Film, performance and visual arts
- 2013. Short film by the National Theatre on fairy tales and George MacDonald’s The Light Princess, alongside authors Philip Pullman and Sally Gardner.
- 2012. “Mythic and Folklore advisor” to Snow White and the Huntsman. Universal Pictures.
- Advised on interpretation of source material. As well as contributing to a “darker” rendering, this included details such as naming the dwarves, drawing on original research on Ogham, the ancient Celtic ‘Tree Alphabet’ in which letters are associated with certain trees and have a symbolic value.
- Video interview from University of Chichester: “Chichester goes to Hollywood”
- 2011. Involvement in organising centenary exhibition of Mervyn Peake’s illustrations at Pallant House Gallery, with accompanying exhibition at the Otter Gallery and international conference on Mervyn Peake and the Fantasy Tradition at University of Chichester.
- 2011. Invited commentator on Royal Opera House production of Cendrillon.
- 2011-2012. Advisor to South Downs Songs with the South Downs Society.
Public writing and press pieces
- 2015. “Go into the woods – at your peril”. Telegraph.
- “Fairy tales should thus be taken as a guide, something to help us find our way out of the woods.”
- 2013. “Grimms’ Fairy Tales exerted a profound influence on many generations, and defined what a fairy tale is”. Mirror
- “They reassure us that in hard times, in families we’d nowadays call ‘dysfunctional’, you can, with a bit of ‘nous’ or common sense and initiative, and a slice of luck, and maybe some supernatural help (such as a talking fox, a fairy godmother or a magic food-producing table), get by, survive and maybe even get a happy ending. That’s a message that most people need to hear most of the time, just to keep going.”
- 2012. Cannibalism, murder, rape… The original versions of our fairy tales are anything but gentle bedtime stories. Mirror
Interviews and media appearances
- 2015. “8 diverse fairy tales worthy of Hollywood adaptations”. Mashable.
- “Chichester professor named among world’s foremost fairy tale experts” – University of Chichester
- 2015. Appearance on Diane Louise Jordan’s Christmas Day show, BBC Radio 2. 25th December 2015.
- 2013. Interviewed by Émilie Folie-Boivin. ‘Princesses, préparez un plan B’. Le Devoir (Québec).
- 2013. Interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 2 about ‘Toad doctors, Charmers, Cunning Folk’. 15th Jan 2013.
- 2012. Interview with Mike Williams on BBC World Service ‘The Why Factor’ about bogeymen and other scary folklore figures (programme also featured Prof Maria Tatar, Harvard University). 21st December 2012.
- 2012. High-profile appearances for University of Chichester professor. Chichester Observer.
- Quote from interview: “The programme is about our fascination the Sackman, the Sandman and other bogey figures. This kind of figure appears in various cultures, which suggests that this kind of scary figure is to do with basic anxieties and issues about how an individual comes to terms with the demands of joining a culture, what the child has to give up, or sacrifice, in order to join a culture, and the fearful consequences if they don’t.”
- 2012. Bogeymen: Five scary visitors in the night. BBC News Magazine.
- 2012. Interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 2 about origins of ‘Santa’s Christmas Elves’. 17th Dec 2012.
- 2012. Interview with ELLE-Québec for feature on `Blanche-Neige Contrattaque!’.
- 2012. Philip Pullman to publish new adaptations of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The Independent.
- 2012. University professor helps out with blockbuster film. The Guide.
- 2012. “A fairy tale ending for local professor”. The Argus
- Quote from interview: “These so-called fairy tales are often about surviving a (murderously) dysfunctional family in a harsh situation. Don’t forget, the Grimms created their book when Germany was an occupied country under French rule. Life was harsh; people did starve to death. Fairy tales take you out of the harsh demands of real life but are also about finding solutions, finding hope, in hard times.”
- Quote from interview: “Most of us can relate to the story of the downtrodden girl sleeping in the cinders, or the downtrodden boy sleeping under the stairs, who gets her or his own back. She or he is the hero of a thousand faces, making good in a dysfunctional family, which is how all families must feel, at least some of the time.”
- 2011. Chichester author completes fantasy trilogy. The News.
- 2011. Gathering to marvel at genius of Peake. West Sussex Gazette.
- 2011. It’s Grimm in Hollywood. The Independent.
- Quote from interview: “A lot of Grimm tales came out of a really difficult time, when Germany was under occupation during the Napoleonic wars. Fairy tales can open up possibilities for survival; they are utopian.”
- 2011. “Folklore, fairy tales and feminists: Cendrillon”. Royal Opera House
- Quote from interview: “Some scholars worry that precisely because fairy tales are so deeply embedded in our psyches and our culture, they have an untold impact on how we experience the world. This is of particular concern to feminist scholars who are critical of the gender stereotypes passed on in fairy tales.”
- 2011. Robert Louis Stevenson gets his revenge on sneaky literary agent – 120 years later. The Observer.
- 2011. Interviewed for BBC South Today coverage of Mervyn Peake centenary activities in Chichester.
- 2011. Mervyn Peake: Centenary, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until July 17. The Argus
- Quote from interview: “The interesting thing about Peake, and this series in particular, is that he created characters through both his text and his pictures. It was the two coming together, the symbiosis. He might begin to describe a character with words but it would relate to the illustration he had in his head, and vice versa.”
- 2011. Fairytale ending for Stevenson book row. The Scotsman.
- 2009. “Myths, fantasy – and truth of the man kicked out of Arundel”. Chichester Observer.
- Quote from interview: “It is what CS Lewis would call joy, a particularly strange feeling of disturbance and excitement and anticipation – a mystery which is terrifying but also attractive. It’s partly about trying to communicate certain religious experiences in a non-conventional way. They are trying to recreate some kind of religious or mystical experience, some kind of spirituality outside conventional religion. One of the ways they can do that is to create myths. They are a way of expressing something that can’t be expressed any other way.”
- 2004. Real Long John Silver doted on his family. The Times.