Tales of Innocence and Experience : An Exploration

This is a captivating exploration of the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter. Alive to the special sweetness of the relationship, Figes also explores the darker side of childhood. How in fairy tales such as "Snow White", "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel" difficult emotions like jealousy and anger, fear of death and abandonment are evoked and transformed by the storyteller's art. It is at this point that the author evokes the fairy tale of her own privileged Berlin childhood which was brutally shattered when her family escaped from the Nazis to England, leaving behind the much loved grandparents, who perished in a Polish camp. But a new child around allows the grandmother the chance we all seek to sneak back into the garden of innocence.