By Deborah Swift
I think it is not possible to underestimate the influence of childhood reading on later life. For me much of my childhood reading was not just about the stories, but about the pictures that went with the stories. My mother gave me a wonderful thick book called The Golden Wonder Book which was full of myths, stories and classic tales. Everything from Dickens, To Aesop, to Jane Austen - even Shakespeare. Here is one of the pictures by Anne Anderson from Rumplestiltskin.
The stories and extracts were chosen and edited by John Crossland and JM Parrish, but I can find out nothing about them. I owe these people a huge debt as they introduced me to so much classic literature. What was more, they were packaged with glorious illustrations by artists such as Anne Anderson, Margaret Tulloch and Arthur Rackham. The corseted lady on the left is by Arthur Rackham, the dandy on the right by Tulloch. It is these visual images which have stayed with me - a vague sense of a romantic golden age from times gone by. Often the myths are set in a "medieval" England that is more myth than real history, but these images have endured in my mind. Later in life these pictures persuaded me to go into costume design as a career and from there to writing historical fiction.
Thank you for helping me celebrate - The Gilded Lily is out TODAY! published by Pan Macmillan - paperback and e-book. US edition with extras for Reading Groups coming soon.
Look out for the Giveaway of The Gilded Lily here next week.
Watch the Trailer
Ella becomes obsessed with the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on flamboyant man-about-town, Jay Whitgift. But nothing is what it seems - not even Jay Whitgift.
Can Sadie survive a fugitive's life in the big city? But even more pressing, can she survive life with her older sister Ella? And when an altogether different danger threatens Ella's life, will Sadie run to the rescue, or turn the other cheek?
Set in London's atmospheric coffee houses, the rich mansions of Whitehall, and the pawnshops, slums and rookeries hidden from rich men's view, The Gilded Lily is about beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how sisterhood can be both a burden and a saving grace.
"a beautifully-written blend of fast pace and atmospheric historical detail... the intense evocation of the period never falters" Gabrielle Kimm, author of His Last Duchess
I think it is not possible to underestimate the influence of childhood reading on later life. For me much of my childhood reading was not just about the stories, but about the pictures that went with the stories. My mother gave me a wonderful thick book called The Golden Wonder Book which was full of myths, stories and classic tales. Everything from Dickens, To Aesop, to Jane Austen - even Shakespeare. Here is one of the pictures by Anne Anderson from Rumplestiltskin.
The stories and extracts were chosen and edited by John Crossland and JM Parrish, but I can find out nothing about them. I owe these people a huge debt as they introduced me to so much classic literature. What was more, they were packaged with glorious illustrations by artists such as Anne Anderson, Margaret Tulloch and Arthur Rackham. The corseted lady on the left is by Arthur Rackham, the dandy on the right by Tulloch. It is these visual images which have stayed with me - a vague sense of a romantic golden age from times gone by. Often the myths are set in a "medieval" England that is more myth than real history, but these images have endured in my mind. Later in life these pictures persuaded me to go into costume design as a career and from there to writing historical fiction.
The stories themselves influenced me in so many ways. The idea of the prince who might rescue me from a tower, that we might wake from a hundred year slumber with a kiss, the fear of entering some other world and never being able to return, these all have a place in my psyche thanks to this picture book. There was a strong moral code in most of the stories, which seemed to say that good things only happened to 'good girls.' And many of the stories play with the idea of transformation from ugliness to beauty.
The idea of the influence of story on our lives was one theme I wanted to explore in The Gilded Lily - how were the sisters Ella and Sadie made different by the stories that other people told about them? Perhaps your parents called you "the clever one" (thereby implying you weren't attractive), or perhaps they told you that you were not intelligent, but a hard worker. Ella is "the pretty one" and Sadie "the skilful one". How will they each fare when they leave their village and go to seek refuge in fashionable London?
Some of the fairy stories that are mentioned in The Gilded Lily are Cinderella - called The Ash Maid in the 17th century - and Snow White and Rose Red. Of course these are stories mostly celebrated by girls. What childhood stories made a deep impression on boys? In The Gilded Lily, my character Dennis enjoys penny chapbooks of the sensational crimes of the day - tales of hangings and skulduggery.
The idea of the influence of story on our lives was one theme I wanted to explore in The Gilded Lily - how were the sisters Ella and Sadie made different by the stories that other people told about them? Perhaps your parents called you "the clever one" (thereby implying you weren't attractive), or perhaps they told you that you were not intelligent, but a hard worker. Ella is "the pretty one" and Sadie "the skilful one". How will they each fare when they leave their village and go to seek refuge in fashionable London?
Some of the fairy stories that are mentioned in The Gilded Lily are Cinderella - called The Ash Maid in the 17th century - and Snow White and Rose Red. Of course these are stories mostly celebrated by girls. What childhood stories made a deep impression on boys? In The Gilded Lily, my character Dennis enjoys penny chapbooks of the sensational crimes of the day - tales of hangings and skulduggery.
Are there books or stories from your childhood that have affected your life?
Thank you for helping me celebrate - The Gilded Lily is out TODAY! published by Pan Macmillan - paperback and e-book. US edition with extras for Reading Groups coming soon.Look out for the Giveaway of The Gilded Lily here next week.
Winter 1661
Timid Sadie Appleby has always lived in her small village. One night she is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella, who has robbed her employer and is on the run. The girls flee their rural home of Westmorland to head for London, hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man's relatives are in hot pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse begins.Ella becomes obsessed with the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on flamboyant man-about-town, Jay Whitgift. But nothing is what it seems - not even Jay Whitgift.
Can Sadie survive a fugitive's life in the big city? But even more pressing, can she survive life with her older sister Ella? And when an altogether different danger threatens Ella's life, will Sadie run to the rescue, or turn the other cheek?
Set in London's atmospheric coffee houses, the rich mansions of Whitehall, and the pawnshops, slums and rookeries hidden from rich men's view, The Gilded Lily is about beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how sisterhood can be both a burden and a saving grace.
"a beautifully-written blend of fast pace and atmospheric historical detail... the intense evocation of the period never falters" Gabrielle Kimm, author of His Last Duchess
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| All illustrations from Wikicommons or Grandma's Graphics |
