Books About Town

The Librarian, Author: Terry Pratchett

If you're in London then you've probably already seen the amazing new book benches that are up for the summer. I haven't ventured out of the sticks recently so haven't seen them myself but I love all the designs and I particularly love the idea behind them; to celebrate Britain's works of literature and promote reading.

There are 50 benches in all and they have been created by Wild in Art in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust and a lot of talented artists. You can find out more about them on the Books About Town website.

Here are a few of my favourite benches.

Dr Seuss: Author: Dr Theodor Seuss Geisel

Earnest, Author: Oscar Wilde

Elmer the Elephant, Author: David McKee

Great Expectations, Author: Charles Dickens

Sherlock Holmes Stories, Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Canterbury Tales, Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe, Author: C. S. Lewis

Reblog - 42 Things All Noughties Teenagers Will Remember

I jut had to reblog this; it is scarily true.

Originally posted on Hannah Gale

1. Smirnoff Ice, WKD and Archers. Tiny bottles of sugary alcohol that made you talk to boys, throw up and get told off by your parents. Goody.

2. Spending an entire week waiting for the next episode of The O.C. Fancying Seth Cohen, wanting to be Summer Roberts, and feeling awkwardly not sad when Marisa died. Oh.

3. Stripy highlights. Big blonde chunky strips through your over-straightened hair that made you look like the fourth member of Atomic Kitten, the somewhat cooler version of Kerry Katona.

4. Denim everything. Denim jackets, the perfect denim mini skirt, denim pedal pushers, denim handbags. Firmly believing Bewitched were on to something.

5. Teaming said denim mini skirt with (faux) UGG boots, dolly shoes or bright pink Converse and feeling like you’d finally nailed looking cool on non-school uniform day. Well done you, high five. All the boys will fancy you now.

6. Finishing off said ensemble with a super slicked back ponytail that took at least ten minutes to perfect, as well as half a can of hairspray, three scoops of mousse, a comb and two brushes. Then, teasing two strands of hair out. Chav chic nailed to an absolute tee.

7. Begging your mum for a belly button piercing and then wearing crop tops that displayed your emerging alcopop gut forevermore. In a dreamy world you’d have the dangliest, sparkliest belly bar out of everyone in school.

8. Inflatable chairs. Inflatable chairs that you sat on once.

9. Spending months pining over JD’s new McKenzie and Nickelson pieces. Must. Have. New. Baby. Blue. Hoodie.

10. Pay As You Go mobiles. One good solid all-evening text convo with a boy totally rinsed your credit and you’d not be able to contact anyone for a week (apart from on the landline, obvs).

11. Texting said boy on your Nokia 3310. The same Nokia 3310 that had a week long battery life. Dreamy.

12. Going to McDonalds after school just to hang, and devouring a Chicken Premiere. The queen of all the Extra Value Meals, RIP.

13. MSN Messenger. All evening, every evening.

14. Spending days picking the perfect dramatic-yet subtle-song lyrics for your MSN name.

15. Spending a similar amount of time determining your top 12 MySpace friends, sorting out the HTML to your profile background and choosing a profile page song. I mean, yeah, you definitely spent the same amount of time on your homework, so there’s that.

16. Putting a boy’s name in hearts in your MSN name. That, ladies, was when you knew you were definitely in there. Nice work.

17. Having to end an MSN conversation because your mum needed to make a call on the landline. BUT NOW HOW WILL I FLIRT WITH MY SCHOOL CRUSH?!? Evening ruined. Huff.

18. School books. Could be carried in a drawstring JD bag. Could also be carrier in a teeny tiny bag that only had room for cigarettes, a chewed pen, gum and one rolled up book.

19. Buffalo trainers with FLAMES on the side. Enough said.

20. Collecting smelly gel pens. Although not being able to write in the banana or coconut scented ones because they was basically white. Good one, pen company people. Good one.

21. Wasting (totally not wasting) entire weeks of your life to The Sims. Making the perfect family, setting your house on fire, having your children taken away by social services and wanting Mortimer Goff to fuck the hell off.

22. Relying on Destiny’s Child, Ashanti, JoJo and The Sugababes for life advice. And though my heart can’t take no more, I keep on running back to you.

23. Reading Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls In Love, Girls Under Pressure and Girls Out Late. Then being thoroughly confused and upset by the TV version. WHAT ARE YOU?! Why is Ellie not fat? Why Is Magda black?

24. Being groomed on Habbo Hotel. Oh.

25. *SPOILER ALERT* That moment when Zoe Slater found out Kat Slater was her mum.

26. Knowing one friend that got so paralytic they had to get their stomach pumped. And being thoroughly glad it wasn’t you and you weren’t grounded.

27. Plucking your eyebrows so that they were one thin line, made up of approximately 7 hairs. Exquisite.

28. Your fave jeans were a pair you’d customised yourself with fabric triangles to change your straight-cut jeans into a very snazzy pair of flares. These were soon replaced by a pair of bootcuts with sexy written in diamanté across your bum. Yep.

29. Bored on a Friday night? Nothing better than pranking people’s home phones. Teehee.

30. Your perfume cost approximately £5.95. Because So… Kiss Me was all you needed. Thanks for that, Superdrug, you life changer.

31, Exercise consisted of your brother’s Playstation teamed with your dance mat. It’s mind-boggling that you’re not a back-up dancer for One Direction right now. Seriously, do they not know that you can dance forward, backwards, left and right?!?

32. It’s summer. What do you wear? A halter neck top complete with a New Look push up bra of course, duh. Sexy and stylish.

33. Buying all your ‘grown up’ clothes from Jane Norman. Skin-tight dresses, big plastic buckles on your tops and flared jeans. Then using the shopping bag as a very stylish overnight bag. Go you.

34. Obvs teaming the above with your heels from Faith and Dolcis.

35. That time Bombhead’s mum died in Hollyoaks he kept her body in the house for weeks. Errrrr….

36. Wearing your French knickers and thongs higher than your jeans and school trousers. Because that’s how to make boys fancy you don’t you know.

37. Feminism was Frankee’s F.U.R.B. Fuck all the cryin’ it didn’t mean jack, well guess what yo, fuck you right back.

38. Wearing your GAP jumper with pretty much every outfit for about 7 months, and being ridiculously jealous of the girl you saw around school wearing the pink version.

39. Truly believing that hoop earrings made every outfit just that little bit better.

40. Reading consisted of the best, glossiest mags ever: Elle Girl, Mizz, Sugar and Shout. They helped you through every period/customising clothes drama. Babes.

41. That moment when you realised there was a Sabrina The Teenage Witch marathon on a Saturday. Best. Day. Ever.

42. Downloading 146329 songs from LimeWire and Napster and essentially being the sole reason why HMV and Woolworths both shut down.

2000-2009, thanks for being such a jolly good sport.

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole

I recently revisited Adrian Mole...

A few days ago I realised that during a couple of house moves and clear outs I had lost most of my Adrian Mole books. This was a tragedy. So, I popped on eBay and Amazon and bought all the ones I needed.

The other day, this package arrived.

Adrian Mole Books

Needless to say, I have not moved much from the sofa since the books arrived, except to occasionally feed myself and perform necessary bodily functions. I've dedicated as much time as I can to reading them.

Having said that, I did have to take occasional breaks from Adrian. He'd become too clueless, too apathetic or sanctimonious and I'd have to leave him alone for a bit as I felt myself getting increasingly frustrated with him. But that's the beauty of Sue Townsend's creation; a lot of the time you want to slap him, yet even when he becomes unbearable, you still route for him.

I've got to say, I much prefer the younger diaries of Adrian Mole to the later ones. I feel more warmth towards him at thirteen and three quarters; his over-inflated sense of self, coupled with his inbuilt apathy, sits better on a teenager than it does on a thirty year old. I found myself wanting to tell him to grow up and pull himself together, but then if he did that there would be nothing to read.

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4

The first Adrian Mole book is really perfect, Sue Townsend captures teenage awkwardness and family dynamics so well. Plus, it's Mole's naivety that drives the book; the reader knows what's happening with his mum and the next-door neighbour, even if he doesn't.

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

The last book, The Prostrate Years, left so many questions unanswered; will Adrian beat his illness, will he ever get together with Pandora, where the hell is his son William? Will there be another book? Sue Townsend is now blind. She used to write with a large marker pen but now she can't see a thing. So it's unlikely that we'll hear any more of Adrian. And maybe that's the best way.

If you've never read Adrian Mole, go and do it now. If you have, then revisit him, he hasn't changed.

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If I Were A Rich (Wo)Man: Art Prints

This week's wish-list is all made up of art prints, inspired by the new Penguin prints from Easy Art.

First up...

The Wind's Tale: I Used to Meet Her in the Garden by Edmund Dulac

The Wind's Tale: I Used to Meet Her in the Garden by Edmund Dulac. This print is of one of his many illustrations for Hans Christian Anderson's stories. I think it's the book art style that appeals to me. Plus, I'd like to wear a dress like that and wander around in the wind outside of a castle. This print is $76 from Artsy Craftsy, which has a great selection of products. It's dangerous to start looking around on the site.

Case in point is my next print; Hanging the Moon and Stars by Arthur Rackham.

Hanging the Moon and Stars by Arthur Rackham

This was apparently inspired by the short story Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving. I haven't read it and I may now have to. This picture manages to be sweet yet slightly disturbing, which may be why I like it! I love the idea of hanging the moon and stars up.

Most of my choices are from or inspired by books, the next one's no exception.

Kicking Leaves by Shirley Hughes

I've posted about Stories by Firelight by Shirley Hughes previously. Her stories and illustrations bring back memories from my childhood. Kicking Leaves by Shirley Hughes is a limited edition print, £95. Too much for me but I'm considering saving up for this; not only does it remind me of my childhood but it sums up the joy of crunching through Autumn leaves.

Finally, I came across this next print on Etsy.

Stepping into Woodland Light by EarthsWhisper

Stepping into Woodland Light comes from Etsy shop EarthsWhisper. At £388.51 it's much too expensive for me but I can still admire it. I love the dappling of light and the green shades.

That's it for this week.
Have a happy Friday.

Penguin Book Art Prints

The Great Gatsby - Easy Art Print

I love a good book print.
I love anything to do with books, so these new Penguin Prints from Easy Art caught my attention.

The Penguin covers, designed by Edward Young, are instantly recognisable and can usually guarantee that there's a good story inside.

Easy Art has quite a few of the triple stripe cover prints on canvas.

Wuthering Heights - Easy Art Print

But there are also more covers from The Penguin English Library Series, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith (good name).

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Easy Art Print

Jane Eyre - Easy Art Print

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Easy Art Print

I love this cover for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn - Easy Art Print

Easy Art also do the prints framed.

Far from the Madding Crowd - Easy Art Print

Children's Classics: Stories by Firelight

Stories by Firelight - Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes is one of the most talented and well known children's book authors and illustrators of the 20th century, maybe all time. Her stories illustrated my childhood and her characters, like Alfie and My Naughty Little Sister, became familiar faces.

My Naughty Little Sister - Shirley Hughes

One of my favourite books of hers is actually a collection of short stories and poems; Stories by Firelight. I was always drawn in by the warmth of the cover but the main reason I liked this book is that the stories were were a little bit different to her usual work, they had more bite.

Stories by Firelight - Shirley Hughes

Do you like my artfully placed coffee cup? Pity I didn't put any coffee in it.


One of my favourite stories from the book is Sea Singing, it's about a fisherman who falls in love with a Selkie (a seal who conveniently turns into a woman). It's being told to a young girl by her artist friend who lives by the sea, the illustrations of the water are a wonderful mix of the real and the fantastic. I always wanted to have dark hair like the little girl.

Sea Singing - Shirley Hughes

It's a story of love and, forgive me for getting deep here, the struggle of being who you are and getting what you want. Pretty intense for a kid's book.

Sea Singing - Shirley Hughes

These illustrations are so expressive of the man's need and the woman's sadness. Shirley Hughes combines adult emotions with the innocence of a child's imagination.

It's not all big emotional themes like love and loss though; she begins the book with a poem indicating the coming of Winter and ends with one celebrating the onset of Spring. A bit of a religious theme creeps in with the poems Inside the Inn and First Light; not being a Christian these could be a bit much for me but Shirley Hughes writes them without lecturing and with a light sense of humour that shines through most of her work.

Another of my favourites from the book is A Midwinter Night's Dream, a story with no words, which is quite strange for me as I was, and am, an avid reader.

A Midwinter Night's Dream - Shirley Hughes

The tale follows a young boy who falls through a door in his otherwise normal house and travels through underground passages. The pictures tell a story of strange creatures and a fantastical world that is always out of the corner of his eye or hidden round a corner.
I suppose it appeals to me and others who hope there is something magical just round the corner, and one day we'll be quick enough to glimpse it.

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Children's Classics: Can't You Sleep Little Bear

One of my great loves is books. That sounds hyperbolic but it's true; it is a great, huge love and has been ever since I was a child. Books we read when we are young definitely have an affect on us, whether we know it or not, even if it is just a prod of the imagination or the soothing of a troubled soul.

The word 'classic' is bandied around a lot when it comes to books but I think it is deserved in many cases, I'm going to start regularly posting about a book I consider a children's classic. Don't ask me how often, probably just when I feel like it, but there're so many out there that I think it should keep me going for quite some time.

The first book I'm going to review (it's not really a review but I don't know what else to call it) definitely deserves the term classic and has become a go-to book for any parent of a child reluctant to sleep.

Can't You Sleep Little Bear? Image via Walker Books

Can't You Sleep Little Bear by Matin Waddell and Barbara Firth tells the story of the small bear who, you guessed it, can't get to sleep because he's frightened of the dark. The disparing Big Bear brings him lantern after lantern until he finally shows Little bear that there's no reason to be afraid of the dark at all.

There are simple reasons why this book has become so popular; it connects with a common fear, it has a formulaic structure common in children's books where something is increased as the book goes on, and it has bears in it, which everyone loves.

But it could so easily have been overly twee, with the cuddly bears and the optimistic message, yet it bypasses this with the simplicity of Martin Waddell's language and the realism of Barbara Firth's illustrations. You can feel the exasperation of Big Bear, which many parents can identify with. Plus, children can see themselves in the overly energetic Little Bear doing handstands on the bed.

It manages to be touching, haunting, yet simple and with a satisfying ending that warms you up like a big round moon.

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Book Bags...Literally

Do you remember when you used to have a book bag for school? A plain, rather unattractive thing that gave you static shots?
Well, recently book bags seem to be back on trend, but in a totally different way. Enter the of book clutch. They have been around for a little while, Michelle Williams carried one at the 2012 BAFTAs.

Michelle Williams With Book Clutch

They seem to be having a resurgence in popularity at the moment, probably thanks to the release of The Great Gatsby; it's brought the beautiful Art Deco art work to the public's attention.

As an inexhaustible reader I do love these clutches, though I'm sure a lot are used by posers to show off their superior book knowledge.

The most popular ones, especially in celebrity circles, seem to be Olympia Le Tan's stunning embroidered versions.

Madame Bovary Book Clutch - Olympia Le Tan

War and Peace Book Clutch - Olympia Le Tan

They are lovely, but as they're over 1,000 Euros they're a bit out of my price range.
I was very excited therefore, when I opened a recent Look magazine and saw that there was an Etsy designer creating book clutches at a fraction of the price.

Le Petit Prince Book Clutch - P.S. Besitos

P.S. Besitos has a range of book clutches with a number of well known and obscure titles. I particularly love The Secret Garden one as it is one of my favourite books.

Secret Garden Book Clutch - P.S. Besitos

Plus the designer, Jessica Bermudez Bautista doesn't use actual books to create them because "I couldn’t bear the thought of stripping a book of its pages." She sounds like my kind of girl.

Moby Dick - P.S. Besitos

At £52.20 these fit my price range better, though still more than I usually like to spend (50p). But, for bags as lovely as these I'll save up my pennies.

www.olympialetan.com
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/psBesitos