RLB’s weekly recommendations
Advent Calendars can be a little controversial. Should there be chocolate behind those windows or just a picture? Well, that dilemma can be solved. Forget the calendar and try this book. It has 24½ chapters, one for every day from the beginning of December. It opens with a young boy, Oliver, heading off to post … Continue reading Book of the Week, December 1st 2018
It was back in 2005 that New Zealand songwriter and children’s entertainer, Craig Smith, heard the joke, ‘What do you call a donkey with only three legs?’ The answer is, of course, ‘a wonky donkey’. Smith used this as a springboard to compose a song, adding more and more characteristics to the peculiar donkey’s description. … Continue reading Book of the Week, November 24th 2018
The Gruffalo has been the most popular children’s picture book over the last twenty years. It is a collaboration between English writer Julia Donaldson and German illustrator Axel Scheffler, who originally came to the UK as a student and has made his home here for 36 years. With Brexit, his future here is uncertain. He … Continue reading Book of the Week, November 17th 2018
This is a big book. It is long. It has a vast gallery of characters and spans centuries. But most importantly is big in ambition. The novel opens with introductions to a range of separate characters. There is a family of Iowan farmers who, over generations, tend a single giant chestnut growing in the middle … Continue reading Book of the Week, November 10th 2018
Homelessness in Colchester is nothing new. At the turn of the 20th century two of our town’s most well-known residents were Emma and Grimes, an inseparable couple, devoted to each other though famous for their bickering, who slept in ditches and toured the streets scrounging for food. This book describes itself as ‘an anthology of … Continue reading Book of the Week, November 2nd 2018
Anyone who has spent much time in Colchester has quite likely encountered an elderly chap with flowing white hair and moustache, sitting beside his easel with paintbrush in hand. Charles Debenham was born and raised in Colchester and has been painting the buildings and street scenes around the town for most of his life – … Continue reading Book of the Week, October 27th