In 2018 I continued to read poetry where I could, and continued to expand my Edward Ardizzonne collection. Related to my reading I fostered relations with the very best of British bookselling as I began travelling the nation to illustrate The Booklover’s Guide to Bookselling  – but more of that in the months to come. Back to the matter in hand, in strict reading order, this year I have read…

• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• A Stranger At Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
• Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman
• Trick or Murder? by Debbie Young
• True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond
• Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter
• Paddington Bear by Michael Bond
• Paddington’s Garden by Michael Bond
• The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• Paul, The Hero Of The Fire by Edward Ardizzone
• The Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone
• Sky Song by Abi Elphinstone
• Time Shifters by Kate Frost
• Murder in the Manger by Debbie Young
• Cuckoo Call by Betty Salthouse
• Kill Land by Dan Holloway
• Murder by the Book by Debbie Young
• Helmingham Hall Gardens by Timothy John Edward Tollemache
• The Lido by Libby Page
• 21st-Century Yokel by Tom Cox
• The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd
• A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
• The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
• Not Quite Lost by Roz Morris
• Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey
• Raising a Forest by Thibaud Herem
• Off the Shelf by Carol Ann Duffy
• Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard
• The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
• The Last Hedgehog by Pam Ayres
• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
• Summer by Melissa Harrison
• The Colour of the Sun by David Almond
• Jack and the Beanstalk by Irana Shepherd
• The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter
• Dennis the Dragon by Vera Hopewell
• Predator’s Gold by Philip Reeve
• Pages & Co by Anna James
• The Storm Keeper’s Island by Catherine Doyle
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice
• A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison
• No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey
• Pax by Sara Pennypacker
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
• Peacock Pie by Walter de la Mare
• More Prefabulous Animiles by James Reeves
• Paddington’s New Room by Michael Bond
• The Writer’s Map by Huw Lewis-Jones

Stand out books to recommend this year? This year, I have two must-reads for everyone from completely different genres and age-ranges, but both absolutely excellent. Libby Page’s debut novel, The Lido, and Anna James’ Pages & Co. I was also very fortunate read The. Best. Book. Of. Next. Year. in the form of Michelle Harrison’s A Pinch of Magic – put your pre-order for 9 February with your local independent bookseller now! Other books of note, No. More. Plastic. is a book that should be on everyone’s shelves. The Writer’s Map has been my last book I read this year, and was a deliciously anticipated book to enjoy from my Christmas reading.

2017 was the year that I read some of John Clare’s poetry, and discovered my new favourite bookshop (and the best bookshop in Oxfordshire by some mile) – Books and Ink in Banbury in case you were wondering. It has also been the year that I reaffirm my love of Edward Ardizzoni’s magical illustrations and decide to seriously start collecting them – well, you know, everyone needs a project! So in strict reading order, this year I have read.

• Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
• Winter Magic by Abi Elphinstone
• White Mountain by Sophe E. Tallis
• Winter by Melissa Harrison
• Boom! by Mark Haddon
• Chilled to the Bone by Quentin Bates
• Dear Reflection by Jessica Bell
• Strange Star by Emma Carroll
• Selected Poetry of John Clare by John Clare
• The Book by Jessica Bell
• The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane
• Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
• Climate Change by Tony Juniper
• Spring by Melissa Harrison
• Silent Voices by Jo Allmond
• The Fossil Hunters by Betty Salthouse
• Bagthorpes Unlimited by Helen Cresswell
• Best Murder in Show by Debbie Young
• Bodleian Library Souvenir Guide by Geoffrey Tyack
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate by Oliver Garnett
• Coot Club by Arthur Ransome
• The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
• Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
• Keeping On Keeping On by Alan Bennett
• Cogheart by Peter Bunzl
• The Gifts of Reading by Robert Macfarlane
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
• The Forever Ship by Francesca Haig
• Imaginary Friends by Philip Pullman
• Nibble Moves House by Jane Pilgrim
• Poor Mr. Nibble by Jane Pilgrim
• Hannibal And The Pet Show by Ladybird Books
• Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
• The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
• The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter
• The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
• Friend Request by Laura Marshall
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
• Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
• War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
• The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter
• La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
• M. Barrie’s Peter Pan by Eleanor Graham
• Close Encounters of the Furred Kind by Tom Cox
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
• The Church Mice at Christmas by Graham Oakley
• The Little Train by Graham Greene
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane
• One Christmas Wish by Katherine Rundell
• Santa Claude by Alex T. Smith
• What To Look For In Autumn by E.L. Grant Watson
• What To Look For In Summer by E.L. Grant Watson

• The Shark and the Albatross by John Aitchison
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
• Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner
• The Dreamsnatcher by Abi Elphinstone
• The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child
• My Pen by Christopher Myers
• An English Country House and Garden by Arthur J. Penn
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• My Second Life by Faye Bird
• Shepard’s War by James Campbell
• When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall
• Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
• Jess the Goth Fairy by Jess Hiles
• Shtum by Jem Lester
• Hidcote by Helene Gammack
• The Spider in the Corner of the Room by Nikki Owen
• Day of the Vikings by J.F. Penn
• Family, Friendships, Landscapes by Hugh Cecil
• Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham
• The Killing Files by Nikki Owen
• The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
• The Pier Falls & Other Stories by Mark Haddon
• Rain by Melissa Harrison
• The Other Alice by Michelle Harrison
• Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome
• Broughton Castle by Paul Barker
• In Darkling Wood by Emma Carroll
• The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig
• Peter Duck by Arthur Ransome
• Autumn by Melissa Harrison
• Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel
• The Trees by Ali Shaw
• Under the Paw by Tom Cox
• The Plumdog Path to Perfection by Emma Chichester Clark
• Talk to the Tail by Tom Cox
• Asterix and the Missing Scroll by Jean-Yves Ferri
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
• What To Look For In Winter by E.L. Grant Watson
• The Good, the Bad and the Furry by Tom Cox
• How it Works: The Grandparent by Jason Hazeley

Books to recommend from this year? It’s a varied list but for all kinds of different reasons The Other Alice, Fingers In The Sparkle Jar, The Map of Bones, My Second Life, and Under The Paw. I also found time to re-read some childhood favourites, and for that reason I give you Swallows and Amazons.

Books to recommend from this year? The Miniaturist, The Fire Sermon, The Gracekeepers, The Lie Tree, and Slade House. From the Indie Camp, give The Boy in Winter’s Grasp, and May Queen Killers a go. And when its finished and published, get yourself a copy of Alice Nuttall’s Sigyn.

• A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge
• The Boy In Winter’s Grasp by John D. Scotcher
• The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins
• The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
• Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge
• Nolander (Emanations #1) by Becca Mills
• A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
• A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin
• Truckers: The First Book of the Nomes by Terry Pratchett
• Equal Rites (Discworld, #3) by Terry Pratchett
• The Collectors: His Dark Materials Story by Philip Pullman
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Vixen by Rosie Garland
• The Fire Sermon (The Fire Sermon, #1) by Francesca Haig
• The Muse by Lorna Dounaeva
• The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and The Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
• Bekonscot: Model Village and Railway by Bekonscot Model Village
• Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens by Mick Gill
• Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner
• Hedges (Ladybird Books, Conservation, Series 727) by John Leigh-Pemberton
• Framlingham Castle by Nicola Stacey
• Nurse Matilda by Christianna Brand
• Sutton Hoo by Steven J. Plunkett
• Lavenham Guildhall by Leigh Aston
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• Sigyn by Alice Nuttall
• Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud
• The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
• The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
• May Queen Killers by Lorna Dounaeva
• Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) by Suzanne Collins
• The Asylum by John Harwood
• The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
• The Girl Savage by Katherine Rundell
• The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell
• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
• A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
• Slade House by David Mitchell
• Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3) by Suzanne Collins
• The White Dove by Lindsay Barnard
• Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak
• Old Pakefield and Kirkley by Elizabeth Freeman
• This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
• Sylvia And Bird by Catherine Rayner

Here’s to another year of reading in 2016, and I leave you with my Christmas book-haul from this year.

• Death Comes To Pemberley – P.D. James
• The Caravan Puppets – Michael Bond
• Polar Shift – Emily Mah
• The Hairy Bikers’ Big Book of Baking – Si King and Dave Myers
• The Girl With Glass Feet – Ali Shaw
• Unrest – Michelle Harrison
• Ragnarok: the end of the gods – A.S. Byatt
• The Moomins and the Great Flood – Tove Jansen
• Longshore Drift – Katrina Porteau
• Independent People – Halldór Laxness
• Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp – Philip Pullman
• Laurel for Libby – Vivienne Green
• Across The Sea – Emily Mah
• Someone Else’s Fairytale – E.M. Tippetts
• Grubson Pug’s Christmas Voyage – Jane-Anne Hodgson

Of this year’s books, which one’s stand out for recommendation and which one’s to be avoided? Michelle Harrison makes the recommendation list for the second year running with her newest book, Unrest, and Ali Shaw’s Girl With Glass Feet was an unexpected find. I read Halldór Laxness’ Independent People, spurred on by cousin’s recommendation when in Iceland. It’s a hard, and depressing read, but if you go to Iceland, I’d recommend it because then you will understand. Not listed here is Philip Hensher’s The Mulberry Empire which was good, but I only got half way through it as I wasn’t altogether into it.

2012 was also the year that I published my first book, The End Of All Worlds, and (preparing for that, and marketing it subsequently) took up a great deal of my time. As the year closes, so my sales hit a cool 100 (although thanks to free promotions, its been downloaded almost 3000 times) and that’s something to be remembered and celebrated.

emej and I also had a fantastic holiday this summer to Iceland. We went full circle round the country which is something that not even I (with my three previous visits) have done, and had a fantastic time seeing all my Icelandic family. I feel so close to them all. 🙂

What else stands out? Attending the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Garden Party on the banks of the Thames in Henley is surely something that will probably never be repeated, and going to see some of the Olympics is something else to be remembered.

I wonder what next year will bring?

Has it really been a year since my last rambling, wittering review of the year? This year you find me writing this a shade off 2 stone lighter than I was last year, thanks to the Slimming World diet that we are both doing fantastically on. Emma continues to vet nurse at Bicester, or be it in recent months on a new rota that is seemingly incomprehensible to anyone other than her fellow vet nurses and sees the practice offering 24 hour nursing care, and one week in nine me not seeing anything of Emma when she works ‘the twilight shift’. More excitingly, Emma completed her course in Feline Friendly Nursing with Distinction – thus reaffirming (in case there was any doubt) her position as Cat Whisperer!

I had an uncertain Spring and frantically busy Summer. A university reorganisation led to us all having to reapply for our own jobs or jobs similar to our jobs – in the end I got lucky and was ‘slotted’ into my new role as Web and Digital Media Officer, with being on facebook and twitter written into my job description. Whilst fretting over applying for a job I might or might not have, I did have to completely redo the one school website into five department websites and a faculty one, all by 1 September – so no pressure then!

It’s been a funny ol’ year as regards the weather and garden. After the surprise of all that snow just before, and over Christmas it’s been oddly warm and caused all kinds of garden weirdness. We’ve not had such the prolific crop of veggies this year – mainly it has to be said – thanks to the slugs and snails. We’d nurture the seedlings on the windowsills and in the little greenhouse and then as soon as we planted them out, the little blighters would be out to munch them and raise them to the ground on the first night. Still, if I (and my trusty tent peg) found any out there, the chickens love nothing better than a slug kebab… *grins mischievously*

Speaking of chickens, the menagerie that is Bicester Zoo continues to keep us in eggs and cuddles and entertainment – who needs television when you have fencing cats, or miaowing felines? In the fishtank Alfonse and The Minnows continue to rock amongst the Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

We had two nice holidays this year, each end of the (aforementioned busy) summer. A week in Cornwall with Emma’s parents, Grannie, sister and her partner, staying in two adjoining cottages on a farm near Port Isaac and we explored the area in varying sizes of groups, meeting up for a meal at the end of the day.

Our second holiday wasn’t until October (although I think we actually had better weather than in June) and was housesitting for my parents in the New Forest whilst they were away. Most of the time we ventured out further afield, spending quite a lot of the time down on the coast getting our sea air. As a mid-holiday treat, we treated ourselves to a meal out at Mat Folas’ Wild Garlic restaurant in Beaminster. For any Masterchef fans, Mat won the 2009 series and his take on real, local, flavoursome food really impressed us. After the lunch we ended up in Lyme Regis (so almost all the way to Devon and had chips on the cob in gorgeous sunshine and a double rainbow.

In September Emma’s sister, Helen gave birth to her first child, and our first niece, Lily, and Emma has been really enjoying being an auntie for the first time properly.

The ever-curious tale of Mr Tumnal continues to go well, as I enter the final quarter of his story. I’m still really enjoying writing it and pulling in various literary and pop culture references for readers to investigate. Whilst working on this book, I’m currently almost finished re-reading/final-editing The End of All Worlds ¬– my fantasy adventure set in Iceland, involving climate change, and based on the old norse mythologies of alfar, þursar, and the huldufolk. As the moment, having investigated the technical aspect of it, I intend to self-epublish the book for the Kindle (and other ebook readers). Watch this space…

Our garden is already very much changed from the two grass circles in a sea of gravel which we inherited and is home to Guinevere, Wiggy, Henny-Penny and Solveig (chickens), Cecily and Parsely (bunnies), and play-place for Ronnie, William, Nellie, Bella, Arthur, Scooter and Blini (felines), whilst indoors, Alfonse has been joined by five white cloud mountain minnows in his tank after the sad loss of George.

This year has been altogether a quieter affair than last. It’s not been without its downs. My Dad had a brief spell in hospital in May to have four stents inserted for his heart but thankfully we didn’t know how bad it could have been until after it was all fixed. He’s very much better and back to normal now although missing the cheese. In the summer, following the announcements of the Queen’s birthday honours that he was to be awarded a CBE for services to science – it is the highest honour that he would have accepted not being one to really approve of titles.

Last Thursday I went into London to see my dad collect his CBE from Buckingham Palace. Prince Charles stood in for the Queen in the Ball Room to give out the investitures. A band played from the gallery throughout and the royal party was flanked by four beefeaters – with all the MBE’s also being handed out I now know what it was like for my mum and dad to sit through my graduation.

We had a couple of very nice holidays this year. The first, a holiday from home, in May, wherein we got the food in, put the tele in the cupboard, switched off the computers and pretended our house was a holiday cottage. We spent the week having days out visiting National Trust properties in our local area and generally just relaxing. Emma tried making butter and the video of her attempts is available upon request if you haven’t already seen it!

For the second of our holidays, we joined my parents in Suffolk for a week where they had taken a holiday cottage for the Aldeburgh festival in a beautiful old converted barn at Iken overlooking the marshes and the river. So I took Emma off to see all my favourite old haunts, and on a long and winding trip down memory lane of the places where I grew up. I have to say, Lowestoft hasn’t really changed much!

You find me now, still glowing with pride at the honeymoon album of photos that I have just had printed. It only took a year and a half, but I’ve finally managed to cull the best out of way to many photographs of one of our most perfect holidays into a 92 page book. For anyone who’s not tried it, give blurb.com a go for bringing those holiday memory alive.

And whilst I’m mentioning books, you may remember me telling you about the ever-curious tale of Mr Tumnal. The story of a man who married his imaginary friend and started an imaginary family, is now going about halfway finished and getting ever-more curious with its twists and turns. I’m having such fun writing it, and for the inside scoop you can even follow the man at facebook.com/MrTumnal…

We hope your year has been as enjoyable as ours, and look forward to hearing all your news too.

With every best wish (and a smile),

Thomas & Emma

This year was always going to be quite a year, in anyone’s book. There have been highs and there have been lows. The first of the most notable lows was Emma’s dad being treated for prostate cancer early in the year – thankfully he has been given the all clear. The second came just one week before the wedding, when in a gardening-related incident Emma’s mum broke her ankle. We got her to the wedding – well nothing was going to stop her – if with a plaster colour-coordinated to her dress. In between these lows, we had the highs of the stag and hen parties; a day on the Oxfordshire canal. Starting at Lower Heyford, Emma went north, and I went south all the way to Gibraltar before we met up again for a combined stag’n’hen meal in Bicester; not that we didn’t have an honouree-hen on Emma’s boat and I had an honouree-stag on my boat.

The biggest of the year’s highs was of course the wedding, although before we do, it should be noted that as an appetiser to the main event I did celebrate my birthday in a very nice country retreat in North Wales with just about the most people I’ve ever celebrated my birthday with, on possibly the wettest day that you could have dreamt of – I’m talking a full 24 hours of horizontal wetness, before…

…Saturday 23 May 2009 came. The morning was a little grey, but we were at the foot of Snowdon, at the National Trust’s Craflwyn Hall, which we took over for the whole of the bank holiday weekend. The day was just perfect, the best day of our lives; truly. No exaggeration. Both of us can remember not one thing from the ceremony or what we said, apart from Lucy playing the flute solo from the Third Entr’acte from Carmen, which we had playing during the signing of the register. Another particular highlight was when, after the formal photographs, Phil coaxed us, despite yesterday’s weather, to don our walking boots (in Emma’s case under her dress), and walk up the hill for more photos. We didn’t get as far as the giant seat to be photographed but we did get to the wall that we built. We even managed to get a sheep into a few of the shots!

Following the wedding, we honeymooned for a couple of week’s, making our leisurely way up to the remote Scottish isle of Eilean Shona by way of the Lake District and Glasgow, and back via Edinburgh and Yorkshire. It was a wonderful and relaxing time, just the kind of holiday we needed after the pre-wedding build-up. What’s more the first rain we had was a small amount as we crossed Scotland from west to east, and after we left Yorkshire!

During the year, I’ve had three months of temporary work, and three months made to feel like a criminal, signing on at the jobsworth centre, before returning to OUP for another 6 month contract which I ended up leaving at the beginning of October … for a full time, permanent job with holiday and sickness and a pension and everything! I’m now a Web Designer for the School of Social Sciences & Law at Oxford Brookes University. It’s kind of weird being back at Brookes, but I’m loving it! Whilst I would have preferred not to have the uncertainty of unemployment during the year, it was, I have to admit quite usefully timed as I was able to devote my time to wedding planning, and then relax and enjoy some quality Wimbledon time! One of our wedding presents was tickets to the Ladies Quarter finals which was fun.

Our autumn was again, a little bit fraught, when another garden-related incident, this time involving Emma, myself, and a garden can resulted in several visits to the eye hospital for Emma! Following this, Emma’s had a couple of week’s in Stoke Mandeville after he had to have a metre of colon removed following a blockage of some sort or other.

I began writing, in earnest, the curious tale of Mr Tumnal, the man who married his imaginary friend and started an imaginary family, and I am now about a tenth of the way through his story. And as for our menagerie of pets, all are thriving well, and (mostly) happy. Bicester Zoo now consists of 6 cats, 4 chickens, 2 bunnies and 2 fish!

We hope your year has been as enjoyable as ours, but with fewer hospital visits!

With every best wish (and a smile),

Emma & Thomas

Emma said yes, and we watched the fireworks whilst standing drenched in rain and champagne from the people next to us. Our parents were naturally delighted, and a venue and a date slotted into place very easily. Indeed, its coming up fast, and with less than six months to go, you find me writing this whilst sending out invitations. The day after my 36th birthday, on 23 May 2009 at the hauntingly beautiful Craflwyn Hall, nestled to the foot of Snowdon. A few day’s after our wedding, we will be off for possibly one of the biggest holidays of our lives – when we honeymoon in Namibia. We’ve got it all booked through a local company who organise tailor-made holidays, so that should be fun!

So that’s the really BIG, headline news of the year – what else has been happening? I continue to work at OUP, but now splitting my time between online academic books, and the digital archive of journals. Emma, meanwhile, gave up her locum veterinary nurse work in July, and started at Bicester Vets – who are all very welcoming. Defying the trends of the housing market, we sold my little house at the end of September and bought a new (and dramatically) bigger house which involved moving, umm … a hundred or so metres and into the next street. Currently the garden is pretty much a blank canvass of gravel and two circles of grass, but by the time that Spring has come, all that will change. Certainly there’s room now for our menagerie of five cats (Ronald, William, Nellie, Bella and Arthur), three fish (George, Antoine and Alfonse) and two chickens (Guinevere – sadly Delysia succumbed to next door’s cat – and Wiggy).

In June we had a nice holiday in a little country cottage that we happen to know of in the New Forest – well my parent’s did want someone to house/cat-sit for them! J We had a nice, relaxing time in good weather, gallivanting round the local countryside. Then in September we both headed up to North Wales again to do some more drystone walling at Craflwyn, which was good fun (if amongst a bit of a weird group, and staying in the bunkhouses rather than the hall itself). We also took the opportunity of meeting our wedding caterer – Deniol of Blas ar Fwyd – who it turns out have catered to royalty (ie. the Queen!) and tasted the food – delicious!

Last, but by no means least, my novel – still currently called Blood & Fire, although I am considering other titles (The End of All Worlds, anyone?) – is nearing completion, with just the last 25 pages awaiting revision. So then I have to compose a synopsis which could well be the hardest task yet, and start sending it out to places.

I’m writing this letter, whilst procrastinating over those last few pages of the novel, sending out the last of the wedding invitations and de-tiling the kitchen in preparation for a new kitchen to be fitted a week on Monday, and just in time for the whole of both families to descend on Christmas Day! I hope your year has been as full and enjoyable as mine, and look forward to hearing all about it!

A couple of week’s before my last day, and after about a month of daily emails I met Emma, who I met after going on match.com. Emma is a veterinary nurse, likes it that I’m a writer, and shares my love of nature and conservation – she’s also mad enough to go on National Trust holidays to build dry stone walls and rhodie bashing! And just last weekend we were reminded we were reminded that both of our all time favourite pieces of Christmas music is Hele-Hutchinson’s beautiful and evocative Carol Symphony – The First Noel of which was used in the BBC’s 1985 adaptation of The Box of Delights. Since we met in April there has been hardly a weekend that we haven’t seen each other, and every weekend that we do, we seem to have a better time – I feel so lucky to have found someone with whom I can share all the things that I love. J

I’ve never been to the West End for the theatre before. In February, I organised a coach trip for work to see Wicked – with no expectations of what to expect, it was defyingly gravity brilliant. I was back again in May to see the last but one performance of Evita. Then in August my parents took me to see the Bolshoi Ballet at the Colliseum – which was farcical fun – a little-known comic-ballet with music by Rimsky Korsikov(??). Then in November I went with Emma on a vets night out to see Cabaret – a little bit different to the amateur production that my brother played trombone in all those years back. And just last month I went into London again to see Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall with Emma and her family. Together with my frequent visits to the local playhouse and my annual pilgrimages to the Oxford-based, site-specific Creation Theatre (Hamlet in the old prison, and currently Tales from the Brother’s Grimm in an antique spiegeltent), I gues you could say that its been a bit of a cultural year.

In terms of holidays, after exploring my way round eastern Europe in recent years, this year I revisited home ground with a return visit to Wast Water in the Lake District in October, scene of my first ever conservation holiday exactly ten years ago. And then, just a couple of week’s ago, I went to Craflwyn Hall in Snowdonia with Emma to build steps up a mountain. The only problem we found of being together for a whole week, was the pain of separation when we had to go back to our separate homes at the end of the week.
Not that either of us are really lonely when we are in our own homes for we have 4¾ cats between us – work that one out if you can! Bella and Arthur continue to keep me entertained, and, fingers crossed, have so far managed to not destroy their first Christmas tree.

As well as continuing to play flute and piccolo in Abingdon Concert Band my place in band history is assured, if not for my playing style, but for the presentation. For years now I have been continually raising the bar in terms of posters and programmes, and an ever-sleeker website (just google for it). In the last couple of months, the band was successful in several grant applications and raised enough funds to buy a new set of banners to front our music stands. So the light blue/dark blue colour scheme and logo will live on for at least the next 30 years (we just celebrated our thirtieth anniversary!). Our next concert, is an actual, proper Christmas one, so really I ought to stop messing around with Christmas cards and get on and practice The Nutcracker, because by heck its hard!

All that is left for me to say is that I hope that Your year has been as good to You as it has been for me. I look forward to hearing what kind of year that You have had had, and please, have yourself the bestest of Christmas of all time and make the new year the bestest ever again…!

Is it really possible that I have been writing these annual notes for thirteen years? So what have been the highlights of the year of Thomas? What’s been the BIG news? Could it be bigger than what happened at 9.31pm on Wednesday 20 September, when I wrote the long-awaited and metaphorical words, ‘The End’. Conceived in August 2001; 105,745 words; 385 pages; 250 days in the writing; 5 years in the making. Blood & Fire is finished. I’ve already started the long process of revising the beast of many thousand words – and I am making it better – much better at every stage. I’ve also been handing bits out of it to friends, family and strangers (on online writing critique sites) for comment, and getting some encouraging noises in return.

In sadder news, after a lovely break down at my parents in the New Forest at Easter, during which time he had much fun cavorting round the garden, and scaring my parents’ dog, Barney, my cat Pepper died. Aged nine, he had been with me for three years, but had recently been diagnosed with heart disease and despite responding encouragingly to medication, on Saturday morning I came downstairs to find him a little more relaxed than he was when I had been stroking him the previous evening.
The house was never quite the same without a cat around, and so I started looking around for suitably adorable kittens to scamper around the place and make kittenish mischief. In June, I found them – or rather my Mum found them by way of some friends of some neighbours in a nearby New Forest village. I went to ‘look at them’ knowing full well that you don’t decide to go to ‘look at them’ but to ‘fall in love with them’. Bella and Arthur, as they have become known were the last two left of a litter, brother and sister and all black. I arranged to collect them after my holiday at the beginning of July…

…ah yes, holidays. This year, continuing to head round the Eastern side of Europe in a round and about way of coming back into western Europe, I ended up in Italy. More precisely the Venetia region, with a city break in Venice (and an affordable hotel just round the corner from St Mark’s Square), followed by two week’s in the Dolomites, on another conservation break. This time, staying in an old nursery school, and attending concerts and building dry stone walls 3000 feet up in the mountains, and constructing steps through a village nature walk. As ever, photos from my holiday can be found online (http://visuals.shepline.com/italy/), as can tales of my adventures (http://travelogues.shepline.com/italy2006/). The holiday coincided with the semi-finals of the Football World Cup, and on our last night, I watched my first ever football match, and celebrated into the night with some very happy locals!

I left Venice at the beginning of Venice, and on my first night back in Oxfordshire went – thanks to my contacts at a local theatre company – to the VIP night of an outdoor, and daringly contemporary version of The Merchant of Venice, performed in the old exercise yard of Oxford prison. Then on the following night, I headed down to the New Forest on a whistle-stop trip to collect Bella and Arthur. The summer, from then on, was spent between trying to finish my novel and bonding with new kittens. Arthur, on several occasions tried to help out with the creative process by taking it upon himself to sit on the laptop! Bella meanwhile, prefers the outdoors life, and climbing trees…

I now, not only play flute with Abingdon Concert Band, but, following a successful bidding session on ebay, also play piccolo. It’s actually helped my flute playing no end, because it forces you to play more confidently (you can’t play piccolo – the smallest and highest instrument in the band – tentatively!). I’ve continued to play in concerts throughout the year, and I am writing this letter after having got back from playing carols at Millets Farm on the crispiest and sunniest of midwinter days. Marvelous!
All that is left for me to say is that I hope that Your year has been as good to You as it has been for me. I look forward to hearing what kind of year that You have had had, and please, have yourself the bestest of Christmas of all time and make the new year the bestest ever again…!

With every best wish (and a smile),

Thomas

With decorating my house, and buying myself a new camera – you can see my pictures on my flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/shepline/) – I only managed one foreign holiday this year. Staying on the Eastern European theme, I journeyed to Romania this year, and in particular the university city of Timisoara – the birthplace of the 1989 revolution – and from there to a conservation holiday in the Retezat mountains, where I spent the time learning Romanian childhood songs (www.shepline.com/movement/) and building fire circles, log benches and generally improving campsites in the National Park. I’m already planning next year’s holiday though, and I think I may continue the southerly trend that I have been taking of recent years. Albania or Bulgaria maybe, or maybe Italy or Sicily…

Whilst I may have only managed one foreign holiday, and yes I did spend a million (Romanian Leu) on the latest Harry Potter!), I also took a trip back memory lane, joining my parents for a long weekend in Suffolk, and revisiting the stomping ground of my childhood, in August. In September, too, I went shopping in Hanley and Alsager for the first time in over a decade, on route to Cheshire and Derbyshire where I had a couple of nice weekends seeing friends and attending the christening of one of my school friends children.

I have also been writing a good deal – including the odd song – although this is more for the benefit of singer-songwriter Hanna Katla Baldursdóttir, in my novel. Ah yes, the novel. Blood & Fire continues apace, currently standing at over 72 thousand words and almost 73% completed. As I write this, the world is collapsing into instability, and the alfar people are moving in this world and theirs – a climax is approaching. With luck, by the time I write my next Christmas letter I will be writing something new – and who knows, maybe just maybe someone will be considering this one for publication?? Certainly I need to get a move on, for rumour has it that Philip Pullman has gone into ‘seclusion’ to write his next novel and he is interested in climate change…

Meanwhile, I continue to play flute in the local Abingdon Concert Band, and perform in several concerts throughout the year, including the very enjoyable, and now annual, Christmas carols at Millets Farm earlier in December. It’s great fun, and gives me the opportunity wear silly hats with bells on – not that I really need the excuse. Well, I seem to have filled a page of A4 with my news, which is a bit of a surprise considering when I started at the top of the page I didn’t really feel I had much to say this year! Still, I persevered because I hear that for some of You, receiving this has become a bit of a Christmas tradition… *grins*

All that is left for me to say is that I hope that Your year has been as good to You as it has been for me. I look forward to hearing what kind of year that You have had had, and please, have yourself the bestest of Christmas of all time and make the new year the bestest ever again…!

With every best wish (and a smile),

~Thomas