10 Peter Pan Tattoos - Literary Ink Series

I haven't done a Literary Tattoos post in ages and this one was particularly fun for me to research as Peter Pan was one of my favourite books when I was younger. I've deliberately tried to steer clear of tattoos inspired by the Disney film of Peter Pan as I want to focus on ones from the book by J.M. Barrie. There's probably a bit of cross over but I've tried to include the literary ones wherever possible.

Also, my internet has been really slow today and Pinterest hasn't worked at all so this has taken me all, bloody, day. Please appreciate it!

1st Anniversary and Philip Pullman Wedding Reading

I got married a year ago today. Apart from having to halt the ceremony briefly because I thought I was going to faint and/or vomit, it was an amazing day.

I won't waffle on about the wedding as I know that can bore people to death, but I wanted to share with you my wedding reading. We're not religious and, me being me, I wanted readings from books. But, in the end, we only had one reading because only one really stood out for me.

Classic Children's Books: The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson

Book Review

"Plop was fat and fluffy.

He had a beautiful heart-shaped ruff.

He had enormous, round eyes.

He had very knackety knees.

In fact, he was exactly the same as every baby barn owl that has ever been - except for one thing.

Plop was afraid of the dark."

The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark is written by Jill Tomlinson and illustrated by Paul Howard. It is published by Egmont.

My last review was on a book about kidnapping and rape and now here's a review about an owl called Plop who's scared of the dark, I like to mix it up.

I thought I'd do another review of books from my childhood. I loved The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark when I was younger, I think I had the audio book on cassette too (yes, I'm old) and used to listen to it before I went to sleep. It's funny, it's sweet and it teaches children not to be afraid of the dark without being preachy.

10 Roald Dahl Tattoos - Literary Tattoos Series

I started the literary tattoos series back in February, and am only now putting together the next post. By series I clearly mean, when I can be bothered to post.

I'm following on with the children's book theme of the last post, but this time with a specific author, Roald Dahl. With such an imagination, not to mention brilliant illustrators like Quentin Blake, there are lots of amazing Roald Dahl tattoos out there (and some terrible ones).

April 2017: Favourite Books

It's been a full month of reading this April, with a little more variety than usual, though there's still the usual big dose of murder.

March 2017 Link Love

Source

Another month, another round-up of links I've been loving on the web. As usual, there are lots of book reviews from fellow book bloggers, including a couple of classics. I've also found some useful writing tips, especially if you're a budding children's book author.

Finally, I've got some random links, with everything from underground caves to inspiring women standing up against sexual violence.

10 Picture Book Tattoos - Literary Tattoos Series

This is the start of a new series I'm doing on literary tattoos. It's something a bit different to break up the book reviews and writing ramblings.

I've been vaguely wondering about getting another tattoo, but not sure what. Being a reader, I was thinking of getting a literary tattoo and had a scout around the internet for some inspiration, queue getting lost for several hours down a Pinterest hole. There are so many book related tattoos, some awful and some amazing. I thought I'd share a few that I've found in some round up posts.

The first post features tattoos inspired by children's picture books. Picture books are the very first books you discover and they have a lasting effect, so it's no surprise that there are a lot of meaningful picture book tattoos.

Classic Children's Books: The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber

Book Review

"At the far end of England, a land of rocks and moorland stretches itself out into a blue-green sea."

The Mousehole Cat is written by Antonia Barber and illustrated by Nicola Bayley. It is published by Walker Books.

I haven't written a review of a children's book for a while so I thought I'd re-read one of my favourite children's books, The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber.

December 2016 Link Love

December has mainly been a month of slobbing for me, a lot of sitting on my butt and reading crap on the internet so there are quite a few links in my link love post for December. I think most of them will interest you though (hopefully), there are lots of book bloggers and posts, some writing tips and then just a whole load of random crap. Enjoy!

5 Classic Children's Christmas Books

I've rounded together some classic children's Christmas books that are festive, funny and sweet without being vomit-inducing.
When I say 'classic', I really mean; books that I read when I was younger. So classic in the sense that they were popular in the early '90s.
It's probably a little late to post a Christmas shopping list, but if you've still got some children to buy for, or some nostalgic adults, then any of these books are ideal.

Book Shop Spot: Mermaid Tales Bookshop, Tofino, Canada

...and a mini book haul

I'm going to start doing semi-regular posts on Book Shop Spots; a brief review of bookshops I've visited. The majority of these will probably be located around Suffolk in the UK as that's where I'm based, but I'll start off with a book shop on the other side of the world; Mermaid Tales Bookshop in Tofino in British Columbia, Canada.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Review

I thought I'd better get in there soon with my opinion on Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (Little, Brown Book Group). The only things is, I'm not sure what my opinion is.

I loved the Harry Potter books and would usually devour them pretty quickly then be left feeling that lost and unconnected feeling you have when finishing a brilliant book. This one didn't have quite the same affect, it was there but not as strong as it had once been. Maybe this is because I'm a bit older, maybe because it's based on a story by J.K. Rowling but not written by her, but I think it just didn't have the, excuse the pun, 'magic' of the novels.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the '8th Harry Potter story,' but in play form instead of a novel. It's based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffay and Jack Thorne, and written by Thorne.

Children's Books - I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg and Jacqueline Chwast

Book Review

At the moment I seem to be either reading thrillers or children's books. This probably says something deeply disturbing about my inner psyche, but I'm owning it.

Most of my children's books are ones I have from my youth, but I actually bought I Like You by Sandol Stoddart Warburg (Houghton Mifflin) a few days ago. I'm getting married in August (pause to hyperventilate as I realise how much I have to do and how little time is left) and I was looking for a wedding reading. We've already got one (from a book, obviously) but wanted a second.
Long story short we decided to stick with the one wedding reading as we couldn't find anything else that meant as much as the one I'd picked (I'll reveal it after the wedding). But when I was looking I did come across words from I Like You and though I didn't feel it was right for the wedding, it did capture my attention, so I bought the book.