That was the only thing that came into my head, when I read this piece of news:
"...Puffin's celebrations for Puffin Classics' 30th anniversary this year, with other 2012 plans including publication of actress Emma Thompson's The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, which will see Beatrix Potter's character travelling to Scotland."
You take something that is quite perfect within its own terms, you add a celebrity who, as far as I know, has never been associated with either the writing or illustrating of children's books, you rub your hands together with glee at the thought of all those sales.
I suppose that's the answer.
Were I writer of children's book, I'd be irritated by the celebrities who have been writing them (or putting their names on them) lately.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if the same opportunities were available in reverse - so, if I'd written a story about a pink bear, I would be offered the leading role in The Iron Lady, for instance, that wouldn't be so bad.
DeleteWhy Scotland? Revenge plot? He's hunting down Mr MacGregor's family? "Hello, my name is Peter Rabbit. You killed my father. Prepare to die," followed by a swordfight as per The Princess Bride? (I go, I check the news of the publicity release, I discover that apparently he's going to Scotland to meet a what, a "gentle giant Finlay McBurney"? My idea makes more sense.)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite joke as a child (oh, all right, even now) was, 'What's orange and goes up and down going ack ack ack?' and the answer was a carrot in a lift with a machine gun. Which is my way of edging towards saying that your idea is better, provided Peter Rabbit gets a machine gun and not a weedy old sword.
DeleteBless his little furry heart, he can have all the machine guns he wants.
DeletePlus carrots?
DeleteThousands of them. The landscape of my story will be tumid with carrots.
DeleteOh great, Emma Thompson and her nasal, North London accent.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like Miss Cowie, the most terrifying teacher I ever had, who I remember saying, bafflingly (to me anyway, as I lived in Chelsea and the school was in Hammersmith and so far as I knew there was nothing north of these two places), about another student: "Oh yes, we all know about Leslie and her North London ways." I still haven't the faintest idea what she meant, but I understood that it was nothing good.
ReplyDelete