Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to everyone!
We have had a lovely, quiet day at home opening presents, eating seafood, drinking wine and now eating chocolates and drinking cups of tea! The wet weather that was forecast for our area did not come through and we have had a bright, sunny and a very warm day - a perfect Australian Christmas.
I'm now relaxing with my new copy of the BBC edition of Pride and Prejudice on DVD while glancing over at our Christmas tree to admire the gorgeous decorations - especially the Royal Doulton tea cup and teapot given to me by my best friend and my boy - they know me so well!

Persephone Secret Santa - 2010

This was my second year joining in the Persephone Secret Santa fun organised by Claire.

I have heard that some people are still waiting for their books to arrive due to the rather extreme weather the UK is experiencing at the moment but my secret santa must have been very, very organised as I received my package quite a while ago now and of course I was so excited that I opened it straight away!

A very big Persephone thank you to my santa, Natalie from Coffee and a Book Chick - I feel very spoilt as Natalie was extremely generous and sent me two books, The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski and The Far Cry by Emma Smith. Both of these books sound wonderful and I am going to enjoy reading them over my Christmas break - thank you so much Natalie!

On a superficial note - I also adore the endpapers, and therefore the bookmarks, of each of these books too - right up my alley!!

Summer is Here!

Summer has taken a while to arrive this year and while it is being predicted we are going to be having quite a rainy season at the moment the true summer weather seems to be kicking in - and bringing with it some of my very favourite things...

Time to read...

Fresh flowers inside...

And out


Summer fruits

And Christmas!

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Having never read A Christmas Carol I had decided that 2009 was the year to change this and my partner helped by buying me this beautiful edition of the book as a Christmas present.

I was familiar with the basic story line of the book, nasty, mean natured, Christmas hating Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future one Christmas Eve. What the ghosts/spirits show to him over the course of this night convince him to change his ways and take the Christmas spirit into his life.

It sounds like such a simple concept, and in many ways it is, but I am struck by how many levels this book has and I can see I could read it over and over again and take something different away from it each time.

I am normally hesitant to read books with illustrations as I feel they can sometimes create alternate images to the ones you may have in your head for particular characters or scenes but I felt the gorgeous illustrations in this edition of the book complimented the story, and my imagination, perfectly.

I want to concentrate on reading more Charles Dickens during 2010 so this is a great way to start I think, a book to treasure into the future - there will be no "Bah, Humbug" here!

Happy Christmas to All!

Persephone Secret Santa

The discovery of Persephone Books has been a new delight to my reading and book collecting this year so I was very excited to join in Stacy's Persephone Secret Santa to help share the joy and add to my own small but ever growing collection.

I was very excited to receive my Persephone package in the mail a little while ago and I did manage to hold out a couple of days before tearing open the gorgeous pink wrapping to unveil The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett from the very thoughtful Sarah at What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate.

Sarah wrote in her card accompanying the book that after reading over my blog she thought this book would be one that I would enjoy. I haven't actually read it yet but I think you have made the perfect choice for me Sarah - just by reading the extract from the book in its front cover and from the description on the Persephone web site (which likens it to Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day in tone) tells me I am going to love it. Thank you for taking so much care and thought with your selection - I love my new Persephone!

Happy "grey" Christmas everyone!

Persephone Secret Santa

I am only newly introduced to the world of Persephone Books but I am already wishing I lived much closer to London so that I could visit the shop on a regular basis. So, when I saw the post over at Book Psmith about the Persephone Secret Santa I was keen to jump on board - even more so when I saw that people in all parts of the world can be involved!

You have until November 10th to join in so head on over to Book Psmith if you would like to put your name down for the Christmas fun.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!

We had a lovely Christmas day and everyone was extremely spoilt! I actually didn't receive all that many bookish presents apart from the new Anita Shreve book, Testimony, from my parents.

My favourite present came from my boy - a gorgeous Royal Albert collectable tea cup and saucer set (I collect tea cups and love having tea parties and pretending I live in the early 1900's!).

Hope everyone's day was peaceful and happy.