Jessie Burton
Author Jessie Burton talks to Nancy Connolly about visiting Bath and her love of turning classic fairy tales on their head
BATH Children’s Literature Festival, now in its 12th year, is already underway in the city with lots of well known authors, celebrities and interactive events going on in different venues for young people of all ages. Featuring big hitters including David Walliams, Tom Fletcher, Nadiya hussain, harry hill, Julian Clary and Dermot O’leary, this year’s line up is better than ever and runs until Sunday, with lots events for children still to come. It is the largest dedicated literature festival for children in Europe, and this year there is a vibrant array of talks and activities for children and young adults. One of the highlights is a visit this Saturday by Jessie Burton, author of the award-winning and hugely successful first book The Miniaturist. She has just published her first children’s book The Restless Girls, a feminist re-telling of the Grimms’ fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Jessie will be leading a fun, entertaining and highly interactive event for children aged 10 and older this Saturday afternoon at the Guildhall, where they will dress up, learn how to create a story and find out the darker side of fairy tales. She said: “It is such a privilege to write for children, they always remember stories and it can actually influence or change their lives. “It is wonderful to get children to use their imagination and create their own story, as so much of their lives now is about technology, games and social media. “I am really looking forward to coming back to Bath, it is a wonderful city, very creative, I would love to go to the Thermae Spa if I get time during this visit but most of all I am looking forward to meeting the children and working with them. “It’s a great honour to be part of this year’s festival in Bath as there is such an exciting line up of writers. I think children in the city will really love all the events,” she said. her book The Restless Girls is no ordinary fairy tale. Jessie is a self-confessed and celebrated feminist writer, so don’t expect beautiful princesses like Snow White or Cinderella who have no other attributes except their outward appearance, and don’t expect men who are always fearless and brave. She said: “Fairy tales tend to be classically gender biased; female characters or princesses are usually young, beautiful and not exactly intellectual or useful.” It has in recent years become popular to re-interpret these age-old stories which usually have a happy ending. Think Shrek and Fiona, the princess, who is quite happy to sacrifice her outward beauty to become an ogre to love and marry her ugly, inelegant and often inappropriate love interest. In the Grimms’ original fairy tale 12 princesses, each more beautiful than the last, sleep in 12 beds in the same room. Every night their doors are locked by their father, but in the morning their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. It is a great tale of secrecy and sisterhood. Jessie said: “It was my favourite story when I was growing up, so when I was approached by Bloomsbury to re-write a fairy tale this was my obvious choice. “Most traditional fairy tales are sexist, the women are objectified with only physical attributes described. “My princesses are very different, they all have jobs and look different, there’s a lot more to them and they have strong personalities,” she said. For example: the eldest, Frida, wants to fly a plane; Polina can read the stars; Ariosta, a talented painter, cut off all her hair without permission when she was 10; Bellina taught herself five languages; Vita is a great comedian; Mariella a brilliant mathematician and so on. Jessie said: “I just love this story. It is about women rebelling, sisterhood, dancing and freedom. “I loved re-interpreting this fairy tale, as it is great fun turning it around from the original in which all the sisters are mute. My princesses all have individual names and characters.” It is a beautiful looking book, with magical illustrations by Angela Barrett. It’s the magic which Jessie hopes will capture the imaginations of the children at the event in Bath. “It is so rewarding to see children using their imagination. “So often they are so caught up in peer pressure and social media where everything looks perfect but we know it isn’t, which can really affect children badly causing anxiety and other problems,” she said. There are lots more events going on around Bath over this coming weekend, including Frank Cottrall Boyce and Mcfly singer Tom Fletcher. Parents of young children will find lots of creative things to do with various workshops going on during the last festival weekend, all designed to get children to love books and reading from a very early age. The Bath Children’s Literature Festival continues to grow bigger and better and is now one of the highlights of the festivals programme in the city.
Jessie Burton’s event will be from 12pm-12.45pm at the Guildhall on Saturday, October 6.
Tickets at £7 are available at www. bathfestivals.org.uk.
Jessie Burton’s The Restless Girls is published by Bloomsbury and is in bookshops now.