Wednesday, July 11, 2012

BLACK & WHITE & IN THE PINK

I only need to glimpse this Puffin Books cover art by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnson for Dodie Smith's wonderful The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, to be transported back to my childhood and a Christmas Day spent rapt in a captivating adventure story of heroic, talking dogs.


Having fallen in love with this deliciously fanciful book, I later succumbed to the stylish, witty Disney movie. Both now happily co-exist in my memories of youthful plreassures!


Wednesday, July 04, 2012

CROCODILE TEARS

To mark the 150th anniversary of the first telling of the story that would become Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, here is one of Lewis Carroll's poetic parodies from that book that is now better known than the original verse that Carroll was lampooning...


How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

The original was entitled 'Against Idleness and Mischief' by Isaac Watts and appeared his 1715 book, Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children... 
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.
I know which I prefer!

You'll find more ramblings in Wonderland here and, again, here.

Image: Crocodile by Darren Hopes

Signed Books: 2 – JOURNEY'S END

Among my collection of signed books are volumes given to me by writers who were also friends along with others by writers, actors and celebr...