Times Out of Mind
After finishing the Borges project, I realised that one of the book covers with a little alteration and the addition of a cow parsley silhouette I already h... Read More...
diana wynne jones
Diana Wynne Jones zine- digital edition
A few years back I made a zine with articles about writer Diana Wynne Jones (probably best known for writing Howl's Moving Castle), and an interview I conducted with her before she sadly died. The paper edition is still available here, but for the foreseeable future I can only send physical copies to the UK. So I've made a digital edition for people to read.... Read More...
2019 in Books
Every year I take part in the Good Reads challenge. My target this year was 52 books. I completed it with one for luck- 53 books this year. As I read each book I took a photo for instagram and gave a brief opinion- I’ve copied and pasted them all here. I've separated them into categories, but left them in the order read within the categories.... Read More...
Diana Wynne Jones conference notes
A couple of weeks ago I went to an academic conference in Bristol focused on the works of Diana Wynne Jones. She is probably best known for writing the book that the Studio Ghibli film Howl's Moving Castle was based on, but she has around thirty other books aimed at a variety of ages. Even the ones aimed at children have a surprising amount of psychological and literary depth, and a willingness to explore very dark issues not usually found in books for that age group, giving her work a huge appeal to adults and academics.... Read More...
Midsommar
Last night, I saw Midsommar, a film I've had my eye on for a while. It's received very mixed reviews in the press, but I loved it. I felt it was pretty much what you'd get if you got Alexander Jodorowsky to direct the Wicker Man... Read More...
Japan Roundup
So I've finally put up all the photos I took in Japan. Below is a summary and links to each post. I have also created some designs for gifts and homewares over on Society 6 with my photographs from Japan. You can find them here.... Read More...
Diana Wynne Jones zine
I have a zine of articles about children's writer Diana Wynne Jones (of Howl's Moving Castle et al) I wrote this zine in 2011, also managing to interview her before she sadly died (you can also read the interview online here). The original edition was 1/6 of an A3 sheet, made on a Risograph machine. This was great when I still had access to an A3 Riso machine, but after I didn't it was very expensive and difficult to reprint, so it went out of print. Recently I did a new edition, with all-new illustrations, in a much more convenient standard A6 size... Read More...
Miyazaki’s Reading List
When I was in Japan I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum just outside of Tokyo. Sadly pictures were not allowed inside, but I wrote about it in my zine of the trip. I highly recommend the museum, it's magical. The bookshop was also stocked with Miyazaki's own favourite books, as well as books related to the studio's films. I didn't buy anything, as they were all in Japanese, and it would take me forever to read anything, but I noted down a lot of less well-known books I saw in the shop to compile a reading list (helpfully the copyright tends to list the author's names in roman text rather than try to make it fit katakana). Unfortunately I wasn't able to write down the Japanese author's names in most cases as reading unknown names written in kanji is very tricky. However Miyazaki made a list of classic children's books (including a lot of the usual suspects like The Secret Garden) elsewhere which also includes some Japanese recommendations.... Read More...
Polly’s reading list
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, based on the folk tale Tam Lin and Eliot's Four Quartets, is one of my all-time favourite books. The gifts of classic books that the protagonist Polly receives from Tom, the other main character, are an important part of the plot, but not listed anywhere in the novel. I made this reading list of the books for the zine of essays about Diana Wynne Jones that I made.... Read More...