Fairy tales depict the fantastical lives of princes and princesses, witches and ogres, giants and dragons. They have endured because of their magical power to take us away from the mundanity of everyday life and capture our imaginations. But are they really so far removed from reality? Are they not actually reflections of our own societal prejudices, but with a pop-up castle and elaborate costumes added in?
In this darkly funny drama from Martin McDonagh, Mildred Hayes is a grieving mother who hires provocative billboards to pressure the local police department into solving the case of her murdered daughter. Three Billboards is about grief, but with the backstory of police brutality, it’s clear that this is also a film with a point to make about racism.
The indigenous Aymara women of Bolivia, can easily be spotted walking the streets of La Paz, and neighbouring El Alto, in their traditional, and eye-catching, style of dress. They are the ‘Cholitas’: strong women, now known internationally for their resilience, their fashion, and even their wrestling!
Clare Fisher joins Harpy to discuss living in Leeds, inspiring female voices, and her upcoming short story collection How the Light Gets In.
December 2005 – I sat in front of the mirror outside my bedroom, rapidly jotting down my burning desire to host the launch of my world-changing first novel at my local library, so that ‘Forest Hill (the quiet, Tubeless corner of London that I grew up in) could be remembered for something more than the weird old walrus down the road
Office politics are one of the more soul-destroying aspects of adulthood, aren’t they? One particularly irritating branch of this is food politics. The chat about food at work is truly dire.
It's been five days since I first saw Oprah’s acceptance speech of the Cecil B. de Mille award at the Golden Globes, and I have watched it in a euphoric daze at least six times. It really is fist-pump worthy, prompting righteous anger, searing pride and indomitable hope (and I admit, even a squeak of 'You Go Girl!')
#notallmen might be one of the most vexatious, thoughtless social media campaigns since the dawn of Twitter. Assuming complete ignorance on society’s part, it is passive-aggressive, snide, and wrongfully accusatory. Much has been written, deliberated and disagreed on about this most divisive of hashtags.
‘Snapper Theatre’ brand themselves as ‘feminist theatre-makers and storytellers embracing the universal and specific’. Aiming to delve deeper into this provocative and inclusive claim, I caught up with one of the founding collaborators, Lucy Foster, to learn more about ‘Snapper’s theatrical and political aims, and their latest venture: Lobster.
We're all feeling a bit like this droopy dog right now. Our residual hangovers and food comas are lingering, friends and relatives head home and the return to work hits you like a ton of dicks. Most of us are pretty deflated- all we really want to do is curl up in bed to watch Friends (which is FINALLY on UK Netflix, FYI) but instead we’re expected to put on clothes that aren’t pyjamas and trudge through the drizzle to reality.
It’s been an age since I’ve had a chance to write anything because I decided to go on a kind of tech-detox over Christmas. I hadn’t planned to, but I was scrolling past YET another Christmas tree Instagram photo (can we just establish that these photos are never good?) when I flung down my phone with a sigh of ennui.
In their latest gimmick, Channel 5 confirmed that the most recent series of Celebrity Big Brother would begin with a female-only household, in celebration of 100 years of women having the vote. Call me old-fashioned, but it seems rather at odds to mark a milestone in the pursuit of equality by reintroducing segregation!
Chrimbo-limbo – the gloopy non-time between Christmas and New Year – is upon us. Should I be in work today? Cheese board for lunch again? Is it still acceptable to listen to Christmas music? For those who wish Christmas might still Stay Another Day (get it? Get it?!), read on…
Christmas is over and we are faced with the daunting prospect of filling those dead days leading up to New Year's Eve. Seeing as the Harpy team initially came together over a mutual love of books, we thought this seemed the perfect opportunity to share a selection of our favourite reads to eliminate your post-Christmas blues - (because, as we all know, a good book cures all).
Whoe’er invented lebkuchen is the true hero of Christmas! It’s the only thing between me and cheesy chips.
If you celebrate Christmas, or know that you’re going to be spending time with people who do, the festive season can seem like a daunting prospect. After weeks of awkward office parties, winter colds and the incessant buffeting of capitalism, you’re expected to leave the house in sub-arctic conditions to deal with family commitments. Whether you love the festive period or not, here are a few tips for staying sane this time of year
Of late, my entertainment and social channels have been somewhat bombarded by a bizarre media frenzy surrounding the phenomenon of the "armpit vagina": yet another indictment on a society that feels compulsively obliged to comment upon the female body.
The recent publication of Philip Pullman’s ‘The Book of Dust’ brought with it, for me, a wave of nostalgia. Although Lyra Belacqua, the fictional heroine of my youth, features only as a baby, the novel still centres on her. I bought the book and read it within three days, desperate to re-engage with the alluring world of witches, daemons and armoured bears that so captivated me as a child.
It’s officially mid-to-late December, by which I mean 'tis the season of consumer capitalist joy, by which I mean CHRISTMAS IS COMING. It’s especially catchy in caps, I must say.
Pritchard-Mclean is unafraid to take on subjects that are tricky to navigate, be it trashing serial killers on her podcast, or finding the humour in her experience of volunteering with vulnerable children for her stand-up show Appropriate Adult. What’s brilliant about her is that she is always careful to ensure that her jokes are hitting the right target.
