A hapless maid wandering deeper into the woods encounters the bewitching presence of the Erl-King, the presiding spirit of the forest.

She willingly enters his woodland lair and lies with him.

But when she discovers that he plans to turn her into a bird and imprison her with the rest of his aviary, she must somehow break the spell.

Another of Angela Carter's iconic collection of fairy stories - dramatised by Olivia Hetreed.

Erl-King ...... Ariyon Bakare
Lover ...... Rakie Ayola
Goblin ...... Jasmine Jones

At the time of writing The Bloody Chamber in the late 1970s, Angela Carter was disaffected by both sides of the feminist debate. She re-worked traditional fairy tales from her own unique, literary outsider’s point of view, putting women at the centre of the stories.

With their feisty heroines and orgiastic mash-up of beasts, shape-shifters and ghouls, her extraordinary tales are the most perfect example of her style, not just for her incomparable prose, but also in the dizzying twists and turns of perception, fantasy and myth.

Controversially influenced by De Sade, she embraced the erotic, explored our deepest and darkest urges, and subverted the roles of hunter and prey, master and mistress so that, instead of male sexuality, it is the female that becomes transgressive and powerful.

Sound Design: Lucinda Mason Brown
Director / Producer: Fiona McAlpine

An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2018. Show less