Mythly

Category: alexandra dawe

  • York

    Part 1

    In November 2024 I received an email, telling me I was shortlisted for the York Book Award. My book, The Stitchwort Curse, had only been out for a few weeks, and I couldn’t believe it! I was invited to visit York, speak at the schools involved, and meet the students. I was honoured and delighted to say yes!

    York is quite a long way from Devon, and a bit complicated on the trains, so lovely Mr Dawe took time off work to drive us up. We left Devon at 5am, and were in York in time for lunch, and sightseeing!

    If you ever have chance to go to York definitely go, it’s beautiful. We only had a few hours to look around, there’s so much more to see! We’ll be back!

    The exterior of The York Ghost Merchant, a very small shop in the quaint, cobbled street called the Shambles. The shopfront is brick, with black paintwork. A red rope is across the door, the shop is so small only a few people are allowed in at a time.

    York was full of roadworks when we arrived, so navigating was a bit stressful. There is a park and ride outside the town, which might be easier if you’re just there for a day. We were staying in a hotel, and had overnight bags, so we found a 24 hour space at the station car park.

    As soon as we’d parked we immediately headed to The Shambles to visit the York Ghost Merchants. I’ve seen York described as the most haunted city in England, the most haunted city in Europe, and even the most haunted city in the world! The York Ghost Merchants certainly lives up to the ‘city of a thousand ghosts’ reputation, if you look up at the first floor window above the shop front you can see row upon row of ghosts!

    Yes, we bought 5 ghosts; one for me, two for my daughter, one for my parents (who were looking after dogs, cats, kittens and our other teenager) and one for a friend, who doesn't know about their ghost yet, it's a surprise... (so I can't post this page until they've had their present!)

    One of my teenagers had come along for the trip, so we excitedly joined the queue. We were very lucky, the queue can reach 3 hours long, but on a weekday afternoon, outside of school holidays, it was just 20 minutes.

    One of the ghosts we adopted! This one is plain white with black eyesockets.

    The shop is amazing, it’s so hard to choose a ghost as they’re all completely charming. There are also peepholes to look through, cabinets to open, and when you’ve made your selection you can photograph your ghosts in this little scene. The staff are lovely too!

    The York Ghost Merchants https://www.yorkghostmerchants.com/

    The Society of alchemists, where you can buy dragon egg bath bombs and other magical delights!

    Mission Ghost accomplished we explored the rest of the Shambles, including the market and street food.

    We didn't go inside, but this looks like a scene from a Studio Ghibli movie.

    As we only had an afternoon for sightseeing we decided not to try and rush through a visit to York Minster, but visit again and do it properly! There’s so much to learn about the minster I’d rather do some research beforehand, so that I don’t miss anything.

    The very large, beautiful and imposing York Minster.

    Hidden Wonders of York Minster – Atlas Obscura https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hidden-wonders-of-york-minster

    One of artist Mr Finch's spiders, on the ceiling of The Imaginarium.

    I’m not usually a big fan of shopping, unless it’s a bookshop. As we were exploring my teenager said how so many of the shops in York were an ‘experience’, and I think that’s why we enjoyed it so much. I’ve wanted to visit the Imaginarium ever since they first exhibited some of Mr Finch’s work, and I was so happy to see some giant spiders on the ceiling!

    The Imaginarium (@imaginariumyork)https://www.instagram.com/imaginariumyork/

    We walked into what we assumed was a cake shop, but no. It was soap! The Yorkshire Soap Company was another amazing shop, with candy pink carousel horses, and a terrifying velour mannequin. If Willy Wonka ran a soap shop instead of a chocolate factory…

    The terrifying pink mannequin (I'm not good with dolls, ventriloquist dummies, robots, mannequins etc)

    The Yorkshire Soap Company https://yorkshiresoap.co.uk/

    A pink carousel horse, and beautiful soap cakes.

    It was time to go and check into our hotel, and grab some dinner. Then we were back out for a Ghost Walk!

    York at night, the lights reflecting in the river.
    Our wonderful ghost walk tour guide.

    The stories were the perfect blend of history and spookiness, all while surrounded by the ancient buildings where it all happened!

    I've been reading the other shortlisted books; 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Cafe is by Julian Sedgwick and Chie Kutsuwada, and I really enjoyed it!

    Then it was time to head to bed with a book, and hope our hotel room wasn’t haunted…

    Is that a York ghost in my bed?!

    Part 2 coming soon… (that was a lie, I’m rubbish at doing things quickly! Hopefully this month!)

  • January…

    I had a plan for the New Year. Every week I was going to get a book from the library, read it, and put a review online. Since my first book published I’ve realised how incredibly important reviews are!

    I managed the book borrowing and reading part. The reviewing part… well, we’re halfway through March, and this is the first time I’ve managed it.

    I’m far too easily distracted. One of my many distractions are our pets. We have a collie, who needs much walking, two elderly cats (who don’t), and at Halloween last year my mum found a cat with 5 kittens living under her garden shed. They were very wary of people, it took three weeks to get them all in mum’s house at the same time. At which point we realised we couldn’t close the door behind them, as they were between us and the door handle…

    We had to set up a piece of string, and is was another week before we were able to trap them. Luckily we caught them just ahead of two big winter storms, one of which ripped the fence away from the shed and exposed where the kittens had been sleeping. As soon as we got them all indoors it promptly snowed!

    A photo taken from indoors of a square window looking over a garden in winter. It is snowing outside. On the windowledge is a calico cat with her five kittens; three ginger and two tabby. The cat and kittens are watching the snow fall, except for one tabby who is meaowing at the camera.

    Kittens first snow!

    We were so relieved to have them safe and warm indoors. My parents were also relieved that they didn’t have to keep their doors open at all hours in the cold anymore!

    We ended up keeping two of the kittens. This is Professor Cecil B. Heimerdinger, looking longingly at the remains of breakfast;

    A ginger kitten sitting on a wooden dining chair gazing longingly at a blue cereal bowl. He wishes he was allowed to climb onto the table and drink the milk. (And he will do that the second I'm not watching him)

    Heimerdinger is not a fan of the ‘no cats on the table’ rule. If you’re wondering about the name, he’s named after a character in the Netflix show ‘Arcane’.

    A tabby kitten lying on a cushion. Her paws are neatly in front of her and she's looking to the side. The cushion has a print of butterflies on it, next to it is another with beetles on. The sofa is brown leather, with a grey blanket over the sofa back.

    This is Willow, who is absolutely tiny! Willow is named after Willow from Buffy.

    In between the endless litter cleaning and cat feeding I did manage a trip to the library, where this beautiful cover immediately caught my eye;

    The cover of the book 'The Haunted Life of Delores Mackenzie'. The cover is shades of pink and purple against blue, black and white. The book is standing on a wooden mantelpiece next to an old glass bottle, brown with a cork, and a wooden pebble with a pyrography skull burnt onto it.

    How could I not pick it up?! When I got home and started reading I realised this is the second book in the series. It was so good I kept going with it, for a start the main character lives in a bookshop so how could I not! I definitely want to find out more about the ‘Uncles’ and the magic system in this world. The villain was so malicious and evil, I hated her! I was in silent fury at the treatment of some of the characters; the injustice!

    I really enjoyed it, and I definitely have to go and read the first one. I suspect there’s going to be more so if we get to three books (fingers crossed) I’ll be on a binge-read weekend!

    I was also busy frantically crocheting in January, trying to get ready for the arrival of my first niece! She’s now here in the world, and absolutely beautiful! I’m looking forward to being the weird, old, goth aunt in her life. I just hope she likes really brightly striped blankets…

    A rectangular crocheted baby blanket made of striped of different colour wool. It's not quite finished here, the edging has just been started.

    I also received many lovely bookish presents. I read ‘Assistant to the Villain’ in the ‘Betwixtmas’ period, while stuffing my face with cheese and chocolate. I didn’t know this was a TikTok thing, apparently there’s a video series that the book has grown out of? But without knowing anything about it I really enjoyed it. It was light and fun, perfect easy read after a busy Christmas (with kittens) I enjoyed the setting of an office, but it’s in a fantasy kingdom, and your boss is the villain. There was much casual murder, death and beheading. Sort of like a fantasy Midsomer Murders.

    My laptop sat on my desk, with a plate of cheese and crackers. There's a candle in the background, and the book 'Assistant to the Villain' by Hannah Nicole Maehrer.

    If I’m reading while sat at my laptop that counts as me writing, right?

    I’m also trying to get back into drawing again, there never seems to be time and I’m getting rusty. I’m trying to do some little sketchbook pages, just so I don’t totally forget how drawing works!

    A page from my sketchbook. the background is orange with bits of paper collaged onto it, then drybrushed over with white medium. The drawing is a graphite drawing of a girl's face. She had black glasses and long, straight hair. My hand is just looming into the edge of the photo, holding a paintbrush.

    I will *try* to get more regular at posting. Unless I’m reading, drawing, crocheting, writing…..

    Oh, and everyone who loves books should read and share this article!

    It’s a Really Good Time to Get Loud About the Books You Love – Reactorhttps://reactormag.com/its-a-really-good-time-to-get-loud-about-the-books-you-love/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-92WOs4m3JOUat3JrTiGyWNEUaLRl-4zzVvd35Y1o4-dtd9KAhNKe41zOW-2OU0E1OeGafYQSwkdJlHMlG1TKwt6NaHpQ&_hsmi=337064819&utm_content=337064819&utm_source=hs_email

  • Into Faerie…

    I loved making props and models. Every day was different, the people I worked with were brilliant. I made trees for Hogwarts, weapons for Chucky, palm trees for Tracey Island. The hours were long, but the job was fun and well paid. I would have cheerfully kept doing it forever. Unfortunately….

    Cut! | Alternative investments | The Guardian

    There was a lot of uncertainty during this time, it was hard to find props work. I started temping in an office. I was used to leaving home at 5.30am, and getting home at 9pm. Suddenly I was getting home from work four hours early!

    During my extra free time I came across a few of my old drawings. They… maybe weren’t that terrible?

    So I tentatively started drawing again. Just a little bluebell faery at first. I showed my husband, and he thought it was good.

    Watercolour bluebell faery, by Alexandra Dawe

    In between temp jobs I drew more. One of my temp jobs was at Palgrave Macmillan. With no sign of the film industry picking up, (pre- streaming boom. I have the worst timing.) I stopped trying to find work and took an editorial assistant position at Palgrave. When I got home from work I’d paint. A year after the bluebell faery came this one…

    Damselfly, watercolour painting by Alexandra Dawe

    Mr Dawe is one of the best people, and the most supportive husband in the world. He bought me a scanner and printer, and encouraged me to try and sell cards and prints of my artwork. Some local shops stocked them, freinds and family bought them. I had a few commissions. I kept drawing and painting, and thought maybe I was getting better?

    We decided to have a go at a faery themed craft fair, and booked a stall.

    And there I met Brian and Wendy Froud, the artists responsible for Labyrinth, the movie that got me out of the oubliette. I stammered out a few words, afterwards Mr Dawe muttered, ‘You were practically curtseying.’

    Somewhere Mr Dawe and I got married, had children, and moved to Devon. I painted around childcare, sold my work online and at craft fairs. I’ve been lucky enough to meet the Frouds several times, and many other Chagford artists and residents. I’ve even been invited to exhibit with some of them at the Widdershins exhibition in Moretonhampstead.

    Props, models, art, fantasy, film, and stories have woven through my life and allowed me to meet wonderful people and have incredible experiences.

    As I painted my head would be filled with stories. But it was a while before I thought to write any of them down.

  • I was lost, until I went inside the Labyrinth

    I’ve never blogged before, so I figured I’d start at the beginning…

    Like most people when they’re little, I was creative. I loved to read and write, to tell stories, and draw pictures. I thought I would grow up to be an artist and paint fairytales. It was all I wanted.


    But in secondary school my art teacher said I couldn’t just ‘be an artist.’ I said maybe I could illustrate books? No, too competitive, you’re not good enough.


    (To be fair there was no such thing as a website then, online shops and social media were years away from becoming a reality. We couldn’t even have begun to imagine a way of directly showing your artwork around the world in seconds. But still… )


    That ‘you’re not good enough’ stayed with me. There was no talk of draw every day, keep practising, study artists whose work you love. Just ‘you’re not good enough’.


    By the time I was 13 I knew I’d never be good enough. I stopped drawing. I only ever did the bare minimum I had to do to get my homework done. I hated everything I drew. Without practising I wasn’t improving, so everything was terrible. ‘You’re not good enough,’ became louder, and it was all I could hear and think when I picked up a pencil.


    Then one weekend afternoon a film was on the TV. It was called Labyrinth.

    Theatrical release poster by Ted CoConis


    If you haven’t seen it (and you absolutely should) it’s about a teenage girl called Sarah, who lives in her magical daydreams, but has to babysit her little brother Toby.


    I have a little brother, quite a bit younger than me. I immediately identified with Sarah, her love of fantasy, her distaste for baby brothers. I fell in love with the movie, just completely enthralled by the whole thing from beginning to end. I had never seen anything like this, these magical creatures, this whole incredible world that Sarah fell into. It all looked so real, it was mesmerising. I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t move from the TV. At the end I fell back to earth with a bump, as the voiceover announcer said after the break there was going to be a documentary called Inside the Labyrinth.


    Obviously I was going to watch it!


    It was one of those moments. Just an insignificant Sunday afternoon, sat on the sofa watching TV. Then everything changes.


    I remember seeing a lady painting the hands for the shaft of helping hands, and I just sat up. I can do that. I mean, anyone can do that! Anyone can paint hands. I might not be able to draw. I might not ever be an artist or an illustrator. I might not be very clever, but I can paint latex hands green!

    Inside the Labyrinth documentary.


    So I turned to my poor mum and I said how do I get that job? How do I do her job? How do I make stuff for movies?


    Obviously again, this was pre-internet.


    We had to find out through the library, books, writing to universities and asking about their courses. I did my Art GCSE and A level, through gritted teeth! But I got onto the Art Foundation course at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in Farnham. (And later continued to their Animation degree)


    (I remember after my interview telling our little A level art group that I’d got onto the foundation course at my first choice college. My art teacher said ‘Anyone can get onto a foundation course.’)


    After Uni I did quite a bit of work experience on various productions, and eventually ended up in Shepperton Studios as a trainee model and props maker on Thomas the Tank Engine. I loved working in the studios, I had so much fun working on incredible films and TV shows, always with the most brilliant, clever, funny and talented people.

    I made all kinds on Thomas, but mostly small props like pipes, crates, sacks, oil drums etc.


    I’ll end with this, because I’ve rambled on a bit. My parents had a beautiful florist’s shop, with a small café and chocolate shop next door. One day two ladies came into the café and sat down. My mum went to take their order and recognised my old biology teacher, and… my old art teacher. My biology teacher asked how I was doing, and my mum took great pleasure in loudly saying that I was working for Tim Burton at Pinewood Studios, on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

    There were two of us, and we painted all of the dolls that sing, dance and melt at the start of the film.

    My journey inside the Labyrinth didn’t end here. Part 2 soon!