Frozen Charlotte

http://www.alex-bell.co.uk/books/

In the hope of gaining an interview with the wonderful author Alex Bell I seemed to have encountered a creepy Frozen Charlotte doll sitting in my lemonade who seems rather worryingly eager to answer my questions and bite me….I am actually slightly scared! SEND HELP! Erm……Hi! Do you have a name? My name is Charlotte. We’re all called Charlotte. Why are you and all of the dolls named Frozen Charlotte? Where does the name come from? We’re named after a Victorian girl who rode to a ball in an open carriage. Her mother told her to wear her cloak so she wouldn’t catch cold in the snow but Charlotte didn’t want to crease her dress and she also wanted everyone to see how pretty she looked as she rode by. By the time they arrived at the ball she had frozen to death and was stone cold dead. Ha! Get it? Stone cold dead! Hee, hee, hee! Describe yourself in 5 words. Charlotte is cold, cold, cold. Could I have a picture? As you can see, I’ve got my gold shoes and my stockings but I still need someone to make me a dress – a pretty one that doesn’t have any bloodstains on it. I also want a bonnet. How long have you lived in the Old School House? Since 1910. It was a proper school back then with lots of girls to play with. They used to make little dresses for us out of scraps of fabric and sometimes we had fake funerals with tiny graves in the garden. We like being dead. You’d like it too. It’s such fun. Who do you play with in the house? Sometimes we play with Rebecca. She’s dead too. What games do you like to play? We love playing games! Do you want to play a game with us now? How about the Knife Murder Game? Or Push-Teacher-Down-The Stairs Game? Or – I know! I know! – let’s play the Stick-aNeedle-in-Your-Eye Game! That’s my favourite! Ooh, I love that one! I’ve heard you also like to cause trouble? What kind of trouble do you cause? We don’t cause trouble! We only want to make friends and play games. Where’s the harm in that? You shouldn’t play with needles or matches, though. That can definitely lead to trouble. Where are you kept in the Old School House? Inside a locked doll cabinet. Do you like being locked in the cabinet? Would you like being locked in a cabinet? Do you ever escape? That would be telling. Do you know what happened to Rebecca? Rebecca died. Out on the cliff top. She was naughty. Very naughty. Okay now I’m thoroughly creeped out and as I was hoping to speak to the author Alex Bell today I guess I will have to ask YOU a little about the book! What role do you play in the book Frozen Charlotte? We just want to make friends with Sophie and Piper and Lilias. Not Cameron, though. We hate Cameron. In fact, we wouldn’t mind if we never saw him ever again. We wouldn’t mind if he had some kind of accident out on the cliff top. It’s easy to have an accident out on the cliff top, you know. What should the reader expect from reading the book? They should expect to visit a converted schoolhouse on the Isle of Skye with a great location, beautiful views and lots and lots of antique dolls to play with. Some of the games get a bit scary, though, so they probably shouldn’t read it if they’re going to whine and cry all the time and spoil the fun. We get angry when people spoil the fun. What’s happened to the author Alex Bell I was hoping to interview her? She’s off playing the Knife Murder Game. She may be gone for some time. Phew – I’m so glad you take kindly to interviewers! Our pleasure. Now how about we liven things up with a game? GULPS!!