You’ve spent months carefully hand-making a cosplay outfit to replicate your favourite anime character – what’s the perfect accessory to complete the look? Why, a Books Are My Bag tote, of course! Kathryn and Lydia took a trip to Earls Court on Saturday to check out some of the best costumes the London Film and Comic […]
I am about to embark (I use the word advisedly, as I certainly feel like I could give the new HMS Queen Elizabeth a run for its money) on maternity leave. While I’m excited about my little one’s imminent arrival, the idea of not coming into A&B HQ every week is still a very alien […]
I made my way around the spectacular Cut-Outs exhibition at the Tate Modern on Friday, and I left feeling overwhelmingly inspired by the abundant positivity and energy that beams out of Matisse’s later works. One of the most innovative painters of the twentieth-century alongside Duchamp and Picasso, health problems in the last seventeen years of […]
The Story Museum in Oxford has had a great idea: celebrating childhood story heroes. The exhibition, called 26 Characters, features some of Britain’s best-loved storytellers transforming themselves into the characters they loved as children. Writers included are Anthony Horowitz, Terry Pratchett and Malorie Blackman. Although I think my must-see would be Neil Gaiman as a certain woodland creature […]
How much do you rely on technology to communicate with friends and colleagues nowadays? I’m going to guess it’s a lot. But as I’ve noticed recently, there’s a politics to these digital discussions, unchartered territory when it comes to kisses, smiley faces and sign offs – and that’s before you’ve even visited the brave new […]
The National Literary Trust is running a new project this summer: Books about Town. Hoping to encourage readers to sit down with a good book, books as diverse as Mary Poppins, The Wind in the Willows and Agatha Christie’s various Poirot adventures are being re-imagined as a limited series of eye-catching benches dotted about London. […]
As umbrellas went up and trendy festival goers assembled onto the muddy fields of Glastonbury this weekend – I chose not to stand in the rain. Instead, I chose the cosy velour of the cinema. Last week saw the UK release of The Fault in Our Stars, the film adaptation of the chart-topping YA novel […]
Through the wonder of twitter I have seen a few fabulous pictures of people’s mini free libraries around the country and the world. Whether in disused phone boxes, as we highlighted in last week’s blog, in other nooks and crannies or in little bird-box-like constructions, there’s a growing variety out there. Check out this blog […]
Fitzrovia’s beloved restaurant Honey & Co. have finally got their own book. It was only a matter of time. The tiny cafe on Warren Street has a religious following of foodie fans (I am one of them) and now I can experiment with the recipes at home. In their debut book, the restaurant owners share […]
How did you enjoy the beautiful weather last weekend? I was at a friend’s flat-warming BBQ, eating some great food and relaxing in her courtyard garden (very exciting, as private outdoors space in London is still a novelty for most of us). I had just eating my seventh chargrilled king prawn (jealous yet?) when I […]
As you might expect in an office filled with bookish types, we’re partial to a good font at A&B. In fact, spotting the ‘Morganville Vampires’ font has become something of an office game, with our former colleague Chiara the current champion with most far-flung points. The picture below was taken a suburb Sydney. But I […]
I’m not what you’d call squeamish in the stereotypical sense of the word but when I think about to pain and permanence of tattoos I do a whole body shiver. And, as it happens, tattoos have been cropping up quite a bit this week. Firstly, I’m currently reading Salt and Storm, and have just finished […]
Over the years the rise of the mobile phone has left many phone boxes falling into disrepair. Often vandalised, they appear on street corners looking rather forlorn and neglected. But BT stepped in and launched their Adopt a Kiosk scheme. Then a group of innovative volunteers in Brockley, Lewisham decided to repair, renovate and turn their phone […]
The Father’s Day celebration over the weekend got me thinking about the parent-child relationships in some of our favourite A&B titles. See below my pick of the most functional and dysfunctional of Allison and Busby’s fictional families: Tom Perrota: Little Children This comical bestseller is a classic that proves that mums and dads come in […]
Are you eagerly anticipating a summer holiday soon? If you’re like me, your idea of heaven is doing a lot of not very much on a beach somewhere with a very good supply of reading material and cocktails. But, while they sound far more active than my usual getaway, I admit to being tempted by […]
Book lovers are always on the look-out for all things book related. Everything from literary mugs to bookish wallpaper is of interest to me. And imagine my delight when I found The Fable bar. It’s a bar/restaurant in Holborn, London inspired by the fantasy world of fairy tales where every detail tells a story. To be […]
Did any one else read Sophie’s blog post last week and agree that poetry tends to fall off the average reader’s radar (and that we should probably make more effort to head to the poetry section next time we’re searching out books)? Since then, it seems that the wonderful world of the interweb has been […]
Yesterday there was a bit of a furore over comments Richard Dawkins allegedly made at the Cheltenham Science Festival about the ‘pernicious’ effect of fairy tales on children. Dawkins now says he was misquoted and that fairy tales are probably, on balance (10/10 for the eloquent, equivocating science-speak), ‘beneficial’, see Bookseller article. Just as well, […]
I am currently reading Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes – a hilarious political satire where Hitler wakes up alive and well in Berlin, 2011. People think he’s a flawless impersonator and it’s not long before he gets his own TV show. It’s a such a simple and brilliant idea for a book. And it […]
I was happy to see last week that another independent bookshop is showing its determination and canny, in order to save itself from closing down. I was especially pleased to see that it was October Books, based in Southampton, very close to where I grew up. After 37 years in the business, the cooperative-run bookshop […]
Sometimes it’s nice to branch out of your ordinary reading habits. I recently did so myself after finding a poetry anthology in Waterstones Wandsworth. I was heading to the check out when I noticed a stand of books to one side: Staying Alive, Being Alive and Being Human. They are three anthologies, each consisting of […]