Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Hope you're having a good weekend!  I'll be off on one of my trips to villages with odd names - this time it's the turn of Ready Token.  Brilliant, no?  I'll leave you with a book, a link (or two), and a blog post.

1.) The links - I started writing a post last November on book covers (and by 'started writing', I mean I copied out two links and wrote 'COVERS' as the post title) but I've realised that it's not going to come to fruition for a while. So instead I'll just give you the links.  The first is to an excellent Caustic Cover Critic  interview with designer Alison Forner, which includes many examples of her beautiful work - one of which is above.  The second is a sort of review of the best covers of 2011 (which sadly too few illustrations), from the Guardian.  JUST what you wanted in the middle of March, no?

2.) The book - fans of the Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson will be pleased to know that another sequel has been written by Guy Fraser-Sampson (also known as Pursewarden).  His Major Benjy really caught the spirit of the original series (my thoughts here) and, if we can't have Benson writing new books, then Guy Fraser-Sampson is second best.  And although these things shouldn't matter, I'm glad that he's been given a lovely cover this time around - for Lucia on Holiday.  If you're quick, you might be able to hear Guy talk about it about on Radio 4's Open Book.  Lucia on Holiday is published on 29th March.

3.) The blog link -  is Trevor's fantastic review of Tove Jansson's The Summer Book, on his site The Mookse and the Gripes.  If you've yet to be convinced to try it out, I think he might just do the trick.