I loved this book because although I write children’s books, this is the sort of adult novel which feeds my imagination.
It begins in Florence at the end of WW2, where we first meet the British soldier Ulysses Temper, his commanding officer Darnley, and Evelyn Skinner, an elderly art historian. We then follow Ulysses back to the East end of London at the end of the war, where he resumes his old life – but changed by the experiences of war, Italy, and art.
We get to know his wonderfully varied group of friends who are bound together, and sometimes tortured, by nothing short of love - and we care about the perils and pleasures fate unexpectedly throws at them. The writing is magnificent, tender, expressive, and moving but never sentimental.
I absolutely love this book and cannot praise it highly enough.
A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her…
Daisy is searching for her mother, an eco-journalist who has gone missing in the Amazon. When I am wearing my other hat, I am a travel journalist who specialises in plants and gardens I could not fail to be intrigued by this situation.
Daisy finds a portal in Kew Gardens and enters a universe called Greenwild, where a group called The Botanists are preserving magical flora. Full of exciting adventures that children find entertaining, I loved this book because it nevertheless subtly indicates that plants are a very real source of magic.
Open the door to a spellbinding world where the wilderness is alive and a deep magic rises from the earth itself. Greenwild: The World Behind the Door is the first book in Pari Thomson's extraordinary fantasy series with an environmental twist.
'Greenwild is a thrilling adventure that takes seed in your imagination and runs wild!' - M. G. Leonard, author of Beetle Boy
Daisy Thistledown has escaped from boarding school and has a mystery to solve. Her search for her missing mother will lead her across London and through a hidden doorway to another world, filled with plants and bursting…
This is a picture book that crosses all age gaps. The protagonist is a blind boy, and although this is depicted, it is never mentioned. The pages contain, as well as great pictures, cutouts, tactile patches, and shapes, and there is braille on the cover.
I love this book not just for the quality of its production and content but for the fact that it is so suitable for reading to blind children who can gain extra insights by touch. The ending, where the pages of the book are flicked and ruffled and the resulting ‘wind’ can be felt on the face, is a master touch.
A blind child questions all he encounters----a dog, wolf, elephant, mountain, bird, stream, and tree----about the color of the wind. Each responds differently, with a shape, color, smell, texture, or idea. Each page displays a visual and tactile palette of cutouts, textures, colors. It is a sensory experience that makes the invisible experiential, ending with the wind as the pages fly. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Anne Herbauts expresses an original world in each of her books. Awake to the richness of the world, endlessly curious, and rigorous in her work, Anne has written and…
Chaos at Christmas! Join a whole host of animals in silly situations as they try to celebrate the festive season.
You can't let an elephant pull Santa's sleigh if you want your presents on Christmas Day... He'll do his best to tug it up to the sky, but the sad fact is - elephants can't fly!
Raccoons decorating your Christmas tree? Pulling crackers with alpacas? Kissing a buffalo under the mistletoe? Oh no... that just won't do! A festive romp featuring all sorts of animals in all sorts of madcap situations.
