Story-book launch is child’s play for Madonna
Is it a football team? Is it a box of chocs? Do they grow in the garden perhaps? No, no, no.
The English Roses is a picture book from a previously undiscovered children’s author, normally a complete non-event in the publishing world, but nothing about this book is normal, least of all its author, Madonna.
If you thought the heightened secrecy surrounding the latest Harry Potter was off the Richter scale of ridiculousness, brace yourselves.
Those lucky enough to secure an invitation to yesterday’s launch were wafted along a glittery purple carpet and up into the rarefied atmosphere of Kensington Roof Gardens, six floors above Kensington High Street.
Here, the real flamingos were upstaged by lots of Dayglo pink ones being churned out by hundreds of excited children as they awaited the star under pink, purple, blue and yellow cardboard clouds.
The adults drank champagne, or tea from outsized polka dot cups, and counted celebrities (Stella McCartney, Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen, Nigella Lawson and Gary Rhodes).
Eventually the diminutive pop icon appeared, hoisted on top ofblue flowery stilettos to match her frock. Flanked by her wriggling children – Rocco, three, and Lourdes, whom Madonna calls Lola – she donned her specs and ordered quiet in a tone that owed more to school ma’am than the dominatrix we used to know.
She then read a short extract from the book which concerns the misplaced jealousy of four very proper English schoolgirls – the English Roses.
Beneath their classy exterior they harbour unladylike thoughts about a fifth girl, the beautiful, but lonely, Binah. The intervention of a fairy godmother shows the girls that Binah is more to be pitied than envied and all ends well.
I can reveal this only because a contact agreed to show me a copy of the book for five minutes in the ladies’ toilets. At the insistence of the American publishers, The English Roses is strictly embargoed until 8am today, when one million copies will be released simultaneously in 100 countries. It will be published in 30 languages, including Icelandic, Bulgarian and Lithuanian.
The book has beautiful illustrations which have a French chic about them, though they come from Jeffrey Fulvimari, an American artist designer.
“Madonna gave me a lot of room but a lot of helpful direction as well,” said Mr Fulvimari diplomatically.
Of course, it is the preserve of the rich and famous to re-invent themselves as often as they like. Nevertheless, you needed to pinch yourself to remember that the little lady perched primly on a swinging seat with her children is the same woman who once threw her knickers into a 72,000 strong audience of screaming fans at Wembley Stadium.
The strongest word used in this straight-laced moral tale – from the pen of the woman who once felt the need to use the f-word 15 times in one chat show – is ninnie.
Madonna’s launch puts the celebrity head to head in the bookshops with that other global icon, David Beckham, whose latest autobiography, My Side, reached their shelves last week.
The English Roses is part of a five-book deal with Penguin Group in the UK and the US publisher Callaway in association with various foreign language publishers around the world. The second title, Mr Peabody’s Apples, is due out in November.
Each story is a morality tale based on Hebrew texts from Kabbalah, the Jewish-based belief system she has been studying for seven years. The idea was suggested to her by her teacher. All proceeds will go to children’s charities.
It is not immediately apparent what The English Roses has to do with Kabbalah, which is around 4000 years old and stresses self-humiliation and material denial in the quest for “the light”, the true meaning of happiness.
Madonna’s previous literary forays have gone down with critics about as well as her universally-derided acting.
However, after 20 years in the music business, she remains a top-selling recording artist.
Her latest album, American Life, topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The moral of this moral tale may be “stick to what you can do”.
Her rejoinder might be that if you are Madonna, you can do anything you like and, of course, she’s right.
Source: The Herald
Thanks to Gugarko