fairy tales

Once upon a time in Germany: the Grimms’ legacy of revenge and gory redemption

11 January 2025 9:00 am

The Household Tales only attained their standing after the brothers’ death, with the unification of Germany and the decades of nationalism that led to catastrophe

Would we welcome bears in Britain again?

19 August 2023 9:00 am

With rewilding projects multiplying worldwide, brown, black and grizzly bears are making a bold comeback. But how much bear can we bear?

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

A topsy-turvy world: Peaces, by Helen Oyeyemi, reviewed

15 January 2022 9:00 am

At a village train station in deepest Kent two men and their pet mongoose are setting off on their honeymoon.…

Clive Rowe is astonishing: Hackney Empire's Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Jack and the Beanstalk is a big, sprawling family show that opens with a baffling gesture. A booming voiceover announces…

Children’s books for all ages: the best of 2021

11 December 2021 9:00 am

She’s done it again: J.K. Rowling has written a captivating children’s book. The Christmas Pig(Little Brown, £20) is about a…

Glib and snarky: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, at Gillian Lynne Theatre, reviewed

4 September 2021 9:00 am

It’s a rum beast the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Cinderella is set in Belleville, a European city of 18th-century…

Unhappy blend of melodrama and allegory: Southwark Playhouse’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice reviewed

6 March 2021 9:00 am

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a musical fantasy set in a Nordic town near the Arctic circle. Johan is a magician…

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…

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…