JoBags Book Page

Please send us your favourite reads to include on the book page.

Below are just some of our favourites which comes from an ever-lengthening list.

Children's Favourites

The Fabrics of Fairy tale - retold by Tanya Robyn Bath, illustrated by Rachel Griffin.

This one had to be included if only for the sheer pleasure of looking at it. I would love to sit down and produce just one of these fabric pages, they are so beautiful. The stories never fail to capture your imagination. The whole book is a glittering tapestry of enchantment.

To buy this book and many more visit : www.barefootbooks.co.uk

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Written over fifty years ago can safely place this book in the category of timeless. Other ways to describe it I think are charming, beautifully written and extremely funny. Seventeen year old Cassandra lives in a cold and crumbling castle with her extraordinary family while practising her writing skills and searching for love. I could read it over and over again and it's one of the few books which has an equally beautiful to watch film to go with it.

Fantastic Stories

One Eye Grey - The first new penny dreadful to be published this century which comes as a trilogy of stories :

Transpontine Drift - Feb 2007

A Goose in Southwark - June 2007

Out of Orbital - available in time for Halloween

All the stories are set in modern London full of tales based on folklore or ghost stories with central characters linking the chilling spooky tales. So if you are intrigued by who the Goose in Southwark may be, wondering how a horse ended up on the banks of the Thames, what film was lost in a ghost cinema then these are the stories for you.

For details of how to buy or subscribe visit : http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/oneeyegrey.htm

The World According to Garp - John Irving

Now the problem here was choosing which John Irving novel as any category with the title Fantastic Stories should include one of this centuries best storytellers. I chose this one because it was the first one I read and remains one of my favourites. The book has the all the elements of a complex Dickensian plot spanning the entire life of the central character, T.S. Garp.

Full of Facts

Heavy Words, Lightly Thrown - Chris Roberts

A must read, once started, won't be able to put down book full of the hidden meanings behind well known children's nursery rhymes. You'll find yourself quoting facts from this book to friends for weeks after, so amazed will you be by some of the reasons behind these popular rhymes. You'll never believe why Jack and Jill went up the hill...

For more details visit : http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/nursery.htm