NEW STORY ABOUT OLD STORY

I 've posted here before about the astonishing resurrection of an anti-war story for children I wrote in 1952, wonderfully illustrated by a friend, Italian artist Gian Berto Vanni. The project lay dormant all this time but suddenly, last year, I got a message from his son Ruggero Vanni (also a talented artist) telling me that Gian Berto had died some years ago but my story and his drawings for it had come to the attention of a children's book publisher in Rome who wanted to talk to me about publishing the book. The deal was done. I translated the story into Italian and with Ruggero's help we put the book together.

We signed a contract with the publisher, Orecchio Acerbo, and behold!! PER CASO (Accidentally) is now out and gorgeous! Hardback, printed on beautiful heavy paper on which the words and Vanni's striking black line drawings dance and sing.The book measures 7 x 10 inches (17.5 x 25cms).One of Vanni's drawings from the book currently heads their website and Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/orecchio.editore/

Orecchio Acerbo's motto is: Books for children which don't damage adults/ books for adults which don't damage children.

I don't yet know if foreign rights have been arranged but copies of the Italian edition are now available to order from the publisher.

NOT A VALENTINE

THINKING OUT LOUD

It's not like anger at certain persons or situations or concepts. Those are pretty clear. Anger with myself is a tightly tangled mess of steel wool threads. Yeah yeah there's the LoveYourself blah blah blah and I do. I think I'm an adorable creature. My mother called me that in French, une adorable créature. But there is still anger with myself and no chocolate-covered blindfolds can erase it. Maybe it's necessary. Legit.

FEBRUARY GREETING

Happy first of February!

THE HARRY SCANDAL SUMMARISED

SCANDAL! SHOCKHORROR! OUTRAGE!

Harry admits he and the other Royals are just like everybody else!

They are not Superhumans!

They behave very very badly sometimes!

Quite often!

They have family fights!

They... they...they...are just ordinary rich people in a palace!

Harry says all this in public! On television! In a book!

The Palace has not commented.

Draw your own conclusions.

Bravo Harry! And Meghan too. Whistleblowers are always maligned, especially when their whistling is blowing holes in the sacrosanct walls of powerful institutions.

It's an unbelievable number but it's real and it's here.

NEW START, NEW YEAR

A spirit-boosting visit yesterday from my sparkling friend Steven Appleby cartoonist par-excellence. I painted his portrait in 2019 then pandemic etc. intervened. But meanwhile DRAGMAN, his sincerely terrific graphic novel, was published and has been attracting success like a magnet, deservedly, because it combines a wicked sense of humour and touching self-analysis within an inventive, multi-dimensional plot featuring endearing characters drawn with apparently effortless ease and delectable colour. I love my copy of this book even more now that Steven spontaneously decorated its front page just for me! Great start to the New Year and I'm feeling encouraged to go full puff-puffing steam ahead with my graphic novel Double Entendre Go go Eilatan!

I just realised that I probably should have written 'she' instead of 'he' when speaking of Steven. But you know what? Steven doesn't go by the rules and neither do I.

My portrait of Steven Appleby,2019

WHO IS THIS?

We're so used to seeing the various patterns in which other people's facial features arrange themselves and interpreting them to signify something, almost as if they are posters in a familiar language. But do you ever get a strange, detached WHO IS THAT? feeling when seeing yourself in a mirror? I often do. Here's "my" face in a mirror just now, taken with an ordinary (not-phone) camera. This is simply about looking in a mirror on an ordinary December 26th evening and taking a photo. It's not about knowing or not knowing thyself.

SEASONAL LOVE

So much grief, misery, pain, suffering everywhere in the world right now it seems almost sacrilegious to offer words like 'merry' and 'happy' so I'll just post this image because love and care and tenderness survive and that's what I wish to all of you, my dear friends, wherever you are.

WINTER GIFTS

Snow, trees, houses and light collaborating in creating artworks for all to see and enjoy, free of charge.