by beatriceotto | Sep 21, 2018 | judging by the cover
These charming children’s illustrations of Daudet turned up at a flea-market, and I have several versions including this selection of his Lettres de Mon Moulin, and one featuring a specific story with it, ‘La chèvre de M. Seguin’....
by beatriceotto | Sep 21, 2018 | judging by the cover
There is a dark-forested haunting element to the illustrations in this French rendition of Russian stories. They are part of a series I’ve been collecting at the flea market, using a range of fresh and unusual illustration styles: see also the Tales from...
by beatriceotto | Sep 7, 2018 | judging by the cover
These enchanting, sunlit illustrations of a French children’s rendition of Greek Myths delighted me. They are part of a series I’ve been collecting at the flea market, using a range of fresh and unusual illustration styles. See also the Russian Tales and...
by beatriceotto | Aug 17, 2018 | readers & reading
The Rat is a street-savvy kid in a barely known children’s book by the author of the infinitely famous The Secret Garden. I enjoyed the book and The Rat is one of the most endearing characters. He teams up with the noble-born lost prince to go and reclaim a...
by beatriceotto | Jul 27, 2018 | judging by the cover, print & publish
This book cover and related illustrations are from a wonderful old French series of tales and stories from around the world. I keep finding them at the flea market and second-hand bookshops. Each country or region represented has a stunning set of illustrations and...
by beatriceotto | Jul 20, 2018 | readers & reading
A striking idea, that in being true, a book will feel intimate and familiar to all men. ‘True’ surely means authentic rather than fact-based. Some books feel intimate and familiar to some people, not all, and there is value in that too. It is probably...
by beatriceotto | Jun 8, 2018 | places & spaces, readers & reading
When we moved to the town of Nyon, I joined the municipal library. The building itself is worth writing about – great thick walls, windows widened with painted wooden shutters, flowers on the sills and in stone pots; a child’s dream of a library, though in...
by beatriceotto | Apr 22, 2018 | readers & reading
We recently enjoyed a month’s holiday – the longest we’ve ever had – to celebrate Luiz’s retirement. One of the happiest elements in packing for a trip is messing about choosing which books to take. Here’s the pile I took and read...
by beatriceotto | Jan 19, 2018 | readers & reading
I have no idea if this is a fair appraisal of the Elizabethan stance on book learning, but I have an impression of a robust, exuberant, poetic spirit, capable of savouring sweetness even when regularly confronted with brutality. My impression itself may be overly...
