2004-10-10 Some things are worth repeating

When I was a child, this was one of my favourite books and having reread it recently with my young nephew, I can remember why. It's almost PC the way Princess Amy can't abide by her parents wishes to be locked up in some tower while Dad hires out for a dragon and perhaps a Prince to come and slay the beast. Why any girl in her position seems to have no choice except to run away. And so the Princess does. She escapes into the forest and is quite happy there with her various woodland friends. That is until the practicalities of her wardrobe and some very sensible advice from her fairy godmother mean that she needs to seek out some form of gainful employment. So she ends up working as a kitchenmaid and she does meet a Prince, eventually. I fell in love with this book all over again! There is a lesson in this book somewhere, possibly more than one but it escapes me at the moment. I just find it a very enjoyable read, even now. Princess Amy is most certainly a patch above the rest and as you'll soon discover, there is nothing ordinary about her perserverence in the face of a typical fairytale ending.