stepmothers

The good stepmother

5 August 2023 9:00 am

Jean entertains her young stepdaughter Leah with drawings and fairy stories – but the two grow sadly estranged in this haunting novel with its own fairy-tale similarities

Pity the poor stepmother — the most reviled character in folk literature

25 April 2020 9:00 am

Fairy stories were not originally aimed at children, and we do not know what the first audience responses were; but…

The tyranny of the bedtime story

28 October 2017 9:00 am

All surveys carried out by retail businesses with a view to generating press coverage should be treated with extreme caution,…

Grimms’ fairy tales: the hardcore version

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Child murder, domestic slavery, abusive families, cannibalism and intergenerational hatred — what could be better for the festive fireside than…