• Books

    Five Wonderful Moments From ‘A Bear Called Paddington’

    March 16, 2025 - By 

    The short, simple nature of children’s books make them the perfect material if you’re looking for a break between more arduous reads. I’ve picked up the habit of reading a short, classic kids book between novels ever since I started reading Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series. However, before delving into any children’s fiction, I’m always a little wary of finding them too childish to enjoy as an adult. I was therefore pleasantly surprised by A Bear Called Paddington, as I had gone in expecting little more than a picture book, but instead received something more substantial. The language used by…

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    Books

    The Unexpected Nature of War in 3 Classic Children’s Stories

    January 31, 2025 - By 

    The three children’s stories that I enjoyed reading the most in recent years shared two things particularly in common. First, the fact that they feature anthropomorphic animals, which perhaps isn’t surprising given that this is pretty standard fare for children’s stories. But the second commonality, which is the fact that in each text, those animals went to war and actively engaged in at least one battle or more, did surprise me – especially when I considered the treatment of warfare in each book. **Spoilers for The Wind in the Willows, Watership Down and Redwall ** In Watership Down, life is…

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    Books

    Hidden Melancholy and Nostalgia in Howard Pyle’s ‘Robin Hood’

    September 24, 2024 - By 

    In modern times, our perception of myths is very much shaped by different translations. With the Robin Hood legends, I mean this both literally and figuratively: the earliest Robin Hood ballads date back to the 15th century, and there have been many translations of the Middle English tales since. Howard Pyle’s 1883 children’s novel The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is one of these, along with dozens of film and television adaptations which base themselves on the medieval tellings. For many people born after the 1970s, their awareness of the character will stem from the likes of Disney’s Robin Hood…

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    Books

    Why Beatrix Potter is Still Beloved 100 Years Later

    June 12, 2024 - By 

    Why Do The Stories of Beatrix Potter Continue to Endure With Adults & Children Alike? Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published commercially in 1902, and since then has never been out of print. The fact that 4 Beatrix Potter books are bought every minute is a pretty common piece of trivia, however I would be keen to know how many of those 4 books have been bought for children, and how many were bought for adults. I was 25 when I read the first of Potter’s tales, and it did not take me long to realise…

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    Books

    Spring Reading: 5 Books to Kick Start the New Season

    February 11, 2024 - By 

    What does Spring mean to you? To me it means an awakening: animals and plants stir from deep slumbers, and new life emerges. The world looks a little prettier, and its inhabitants are a little more awake. It’s the beginning of a new cycle – a chance to clean things up or start all over again. While we all have rituals to start out the year, whether sticking to newly made resolutions or just tidying up the home a little, one of my favourite ways to kick off a new season is by deciding what I’m going to read for…

  • Books

    Exploring The Trail That Inspired ‘The Wind in the Willows’

    January 14, 2024 - By 

    Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows has never been out of print, and for good reason. There is something for everyone within the pages of this children’s classic, whether it’s following the amusing adventures of Mr. Toad or sharing in the honest friendship of Ratty, Mole and Badger. It exudes the charm and warmth of the English countryside, and the well-mannered ideals of Edwardian England, which Grahame was writing in. It is easily one of the cosiest books I read toward the end of 2023, in large part due to this pleasant, homey setting: the expansive rooms of Toad…

  • Books

    Three Studio Ghibli Movies that Transformed My Perspective on Book-to-Film Adaptations

    December 11, 2023 - By 

    I like to think I’m open minded when it comes to buying books, but there’s one type I always try to stay away from, the type of book that I even have a rule for: If you love the movie, stay far far away from the book it was based on. This rule wasn’t born overnight – it is the product of a long, sad history of reading the source material of my favourite movies. Apollo 13, The Jungle Books and even my beloved Lord of the Rings – they all followed one of two treacherous patterns. The movie was…