Blog
In the jungle…
20 January, 2010
There must be something in the water – following hard on the heels of Chiara’s trip to see Chicago, I went to see The Lion King and came bounding out of the Lyceum theatre on Saturday with a whole raft of Disney’s best songs ricocheting around my head. And when I’m not fully-conscious of it, […]
When Customer Service fails…
19 January, 2010
I should have had Broadband up and running in my house by now. I spent over two hours on the phone with Talk Talk‘s Customer Service last night to find out why it had not been installed as yet. It was a call which involved being passed round every one of their departments, sitting in […]
Sleep Talkin’ Man
18 January, 2010
“I’m baking pillows. Burn them slowly, keeps them fluffy! Mmmmmm, pillows.” During a dinner with friends on Friday night we somehow got on to the topic of sleeptalking. My friend’s boyfriend insists that she laughs in her sleep, sometimes so much that she wakes herself up. I thought that makes a nice change from the […]
Why delete one of the best songs?
15 January, 2010
Last week I went to see the musical Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre (and now consequently break out into renditions of Mr Cellophane and All that Jazz when feeling bored). I’d recently rewatched the movie version so the songs were all familiar to me – except for one that is, the one about ‘class’. And it’s probably my […]
What do you mean?
14 January, 2010
Sometimes the written word can be misread or misinterpreted. And there are some things that really shouldn’t be left open to interpretation. When my Yahoo News bulletin flashed up an article from SkyNews about a Japanese student who was arrested after driving for four miles with the body of an 80-year-old pensioner lodged in her […]
Worms on order
12 January, 2010
One of my friends bought me this book for Christmas and considering the snowy weather keeping us indoors all weekend, I got to reading. We had a fairly successful summer last year of growing a few of our own vegetables and tomatoes – even now some of our herbs seem to be resolutely battling through […]
Big Brother…and Little Baldwin Brother
8 January, 2010
As mentioned in previous blogs, I have recently moved flat. And in the process, unsubscribed to SKY Digital TV (2010 is all about saving…) which means for about two weeks I have been surviving on terrestrial televion. Which consequently means (and you’ll note it’s taken me a good five days to own up to this) […]
Feeling ebooky
6 January, 2010
You may remember back a few months to when I was full of the joys of our hot-off-the-presses ebooks: five brave titles that went out into the digital world as ambassadors for the A&B list – see here. Since then we’ve been working getting other titles converted, being picky in these untested waters, of course, […]
The Scrabble Mafia
5 January, 2010
My family are Scrabble nuts. There is nothing we like better than to finish off an evening scheming over the triple word score, agonising over too many i’s or hurling insults at each other for ‘not opening up the board!’ My Ouma is 93 years old this year and she is the Scrabble queen. She […]
We’re back!
4 January, 2010
WHOOSH! (The sound of something hurtling past) What was that? Oh yes, that would be The Christmas Holidays. Yes, we’re back! (Did you miss us?) We’re sitting here with the heating cranked up, sifting through the mass of emails in our inboxes and getting stuck into work again – in my case armed with copious […]
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
23 December, 2009
I moved house over the weekend and I now finally have a Christmas tree. It’s our last day in the office today and this evening will see me holding a bauble in one hand and a glass of mulled wine in the other – decorating my tree. It will be the perfect way to mark this new start […]
Best viral ads of 2009
22 December, 2009
As we reach the end of the year, it’s inevitable that we are inundated with ‘Best of 2009’ lists. No matter what the topic – best books, best gadgets, best TV moments, best music singles, most viewed YouTube videos… you name it. So, since this year has seen the launch of our new website, and, for me, been an […]
My Xmas Holiday Book List
21 December, 2009
It’s that wonderful time of year when, with a holiday on the horizon, I’m planning my reading list with care. If I was famous, and flew by private jet so had no baggage restrictions and had my luggage carted around for me, my bags would be filled to the brim with books. But as it […]
Judging a person by what they read
18 December, 2009
I am currently in between reads. I finished The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and now am impatiently waiting for my sister to finish Andre Agassi’s new autobiography Open so I can read it. I’m a big tennis fan and my sister professes that it has the best opening chapter she’s ever read. So, as I was […]
The angel/fairy debate
16 December, 2009
It might be verging on the ludicrous, but my hubby and I were arguing the other night over whether the creature perching on the top of our Christmas tree was an angel or a fairy. Don’t get me started, but I have been subsumed into the Crooks tradition that only an angel/fairy on top of […]
Xmas tips – free stuff, offers and deadlines
15 December, 2009
A few quick thoughts if you (like me) find yourself in the midst of a last-minute panic about Xmas presents. Don’t miss the chance to win a free book, in time for you to to wrap up and put under the tree by visiting Sleuths’ Ink Blog featuring Richard Jay Parker as the guest blogger. […]
The lesser-known Christmas traditions…
14 December, 2009
When I was younger I had an Italian friend who got a lump of coal on Christmas. I remember being shocked – a lump of coal? But then she started gnawing at the black lump in her hand and I realised my mistake. Her version of Father Christmas (La Befana) was not as mean as […]
The not-so-Oxford-Dictionary definition for ‘caboose’…
11 December, 2009
We recently ran a competition to see who could come up with the best alternative definition for the word ‘Caboose’ (read our previous blog). Well, let me tell you I’ve never had so much fun getting entries in! You are a funny lot you Allison & Busby fans! Hats off to your imagination! We asked […]
Favourite things at Xmas
9 December, 2009
I’m a sucker for a number of things at this time of year as the urge to get all Christmassey descends upon me. Firstly, beautiful stationery. Particularly gorgeous, thick pads and journals, cards and I was even drooling over be-a-utiful bookplates online the other day. Secondly, cookery books (featuring James Martin if possible…ahem…) with plenty […]
Cold Green Fingers
8 December, 2009
At this time of the year I almost forget I have a garden. In the summer, while the sun still shines, I’ll happily potter about when I get home from work. But in the winter, when it’s pitch black outside and usually raining or freezing cold, it’s not quite as appealing. I’m also never sure […]
Getting that Christmas feeling
7 December, 2009
This weekend we took my little nephew to the Winter Wonderland fair in Hyde Park for his first experience on a merry-go-round. This was followed by an electric Reindeer ride, video footage of which will no doubt be replayed incessantly to family members over Christmas – what with me looking ecstatic on the back of […]
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