To get you in the festive spirit, we’ve compiled a couple of our favourite Christmas quotes from classic and modern tales.
What’s a better Christmas present than a book? We surprised people at Manchester Piccadilly Station on the 12 December, and London’s Paddington Station on the 19 December with thousands of free books! Lucky winners could pick from a list of 20 fantastic books to give to a loved one as a present (or to keep for themselves).
Jane Struthers looks at the history of wassailing in this extract from The Book of Christmas. English is a fascinating melting pot of languages acquired from other countries, especially those whose kings once occupied our throne. So it’s hardly surprising that the word ‘wassail’ is thought to have come from the Old Norse ves heill, which […]
In this extract from The Book of Christmas, Jane Struthers demystifies the protagonist of a popular Christmas carol. We sing about him every Christmas in the eponymous carol, which tells us that the ‘good king’ and his page ventured out in the snow on the feast of Stephen (26 December) to take food, wine and […]
It’s so close, and yet there is still time to pick up any of those little stocking fillers, or last minute gifts to pop under the tree. Naturally, we’re big fans of these being book-shaped, and so we’ve put together a selection of books to help you tick off your list.
Christmas is a sometimes precarious mix of boisterous, tipsy and fraught: a potential recipe for disaster. To help put things into perspective, we’ve pulled together a list of the worst ever Christmases in literature, in the hope that you can at least laugh at someone else’s (fictional) misfortune.
Make Christmas even more magical by gifting a beloved classic, whether it’s a Victorian tale of Christmas redemption, a modern story of a boy and his adventurous snowman, or a chilling festive murder mystery.
Stuck for gifts to buy your loved ones? Why not make something from Camilla Morton’s Make Life Beautiful, a collection of projects from some of the most stylish minds, to get you imagining and creating. You can customise your bike with Paul Smith, make a Bella Freud jumper or have Charlotte Olympia put a spring in your step. We’ve got a stylish biscuit recipe from Manolo Blahnik to get you started.
The frantic festive season can leave us all feeling a little fraught, the best remedy is of course a book, and what could be better than a book designed solely to make you and your loved ones laugh until it hurts.
We all know the January ‘New Year, New You’ influx is on its way, why not gift your way into that smug glow by being one step ahead and sending your loved ones on a healthy new path with delicious recipes to kick start their year, or even to make festive feasting a little lighter.
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