With a chilly beauty, but still it manages to warm the heart until the final lines where the Wicked Queen meets her just deserts. A word of warning: grown-ups may find her punishment rather horrid.

Proofread by Claire Deakin. Read by Natasha.


A very long time ago, in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a beautiful queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony.