Although ours is a very doggy household (see also the writers' dogs) I must mention the British Library's exhibition Cats on the Page which opens tomorrow and coincides with the 80th anniversary of publication of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
On show will be original illustrations by Judith Kerr, Quentin Blake, Beatrix Potter, and Axel Scheffler; there will be sound recordings, Lear doodles, a 16th. century pamphlet on witchcraft including a black cat 'familiar', and more. Judith Kerr herself will be there at a special event on 3rd. December when she will be in conversation with her art editor.
Heywood Hill have just published their Christmas gift guide and you can have a virtual browse here. I have my eye on Kate Hubbard's Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England, The Gardens of Bunny Mellon by Linda Jane Holden and Roger Foley, Magnus Nilsson's The Nordic Baking Book (he's talking about it here), and Sebastian Faulks's Paris Echo.
If you're looking for an extra-special present, I can recommend Heywood Hill's A Year in Books subscription service. I recently gave Mr. C. the P.G. Wodehouse version, and his words on opening last month's beautifully wrapped parcel were, "It goes from treat to treat!".
I'm not sponsored by Slightly Foxed but they are a source of so many good things that I mention them often. Their November newsletter includes a delightful article by Ken Haigh which appeared in Issue no. 53; click here and scroll down to read The Book Cure.
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