The abysmal weather made it a particularly good day to sit indoors reading the weekend papers and on Saturday it was lovely to see two pieces about Allison & Busby authors, Jessica Mann and Michael Bond.

In Saturday’s Guardian, Jessica Mann – author of the bestelling non-fiction book about child evacuees Out of Harm’s Way, the semi-factual crime novel, The Mystery Writer (Allison & Busby), and now a new release The Fifties Mystique (Quartet) – writes about her resentment at life as a housewife in the 60s. In one of my earlier blog posts this month, I had chuckled in disbelief at a 1950s advert featuring the ‘perfect housewife’, and in her article Jessica underlines the frustrating reality of those faux Golden Years: ‘It is understandable that women today, who work long hours out of financial need, might yearn for more time at home. But distance has lent enchantment to that view of the 1950s and and 60s…I have a faded newspaper article from the early 60s instructing wives how to welcome the heroic breadwinner home. It included gems as ‘”Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours,” and “Remember, he is the master of the house…You have no right to question him.”‘ Read the full article here: What do mean, the good old days?

The Saturday Telegraph interviewed Michael Bond – author of the delightful Monsieur Pamplemousse mystery series, and creator of Paddington Bear – seeing as he has just released the 13th Paddington Bear adventure, Paddington Races Ahead. Appropriately joining in the Olympic celebrations, this adventure sees the bear mistaken for a Peruvian hurdler competing in the London 2012 Games, but what interested me more about the article was that I learned two surprising things. Firstly, that Paddington Bear may never have come into being as Bond was almost killed at age 15 whilst working at the BBC office in Caversham which was hit during an air raid:”’I’m lucky to be here. The first person I came across was a girl with her legs blown off,” he recalls. “And the second an old man holding his false teeth”‘. The second was that every Paddington book written has always threatened to be the last:‘”Whenever I finish a book I vow never to write another.”‘ Thankfully Michael Bond doesn’t keep his promises to himself and we can hopefully enjoy many more adventures to come.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager