ANGELA CARTER

I saw him watching me in the gilded mirrors with the assessing eye of a connoisseur inspecting horseflesh….The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter

In March 2013, we joined forces with our friends at For Books’ Sake with ANGELA CARTER: HOW WE HEART HER! – an event to celebrate the life and legacy of one of Raven Rouge’s favourite authors for International Women’s Day. Over twenty one years since her death, we shared why we love and adore this gothic heroine of feminist fiction so very much. A masterful mistress of the macabre, it was easy to create suitably dark and intriguing scenes from the Art Macabre store, and we presented scenes from short stories The Bloody Chamber and The Lady of the House of Love, plus the larger than life character Fevvers aka The Cockney Venus from novel Nights at the Circus. Special thanks to our co-host for the event, For Books’ Sake’s leading lady Jane Bradley, aka Puss in Boots, who read an original tale ‘Strawberries’ inspired by Carter. Plus thanks to Kaite Welsh and Katie Antoniou. Do check out For Books’ Sake’s website and other events. We heart them. See if you can spot which scenes are being portrayed in these photos, featuring models Delphine de Noir, Rachel and Georgie. We recommend exploring Carter’s world of words further, if you’ve not read her work before.

photography by Aaron Jacob Jones. Copyright Art Macabre & Aaron Jacob Jones 2013.

My husband liked me to wear my opal ring over my kid glove, a showy, theatrical trick…That sultry, witchy ring.

Yet the skull was so beautiful that I recognised her the moment I saw her…

Then, slowly yet teasingly, as if he were giving a child a great, mysterious treat, he took out a bunch of keys from some interior hidey-hole in his jacket…key after key, a key, he said, for every lock in the house…huge ancient things of black iron…