chrisharding53

  • Minced Pyes

    I love reading old recipes – or receipts as they were once called – so here’s a seasonal one to celebrate Day Four of the Advent Bookfest. It’s from The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened, which was published… Continue reading

  • Carols and Mulled Ale

    For Day Three of the Advent Bookfest I couldn’t resist the carol singing field-mice in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. Ratty and Mole are returning to River Bank after Badger has rescued them from the Wild Wood, when… Continue reading

  • Stitching a Picture of the Past

    Day Two in my Advent Bookfest reminds me of my own childhood although, I hasten to add, I am younger than the author. At the end of December 1999 Jean Baggott decided to mark the Millennium by celebrating ‘the girl… Continue reading

  • Be Nice to your Turkeys this Christmas…

    It’s December and Christmas is on the way, so I’ve decided to celebrate with an Advent Bookfest, which will include poems, readings, diary entries, a bit of general information about the season, the odd recipe or two and, perhaps, some… Continue reading

  • Light, Frothy, and very Enjoyable!

    Shy, well-read Laura Horsley faces unemployment when the book shop she works in closes down, but she is persuaded to help run a literary festival at a stately home in the country and is expected to entice famously reclusive Irish… Continue reading