As Halloween draws closer and closer, we delve deeper and deeper into the macabre. We kicked off the month of October with Edward Gorey. Now we're following him up with his spiritual cousin, none other than Hilaire Belloc himself. We're looking at two different editions of the Struwwelpeter-inspired (surely) poem Matilda, Who Told Lies and Was Burned to Death. One edition, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, was produced in 1970. The other, created in 1991 (and originally published in Great Britain), illustrated by Posy Simmonds, is the far tamer titled picture book Matilda: Who told such Dreadful Lies . . . (note that the original title is on the title page, not the cover). A lot can change in the intervening 20 years, and so we compare the two editions, their oddities and similarities, and come to the almost certain conclusion that Hilaire Belloc was . . . quite the interesting fella. But are these good books? That is the real question.

Show Notes:

Here's where Betsy will be interviewing Tom Felton. If you'd like to attend and you live in the Chicago area, you can go here and do so: https://northshorecenter.org/event/tom-felton/

For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2022/10/17/fuse-8-n-kate-matilda-who-told-lies-and-was-burned-to-death-by-hilaire-belloc/