Danced to Death….
‘Went the day well?’ I hear you ask…
The launch for the paperback edition of The Last Changeling was excellent – not least because I was presented with a rather nice bottle of champagne! Yummy!
I was surprised to find that when it came to it, I was quite stressed at being interviewed in front of an audience. Thankfully only my nearest and dearest detected this, but I found the process distinctly ‘counter-British’. We are raised to be discreet and ‘showing off’ is discouraged. I can only think that early conditioning was kicking in!
Interestingly, one of the questions I was asked was all about early influences…
A June baby, I started almost a year earlier than some of my classmates, so I first read Laurel and Gold Readers II when I was about 4 or 5, in my much loved village primary school. When they had a book sale I was thrilled to have my very own copy to keep.
Despite being quite old by the time they came into our little hands, Laurel and Gold readers were like a Readers Digest for very small children. Bound in green cloth with gold lettering, they featured traditional tales,mythology, short essays about natural history and some actual history, plus a poem or two. All beautifully illustrated, I adored them.
It just so happens that the image from a book I read as a child has stayed with me. I dug the book out the other day, and here is the intriguing image
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The unseen hands stealing the baby must have sown an early seed that grew to flower in The Last Changeling. Imagine how shocked I was when I turned to the story of The Wood Maiden… here she is with Betushka, a girl she entices to dance…
