Congratulations! How exciting!

J. H. Prynne wrote a guide to reading works of literature for Cambridge students. This was the postscript:

Agree! Enjoyed it a lot.

One minor gripe though: A Comedy of Errors should've been number 25 bazillion. A play which demands all one's self-control not to leap up repeatedly shouting: But they're IDENTICAL TWINS ffs get a grip

Or perhaps I don't actually have much of a sense of humour. Hmm.

My hand holding a copy of Dracula and Daughters by Emma Carroll. The illustration shows three red-haired girls running: one wears a yellow dress and white apron, one wears a smart, long purple dress and the girl at the front wears black trousers and jacket and is lifting her hat. Behind them, grey gothic buildings; above them, a murder of crows. I like this book because not only does it have a clever central idea - that you can treat vampires rather than just kill them - but also because it is just so very well paced and constructed. Carroll also pulls off a first-person present-tense narration while also managing to construct good, believable characters. And it’s fun! But with a very dark background…

Every Wednesday (that I remember!), I will post a children’s book I’ve enjoyed.

If you’ve read it too, or you want to share another book, join in!

Dracula & Daughters, by Emma Carroll.

Alt text for why I like it.

#ukkidlit #kidlituk

The Gleeson? Yes! It’s an interesting book.

Photograph of Hagstone, by Sinead Gleeson. The cover illustration is a photograph of a woman’s face, pale with a dark bob and red lipstick. Her hand is held up just below her right eye and eye and hand are moving and stretched and disturbing.

Morning! I have just finished Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson, about an artist who is invited to create a work for an isolated female community. Great writing, especially about art. In total contrast have started Smart-Aleck Kill, four short stories by Raymond Chandler.

This is "Charmouth" by John Cooper from 1934. Cooper was a great friend of Richard Eurich's who had lived & worked in Lyme Regis in the early 1930s & Cooper & his wife, Phyllis Bray stayed with him on occasion & both of them painted in the area, hence this view. #JohnCooper #Dorset #EastLondonGroup

Tulips! Red, pink, white, purple, yellow! Glorious!

PS! Something very strange was that there were birds but almost no insects in the Keukenhof. I think between is we spotted three bees in three or more hours.

Close up of two figures from a barrel organ, striking bells. The expression of the standing figure on the left, who is wearing a pink blouse and blue skirt, is obscured by her bell. The seated figure on the left, in green blouse, brown skirt and gold ankle boots, is holding her bell and seething. She can’t wait to give you a piece of her mind.

To end: one of the ladies on the barrel organ was NOT having a happy time…

Looking down on pink tulips and blue wood anemones and white grape hyacinth.

& at the end there was the annual flower parade. But I have no good pictures of that.

View from the Keukenhof across a dijk to tulip fields, stripes of yellow, orange, pink, white, like a brilliant sunset lying on the ground.

After we had enjoyed the garden, we hired bikes and cycled round the tulip fields. The great slabs of vibrant colour were like nothing else I have seen. You cannot capture them in photographs.

White tulips flushed with pink.

The place was packed. It was peak tulip moment, I think. About 20 per cent of the visitors were middle-aged British women; another 30 per cent were beautiful young ladies posing among the flowers for their Instagram accounts.

Close-up of paeony-like tulip, flame-coloured, and daffodils.

It was quite overwhelming.

Tulips: white and yellow, a few orange ones too.

The flowers, mostly tulips, were amazing. So beautiful! So much colour!

A large flowerbed filled with tulips of varying sizes and shapes: red, white, purple, yellow. One tree.

On Saturday we went to the Keukenhof near Amsterdam

Photograph of canal waters, along the canal is a row of old Dutch houses painted black, with lovely Dutch gables.

Photograph looking down a canal towards a bridge, spring trees and black Dutch townhouses along the banks.

And here are some canals in the sunshine:

The Figure III, screenprint from 1982 work by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The picture shows two colourful, graffiti-like figures, on the left Basquiat, on the right Suzanne Mallouk. They are surrounded by words and symbols.

Spent yesterday in Amsterdam! Glorious, but busy. Here is one of the screen prints from The Figure portfolio, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, in the MOCO:

What a beautiful memory! & well done to your father for saying that. It's so easy to let these things go unspoken, because you assume that the other person must know what you're thinking. But actually it's very important to say them.

Have a lovely day!

Yes yes! Make it happen!

eliot looks a bit angry, woolf suspicious

i like this photo where it looks like you've interrupted t.s. eliot and virginia woolf in the middle of planning your murder

This is so good! Is it a thing? Will there be more?

The proofs for A Scrap of Moss & Magick have come through for me to check! They look gorgeous. Am very excited.

Would love to show you the illustrations for the chapter headings & the lovely typeface, but then I'd have to kill you. Which would be a pity.

Congratulations to everyone on the shortlists! #booksky

An 18th century moon mission ~ this photograph-like image of a gibbous Moon, with the dark patches of the Sea of Serenity and the Sea of Tranquillity, is actually a remarkable pastel created by English painter John Russell, way back in 1795

Congratulations!

#ukkidlit #kidlituk

Don't get left behind & don't volunteer for anything, is my advice to you.

Hm. That's a bit worrying. It makes you sound more like minor-character-who's-about-to-get-picked-off than Indiana Jones.

Sounds terrific!

(I mean, normally with other hens. Ruby and I don't do this habitually.)