Dressing Your Hero

Last Thursday I had the privilege of helping to launch Wimbledon Book Festival’s Young Writer’s Competition for 2015. It was World Book Day, the day when many children are encouraged to come as their favourite character in a book (or movie!) When I arrived at Wimbledon Chase Primary School, I was delighted to see two teachers got up as Batman and Superman welcoming children and parents to the school. 

The children were buzzing with excitement. This year David Walliams dominated with his Demon Dentist, Gansta Granny and Boy in a Dress. Harry Potter characters are now a staple. There were several Cats in Hats and even a couple of Sherlock Holmes. 

I was assisted by literacy coordinator Linda Darlington who came as Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. We posed with children dressed as Pippi Long-stocking and Darth Vadar. As I looked out over a sea of faces, masks, hats and fake glasses, it suddenly occurred to me that many of the best characters from children’s fiction have looks that lend themselves to World Book Day dress up. 

Here are three elements I think the best dress-up-able characters have:

1. An identifiable silhouette. In an interview with Kidzcoolit, one of the directors of Shaun the Sheep the Movie says, “You can recognise most famous characters from their silhouettes. Shaun’s definitely got that.” Think of The Cat in the Hat, Peter Pan, Paddington Bear and Little Red Riding Hood. And look at Pippi with her sticky-out plaits.

2. A fun accessory or talisman. A soft toy animal is always fun, like Pippi Longstocking's monkey (see above). Kids also love swords, wands and replica revolvers, if the school allows such things! Katniss has her bow and arrows; Dorothy Gale her basket.

3. An outfit that's easy and warm. Easy for the parents to assemble and warm for the comfort of the children. World Book Day is usually early March which can be chilly in the UK. 

Some of my fellow History Girls have come up with great characters who boast distinctive silhouettes, fun accessories and warm costumes.

Girl Highwaymen at one of Marie-Louise Jensen's events

Sophia from Marie Louise-Jensen’s The Girl in the Mask is a girl highwayman. You can easily make a mask and tricorn hat. Black cloaks and flintlock pistols can be bought early, around Halloween. This costume would be especially appealing to a tomboy. Here are some year 7 girls from Walton Girls’ High School dressed up for an author visit. 

Louisa Young’s Lionboy, Charlie Ashanti, could have a soft-toy lion as his accessory and dress in circus gear. He's already made it big on stage and the film rights have been optioned.  

Girl pirate at one of Celia Rees' events

Susan Price’s Sterkarms wear doublets (short padded jackets), long woollen stockings and leather thigh-boots. Their accessories are daggers, lances and shaggy hobs (strong ponies).

Celia Rees has created highway women, witches and pirates. It's almost as if she wrote her novels with World Book Day in mind! These archetypal characters are distinctive, dashing, easy to put together and warm... unless you go for bare midriff. 

Joan Lennon has created a Viking: a small one named Leif Frond. He wears tunic, trousers, furry waistcoat, cloak, boots and a horned helmet. You can accessorise your Viking with bow and (safe) arrows.
 

Flavia Gemina and Lupus

Kids love dressing up as villains. I spotted Darth Vadars, Demon Dentists and Cruella de Villes! Michelle Lovric’s new book The Fate in the Box features a villain called Fogfinger who wears a turban with a ruby in the middle. Simple and brilliant! 

The four detectives in my Roman Mysteries are always popular. Each of the four is colour-coded as one of the four elements. Flavia, the leader, wears a sky-blue tunic and palla. Lupus the mute boy wears a sea-green tunic and has a Roman wax tablet as his accessory. Nubia is fire, so her clothes are yellow, orange or red. Her accessory is a flute. Jonathan, the Jewish boy, is steady and grounded with a nutmeg-coloured tunic and a herb pouch around his neck against asthma. He sometimes carries a sling. His element is earth. 

Threptus and Sherlock

The picture on the right shows a girl fan dressed up as Threptus, the beggar boy in my spin-off series The Roman Mystery Scrolls. She is posing with her brother who is dressed as Sherlock Holmes, a superb example of a character with a distinctive silhouette. His accessories were no doubt bought at the Museum of London's Sherlock Holmes' exhibition, soon about to end.

Another of my characters is P.K. Pinkerton a half-Sioux 12-year-old detective in the Wild West who wears fringed buckskin trowsers (sic), a "faded red (not pink)" flannel shirt, a blue woollen coat, moccasins and a black slouch hat with a hawk’s feather. P.K.'s accessories are a medicine pouch and a five-shooter revolver, a gift from Mark Twain. P.K. can be a boy or a girl as s/he is a master of disguise.

Desperados and detectives at a Caroline Lawrence event

World Book Day has sharpened my focus; for my next series I'm going to create characters that kids will want to dress up as. I'll give give each one a distinctive silhouette, at least one fun accessory... and nice warm garments. Just as well: it will be set in Roman Britain!

Frisco before the Quake

A frame of the historic footage of Market Street in 1906

by Caroline Lawrence

One thing that fascinates us about the tragedy of Pompeii is how quickly disaster struck. From archaeological evidence we know that people were cooking, shopping, buying, selling and redecorating their houses right up to the moment Vesuvius erupted.

Recently I came across a piece of San Francisco history that aroused the same poignant emotions in me. The film reminded me of how life can turn to tragedy within the space of hours.

In researching my latest P.K. Pinkerton book I discovered that for a short space of time in the 1860s a steam train disguised as an omnibus traveled up and down Market Street, San Francisco’s great thoroughfare. While searching for photos of this rare conveyance, I stumbled across footage of Market Street shot in 1906. The eleven-minute clip is an amazing glimpse into life over a century ago.

Watch it once. Then read what I’ve written below.

On first viewing you will be struck by the how lively and crowded the scene is. We see men, women and children. There are policemen, paperboys, businessmen, teamsters, even a Chinese street sweeper. Many of the people are on foot. All of them without exception wear hats. Some ride bicycle or horses. Others step up on to cable cars or glance at us from carts. Teenage boys play ‘chicken’ with the cable car on which the camera is mounted. Horse-drawn carriages, carts, drays and omnibuses pass in and out of view. There are cable cars (pulled by an invisible steel cable below the tracks) and automobiles so old they still have right-hand drive.  

You see street signs, street lights, advertisements, flags, the muddy thoroughfare and buildings, including the famous Ferry Building looming at the end of the line. Another thing that strikes you on first viewing is the wild and wacky driving. Horses and carriages come from out of nowhere, pedestrians dice with death and half the automobiles seem to veer rashly in front of the cable car.

Now watch it again, using all your powers of observation. This time you might notice it is the same three or four cars driving in front of the camera, disappearing out of right screen, cutting across from right to left, then reappearing in front of the camera once again. Were these San Franciscans trying to grab their moment of fame by circling the camera? Probably not. The American documentary 60 Minutes (below) suggests chauffeurs and car-owners were hired to drive along Market Street and make it seem busier than it really was.

Knowing this doesn’t make the crazy traffic any less amusing, especially when you see some of the bolder paperboys jumping up onto the back of a car to hitch a ride.

For many years, the library of Congress dated the film to September 1905, six months before the great earthquake. But after hours of meticulous research, movie detective David Kiehn figured out that it was actually filmed only a week before the great earthquake. Even more astonishing is the fact that the film was shipped to New York the very night before the quake. If it had stayed in the offices of the filmmakers just another day it would have been lost forever.

1906 is the infamous date known to all those who grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area. On April 18th a terrible earthquake struck. This quake and the resulting fire devastated San Francisco. Chances are that many of the people you see in this film were lost in that tragic event. The last three minutes of this film clip (above) shows the devastation. So when you watch these films just think what a privilege it is to glimpse a joyous city only days before disaster struck. It also reminds us to be grateful for every day and carpe diem! (Seize the day)

P.S. Never call it 'Frisco'. Only out-of-towners and tourists call it that. Or bloggers looking for a pithy title.

Caroline Lawrence is author of The Roman Mysteries, The Roman Mysteries Scrolls and the P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries. Find out more HERE.