Epiphany

Happy Epiphany! / Bonne Fête des Rois! / ¡Feliz Día de los Reyes Magos! / Frohes Dreikönigsfest!

Now go and put all your Christmas decorations away or the Spirit of the Christmas tree will haunt you and cause you bad luck for the rest of the year! And have a slice of galette des rois too.

The Fisherman and the Genie

My depiction of the poor fisherman who found an enraged and malefic genie in a bottle, from a story found in the story collection One-Thousand and One Nights (commonly known in English by the name of the Arabian Nights).

Panto time!

As it's Christmas, here's a bit of panto fun!

Puss in Boots

Aladdin

Mother Goose

Terrorist Sympathisers, or Logic à la Westminster

What popped into my mind when I heard Mr Cameron's remarks yesterday evening...

Les Français, nos pensées sont avec vous...

Dedicated to the people of France and to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13th 2015. Our thoughts go out to you all.

Tales from the Brothers Grimm: Another preview of things to come

The reason for no posts lately has been partly laziness, partly busyness. Anyway, here's a very small preview of the book I've been working on and preparing for self-publishing...

Ladybird Tuesday: Kings and Queens (Book Two)

No, I haven't vanished; my lack of posts is due to the fact that things have just got in the way as usual. I'll begin again with another Ladybird Tuesday post as it is Tuesday after all (the originator of Ladybird Tuesday being another blogger named Mrs C). I find the concept behind Ladybird books (well produced books economically produced and priced) really interesting, and some of the illustrations also intrigue me, even if they are dated. Rather recently, I came upon a secondhand bookshop in Manchester which was giving away some overstock for free. Among the rubble, I managed to snag some old matt-cover Ladybird books. The endpapers and title papers of the books were admittedly covered in markings and scribbles, but the actual content inside was fine, and they didn't cost a penny after all.

As I've said, while as a child I read many of Ladybird's fairytale or classic story retellings (or at least admired their illustrations), I never grew up reading many of their non-fiction titles. I'm aware that the history books written by L. Du Garde Peach and published by Ladybird have proved to be quite popular, especially among children of the 60s and the 70s. Indeed, my parents can remember these books in their first editions.