The SpyGlass
- tHe MaD hAtTeR, column editor
Several TLG staffers attended the Children's Literature New England conference at Cambridge University, England, this past August and provided The Mad Hatter with some rather delicious news!
English quarantine regulations didn't allow Canadian writer Jean
Little to bring her guide dog to CLNE so someone had to play fetch for Jean.
Her old friend and fellow writer Claire Mackay, who has helped out on
many occasions, took on the role and led Ms. Little around, guiding her
to
talks, lectures and more!
And Speaking of Animals
I have it on the very best authority that Looking Glass editor Annette
Goldsmith has gone ape! Well, certainly, her monkey puppet, Cupcake,
caused quite the sensation at CLNE. One wag even likened him to the
golden monkey who acts as Mrs Coulter's daemon in Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass! The rather unkempt-looking Cupcake startled
conference-goers by joining them at the local pub. Cupcake, who is
underaged, was seen smoking AND drinking with a group of French
students!! The Mad Hatter has personally experienced Cupcake's renegade
activities
on many occasions!
The Mad Hatter was delighted to learn that author Helen Cresswell chooses where she's going to live by immediately going to the
cemetery to check out the lifespan of the locals! Who says that
children's authors aren't devilishly clever?!
The Mad Hatter has always wondered what inspired Arthur Ransome's Russian fairy tales -- perhaps his own life? As a journalist Ransome travelled to Revolutionary Russia, where he met Trotsky's secretary, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina -- "a tall jolly girl" he called her in his Autobiography. He finally married his Russian bride in 1924, after living with her for years! Was he seeking his own Amazon as he sailed through Communist Russia? The Mad Hatter will take Ransome's experiences to heart and take to sea!
Have you got something you want to share among friends? Something you might not want just anyone to know? Contact me, the MaD hAtTeR . I promise to be really discreet and it'll be for my eyes only!
Volume 3, Issue 1, The Looking Glass, 1999
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"Spyglass" © The Looking Glass, 1999.
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