Frozen Charlotte: 1 (Red Eye, 1)

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Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments They’re stanzas from the Fair Charlotte poem by Seba Smith. The poem first appeared in 1843 with the title: A Corpse Going To A Ball. This was rumoured to be based on an article about a real life event that appeared in a New York newspaper in 1840, but that hasn’t been substantiated as far as I know. A Frozen Charlotte is a specific form of china or bisque doll made in one solid piece without joints from c. 1850 to c. 1920. They were typically inexpensive, and the name Penny doll is also used, in particular for smallest, most affordable versions. The dolls had substantial popularity during the Victorian era.

I think probably the most challenging thing about writing any horror book is to come up with convincing motivations for the main characters to stay in the haunted location, or make it so that they’re unable to leave. We’ve all seen those horror films where the characters just keep returning to the haunted house for no explicable reason, and that’s always frustrating.I absolutely love the cover! I thought it captured the mood of the book really well and looked suitably spooky without giving too much away. The name of the doll originates from the American folk ballad Fair Charlotte, based on the poem "A Corpse Going to a Ball" [1] by Seba Smith, which tells of a young girl called Charlotte who refused to wrap up warmly to go on a sleigh ride because she did not want to cover up her pretty dress; she froze to death during the journey. [2] a b c Coleman. Dorothy S., Elizabeth A. and Evelyn JK.; The Collector's Encyclopaedia of Dolls Volume One, (USA, 1978) It’s commonly accepted that these dolls were didactic tools, physical representations of the consequences of parental disobedience. It’s widely believed that Victorian children were well-aware of the origin story of these dolls and played with them nonetheless. After all, many aspects of Victorian culture are openly macabre and death-obsessed, so this grisly historical narrative isn’t entirely outlandish. This is horror. Torn between needing to know and fearing for the characters, I read this fast... Compulsive. -- Dawn Woods NetGalley

Not one to learn from past experience, Alex started the Legal Practice Course in London. There she met some great people and had a lot of fun messing about during lessons that were clearly meant to be extremely solemn affairs. Thankfully, she dropped out just before the point where all students must submit to the personality-removing process that is a compulsory part of being an esteemed member of the legal profession. My favourite scene in the book is probably the end scene in the schoolhouse – and also the bathroom scene – but I can’t say too much about those without giving away spoilers! Was it difficult to make a Victorian ghost story seem contemporary and relevant for modern readers? What do you think modern technology like the Ouija board app and mobile phones added to the story? In this young adult horror novel, a girl staying on a remote island suspects the tiny Victoria-era dolls in her family’s old mansion are up to murder.The inspiration for Sophie’s character really came from a lot of gothic romances I’ve read by writers such as Victoria Holt and Madeleine Brent. These often involve a fairly ordinary heroine finding herself in extraordinary surroundings where she has to deal with strange/fascinating/eccentric characters who most often have various dark secrets. There’s very much a sense of not knowing who to trust and things not being as they seem in this type of book, and I really enjoy that kind of ambiguity as a reader. There isn’t a single reference (in magazines, books, newspapers, or anything else for that matter) of these porcelain dolls being called “Frozen Charlottes” in the entire 19th and early 20th centuries. This is pretty remarkable, considering the near-universal belief that this time period was the origin of the dolls’ name.

Learn more about marbles, dominos, dice, toy vehicles, and more found on beaches around the world. Articles › I obviously did a lot of research about Frozen Charlottes. I also researched other famous haunted dolls, such as Annabelle and Robert. A common theme seemed to be for a child to be given a haunted doll that caused all kinds of problems in the house, which was blamed on the child at first, until the parents came to believe that the doll moved around by itself, or when there was no one home. even gorier and scarier than the first novel [...] the harshness of [the historical setting] made this ever more horrific. Wonderful work yet again from Alex Bell! -- Miss Fay Myers NetGalley I like the Frozen Charlotte ballad extracts that appear at the start of each chapter. My favourite lines from the poem are:They were popular during the Victorian period and are based on a ballad about a young woman who refuses to wrap up warm for a sleigh ride to a ball and, when they arrive, her fiancé discovers that she’s frozen to death during the journey. The dolls are normally made of white porcelain and have unjointed “frozen” limbs that are intended to portray a corpse. It seemed so typically macabre of the Victorians to create dead dolls for their children to play with! The dolls all come naked, with only painted hair, facial features and shoes. The idea was supposed to be that children would make dresses for them out of any spare fabric their mothers might have lying around.