CREATIVE SELF-HELP THREE WAYS: Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey; Ten Things About Writing by Joanne Harris and The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. Reviews by Penny Dolan.

One day, I will set aside my addiction to books about writing and creativity but for now, I'm dabbling in:and among this trio.

 DAILY RITUALS: WOMEN AT WORK by Mason Currey.

After a friend mentioned reading a few pages of "Daily Rituals" each morning, when I came across what seemed the title on Audible, I downloaded it. Unfortunately, the longer I Iistened, the less fond I felt if Currey's American accent, and the more annoyed with example after example of another male writer, artist, philosopher or so on lounging in their bath or secluded in their library or off on solitary walks while servants and wives brought coffee and meals and kept children quiet and out of the way. 

I was still quiet cross when I spotted Currey's more recent title displayed in my local independent bookshop: Daily Rituals: Women at Work.. This was the book my friend had mentioned.

 Currey begins with a long, extremely apologetic chapter about the lack of  women in his first book, He has also created new classifications for his wide-ranging examples, using titles like The Vortex; Pure Neglect; A Subtle and Well Ordered Plan, Deadly Determination. Some names I knew - again, often chosen from a US perspective - but others I did not. For example, in the last chapter, From Rage To Despair and Back Again, along with Djuna Barnes, Jean Rhys, Doris Lessing, Natalia Ginsberg he offers three fairly names: the artist Kathe Kollwitz, the playright Lorraine Hansberry and the poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

Currey's three hundred or so women are spread across time, place and race. He offers glimpses of creative practice and habits, from painters, sculptors, writers, photographers, fashion designers through to musicians and scientists and more. Many seem just as focused on getting their work done as the men in the earlier book, and, so far, are not necessarily kinder to their servants or lovers.

At the moment, as I'm unable to go anywhere, Daily Rituals: Women at Work does give glimpses of other working lives, some more interesting than others. It is very much a printed book to dip into, a title to feel nosey and curious about and to have on a bedside shelf for a moment's reading when insomnia starts nagging. 

The double straplines are How Great Women Make Time and Find Inspiration and Get to Work. I am not sure that I'd follow any of the life examples I've read so far, but the women within these pages do make an interesting company.

TEN THINGS ABOUT WRITING by Joanne Harris.

I have this title on my kindle, but the book - now published - looks boldly attractive, practical and accessible. "Build Your Story One Word at a Time" is the strap line.

Six years ago, in response to questions about writing, Harris posted occasional hashtagged threads on Twitter: Ten Tweets about this or that particular aspect of writing, noted down in the hope she might "help, encourage or motivate" people eager to improve their writing skills

TEN THINGS . . . is that advice, collected together in book form as requested by her many tweetlings, where the prose, though expanded, retains its succinct, easy "Ten Things" style. Harris moves swiftly through a range of topics: writing habits and headspace; the essentials of creating a story; the deeper issues of structure and pacing as well as advice on the whole editing, agenting and publishing scenario, together with a valuable final section for the times when things don't go right.

This is what I'd call an encouraging book. Harris writes in a friendly and positive tone, but there is a sound teacherly structure and purpose to her suggestions. Though there was little that was new or surprising,TEN THINGS . . .  felt the kind of book to open when one is in need of a bit of brisk chat with a writing chum and there isn't a real-world one to hand. 

 "Every act of creation brings hope; every little thing you build lifts you a little higher." 

 THE CREATIVE HABIT: Learn to Use It For Life by Twyla Tharp.

"An exuberant, philosophically ambitious self-help book for the creatively challenged."

I cannot dance or play musical instruments or pot, or paint beautifully but I have always been fascinated by the creative life of artists. In this title, the dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp offers a rigorous analysis of what the making of art needs and demands.

I heard the book as audio first too, but this time all was perfectly matched. Tharp's brisk determined American voice left one in no doubt as to the material being covered, the contemporary examples she referred to, nor her own work-ethic and intentions. Nor, as Ilstened, was I left in much doubt as to the kind of task master she would be to anyone involved in her productions. I'm sure I stood up straighter as I listened to Tharp's voice. 

THE CREATIVE HABIT is an attractive and spacious book that makes stylish use of layout, typography and white and grey pages. (Just riffling through the pages, one feels a little more artistic!)  

The chapters have intriguing titles like "I Walk into A White Room", "Rituals of Preparation";"Harness Your Memory"; "Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with the Box" or "Ruts and Grooves."

Within these, Tharp offers accounts of her own and other artist's practice - musicians, photographers, painters and so on - but she interweaves these examples with questions, inviting the reader to try out some thoughtful exercises and examine their own practice and behaviour.  An early task is the writing of one's own creative autobiography, answering such questions as What was the first creative moment you had? Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it? How do you begin your day? What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?"  and so on. Throughout her book,Twyla Tharp suggests that the knowledge and the use of sound, creative habits can support an artist during good and difficult times and into the future. 

As an awkward non-dancer, I'd worried that Tharp's thoughts would be irrelevant to my writing self. However, turning the pages and hearing someone speaking so strongly from within a different creative tradition and practice was both refreshing and inspiring. 

Good luck with your own year ahead.

Penny Dolan

@pennydolan1

Kids TV in the time of Covid, a success story - Ciaran Murtagh

Being a writer, the logistics of how I do my job in times of Covid doesn't change that much. Sure I might drink more Coke Zero and stay in my shed longer than is healthy, but I still use my brain and my computer to try and find funny things for people to do. 

The same cannot be said for everyone else who helps make TV. While I don't have to do anything different,  they've had to reinvent their entire jobs. 

Given that some of the TV shows I contributed to over lockdown are starting to see the light of day, I wanted to give a shout out to those unsung, gunge splattered heroes of kids TV who have done everything Eastenders and Strictly managed to do only quicker, funnier and with about an eighth of the budget. 

First up -Crackerjack. There's a whole new series on the way and all of it was filmed back in October in a time of great uncertainty. The Christmas special aired on BBC One over, well Christmas, and you can still see it HERE

Not only was it filmed in Manchester, at a time when Manchester was facing flip flopping restrictions, it is a show that relies heavily on a full studio audience bellowing it's catchphrase repeatedly at the top of their voices - not very Covid compliant. There's also lots of slapstick and non Covid compliant gunge with kids battling against each other in a series of silly games. 

Almost everything had to change. 

The studio audience went and games were made socially distanced. The presenters Sam and Mark were put in one bubble, the sketch cast in another and all the kids on the show had to maintain social distance from each other while doing very silly things. The crew had to work differently too. The only time anyone got close to the kids they had to be in a full body suit costume - the frankly terrifying cabbage monster - but it was the only way they could make Double or Drop work. 

They got ten episodes made, the very least you can do is check it out! I bet you won't even spot the joins, which is testament to the work that went in to making it happen. Take a bow. 

Big Fat Like began a few weeks ago. This show was filmed on location and is a parody of the internet - no pressure then. 

It was filmed over the summer as areas went in and out of lockdown. To find a location that they could definitely use for the duration of the shoot took a number of tries and a lot of patience. The cast were in a bubble in the location house, and the production crew were kept outside in a van, filming the whole thing as if it were an Outside Broadcast. Sketch shows are notoriously difficult to get right at the best of times, to film one while the majority of the crew aren't even in the same building is a stroke of genius. To make it funny to boot - take a bow! Catch up HERE. 

Danny and Mick began filming on the 9th March. They then stopped filming pretty quickly afterwards and started again in the summer. They have just delivered two series worth - or nineteen episodes -  of top quality laugh out loud telly and it all starts on CBBC TODAY.  

Now if that isn't something to shout about I don't know what is. Filming on location in a leisure centre is hard enough. Continuing to film while it pops in and out of lockdown and customers are allowed in and out of the venue is insane! 

The cast had to isolate for two weeks before filming started and then they remained in cast and crew bubbles throughout as they shot all 19 episodes for the series in under three weeks during August and September. To have finished filming in September and have it all ready to go by the first week in January demands a medal. They won't get one so this'll have to do.  Please check it out. I genuinely love this show. In a parallel universe it's on BBC One every Saturday. In this one you can find it HERE

Those shows were all live action, which posed a certain set of challenges, Dave Spud is a cartoon and that posed a whole load of different ones. 

We started writing this one in January 2020 and the first episodes hit the screen right after Christmas. You know the long list of names you see at the end of a cartoon? They all worked on this show without ever being in the same room. Some of them weren't even in the same country. The voice talent often recorded their parts remotely, sometimes in makeshift home studios with direction being given over a video link. Once again, I have no idea how they did it, I just know they did. Dave Spud is a quintessentially British cartoon. If you haven't seen it please do have a look - Basement Jaxx did the theme tune. It is THAT good. 

That's a small selection of what's been coming through, but by no means everything I - and many others - have worked on. All have kept going with a cheery disposition despite massive and varying disruption, making television for children because it's what they do best. 

I hope you enjoy watching it when it comes out and if you do, this year, of all years, take the time to watch the credits - these guys deserve every single one. 

My intriguing Christmas gift book. by Sharon Tregenza

 

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET

by Brian Selznick

I was lucky enough to get this book as a Christmas gift. The friend who bought it for me had worked on the film version by Martin Scorsese (which she says is nowhere near as good as the book, by the way).

I've heard of it, as a Caldecott Medal winner, but know nothing about the story so I thought I'd give an overview of the actual book and then post a review next time.

Firstly, I love the heft - it's a big ol' brick of a book. Then when you look inside...

It's crammed full of stunning illustrations. Even the print pages have a black border which makes them look precious and special. It looks like a picture book/chapter book amalgam which is interesting in itself. 

If the substance is anywhere close to the style, I'm in for a massive treat. The blurb says...

With 284 pages of original drawings, and combining elements of picture book, graphic novel and film, Brian Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience. Here is a stunning cinematic tour de force from a boldly innovative storyteller, artist, and bookmaker.

I expect loads of you have already read it and possibly seen the film too. I'd be interested to hear what you think. Book? Film? Both?

Anyway, a lovely, lovely gift and I can't wait to dive in. 

www.sharontregenza.com

Email: sharontregenza@gmail

Adventures with languages. Part One; Welsh by Steve Way

Thinking about how our blogs are generally about how we use language, predominantly in our case to bring stories and situations to life, I thought it would be interesting to write about my experiences and musings about other languages.

My first girlfriend was Welsh and when it began to look as though our association was going to become serious, she decided that she would like me to learn her mother tongue. At the time, back in the early 80s, a series of books, a precursor to the [Difficult subject you want to learn about] – for dummies (who aren’t really dummies) range, called [So and so] made simple, such as Einstein made simple or Genetics made simple, seemed to be very popular. All of these tomes alleged to make the complex comprehensible and were of a reassuringly consistent length – or outer thickness at any rate. (I certainly never read the contents other than a few pages of the forthcoming example.) They were all just under an inch wide. The only exception was Welsh made simple, which was nearly two inches thick. Einstein eat your heart out.

Despite the daunting thickness of the tome I volunteered to master this apparently straightforward language. I sat outside her parents’ house on a sunny afternoon (it wasn’t raining!) and began wrestling with Welsh.

As luck would have it the first chapter taught how to say, 'I like coffee' or for the truly ambitious, 'I like tea'. Despite the wrestling match taking a couple of hours or so, with the Welsh language definitely winning, I did manage to absorb the knowledge, made simple in this beginning chapter – the only one I was ever to read. Just as my head had stopped spinning, by remarkably brilliantly timing, my girlfriend came out and asked if I might like a cup of tea.

Dramatically I slammed the book shut as though I had fully absorbed the contents of Welsh made simple and boldly declared, ‘Rwy’n hoffi te’. She nearly fainted.

I learned a few more words and phrases, such a ‘good morning’ (‘bore da’) etc but the only other sentence I acquired from my book was, ‘Rwy’n siarad Cymraeg’ i.e. ‘I speak Welsh’. It occurred to me that on its own this is a profoundly useless sentence to learn in virtual isolation from the main body of the language.

Imagine the scene.

An accident has occurred; several of us rush over to the injured party. The first to reach the victim looks up at us and declares, ‘I think he’s Welsh. I think he’s trying to tell us something… does anyone speak Welsh?’ Instinctively I cry out, ‘Rwy’s siarad Cymraeg!’ Everyone turns to me hopefully, even the injured party raises his head a little. I back off slightly… perhaps the only useful contributions I can make at this point is tell the victim that I like tea… and possibly, though not completely truthfully, that I also like coffee. Let’s hope the accident occurs in the morning or conversation will soon run dry…

~~~~~

A couple of times we visited the ancient welsh capital proudly bearing the name Machynlleth. I have a sneaky suspicion that the ancient warriors of Wales, so often at odds with the English, created this name in an act of genius. It’s pretty much as sword in the stone scenario. Unless you are truly Welsh – and even then, it’s not a guarantee – you definitely cannot pronounce that name.

Imagine another scene.

The English King’s tent on the border of Wales. Inside, the king and his generals are pouring over a map of Wales.

King: So where be the capital of this rebellious nation?

Norfolk: (Pointing) It be here my lord…

King: Situated where it be, it should be an easy target. What name have the revolting natives given the place?

Norfolk: I believe it be called ‘Mac on Leith’ M’Lord.

Northumberland: No, I was told it be ‘Mick un Luff’.

Essex: My noble lords ye both be in error, it be ‘Mick in Leaf’ I believe.

The king’s generals begin quarrelling.

King: Forget it we’ll invade Wrexham.

Norfolk: Be that not ‘Wrecks ‘em’ M’Lord?

King: Shut up and raise the army!

~~~~~

Happy New Year everyone!

Or as Google Translator would have it (I definitely wouldn’t know) Blwyddyn Newydd Hapus pawb!

~~~~~

Recent publication ‘I’m going to be a Computer Programmer (Careers in STEM)’ One of a series of books for children exploring careers in STEM subjects

ISBN 1910828904

AWFULLY BIG BLOG ADVENTURE'S NEW YEAR 2021 QUIZ by Penny Dolan

 

It's the first of January 2021 and the beginning of a new year. Let's hope it will be better for many than the one that came before.

Right now, a post about New Year Resolutions or Inspirational Goals doesn't seem to fit my mood, so here - instead - is the Awfully Big Blog Adventure New Year Quiz instead. 

Appropriately, the twelve questions are about Beginnings found in well-known Children's Books. I wonder which ones you'll recognise?

Are you ready? Found a pen and a scrap of paper? Or shout them aloud over your mince pie, along with "Easy Peasy." And you don't need to fill in any deletions. Steady? Go! With no Googling either!

Wishing you Good Luck!  

And even more Good Luck and Better Times for the year ahead too.  

(nb Answers can be found below the second set of New Year Bells)

1. The Sun did not shine, it was too wet to play so we sat in the house on that cold, cold wet day.

2.  In a hole in the ground there lived a _____________

 

3. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of  The Adventures of ______ __________ but that ain't no matter.

4. One sunny Sunday the caterpillar hatched out of a tiny egg.

5.  It was Mrs May who first told me about them.

6 . There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife.

7.  "Where's Papa going with that ax?"

8.  Mrs _________'s Academy for  Witches stood at the top of a high mountain surrounded by pine forests.

 

9.  When ________ _______  was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever.

10. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.

11. It was a dark and blustery afternoon in Spring and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the old North Sea.

 

12. The first place I can well remember was a large, pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.

 

That's it! Well done, probably, and hooray!  

And every good wish for your year ahead.

(With Impressive Resolutions or Without.)

Penny Dolan

@pennydolan1

 

 

 

 

Hello Again. Here's the Answers!

1 The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

2 The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

3 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

4 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

5 The Borrowers by Mary Norton

6 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

7 Charlotte's Web by E.B.White

8 The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy

9 The Secret Garden by F. Hodgson Burnett

10 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S.Lewis

11 Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

12 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Extra, extra, read all about it!

 Many thanks to Dianne Hofmeyr, who bravely and boldly ventured forth into Tier 4 London to take these pictures for us of some of the Christmas window displays in some of the splendid independent bookshops in the city.

Let's hope it's not long before they can open their doors again, and welcome back their enthusiastic and book-loving customers to browse freely!

Happy Christmas!

These first two are of Daunt Books.

Nomad Books in Fulham.

Above and below, South Kensington Books - note Dianne's own latest book, Paris Cat, illustrated by Piet Grobler, at the top right.

Merry Christmas! - Sue Purkiss

This is the last post on ABBA for this year; we'll be back on 1st January.

A huge thank you to you, our readers, and to all our contributors, who have provided such a mix of entertaining and informative posts: I hope they've helped to lighten up this strange year. I think next year is probably going to have a pretty shaky start, but let's hope that it gets into the swing of things as spring brings hope and light back to us.

I'm going to leave you with some images of Christmas at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, near where I live. It's always a very special place, surrounded as it is by the most beautiful and peaceful gardens, and with, of course, the cathedral itself next door - if you haven't visited, and you get the chance, you really should come and see it.

But there was something particularly special about the decorations this year. The tables were set in the style of different periods from the cathedral's long history (800 years this year), and you really felt as if you were moving through time, in company with friendly ghosts. And the exhibition of trees made by local schools from recycled materials was wonderful, showing such creativity and imagination.

So there we are. See you next year!

A mediaeval setting.

I think this was 19th century, but it may have been 18th.

Some of the trees created by schoolchildren.

The cathedral itself, seen from the gardens. The stream at the front comes from one of the wells from which the city takes its name.

Off with the Faeries again by Steve Gladwin

A reappraisal of Faerie Tale, by Raymond Feist

You know how it is? At a certain point in your life you read a book that later, you vaguely remember might have been an influence on your life and creativity? And so you choose to go back to it to see what all the fuss was about. Quite often, of course, it proves to be a damp squib, a shadow of what you remembered.

But there are those times when the sheer thrill of the first read comes back to you all over again. Not only is it all there as you remembered, but there's so much more - so much so that you want to tell everyone about it.

So here goes!

Imagine the dark woods. Imagine the creepy house with a history of bargains and secret cults. Imagine the company of the fey waiting at the top of Erl King Hill, and imagine that they are soon to leave, as their season once more comes to an end. The fair folk make rare appearances nowadays, maybe once or twice in a hundred years.

But there is a treasure buried on the land, one of gold coins so valuable that a few of them alone are worth a small fortune. How did they come here?

Deep within the cellars of the house is a secret room, which, when opened, reveals a safe full of seemingly indecipherable documents, some in languages so ancient they have almost been forgotten.

Despite the presence of two rival courts of faerie and the traditional opposition of the good queen and the evil king, all might have been well if the secret room had been left untouched by the new owners of the house.

--or if they had not destroyed an old pledge by digging up the hidden treasure.

But there is a spirit out in the forest who wants the treasure to be dug up, and who wants the old pact to be broken. To do that, he makes sure that the hidden key to the locked room – is found.

 

So far, so trope, you might say, and turn to something you like the sound of more. But then you’d be missing out on two things; an astoundingly good book - which just keeps on surprising and manipulating the form - and the fact that it is written by a hugely respected writer of fantasy fiction. This book, then, is a one-off, in more ways than one.

The simplicity of the title, Faerie Tale, belies the book’s depth and complexity, let alone the fact that it was written by renowned fantasy writer Raymond E. Feist, author of the classic ‘Rift War’ saga and much more besides. Feist wrote it in 1987 and he has never written anything else remotely like it since.

Sometimes writers take a leap into the dark and experiment with something new. Quite often, depending on how satisfying they might find the experience, or how well it might be received, they may never choose to leap in the same direction again!

But, for me at least, if you decided to write a one-off novel about faerie, you’d be pretty hard-pressed to better this. Here are a few reasons why.

A few nice gold doubloons 

*Faerie Tale is a genuinely scary novel, which treats its subject with great respect. It has believable characters caught in impossibly deadly situations, having no idea at first why this has happened and how it can be resolved.

*The location, especially the house, Erl King Hill itself, and the Troll Bridge, under which the terrifying ‘Bad Thing’ lurks, are powerful, eerie and evocative and in the case of the bridge, make you want to hurry your steps over it as possible.

*’Faerie Tale’ is based on already powerful old tales, which include the warring faeries of Shakespeare’s  A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, the chilling tale of the Erl King himself, the border ballad of Thomas the Rhymer and the Norse tale of Wayland Smith. At no point does the author show any sign that he doesn’t know this material absolutely and has full control of it.            

Arthur Rackham's  'Titania Asleep', (but it's the fact that Puck is lurking in the background with the 'Love in Idleness' juice that really matters!) 

'     

*Of the many similar books that I have read, Faerie Tale carries an almost constant creeping dread entirely in keeping with its subject and plot - a combination of foreboding, but also foreshadowing. The sense of foreboding initially grows over it like a shadow, one which which eats gradually at the characters, their grasp and understanding of what is reality. The second acts more like a future ghost haunting the reader with what might be to come.

*Faerie Tale is always asking questions of us as readers, as well as its characters. It is a novel which encourages questions, but especially on those subjects about which we know next to nothing - the morality and amorality of the faeries and their different factions, the reawakening of ancient enmities, the legacy of betrayals and corruption so old they are only just within the memory.

Richard Dadd - Fairy Feller's Masterstroke - Public Domain

*It also understands the world of faerie. I can’t pretend to have ever been there, although I’ve written about it plenty of times, but Raymond Feist does two rather incredible things in this book. First of all, he manages to bring together the once popular discredited flower faerie version of faerie, as seen most memorably in Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and combine it with something far more Brian Froud and Alan Lee, or – should you have had the chance of reading- Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Lords and Ladies. One minute it’s as if you’re diving full pelt into the famous mad English artist Richard Dadd’s Fairy Fellow’s Masterstroke, which – part English pastoral and part Hieronymous Bosch - has a very disturbing feel if you look at it for long. The next you’re deep in the gloom of the forest from which the great European fairy tale collections of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm originated. The fact that Raymond Feist manages to marry the two and make it work so well is a true testament to both his craft and knowledge, and makes you wonder how he did so, so well.

*Secondly however, there is the rather tricky problem with sex, and particularly with the amorality of the faeries. For me, the author’s true mastery of the faerie world is shown in two early uneasily and erotically charged sequences with the legendary figures of Puck and Wayland Smith and our screenwriter hero Phil Hasting’s daughter Gabrielle, either one of which could have turned into either rape or consensual sex, and neither of which do.

*But it’s the final extended sequence, when Phil’s two eight-year-old twins Sean and Patrick are the pivotal figures in a race against time as the more timid Sean attempts to save his brother Patrick from a fate worse than death, that Feist is truly able to unleash the wonders of faerie. The depictions of the contrasting Fairy courts of Queen and King are portrayed in a quite masterly fashion.

villagephotography wordpress.com

*Finally, there are the characters of Sean and Patrick themselves. There is an unwritten law in Middle Grade Fiction that the main actions must be both led and performed by the young characters. In contrast, in Young Adult fiction, the hero or heroine often acts more like a pseudo adult, than a middle grader on whom adult situations are suddenly forced.

For me, Sean and Patrick are both the best and the best-drawn characters in the book. Because they are twins, they feel things together, like when one is in danger etc. Without giving away any spoilers, it’s the twins who perform the pivotal actions that enable things to be resolved to some degree at least, and it’s clear the author is with them all the way, as he trusts them with a good chunk of the narrative, steering us regularly away from the complicated, often strident world of adults in peril, to the quieter, but often far more immediately horrific closed-in world of the boys, who know that things are wrong from the start.

It’s the boys and their journey which make the novel tick, but uniquely, this is done without us ever feeling as if we’ve been robbed of the adults, their feelings and problems, their burgeoning sexuality, rows and insecurities. If I was to take one thing from the novel that is different from the usual fare, it would be the characters of the boys, our twin narrators to the inconceivable. For all the worries which accumulate around the adults, and Gloria and Phil Hastings’ daughter Gabby in particular, it is the boys, and Sean, in particular, who lead us on this incredible journey into darkness and back out again.

So, as I've made abundantly clear, 'Faerie Tale' - should dark horror/fantasy be your thing, (and I have to say that nowadays it's very rarely mine), is not only well worth rediscovering thirty years later, but infinitely worth the read at any time.

Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist is published by HarperVoyager, (now with a brand new cover) and is also available on Kindle, You'll find copies in all the usual places. Enjoy.

 

 

A load of old baubles - by Lu Hersey

People have been celebrating the turn of the year at midwinter for thousands of years. Originally marking the winter solstice, people decorated their homes with evergreens and fir branches as a reminder of the coming spring. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia over the solstice period, with decorations to honour the god Saturn. With the coming of Christianity, the evergreens came to represent the promise of everlasting life with God. 

Christmas trees came much later, an idea thought up by either Estonians or Latvians (they're still arguing about who thought of it first). Either way, they first appeared in town squares thanks to the Brotherhood of Blackheads. I went down a google rabbit hole to find out more about the Brotherhood of Blackheads, so to save you a bit of time and effort, they were a group of Christian merchants (male, single) who banded together to put down an uprising by the indigenous pagan population of Estonia, who wanted to get rid of Christians and foreigners. The Brotherhood then started an annual Christmas celebration, dancing around the fir trees they put up in the centre of town.

The first indoor tree we know about was erected in in the guild house in Breman in Germany in 1570, and decorated with apples, nuts, pretzels and paper flowers. It possibly wasn't the very first indoor tree, but it's the first one someone took the trouble to make a note of in the town records.  

There are various legends as to why the people of Germany started bringing fir trees into their own homes. The most popular is that Martin Luther was gazing up at the stars sparkling through the trees one night, and thought of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. Luther brought a small tree indoors to tell the story to his children. 

Whatever the truth of this legend, indoor Christmas trees soon became popular throughout Germany, and were decorated with lighted candles (to represent stars), edible treats and roses made of paper or gold foil. A figure of the baby Jesus was placed on the top, later replaced with either a star, to represent the Star of Bethlehem, or an angel, who brought the news of the birth to the shepherds. Glass makers started making tree ornaments, and the Christmas tree bauble was born. 

Tinsel also started in Germany, originally made from beaten silver. The idea behind tinsel is connected to traditional folktales about the Christmas spider. All versions of this folktale centre on a poor family who can't afford to decorate their tree and leave it bare on Christmas Eve. Overnight a spider covers the tree in webs, and on Christmas morning the family awake to find the webs have miraculously turned to silver or gold. To this day, spider ornaments and silver webs for trees are popular in the Ukraine and over much of northern Europe, as they are considered lucky. 

Christmas trees were unknown in Britain until Queen Charlotte (the German wife of King George III) had one set up in Windsor Lodge in 1800. The idea caught on fast, and by Victoria's reign, anybody who was anybody had one in their home. All the first Christmas trees were decorated with lighted candles - which led to rather a lot of house fires. Fortunately someone invented strings of electric lights sometime in the early 20th century, and so these days few of us still run the risk of lighted candles. (Though I know one German family who do, and only put the tree up on Christmas Eve - and have to admit, candles look AMAZING)

Everyone has their own decorating preferences for Christmas trees. Some go for glittering white lights and themed baubles, which look tasteful and classy - and some don't. Our family always has coloured tree lights, for sentimental reasons - my grandmother loved coloured lights and she lived with us when I was a child. Every year, she'd repeat the story of how they reminded her of her honeymoon, which she and my grandfather spent visiting the Blackpool illuminations. Apparently they'd never seen anything so magical. (Of course it was a very long time ago, and neither of them had electricity at home back then). Anyway, our coloured Christmas tree lights remind me of her, and the warmth and love she brought into my life.

My mother aspired to white lights because she thought they were much more tasteful and had real class. But being a child of the war generation that wasted nothing, she could never bring herself to spend money on new white ones until the old ones broke. Unfortunately for her, my grandmother's coloured lights proved immortal (well, allowing for the odd blown bulb every year that my father painstakingly replaced - checking every single bulb until he found the faulty one) and somehow she never managed to achieve her white light goal. 

I often look wistfully at the beautiful white tree lights sparkling in other people's windows, and think of my mother. Perhaps one day I'll get some like the ones she aspired to and put them round the tree in memory of her - and that will tell a different story. And I will wish she could see them, along with the family she didn't live long enough to meet.

Our tree baubles are a hotchpotch, a family history of the last 30 years in bauble form. Some brought back from travels abroad, some given by friends, some chosen in shops, some handmade. Everyone has their personal favourites, and there's an annual squabble about which ones hang nearest the front (though this year, thanks to Covid, I got to dictate. But I missed the squabble. It's part of the tradition). 

If you have a Christmas tree, it probably tells your own story. But whether you do or not, I hope you have a peaceful and stress-free festive season, after what's been a very strange and difficult year for us all.

Lu Hersey 

Dear Santa Booklist by Tracy Darnton

I love receiving new books for Christmas but I'm usually too busy with house guests to sit down and read them. But this year is panning out rather differently. One of the few upsides is that this is going to be a cosy Christmas with only my household and so, for the first time ever, I will be sitting on the sofa with a tin of Quality Street and a stack of books. I may or may not change out of my pyjamas.

 

So here’s my list to Santa of most wanted books to find in my sack on Christmas morning:

 

I follow Joanne Harris on Twitter and find her threads on writing and being an author very helpful. These have been collated into a just published book: Ten Things About Writing. I’m particularly looking forward to the chapter – Why am I doing this, again?

 

I am guilty of stacking up writing guides on the shelf which I dust but never open. One of the few I really like for its relatable simplicity is the screenwriting guide Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, famed for its beat sheet. Sadly it hasn’t made me a planner rather than a pantser, but I do like its sections on how to give your main character more oomph, and the Pope in the Pool trick to hide exposition and many other quirky revelations that will help your writing or at the very least change how you watch movies. So I’d like to see how this is applied to novel writing by author Jessica Brody in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.

 

My concentration for reading has suffered this year, what with one thing and another. So I need a must read which everyone has loved. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell seems to fit the bill and if it’s OK with you, Santa, I’d like the Waterstones special edition. It’s their book of the year, so that’s good enough for me.

 

I’d like to look at pictures. Preferably beautiful, unusual ones. So the Accidentally Wes Anderson book, please, which I’ve already bought for two other people and had a sneaky peak. Made for me, as it combines my interests in photography, Wes Andersen movies, travel and idiosyncratic places and architecture. Perfect.

 

In lockdown one I reread one of my all-time favourites – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There was something very comforting in dark times in revisiting a book which I knew inside out from pre-Covid times. I have several copies already but as I’m a bit geeky about covers of my favourite books, I see there’s a new illustrated edition out in January which I’d love to coo over. Thank you.

 

So that’s my list. Which books are on your Christmas wish list?

Tracy Darnton is the author of YA thrillers The Rules and The Truth About Lies. Please feel free to mention them to Santa.