty and the Beast so much is because of the message that it's what's inside that counts.

The earlier Disney movies are certainly of their time, but from The Little Mermaid onwards we've had a whole host of strong Disney heroines who are heroic in their own way. No, wearing a pretty dress and a tiara doesn't make you a princess - something another Disney film, The Princess Diaries, addressed excellently - but I'm not going to shame little girls who enjoy wearing dresses and tiaras if it makes them feel empowered.

There were also a few instances where people were described as 'ugly' or 'insane' that made me a bit uncomfortable, especially as these instances didn't agree with other parts of the book. McRobbie criticised Disney for making girls think being a princess is about being beautiful, and then pitied various real life princesses because they hadn't been considered attractive. She also made some excellent points about mental illness not being taken seriously or treated appropriately in the past, only to make throwaway remarks about people being insane. Hypocritical much?

All in all, though, this is a much more positive book than a negative one. This would be an excellent introduction to anyone who wants to learn more about women's history as well as anyone who wants to learn more about history but feels intimidated by non-fiction. This book is written so conversationally that it's a very easy read and there's a wonderful bibliography of further reading included in the back if you want to learn more about any of the princesses involved.

If you're more interested in history that isn't about the royal family then this book probably isn't for you, although the clue's in the title, but wherever your interests lie there are so many fascinating women in this book I think it would be a shame to miss out on learning more about them.

This Week in Books | 03/01/18

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Now: I tried reading Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but recently I've started listening to the audiobook in my car to and from work and I'm enjoying it so much more this time around. I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed or simply because I enjoy the book more when it sounds like Lady Trent herself is talking to me but I'm not complaining!

Then: My first read of 2018 was this little novella by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Prime Meridian, which is officially being published in the summer but I was lucky enough to get a copy of in December because I backed the campaign to get it published. As always I loved Moreno-Garcia's storytelling - look out for my review!

Next: Owen Davies' Grimoires: A History of Magic Books was a birthday present from one of my closest friends who knows how much I love the history of witchcraft. It's been calling to me recently, I'm really in the mood for some non-fiction, so I think I'm going to start it soon.

What are you reading?

Review | The Good Immigrant ed. by Nikesh Shukla

The Good Immigrant

ed. by Nikesh Shukla

My Rating:

How does it feel to be constantly regarded as a potential threat, strip-searched at every airport?

Or be told that, as an actress, the part you’re most fitted to play is ‘wife of a terrorist’? How does it feel to have words from your native language misused, misappropriated and used aggressively towards you? How does it feel to hear a child of colour say in a classroom that stories can only be about white people? How does it feel to go ‘home’ to India when your home is really London? What is it like to feel you always have to be an ambassador for your race? How does it feel to always tick ‘Other’?

Bringing together 21 exciting black, Asian and minority ethnic voices emerging in Britain today, The Good Immigrant explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be ‘other’ in a country that doesn’t seem to want you, doesn’t truly accept you – however many generations you’ve been here – but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms.

Inspired by discussion around why society appears to deem people of colour as bad immigrants – job stealers, benefit scroungers, undeserving refugees – until, by winning Olympic races or baking good cakes, or being conscientious doctors, they cross over and become good immigrants, editor Nikesh Shukla has compiled a collection of essays that are poignant, challenging, angry, humorous, heartbreaking, polemic, weary and – most importantly – real.

This book has been on my radar since I first heard Nikesh Shukla talking about it at last year's London Book Fair, where I was lucky enough to hear him talk about the time he sent a porkchop into space. Yeah. That happened.

In the current political climate after the complete shitstorm that was 2016, this is one of the most important books that any British person - or any person anywhere - should read. Even if you don't read much non-fiction or you're not keen on essay collections, I can promise you that this book is worth reading. Especially if, like me, you're white, privileged and currently living in the country you were born in.

It's natural for us to be on edge if we think we're about to read something that's going to accuse us of racism. No one likes being accused of being racist - especially racists. The thing about racism is that you can be racist without really realising it; as a white person I have no right to tell a person of colour that something I just said to them wasn't offensive, especially if it's something they've felt offended by. The only thing I'm not privileged in is the fact that I'm a woman, and I know I hate it when a guy says something offensive to me and then tries to argue that it's not offensive because he didn't mean it that way. 

The Good Immigrant is the perfect antidote to ignorance, and while some of the essayists are very angry - and rightfully so - the collection as a whole doesn't feel like an attack, instead it feels like a group of people trying to explain why we shouldn't believe that there's no such thing as racism anymore, that just because you might not be racist isn't the point because racism isn't going to go away unless you start calling people out on their ignorance, even if those people are friends and family. Especially if those people are friends and family.

As with all collections there were some essays I enjoyed more than others; I particularly enjoyed the essays written by actors because I'm always interested in the representation of poc in film and the media, but there wasn't a single essay I disliked and every single one of them made me think and made me consider what more I can do to stop my country from becoming the next Nazi Germany. That may seem like I'm being over-dramatic, but so many of the views being spouted by people in politics right now are the same views that were being thrown around Germany in the 1930s. Nigel Farage has directed hatred towards immigrants in the same way Hitler directed hatred towards Europe's Jewish population and it's dangerous.

Basically I loved this collection and I do genuinely believe it's one of the most important books around at the moment. Please read it.

Review | Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones

Foxes Unearthed: A Story of Love and Loathing in Modern Britain

by Lucy Jones

My Rating: 

As one of the largest predators left in Britain, the fox is captivating: a comfortably familiar figure in our country landscapes; an intriguing flash of bright-eyed wildness in our towns.

Yet no other animal attracts such controversy, has provoked more column inches or been so ambiguously woven into our culture over centuries, perceived variously as a beautiful animal, a cunning rogue, a vicious pest and a worthy foe. As well as being the most ubiquitous of wild animals, it is also the least understood.

In Foxes Unearthed Lucy Jones investigates the truth about foxes in a media landscape that often carries complex agendas. Delving into fact, fiction, folklore and her own family history, Lucy travels the length of Britain to find out first-hand why these animals incite such passionate emotions, revealing our rich and complex relationship with one of our most loved – and most vilified – wild animals. This compelling narrative adds much-needed depth to the debate on foxes, asking what our attitudes towards the red fox say about us – and, ultimately, about our relationship with the natural world.

What's this? A book review? That's right, friends - I've actually read something! In fact, slowly but surely, I'm starting to read more.

As I'm taking part in Non-Fiction November this month I'm on a bit of a non-fiction kick, and I couldn't resist nabbing a copy of this new release.

If you're new to non-fiction (and considering I only really started reading it last year I'm certainly no connoisseur) then this would be a great place to start. Not only is it a fairly short book, but it's also very readable and feels as though it's been written from a place of real love; Jones isn't afraid to talk about her own experiences with foxes, from her childhood to the present day, but they're welcome additions to a book that easily could have become a book about statistics. Instead Jones is very fair; she loves foxes, but she doesn't villainise those who don't and she's not afraid to point out the flaws in those who idolise them.

Before this I hadn't read a non-fiction book about wildlife and now I'm keen to read more. If anyone has any recommendations for books on wildlife, preferably ones that include a bit of memoir or folklore or anything that doesn't make them too dry, please let me know!

One thing I must thank this book for is making me realise how much I love foxes. They really are beautiful creatures and I finished this book completely in awe of them; I'm not sure I know of any other creature that can adapt like the fox can. They're real survivors.

In fact this book taught me as much about myself as it did about foxes. Sounds cheesy, I know, but I went into this book expecting to be fascinated by the first chapter about how foxes have been represented in our stories from Aesop to Roald Dahl, which I was, and expecting to be a little bored or out of my depth with the following chapters, which I most certainly wasn't. I've come a long way considering I'd've been hugely intimidated by a book like this two or three years ago.

Not only that, but Foxes Unearthed helped me to see fox-hunting in a different way, too. Personally I am against fox-hunting; I think (literally) hounding a fox and then letting it be torn to pieces is cruel and completely unnecessary, and if foxes are such a threat to farming, which I really don't think they are, it should be up to farmers to both protect their own animals and deal with a fox problem in a humane way.

That being said, I'd never considered the social aspects of hunting before, or the fact that, for many, fox-hunting became something of a coping strategy after the First and Second World Wars. I'd also never considered that we may actually have fox-hunting to thank for the UK still having foxes now, as they've been kept around to hunt and therefore haven't disappeared like our wolves did. I'll never be a pro-hunting person, but I came out of this book a little less likely to think of those who are as dastardly men in red coats, twirling their mustaches.

Foxes Unearthed separates fact from fiction, studying the evolution of foxes in our stories and the cold hard facts, and delves into the worlds of the people who want to hunt them and the people who want to save them, both of which are worlds with pros and cons. Whether you're fascinated by foxes, wild for wildlife or completely new to the realm of non-fiction, I recommend picking up this book!

I've come away from Foxes Unearthed feeling like I've really learned something new, and I'll definitely be looking out for more of Jones's work in future.

Non-Fiction November TBR

My reading's been rubbish this year, especially my non-fiction reading, so as this November sees the return of Gemma @ Non Fic Books and Olive @ abookolive's Non-Fiction November I figured it was best I join in!

Like last year there are four categories, but this year's categories are a bit different and a bit more open to interpretation.

New

This could mean you read something about a topic that is new to you, you read a recently published book or you read a book you've recently bought.

I've decided to go with Lucy Jones's Foxes Unearthed for this challenge. I bought it very recently and I believe it was published this year, but the main reason I picked it is because I've yet to read a non-fiction book about wildlife. This book sounds super interesting and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Fascinating

Essentially the complete opposite of the New category. Fascinating is a chance for you to read a book about a topic you're already interested in or already know a lot about.

For me that's history books, so I'll be reading Fiona Maddocks' Hildegard of Bingen. I've always been interested in Hildegard so I'm looking forward to this biography and to learning a bit more about Medieval history.

Controversial

This is a category for books which can be deemed controversial, but aren't necessarily controversial. I guess to me controversial simply means a book about a topic that gets people talking, or at least gets them thinking.

For this challenge I'll be reading Mona Eltahawy's Headscarves and Hymens, which I've owned for a while now and still haven't read. Whether I agree with everything Eltahawy has to say here or not, I think this'll still be an interesting, eye-opening and important book to read.

Important

This category is for books which you deem to be important to read, a book you think you must read. 

I'm also challenging myself with Native American November this month, so my book for this category is Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian. This is a book which discusses the history of North America's indigenous people, as well as the way Native Americans and First Nation Canadians are still being treated now. I think it's going to be heartbreaking, but so important to read.

Those are the four books I really want to get through this month, but I also have some other non-fiction books that I'd like to get to this month if I can:

Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

by Margot Lee Shetterly

The Geek Feminist Revolution

by Kameron Hurley

Female Gothic Histories: Gender, History and the Gothic

by Diana Wallace

Reading Lolita in Tehran

by Azar Nafisi

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

by Kate Bolick

Woman Who Brings the Rain: A Memour of Hokkaido, Japan

by Eluned Gramich

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

by Tim Smit

Science in Wonderland: The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain

by Melaine Keene

Losing Israel

by Jasmine Donahaye

Shakespeare

by Bill Bryson

Mary Boleyn: 'The Great and Infamous Whore'

by Alison Weir

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn

by Alison Weir

Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen

by Tracy Borman

Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction

by Tracy Borman

How to be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life

by Ruth Goodman

Have you read any of these, and if so are there any in particular you'd recommend? Are you taking part in Non-Fiction November this year?

Native American November | Announcement + TBR!

November is Native American Heritage Month!

I've been fascinated by Native American history since I read Celia Rees's Witch Child when I was around fourteen, and the older I grew the more I realised just how much western, European societies completely screwed over indigenous people around the world.

The worst thing is indigenous people are still being treated poorly; in fact one of America's most popular holidays is celebrated because Native Americans helped starving colonials and the settlers then repayed them by slaughtering them. Ah, good times.

I know very, very little about Native American history but it's something I'm constantly eager to learn more about. I've been meaning to do a reading challenge like this for a while now and there's no time like the present!

If you'd like to join in then please feel free! If you would like to join in, I've created three 'rules' to encourage reading that doesn't encourage oppression, white-washing or victimisation. Naturally books that feature horrible moments in history are likely to be read during a reading challenge like this, but I'd like it to be a primarily positive and eye-opening experience.

1) Read a book written by a Native American author. Someone like Sherman Alexie or Thomas King, for example! Someone who's as white as milk but whose great great grandmother was Native American doesn't count.

2) Read a book with a Native American protagonist. Something like Celia Rees's Sorceress or Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

3) Read a book with Native American characters. These are books in which the protagonist may not be Native American, but there are characters in the book who are Native American and who also have agency. The Twilight books would fit into this category, as would Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves.

You don't have to do any of these challenges to take part, I don't want this to come across as some strict reading challenge if it is something you want to do, I can only suggest that, if you do want to take part, you read books that don't exoticise America's indigenous people or treat them as punching bags with no agency. Don't do what Joe Wright did when he cast Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily...

So what'll I be reading? Well there are a few books I own I've yet to get to, and now seems like the perfect time to gobble them up! I don't know if I'll get to all of them, though I hope I do, because I'm going to try and take part in a few other reading challenges this month too, but I'm certainly going to try.

I'd be a hypocrite if my TBR didn't match my own rules, so I've got a book for each. I've been meaning to read more Geraldine Brooks since I read and enjoyed Year of Wonders which, like Caleb's Crossing, is a fictionalised account of a true event. Caleb's Crossing is based on the first Native American student to graduate from Harvard in 1665; while the student himself isn't our protagonist he's still a very important character, and instead our protagonist is Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of a Puritan minister whose childhood friendship with Caleb, a local chieftain's son, ends up with her following him to college as his housekeeper. It's Bethia's father who sends Caleb to college, intending to prove that 'savages' can be 'civilised', and Bethia's forced to watch her friend receive the education her own sex deprives her of.

Joseph Boyden's The Orenda has three protagonists, two of whom are Native Americans. Or I suppose I should say Native Canadians, given that Canada is actually the setting of this novel, but I'm still going to count them as part of this challenge for no other reason than that it wasn't actually North America's indigenous population who decided Canada and the United States were separate countries so... Anyway, I've yet to read any Joseph Boyden but I've heard nothing but good things, particularly about this novel. It's quite chunky but I'm looking forward to diving into it!

I mentioned Thomas King above and unlike the other books on my TBR The Inconvenient Indian is a piece of non-fiction, and another book I've heard nothing but praise for. Thomas King is a Native American writer who, through this book, explores the history of North America's indigenous population, the way indingeous people are still treated now, and even how Native Americans are portrayed in the media. I think it's going to be a heart-breaking read, but an importand and informative one. If I can only get to one of these books this month, I hope it's this one.

I'll be back in a few days with some recommendations for anyone interested in joining me for this reading challenge, and if not I hope you look forward to any reviews or discussions I post throughout November!

Review | The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: In Search of the Tudors' Most Notorious Queen

by Susan Bordo

My Rating: 

Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne's life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination.

Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really even look like?! And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne's death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and popular culture Bordo probes the complexities of one of history's most infamous relationships.

In her inimitable, straight-talking style Bordo dares to confront the established histories, stepping off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the myths.

I've been fascinated with the Tudors since I was a little girl; ever since I learned that Henry VIII had six wives, two of whom he executed, I've wanted to know more about these women who found themselves married to a man who sounded like the worst husband in the world. Once I'd delved into Tudor England, I couldn't break away from it; I became fascinated by the religious turmoil and the turbulence of the dynasty as a whole, from Henry VII's bloody ascension to the throne to Elizabeth I's inspiring but worryingly childless reign.

Like many history fans, particularly Tudor fans, I've been interested in Anne Boleyn since I was very young; the woman for whom the King of England would defy the Pope, only to later become the first English Queen to be executed by the very husband who had sought her so lustfully. Everyone has a different opinion of Anne; some people think she was a Protestant martyr while others think she was a home-wrecking whore, not to mention all the opinions that fall inbetween.

We're fascinated by her because we're almost completely (in my case entirely) certain that she was innocent of all the charges against her, meaning she was innocently put to death. She was witty and intelligent, and the mother of one of the greatest monarchs England has ever seen.

I was recommended this book by a friend of mine, and it sounded like everything I'd ever wanted to read. Rather than a history of Anne's life, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is more about how we perceive Anne; how she's been represented in period dramas and historical fiction and how, ultimately, we'll never know what she was really like because aside from one disputed letter, we have nothing written in her hand. It's worth me pointing out, I think, that if you want a book about Anne's life then these aren't the droids this isn't the book you're looking for.

I loved this book so much. As you'll know if you've been following my blog for a while, I've fallen in love with non-fiction this year, and now that I've read this I'd really like to check out more of Susan Bordo's work.

The usual problem I have with books about Anne Boleyn is that the people who write them put too much of their opinions into them. I know that might sound odd. Don't get me wrong, I always find other people's opinions interesting, but Anne Boleyn seems to bring out such strong opinions in authors and historians that their books irritate me. For example, I'm not a big fan of Philippa Gregory's portrayal of Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl - in fact Bordo discusses Gregory's portrayal as breathing new life into some of the ridiculous insults thrown at Anne, during her lifetime, by rampant Catholic Eustace Chapuys.

Though Bordo is a big fan of Anne's, and it's clear from the way she talks about her that she thinks very highly of her, she also doesn't hesitate to point out how much proof certain theories have. Many historians say things must be true because 'they have a hunch', so Bordo's honesty was very refreshing and made me feel like I was reading a book which had been written fairly.

It's also written well. I think for a lot of people non-fiction can seem intimidating - I know it did for me. For a long time I didn't think I'd ever be able to read non-fiction for my own enjoyment because I associated non-fiction with sifting through dusty old tomes for relevant evidence to back up the arguments I made in the essays during my student years. This year I finally began to read non-fiction for pleasure and in doing so discovered what I've been missing. The Creation of Anne Boleyn isn't a dry book at all; Bordo has a very readable writing style, and nothing's ever too complicated to follow. I wouldn't recommend trying to read this if you know nothing about the Tudors - as I said it's not a history book in the traditional sense, so it's not going to teach you the basics - but to be honest I'd be surprised if this book appealed to people who didn't have some knowledge or interest in that period of history.

What this book does really well is look at Anne Boleyn as a person - a real living, breathing human being - and her cultural impact. Reading this has also sparked my interest in the French court at this period of history, and particularly in the life of Marguerite de Navarre, whom I definitely want to learn a lot more about in future.

If you have any interest in the Tudors, and especially in Anne Boleyn, and you want to read a book about her that doesn't try to figure out whether or not she was guilty for a change, then you need this book in your life.

This Week in Books | 16/12/15

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

NOW: This morning I started Val McDermid's non-fiction book, Forensics, in which she looks at how real scientists solve crimes. I'm fascinated by the idea of a writer of crime fiction exploring real crime - something I'm sure she does regularly when she's researching her novels - and so far I'm enjoying it. It's very readable, and I find forensic science really interesting.

THEN: Recently I was in the mood for another Sarah Waters book, so I decided to pick up her debut, Tipping the Velvet. Look out for my review on Friday!

NEXT: I'm in a really non-fiction mood right now, and there's so much I want to try and read before the end of the year, but I think I might at least start making my way through The Creation of Anne Boleyn, in which Susan Bordo explores the ways in which Anne Boleyn has been perceived, from whore to saint. Anne Boleyn is one of my favourite figures from history - I find her so, so interesting, and I'm fascinated by the fact that everyone has an opinion about her, and yet none of us will ever really know what she was like.

What are you reading?

My Non-Fiction TBR

I've really gotten into non-fiction this year, and though I've read more non-fiction this year than I ever thought I'd read there's still so much I'd like to read - the more I read, the more I discover! So, here are some of the non-fiction books I'd like to cross off my TBR soon.

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: In Search of the Tudors' Most Notorious Queen

by Susan Bordo

Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne's life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination.

Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really even look like?! And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne's death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and popular culture Bordo probes the complexities of one of history's most infamous relationships.

In her inimitable, straight-talking style Bordo dares to confront the established histories, stepping off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the myths.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales

ed. by Kate Bernheimer

Fairy tales are one of the most enduring forms of literature, their plots retold and characters reimagined for centuries. In this elegant and thought-provoking collection of original essays, Kate Bernheimer brings together twenty-eight leading women writers to discuss how these stories helped shape their imaginations, their craft, and our culture. In poetic narratives, personal histories, and penetrating commentary, the assembled authors bare their soul and challenge received wisdom. Eclectic and wide-ranging, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is essential reading for anyone who has ever been bewitched by the strange and fanciful realm of fairy tales.

Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction

by Tracy Borman

September 1613.

In Belvoir Castle, the heir of one of England’s great noble families falls suddenly and dangerously ill. His body is ‘tormented’ with violent convulsions. Within a few short weeks he will suffer an excruciating death. Soon the whole family will be stricken with the same terrifying symptoms. The second son, the last male of the line, will not survive.

It is said witches are to blame. And so the Earl of Rutland’s sons will not be the last to die.

Witches traces the dramatic events which unfolded at one of England’s oldest and most spectacular castles four hundred years ago. The case is among those which constitute the European witch craze of the 15th-18th centuries, when suspected witches were burned, hanged, or tortured by the thousand. Like those other cases, it is a tale of superstition, the darkest limits of the human imagination and, ultimately, injustice – a reminder of how paranoia and hysteria can create an environment in which nonconformism spells death. But as Tracy Borman reveals here, it is not quite typical. The most powerful and Machiavellian figure of the Jacobean court had a vested interest in events at Belvoir.He would mastermind a conspiracy that has remained hidden for centuries.

The Bookshop Book

by Jen Campbell

Every bookshop has a story.

We’re not talking about rooms that are just full of books. We’re talking about bookshops in barns, disused factories, converted churches and underground car parks. Bookshops on boats, on buses, and in old run-down train stations. Fold-out bookshops, undercover bookshops, this-is-the-best-place-I’ve-ever-been-to-bookshops.

Meet Sarah and her Book Barge sailing across the sea to France; meet Sebastien, in Mongolia, who sells books to herders of the Altai mountains; meet the bookshop in Canada that’s invented the world’s first antiquarian book vending machine. 

And that’s just the beginning. 

From the oldest bookshop in the world, to the smallest you could imagine, The Bookshop Book examines the history of books, talks to authors about their favourite places, and looks at over three hundred weirdly wonderful bookshops across six continents (sadly, we’ve yet to build a bookshop down in the South Pole).

The Bookshop Book is a love letter to bookshops all around the world.

Losing Israel

by Jasmine Donahaye

During a phone call to her mother Jasmine Donahaye stumbled upon the collusion of her kibbutz family in the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and earlier, in the 1930s. She set out to learn the facts behind this revelation, and her discoveries challenged everything she thought she knew about the country and her family, transforming her understanding of Israel, and of herself.

In a moving and honest account that spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir, Losing Israel explores the powerful attachments people have to place and to contested national stories. Moving between Wales and Israel, and attempting to reconcile her conflicted feelings rooted in difficult family history and a love of Israel's birds, the author asks challenging questions about homeland and belonging, and the power of stories to shape a landscape.

Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation

by Judith Mackrell

Glamorized, mythologized and demonized - the women of the 1920s prefigured the 1960s in their determination to reinvent the way they lived. Flappers is in part a biography of that restless generation: starting with its first fashionable acts of rebellion just before the Great War, and continuing through to the end of the decade when the Wall Street crash signal led another cataclysmic world change. It focuses on six women who between them exemplified the range and daring of that generation’s spirit.

Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka were far from typical flappers. Although they danced the Charleston, wore fashionable clothes and partied with the rest of their peers, they made themselves prominent among the artists, icons, and heroines of their age. Talented, reckless and willful, with personalities that transcended their class and background, they re-wrote their destinies in remarkable, entertaining and tragic ways. And between them they blazed the trail of the New Woman around the world.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

by Azar Nafisi

Every Thursday morning in a living room in Iran, over tea and pastries, eight women meet in secret to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. As they lose themselves in the worlds of Lolita, The Great Gatsby andPride and Prejudice, gradually they come to share their own stories, dreams and hopes with each other, and, for a few hours, taste freedom. Azar Nafisi's bestselling memoir is a moving, passionate testament to the transforming power of books, the magic of words and the search for beauty in life's darkest moments.

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