Hello booklovers, Here we are, steadily crawling through January 2020. It may be a little early for nostalgia for 2019 and the past decade so forgive me for what is to follow! Last week we asked you for your best reads of the past ten years. In a bid to brighten up this dreary January […]

Hello booklovers, It’s Christmas Eve! On the final day of our festival Advent calendar we bring you a much loved book about the most important story of all… “On a dark night long ago, and in a far country, some shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep. Suddenly a bright light shone on them. It […]

Hello booklovers, One of the many things I adore about Christmastime is letter writing and the sending and receiving of Christmas cards. There is no feeling quite equivalent to the sight of brightly coloured envelopes and the news and voices of friends and family they contain inside. It’s a wonderful time of year to reach […]

Hello booklovers, Prize winning poet Ruth Padel (the great great granddaughter of Charles Darwin no less) certainly takes us on an emotive and thought provoking journey through London and across the world on Christmas Eve in her epic poem Tidings.  We all know that Christmas Eve is an enchanted night. Father Christmas is busy doing […]

Hello booklovers, I am happy to believe that Christmas is the time for giving, but the art of gift wrapping is not one at  which I am particularly skilled. As I sit amongst my welter of badly cut wrapping paper, recalcitrant sticky tape, inkless pens and toppling gift tags, surrounded by the strangest assortment of […]

Hello booklovers, A question I often ask myself is where on earth would we be without Michael Morpurgo. He is an author who has accompanied me through my childhood, constantly taking myself, my brother and my friends to other worlds and time periods, meeting exciting new characters and encouraging us o see the world from […]

Hello booklovers, Our favourite festival feline returns to our screens with another Christmas Cat – today Earl the cat has selected Slinki Malinki’s Christmas Cracker as his festive tail (pardon the pun) of choice. Slinki Malinki, rapscallion cat, is up to his usual tricks and causing mayhem – except this time it is magnified because it’s […]

Hello booklovers, Behind Advent door number 18, we give you Noel Streatfeild’s Christmas stories. Published by Virago Children’s Classics, Streatfeild’s lesser known short stories are brought to life again for a new generation of readers. These charming, festive tales are perfect escapism from the world around us, where problems are solved and happiness reigns. Originally written for […]