RN By Anna Kelsey-Sugg for Late Night Live Updated 7 Nov 2019, 11:55am In 1600s Paris, one woman undertook an act of rebellion. Her weapon was fairy tales Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy — who’d been married off at 15 to an abusive man three decades her elder — slipped messages of resistance into her popular stories, risking jail in the process. D’Aulnoy… Continue reading The woman who coined the term ‘fairy tale’ risked prison to write coded messages of rebellion

The women who created the first fairytales were far more radical than the Brothers Grimm have led us to believe Most revolutions begin quietly, in narrative. Take, for instance, fairytales. The popular understanding is that fairytales evolved exclusively from oral folktellers – from the uneducated “Mother Goose” nurse, passing into the imaginations of children by… Continue reading The first fairytales were feminist critiques of patriarchy. We need to revive their legacy

Melissa Ashley’s imaginative historical novel repositions Elizabeth Gould as the artistic talent behind her much more famous husband, John Phil Brown “Books” QWeekend, 1 October, 2016 John Gould is revered as the nation’s father of ornithology and his seven-volume book The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), with its gorgeous illustrations, is considered an almost sacred text. But… Continue reading Flight of Fancy