{"id":11847,"date":"2018-12-05T21:13:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=11847"},"modified":"2018-12-05T21:15:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:15:01","slug":"six-degrees-of-separation-a-christmas-carol-to-the-little-red-writing-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=11847","title":{"rendered":"Six degrees of separation: A Christmas Carol to The Little Red Writing Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prompt from booksaremyfavouriteandbest<\/a> – starting with A Christmas Carol<\/em> I’ll recall six books I’ve read, triggered by the memory of Dickens’ wonderful never-fading tale.<\/p>\n

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1. Straightaway I think of another Christmas story by Dickens: The Chimes, a Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In<\/strong>. <\/em>It comes with magical illustrations. I wrote a post<\/a> about it because of the opening line of one of its chapters. Exquisite.<\/p>\n

2. Goblins remind me of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market<\/em><\/strong> illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It’s been said that Goblin Market<\/em> has sexual references between its lines and was therefore intended for adults. But Christina Rossetti said it was for children, to show the importance of sisterly love.<\/p>\n

3. On the other hand, the old fairy tale writers produced stuff intended for adults but it was read to children and that now scares some modern parents, apparently.\u00a0Here Comes a Chopper to Chop Off Your Head<\/em><\/strong> by Liz Evers is an excellent read that reveals the dark side of some children’s stories.<\/p>\n

4. A collection of stories from the French Decadent era, also mostly unsuitable for children, is Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned<\/em><\/strong> edited by Gretchen Schultz and Lewis Seifert.<\/p>\n

5. Both books 3 and 4 have cool illustrations including images by Arthur Rackham who also illustrated Irish Fairy Tales<\/em><\/strong> by James Stephens which I recently read some of. ‘Becfola’ is my favourite and is accompanied by a picture of her up a tree shrinking away from hungry wolves.<\/p>\n

6. Of course thoughts of a hungry wolf take me to Little Red Riding Hood, but then to The Little Red Writing Book<\/em><\/strong> by Mark Tredinnick. An excellent play on words. And an excellent writing guide by an Australian writer. I’ve read it again and again.<\/p>\n