CatoCooper13
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,441
- Reaction score
- 4
AFP - "I'm only going to read for as long as you can sit still," said US pop singer Madonna, as she gave an invitation-only reading of a children's story she penned to the offspring of a group of friends in London.
Flanked by her two own children, Rocco and Lourdes, the 45-year-old singer sat in a swing as she read to a group of friends and friends' children, with the friends including Stella McCartney, the recently-married daughter of Beatles star Paul McCartney.
The singer, whose only previous book venture was a book of X-rated photographs of herself entitled "Sex", gave the reading ahead of the worldwide launch on Monday of the work, entitled "The English Roses."
"I like little kids better than big people. They don't have any bad habits yet, at least not permanent ones," Madonna opined at the London reading, which took the form of a tea party.
The singer, who is 45 and lives in London, has said she conceived "The English Roses" as the first of five children's books inspired by the Kabbalah, the system of Jewish mystical thought which she has been studying for seven years.
Her daughter Lourdes, who is seven, was the inspiration for the book's heroine Binah, Madonna told The Times Magazine in an interview.
In Lourdes' London school "often children can be quite mean and ostracise her because I'm her mother," she said. "Everyone thinks, 'She's got everything so we won't pay attention to her'."
The story is about a gang of girls who ostracise the heroine from the group because they are jealous.
"If you want to know what else happens to Binah (the central character) and the English Roses, you're just going to have to read the book," she said at the end of her reading.
In an attempt to outdo even the publishing blitz surrounding the "Harry Potter" series, Madonna's first foray into the world of children's books will see "The English Roses" launched in 100 countries and in more than 30 languages at the same time.
First print runs range from 750,000 in the United States to just 1,000 copies in the Faroe Islands.
The multilingual, simultaneous release has been made possible by advances in digital technology, allowing printers to switch rapidly from one language to another.
"Thanks to this global network of publishing partners that have joined together, we will have a new generation throughout the world that will know Madonna as an inspiring storyteller," Nicholas Callaway, president of lead publisher Callaway Editions Inc, enthused, in a statement released earlier this month.
Among the countries preparing for the September 15 launch are China, Italy, Russia, Turkey and France. Madonna was due in Paris later Monday as part of the process.
The singer's previous sorties outside the music industry have been almost uniformly disastrous, with critics panning her forays into cinema and theatre.
Her only previous flirtation with the publishing world was her X-rated book 1992 book of photography, "Sex."
©AAP 2003
Flanked by her two own children, Rocco and Lourdes, the 45-year-old singer sat in a swing as she read to a group of friends and friends' children, with the friends including Stella McCartney, the recently-married daughter of Beatles star Paul McCartney.
The singer, whose only previous book venture was a book of X-rated photographs of herself entitled "Sex", gave the reading ahead of the worldwide launch on Monday of the work, entitled "The English Roses."
"I like little kids better than big people. They don't have any bad habits yet, at least not permanent ones," Madonna opined at the London reading, which took the form of a tea party.
The singer, who is 45 and lives in London, has said she conceived "The English Roses" as the first of five children's books inspired by the Kabbalah, the system of Jewish mystical thought which she has been studying for seven years.
Her daughter Lourdes, who is seven, was the inspiration for the book's heroine Binah, Madonna told The Times Magazine in an interview.
In Lourdes' London school "often children can be quite mean and ostracise her because I'm her mother," she said. "Everyone thinks, 'She's got everything so we won't pay attention to her'."
The story is about a gang of girls who ostracise the heroine from the group because they are jealous.
"If you want to know what else happens to Binah (the central character) and the English Roses, you're just going to have to read the book," she said at the end of her reading.
In an attempt to outdo even the publishing blitz surrounding the "Harry Potter" series, Madonna's first foray into the world of children's books will see "The English Roses" launched in 100 countries and in more than 30 languages at the same time.
First print runs range from 750,000 in the United States to just 1,000 copies in the Faroe Islands.
The multilingual, simultaneous release has been made possible by advances in digital technology, allowing printers to switch rapidly from one language to another.
"Thanks to this global network of publishing partners that have joined together, we will have a new generation throughout the world that will know Madonna as an inspiring storyteller," Nicholas Callaway, president of lead publisher Callaway Editions Inc, enthused, in a statement released earlier this month.
Among the countries preparing for the September 15 launch are China, Italy, Russia, Turkey and France. Madonna was due in Paris later Monday as part of the process.
The singer's previous sorties outside the music industry have been almost uniformly disastrous, with critics panning her forays into cinema and theatre.
Her only previous flirtation with the publishing world was her X-rated book 1992 book of photography, "Sex."
©AAP 2003