This collection contains lyrical tales, bloody tales and hilariously funny and ripely bawdy stories from countries all around the world - from the Arctic to Asia - and no dippy princesses or soppy fairies. She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. Mujeres que se tienen a sí mismas y que no necesitan príncipes azules que las rescaten aunque a veces sí aparezcan «comadres» o animales mágicos que les echan una mano. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).

This stunning collection contains lyrical tales, bloody tales and hilariously funny and ripely bawdy stories from countries all around the world- from the Arctic to Asia – and no dippy princesses or soppy fairies. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. El libro además incluye las ilustraciones originales de Corina Sargood, que parecen sombras chinescas y son muy adecuadas a la narración, porque no fijan los personajes a un modelo particular. All of the tales center around women, and the stories are organized into little sections, such as 'Clever Women', 'Mothers and Daughters' and of course 'Witches'. After all, one of the most common tropes in this collection is the protagonists solving a problem by asking someone for help, whether that's a family member or a random stranger, and receiving an absurd set of magical instructions to follow.Probably best as a coffee table book for the occasional pickup and journey into the land of the strange. So many cultures are represented and united in this gorgeous book - and only a few tales were known to me beforehand. Trumps Grimm, with a world-wide selection of savage and funny stories' Observer --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. I've been reading this one on and off since last year and to be honest I've sort of had a love/hate relationship with this one.

I think I'm just not a lover of short stories, I much prefer a long story that I can sink my teeth into, get more invested into the characters and something that is a bit more of a page turner.The Icelandic stories tended to involve the women making themselves appear as men with penises made out of bits of seal, and there were quite a few stories involving jealous step mothers and step fathers, and cannibalism… These are proper folk fairy stories that have been handed down from generation to generation.

A few mothers turn into lions and want to eat their children, brothers try to rape their sisters, and jealous stepmothers put their children into the oven and serve them as dinner to their fathers. Las ilustraciones son muy bonitas, originales, y además le dan un toque especial al libro en su conjunto.Un libro muy interesante que contiene una serie de cuentos tradicionales de diferentes partes del mundo (me encantó el detalle de que especificase el país de cada uno). This is probably a great read if you like this kind of thing but for me I won't be rushing to get anymore short stories I'm afraid. I have to admit I ignored the saying don't judge a book by its cover, But this book is so beautful I had to get it!

While a large portion of these fairy-tales are extremely funny and silly, there's also a lingering sense of the macabre hiding between these pages. Trasmiten lecciones de todo tipo desde mensajes feministas hasta temas familiares y relacionados con la salud mental. All this is not to say however, that there is not some existence of female persecution throughout these stories; but for each instance of ridicule, abuse and even murder, there is twice as many instances of incredible cunning, bravery and fortitude. The book left me wanting more… I wanted to read about the origins of these stories and why the details changed form region to region.It boasts, amongst other more explicit things which I was not entirely sure I could include in this piece, the strength and size of its titular character and ends with the phrase ‘ Aja, and she was the mother of nine children, too! Es una recopilación de cuentos populares de diversas partes del mundo, principalmente de fuera de Europa, porque los de aquí ya nos los conocemos de sobra.