This richly adult book weaves together the fairy stories of Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. You will also meet Princes, charming and not so, huntsmen, step-mothers and god-mothers as well as many other people reassuringly real and believable. And that’s what marks this book out. Sarah Pinborough has taken the framework and the trappings of the familiar fairy tales and gently shaken them and twisted them into very 21st century accounts by peopling them with characters who are shaded and conflicted, prey to weakness and vanity, capable of mischief and love. They hate and they cry, but sometimes it’s with laughter at the fun they are having. Fairy Tales are ancient but these are full of men and women who are living and feeling thoughts anyone today could immediately recognise.
Which is not to say that that we are in a soap opera all of a sudden. Pinborough writes with delicacy and a sure touch and is able to conjure up moments of real descriptive beauty. She also treats her source material with great respect (while not being averse to put some wonderful twists into the tale). If you like the warm humanity and sharp wit of Joanne Harris and Jeanette Winterson these are fairy tales you can believe in. (Oh, and watch out for the mouse.)
Tales from the Kingdoms Poison, Charm, Beauty Synopsis
'This is not your Disney fairy tale. It is much, much better' Wilder's Book Review Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - stories you love, and that we all think we know ...but what about the secrets hidden within them? Why would a prince fall in love with a woman in a coffin? Why would a queen try so hard to poison her step-daughter? And what is a fairy Godmother's real motivation? Turn the page, and discover these classic fairy stories, told the way they always should have been ...This collection includes the award-winning novella BEAUTY, as well as the superb novellas POISON and CHARM. 'Brilliantly subverts the classic fairy tale' One Chapter More
Sarah Pinborough is a successful, critically acclaimed novelist and screenw riter. She has written a YA trilogy, The Now here Chronicles, under the pen name Sarah Silverwood; she has written for the BBC series NEW TRICKS; her The Dog-Faced Gods trilogy has been optioned for a television series and she has a horror film, CRACKED, currently in development. She has also turned her pen to short stories and novellas, winning the BRITISH FANTASY AW ARD for Best Short Story in 2009 and the BRITISH FANTASY AWARD for Best Novella in 2010 (for The Language of the Dying). She lives in London, and is a full time writer.
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