This is a short, funny, story about a stepmother regent, a young king, his kingdom, and a writer with no sense of court politics whatsoever.

In a move akin to Shakespeare mentioning Queen Elizabeth’s pockmarks, William Writer’s ode to the deceased King portrays his wife as the stereotypical evil stepmother. In revenge she decrees that throughout the kingdom, all traditional fairytale clichés will now be true, and enforces it by magical compulsion.

While her reaction is a bit over the top, I do love the fact that even young King Richard’s reaction to learning about the writer’s words was to ask why she didn’t just cut his head off? It seems even good kings don’t take mockery well.

I loved the bit where Richard ends up travelling back through his Kingdom, his increasing bemusement as he realises what is going on, and that he immediately and correctly blames his mother. It makes you wonder what she has done before (and if the author wishes to write a prequel, that’s a hint…)

In a era where fairytales get re-written for the screen, this draws obvious comparisons to Once Upon a Time or The Tenth Kingdom, but people who enjoyed those might read it. The isn’t just a satire of fairytales, it is a decent story and stand-alone modern fairytale in its own right, complete with lessons and moral.