Summer in the City
Great Reads to See You Through the Long Days
Great Reads to See You Through the Long Days
From the Edinburgh International Book Festival to Parisian recipes, we want to take you on a city break in books this summer.
BFS: Your work addresses the big questions of childhood, and touches on everything from the arrival of new babies to the fear of being alone, from non-conformity to environmental responsibility. How does illustration allow you to explore such complex topics, and do you adapt your style to individual themes?
DG: Illustration is an infinitely flexible gateway into exploring the big questions – it will boldly go where words cannot, or perhaps where words would express a difficult subject in too direct a fashion. In truth, when I begin to write a book, the first thing that comes to me ideas-wise is always an image. I write for and to and about the pictures in my head. The whole of my practice is about endeavouring to put those pictures down on paper without anything getting in the way. I’ve found that illustration allows me to explore some very sensitive themes in a way that doesn’t threaten the small children who the books are for. By drawing animals as my protagonists, I can tackle the big questions of childhood at one remove; children can identify with what the animals are feeling without themselves feeling in any way exposed....
Extract from Things We Have in Common By Tasha Kavanagh Published by Canongate Books
The first time I saw you, you were standing at the far end of the playing field near the bit of fence that’s trampled down, where the kids that come to school along the wooded path cut across.
You were looking down at your little brown straggly dog that had its face stuck i...
How the Kelpies Prize built Floris Books By Chani McBain
I think we can all agree that literacy competitions are important. It’s important for authors and would-be authors to have an outlet for their creativity: to be heard, acknowledged, encouraged and rewarded. It’s important for our society and the literature sector to showcase creativity, and awards serve as a source of inspiration to anyone hesitating about whether to put pen to paper (or, more likely now, fingers to keyboards). Without contacts or nepotism, writers can have their work read and, occasionally, published.
But the truth is that they’re great for publishers as well (and literary agents and magazines and everyone else who runs a competition). Competitions allow all of us to discover new talent and to ask for work t...
Gardens can be one of the most important elements of our cultural history, and yet they are also some of the most fragile, susceptible to change, abandonment and destruction. This book traces the fascinating stories of Scotland’s gardens of the past, as well as the history of the nation which these landscapes reveal.
Images from Scotland’s Lost Gardens: From the Garden of Eden to the Stewart Palaces By Marilyn Brown Published by RCAHMS
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From the National Galleries of Scotland
Strawberry Éclairs with Elderflower Cream
Can’t quite make summertime in Paris? You can still enjoy a Parisian favourite.
Read an extract from acclaimed author Nicholas Hogg
Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award
Introducing New Writer Awardees Rachelle Atalla and Lindsay Macgregor
Read an extract from Estelle Maskame’s YA series
A few favourites from BFS