Initially this character was male, but after a few drafts we discussed the idea of having an all female cast of characters, and the publisher was happy to go with this idea.

So we needed a reason for the character to be there. We tried to avoid the idea of Sleeping Beauty having to be ‘rescued’ as such, but we did want another character to come into the story from the future. After that, he pretty much had free rein to design how the future would look. The idea was to make the actual future look like the imagined future that was depicted in 1950s sci-fi films and TV shows, so David had a basis on which to develop the drawings. The book was always going to start in the 1940s/1950s and then move into the future. With ‘Sleeping Beauty’, we sat in a little Portuguese cafe in Seven Dials, London, and talked through our ideas. With the fairy tales, we come up with a few ideas together and then I go and write up the text and we take it from there. With everything I’ve written, even if it’s just a short rhyme, David is usually the first person I’ll show it to, as I know he’ll give me an honest review – plus give me tips on what changes to make. And so David and I began to talk about it again, and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was definitely the story we were interested in telling.ĭavid usually isn’t involved with authors at the beginning of the project, but as brother and sister we have always collaborated right from the start. In 2011, the publisher made enquiries about whether we would be interested in doing another book with them. I was studying for an MA in Librarianship and David was busy on other projects. We had some discussions, but various things stopped us from going further with it at the time. Lynn: After ‘Little Red’ was published in 2006, David and I thought about doing another fairy tale, and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was among a few ideas. From the witty period detail of 18th-century England in ‘Little Red’, to the glamorous roaring ‘20s of ‘Cinderella’, to the retro charm of 1970s ‘Rapunzel’, we now arrive in the 1950s for a brilliant retelling of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. In this post, Lynn and David talk about the creation of the latest book in their reimagined fairy tale series. Lynn Roberts-Maloney is a children’s literature specialist and writer who has worked with her brother David on four fairy tale books. Since returning to the UK, he’s become a hugely successful children’s book illustrator. David Roberts studied fashion design in Manchester before moving to Hong Kong to work as a milliner and fashion illustrator.

Sleeping Beauty by Lynn Roberts-Maloney