ONCE UPON A DREAM; University Prep

Collegiate Campus

 It is a dull, grey Tuesday afternoon and I'm tucked away in my cosy study as I settle in to write this blog post.  I'm burning Water Garden oil from M&S in my oil burner, which smells like the sea and reminds me of sailing out of Oban Bay, or boating on Loch Lomond.  I have a tealight burning in my Lothlorian candle holder, which gives off a warm glow, lighting up the spiral staircase and tree-branched arches of the holder.

My beautiful Lothlorian Candle holder - its so pretty!

I have spent all day writing, working ahead on my psychotherapy columns for the upcoming months. I like days like today, where the writing is flowing well and it feels like easy work.  As the summer wanes, it is only a matter of weeks until I am back in university and they are doing everything they can to make the campus safe for our return, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.  Because we will be going back into the classroom, and lectures, seminars and Masterclasses are all going ahead as usual.  That is the plan for now, at least.  Things might change and I think we have all learnt in recent months not to take anything for granted.

I'm really looking forward to going back.  While the main campus is all mod-cons, I much prefer the beautiful buildings of the old campus, pictured here.  It suits my idea of university much better and has all the Dark Academia vibes about it that I love.  Yes it's cold and drafty, but it's also very old fashioned and traditional, which is why I love it.  It has such a Gothic atmosphere, especially on a stormy autumn day. 

Collegiate Campus

We have already been sent our reading list for the next academic year and it doesn't look too bad.  I read most of the books last year to be honest, so I feel I'm already working ahead.  I've been going over last year's class notes and revising when I can, just to refresh my mind of what we covered, as it's been so long since we've been in class due to Covid.  I haven't attended an actual class since February, before the tutor strikes and then the virus shut us down completely.  So I am eager to get back. 

I've missed the Masterclasses the most.  These are so interesting and inspiring!  I sometimes have to pinch myself when I'm sitting in the cosy little blue lecture hall, listening to some amazing speakers, because it can feel quite surreal at times. I've been lucky enough to meet some fascinating people because of the course I'm on, but I have to say that for me, the Oxford Fellow, Patrick McGuinness,  was the highlight of last year.  He was so smart and clever.  His upper-crust education came off him in waves, as he sprinkled his Oxford magic on us.  That was the best Masterclass of the whole year  and I really hope that he comes in to teach us again during the next academic year.   

Our cosy Masterclass lecture hall - I tend to sit in the middle row.

I'm really looking forward to throwing myself back into the university environment.  It is like being in a warm bubble of learning. Everything you need is right there on campus in it's own self-contained little world.  Yes, things will be different and strange this year because of the Covid virus, but it will still be lovely to have that normality of regular classes in place again, because I have missed it.  I've missed that sense of belonging that students have.  It's like being part of club; you have your own language, your own obligations and responsibilities, your own circle of friends who all have the same interest in the same topic, your very own world.  It's such a homely atmosphere of learning and I can't wait to be back there again. 

Roll on September, when my days of on-campus Dark Academia will begin once more! Until then, at least I have my snug little study full of books, a penchant for self-educating and my writing to get on with too.  That should be enough to keep me going until autumn and I plan to enjoy these last weeks of summer, being as bookish as I like and reading as much as I can. 

Carpe Librum! 

Marie x

WRITER'S DREAM; Cosy Lock-Down Study Days

Virginia Woolf said that every writer should have 'a room of one's own' and I have to say, that I have never felt more grateful for my study than I have during lock-down.  It's such a cosy room to retreat to. No clocks, no phones - just books, desks, writing slopes and me.  It's always the quietest room in the house. Outside noise rarely disturbs me in here. The walls lined with books are very insulating.  

When I planned this room over fifteen years ago, I knew I wanted it to be as much like a traditional study as I could manage.  I'm an old fashioned girl at heart and while I might be writing this post on my laptop, the laptop is sat on my beautiful escritoire desk, which is one of the best purchases I have ever made.  I've written so many of my books, columns and features at this desk that it must have paid for itself a hundred times over!

Working from home means that I simply have to have a lovely space in which to work.  It's non-negotiable.  Like many people (mostly women probably!) I have had a massive decluttering session during lock-down.  Every cupboard, drawer, wardrobe and nook in the house has been turned out, cleaned, items sifted, discarded, re-organised and put away neatly. 

My study was the biggest task of all.  Decades of self-employment makes for massive amounts of paperwork which I have had to sort through and decide what needs to be kept for tax purposes - a full seven years worth - and what can safely go through the shredder.  My shredder has done serious overtime these past few days, diminishing my outdated work records and rendering them down to a pile of confetti!  But now, I have everything neatly filed away in two boxes and the rest of the space is lovely and clear. It makes my head feel refreshed too - tidy space, tidy mind.

My escritoire has had a bit of a makeover as well.  It had become too cluttered, which made me not want to work here. I found myself working at my writer's bureau instead, which is a nice space to work at but it's not as big.  When I'm studying I have a lot of text books out, so I really needed to get my main desk decluttered and tidied up a bit.   

Then I decided to give the desk a Lord of the Rings makeover.  I put two of my Lord of the Rings goblets on the top part of the desk, above the pigeon holes, so now I have Glorfindel and Gimli gazing down at me as I write.  

One side of the desk still holds my fairy Tiffany style lamp, but on the other side I put my Lothlorian candle holder, which is huge!  It's so pretty.  It's designed to look like one of the elven houses built into the trees, so it has pewter branches and a beautiful elven staircase spiraling up the outside.  At the top sits a candle. I'm currently burning Yankee's Kitchen Spice and it fills the room with a warm fragrance that reminds me of autumn.  I also have a small pewter figurine of Arwen and my pewter pen and stand.  When the sunlight comes in, it glances off the pewter, making the desk area gleam.  

On the book lectern I've placed a copy of Tolkien's Beren and Luthien - an elven romance told in vast, epic poetry.  I love this space now.  I can't wait to come in and start work each day.  I wish I'd done it ages ago, as my study feels so much calmer now.  The Lord of the Rings theme makes it feel like an inspired space.  

Over the past couple of days I have been updating my Author CV.  Publishing, much like the rest of the world, is having to take an enforced hiatus and many editors are currently furloughed.  This means that, other than writing my psychotherapy column each month, there's not much else going on until the editors are back in place. 

I've made the most of this free time by updating my Author CV and organizing all my projects, getting everything filed away neatly, so that it's still accessible, but it's not out on the desk looking untidy.

I've done the same thing for my university work and assignments too, so now I have an updated filing system in place that keeps my writing work and my university work separate and tided away.  Being a writer involves a lot of paperwork and it can be overwhelming if you don't keep on top of it.  Of course, it's easier now that so much can be done online, but the paperwork still needs to be kept and filed away safely.  You just don't want to lose that amazing idea you wrote on the back of an envelope!

I've also been grateful to have my own library of books, not to mention my Kindle.  My tbr pile has gone down a bit these last few months and it's been wonderful to still be able to buy new books even though we can't go out.  Kindle has really proved it's worth to me during lock-down and I love being able to shop my own bookshelves for something new to read. 

So for me, lock-down hasn't been such a trial.  In fact, it's pretty much the normal life of a work from home writer and not much has changed.  I am aware though that some people have found it really tough.  My heart goes out to them.  It's a reminder to us to make sure we appreciate the little things while we have them. 

As for me, when I am curled up with a book and a cup of tea, in the leather armchair in my cosy little study,  I just feel so grateful that I spent years working hard to build this life and this home for myself.   It has been an essential retreat when the world ran to chaos and pandemonium! I hope you have all fared just as well. 

Blessed Be

Marie x

BOOK NOOK; Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton

Please note: This novel was written by one of the faculty members of my university and I reviewed it for fellow students some time ago.  In light of current events however, it seems fitting to also share it here on my blog, though as I say in the review - it's not a happy read. 

“We collect bones and bundles long after the river seeps back and the mud dries.  We make up stories for each one.  Each piece is remembered.  Out of sweet cherry wood, we carve our very own book.  The hands bring us paper.  We stitch them together.  Stuff the newspapers, like bookmarks, in between.  Though neither one of us can read or write, each page holds a story.  We remember.”

Remembered is the award winning novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton.  It won the Northern Writer’s Fiction Award in 2017 and it is a work of historical fiction.  Reading it is like being taken back in time and sucked into the Deep South in the run up to the American Civil War.  I couldn’t help thinking as I read, that it reminded me somewhat of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, but with one significant difference – Remembered is a novel told entirely from the perspective of the slaves and their descendants.

It begins in 1910 with a young black man in hospital, after crashing a streetcar into a popular department store, injuring innocent bystanders and himself in the process. The police believe that this was a deliberate act and the newspapers report the story accordingly, referring to the driver as ‘the Negro’, rather than by his name, Edward.   This in itself is rather shocking to a modern reading audience. The fact that all the newspapers cuttings incorporated into the novel appear to be authentic, makes for a very discomforting reading experience at times.

Edwards mother, Spring, is called to the hospital and grilled by the police as to why her son has allegedly committed such an atrocity.  She defends her son valiantly, but that isn’t the story they want to hear.  It seems as if Edward has already been presumed guilty, due to the colour of his skin.  As Spring is informed that her son is very likely to die soon, she is visited by her sister Tempe.  Tempe died some years before the crash and so Remembered is also something of a ghost story, but it isn’t Tempe’s spirit that will leave you feeling haunted.  This is a ruthless novel of slavery, racism and savage injustice.

At Tempe’s insistence, Spring takes out a battered old book she made with her sister many years earlier.  It is a book of mementoes and pictures, of newspaper cuttings and memories.  Each page tells a part of their story, their family history and Edwards ancestry.  As her son lay dying, Spring uses the book to tell him the truth of his humble beginnings, of his father, his aunt and her own place in the story of their past, including how she got her name, Spring.   In this way, the novel beautifully illustrates that storytelling is not dependent on language and the written word, but is an age old form of verbal inheritance, as family stories are passed down from one generation to the next.  

Remembered is a novel rich in cultural idiosyncrasy and vernacular.  This adds to the depth of character and gives a solid sense of place.   It is visceral in tone and you feel the plight of these characters at a gut level.  Every instinct and fibre of compassion is revolted by the way in which the slaves are treated; a young girl abducted from the street and forced into a life of slavery; families torn apart as slaves are sold off; lashings, hangings, rapes and lynch mobs; the moral question of whether the death of a baby counts as infanticide if the mother is saving it from a life of enslavement and abuse; the innate yearning for freedom and the risks of trying to obtain it. 

But as Spring discovers for herself, freedom isn’t all that she hoped it would be and there is a sense of acute disappointment when she says “Most of the jobs I get, I get cuz I was a slave. People expect there ain’t nothing I can’t do, nothing I won’t do.”    And now her only son lies dying in a hospital bed, tucked out of sight in the Coloureds Only wing, accused of a crime she is sure he didn’t commit and already deemed guilty by many.  She knows that if he lives, they will hang him anyway.  So how much freedom do they have in reality?

This is not a happy novel.  It isn’t a book you can curl up with on a winter’s day and escape with, because the world it presents is harrowing and unsettling. I would say that it is a book designed to educate and enlighten the reader.   It shines a light on those dark aspects of the past that we think are long gone, but which still simmer beneath the surface of society.  It is a novel that makes you think, one that will stay with you long after you’ve closed the covers of the book, so it is certainly worth reading.  The main clue is in the title though - for this is a novel that has been written in order to be Remembered.

BB Marie x

WRITER'S DREAM; Dark Academia

Two weeks into coronavirus lock-down and I am beginning to miss going in to university.  I miss the structured routine of the lectures and seminars, workshops and masterclasses.  I miss sitting in the common room discussing work with my fellow students and I miss our lecturers and their passion for the topics they teach.

I suppose what I miss most of all is the Dark Academia of it all.  That sense of coming together to learn, to expand one's knowledge and mix with people who actually understand the subject matter and can freely and intellectually exchange ideas with me.  

It seems strange to me that dark academia is becoming something of a trend, especially with people who have never been involved in any kind of higher education!   It is the trend of romanticizing a university education and all that that involves.  From the fashion of woolly jumpers, scarves in university colours and Chelsea boots, to the habit of carrying a book everywhere and putting on clear-lense glasses  as a fashion statement.  But dark academia is not just an aesthetic look - it is an atmosphere and an attitude towards study, and it is something I have been doing for decades, since long before it became an emerging trend.

So what exactly is dark academia?  Well, it can be many things. On the one hand it is a pop-culture sub-genre, along with its counter-part Light Academia.  In this sense you could point to certain books and films that seemingly sum up what it is to be darkly, or lightly, academic.  In dark academia we have books such as Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches, Donna Tartt's The Secret History and M. A. Bennett's S.T.A.G.S, which is one of the best books I read last year and I highly recommend it. 

Dark Academia is all about existentialism, fatalism and death.  It leans into the Gothic and embraces it, which is probably why I enjoy reading it.   It's sister sub-genre, Light Academia, is all about magical realism, fabulism and hope.  Tolkien is a firm favourite in light academia circles, as are novels that carry a message of hope and happy endings, or childhood nostalgia such as C. S. Lewis.  Dark academia novels tend to have more ambiguous endings and darker themes.  Both types of Academia are equally valid and one is not deemed better than the other.  Many people, including me, enjoy both aspects of this sub-genre and the sub-culture that is emerging from it. 

In a way, dark academia is a modern version of the old Bohemian way of life.  Art for art's sake. Studying for fun and enjoyment as a lifestyle, rather than swotting the night before a test because you have to.  Reading poetry, plays and mythology for fun. Learning a new language as a hobby.  Playing a musical instrument and so on.

It is our modern day equivalent to groups of like minded artists creating a club, such as Rossetti and his Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,  Virginia Wolfe and her Bloomsbury Group or Tolkien's Inklings. 

In dark and light academia, people come together, often online, to discuss books, poetry, exhibitions, art and artists. They support one-another through the process of self-study, which is regarded as an essential trait of the Academia club, because even if you are in university, one day your university days will be behind you, but you should still continue to study, so self-studying is commended and encouraged.  

In my opinion this is perhaps the most important aspect of this trend, because it makes dark/light academia available to all and removes the elitism of a university education being essential to study.  It isn't.  Yes, it's nice to be a university student and if more people apply to university due to this current trend that that is a good thing, but it isn't compulsory to be in formal university education to get involved in dark academics.  You can do it from home, right now if you wanted to.

Aesthetically speaking, dark academia is all mahogany libraries, desks with secret compartments and studying by candlelight.  My own study is full of dark-wood bookcases, hundreds of books and a beautiful mahogany escritoire desk that has lots of secret compartments, so it seems I was living this trend long before it even became a thing! And my university teddy-bear now has pride of place on a bookshelf, while my uni scarf is hung on the back of the door, until I return in September. 

If you want to start living this trend too, to brighten up self-isolation during this crisis, then you will need to create your own Dark Academia space in your home, with a place to write and study.  Add candles, books, pictures of classic authors and maybe images of your dream university.  Make copious amounts of tea and coffee, eat hot crumpets and get into the right mindset.  Study the classics.  Read the current dark academia novels mentioned above and watch a few films to inspire you such as Tolkien, Mary Shelley or A Discovery of Witches boxset.  

Retreat into your own personal world of academic enjoyment.  Light candles for atmosphere. Play classical music as you read and study.  Work on your assignments if like me, you are an actual university student.  Make it dark, make it gothic and make it fun!

For more inspiration, check out my Dark Academic board on Pintrest here.

Until next time, stay well.

Marie x

WRITERS DREAM; Writing Through Crisis

Writing has always been like medicine to me.  It is a great comfort during times of stress and uncertainty, so with the country on lock-down due to coronavirus and everyone ordered to stay at home, now is the perfect opportunity to hide away with your pen for company.  Even Jo March was writing her way through the crisis of the American Civil War, not to mention the poverty she and her family had to endure .  For Jo, writing was a comfort, an escape and also a way for her to improve the fortunes of her family. 

In dark, troubled times even small victories can lighten the load, so it was with great delight that I recieved the news that I have had a short piece of flash fiction accepted for publication in the University anthology.   Although the launch of the anthology has had to be postponed until November, rather than this summertime as was previously scheduled, it still feels like something to celebrate as, aside from all my poetry, this will be my first fiction piece published.  

It is even more special because the piece was actually inspired by my soldier of the Black Watch, so it is very personal to me and I am honoured that it has been selected for the anthology, and that so many people have already been moved by it.  Some told me that they had tears in their eyes as they read it.

The book launch party will now be a part of the Off The Shelf Festival of Words event in the city this autumn and I can't wait to attend as a literary contributor, rather than just as a spectator.  It's a great festival of literature and I feel so proud that my work will be a part of it this year.  

It marks a distinct shift in my writing too, from Wiccan writer and self-help columnist, into new territory as a fiction author.  A small start perhaps, but a start nonetheless and it feels great to finally have my foot in the door of fiction publishing, even in a small way, as so many people never, ever get there.  But I have.

Some of the great novelists began by writing for their university, among them Tolkien who wrote for Oxford and F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote for Princeton.  More recently Jeremy Paxman was editor of Varsity, the publication of Cambridge University.  So it seems like it's a tried and tested writing route!  I'm happy to just see where it takes me. 

So while the world might be in a mass-panic of anxiety and uncertainty, I find that I am weathering this storm quite calmly.  I have lots of free time to write my last assignment for this year.  My Masters Degree course has been quite disrupted so far with the tutor strikes and then coronavirus shutting us down completely, but I'm used to working from home. It's what I prefer.  And of course, I will be back in classes come September if all returns to normal, as I still have another year on this course. I'm glad of that too, as it would have been a rubbish way to end the course had this been my final year and my heart goes out to the students who find themselves in that situation, where their studies have basically just fallen off a cliff!  At least I have next year's studies to look forward to.

Any crisis provides a deep well of inspiration and I've had so many ideas for future topics to explore in my monthly psychotherapy column.  I'm going to very busy writing those up and submitting them to my editor.  Writing and publishing are one of the industries that lends itself to the work from home lifestyle, so my writing life continues uninterrupted.  

Over the years many, many people have said to me 'I wish I had time to write'.  I always reply that you must make time to write. You must prioritize your writing above other things - like soap operas and bad TV.  Well, now is your chance to see if you really do have what it takes to be a writer, to find out if you have the discipline and dedication it takes to succeed in this field, or if it's just a pipe-dream.  As you can't leave the house anyway, you might as well try to write that book you've been pondering on.  Now there are no excuses and it's just you and your pen.  So what are you waiting for?  

BOOK NOOK; The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

"No one can tell the story of you, but you.  Some people are gifted with a gilded tongue.  They will tell you who you are with such conviction that you may actually believe them, but this is a reflection, not the truth, for the story of you is not yet written."

from The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

The Twisted Tree is a fantastic bildungsroman novel.  It incorporates magic, mythology, romance, fantasy and ghosts.  It is one of those stories that takes you to another world, hidden on the very edge of our own world and it is quite a page turner.

Set in Norway, it's all snowy and white, but a dark danger lurks beneath the beauty.  It is a book of duality. There is a cosy cabin in the snow and a fearsome creature in the woods.  Is it a wolf? A troll? Or something else?

There is also a Norwegian Byronic Hero love interest and as I like my men from the North, he had me hooked from page 28!  The romance is subtle as this is a YA novel, but it helps to move along this character driven plot at quite a fast pace. 

When Martha runs away from her London home to visit her grandmother in Norway, she is drawn to discover more about her own past.  Martha is magical in her own right, having the gift of psychometry, which developed after falling from the twisted tree in her grandmother's garden and she wants to know how to control this new power.   Her explorations lead her deep into the world of Norse mythology, where she discovers her true ancestry as a descendant of the Norns.  

As I was reading this book, it took me right back to Strathpeffer and the beautiful wood tree-carvings of The Norns that stand guard there.

 This is Urd.  Her walking-stick bares the notches that represent the years of your life.  She is rather a bad tempered Norse Goddess - a bit of a 'you've made your bed now lie in it!' type.

This is Verandi.  She is the kindest of the three Norns and she carries the fabric of all life, made as the sisters weave all of our threads together.  She is the one to invoke for matters of second chances and it was this wood carving that was the focus of a love spell I cast a few years ago, when I needed to get back in touch with my soldier and Highlander friend, Alexander.  Sometimes you have to revisit the past in order to deal with the present and move on to the future.  Verandi understands this and my spell was successful. 

Both these goddesses are significant in The Twisted Tree and they play a vital role in Martha's story,  as she is swept down into the Norse Underworld to meet Hel and to keep Skuld, the third Norn, from severing the life-thread of someone close to her. 

Here you can just see Skuld on the right of the tree-carving - her face is covered as only the dead get to look at her.  She carries the shears that cut the thread of life and is therefore a goddess of death and rebirth.   So it's fair to say that Martha has her work cut out!

The Twisted Tree is a brilliant book.  When I picked it up to read it, I wasn't expecting to be taken back to Strathpeffer in my mind, but it has rekindled my love for that place and made me want to return there.  It has also made me dream of going off to Norway one year for a wintry snowy holiday.  I would love to do that.

It's a great novel, full of magical, mysterious adventure and quite a few ghosts.  I also think it's set up for a sequel... so I'll be keeping an eye out for that - that's a clue! Read the book to get the joke.

BB Marie x

BOOK NOOK; Fantasy Art Books

 'From its origins in sacred texts and classical mythology, fantasy has always been a major chord in the music of the spheres, in the voice of the heavens, the sky and outer space.'

Joseph Simas

I have always loved the realms of fantasy in fiction, art and film, so when I discovered these three beautiful books at the Hunterian & Mackintosh Art Gallery in Glasgow last October, I knew I had to buy them and bring them home with me, to add to my collection of Art books.  They are all part of the same series, by the same publisher and they look just beautiful on the art and literature bookshelves in my study.

As University classes have been severely disrupted, first with tutor strikes and now with corona-virus, I've been spending time with these stunning books of art instead.  There is nothing more firing to my writer's imagination than lighting my large pewter Lothlorian candle holder, playing Omnia's Naked Harp and quietly flipping through the pages of these stunning books of art from past and present. 

Celestial Art depicts the work of contemporary artist Josephine Wall, exploring the inspirations behind her marvelous paintings.   Her work is well known in pagan circles and has been used as cover art for esoteric magazines, books and music.   Reading this book is like diving into the imagination of your former childhood.  It is full of vibrant colour, with page after page of her paintings reproduced to a very high quality.  

Although I love the art of Victoria Frances and her gothic, chiaroscuro palette, sometimes I want to escape into a world of rainbow brightness  and what Victoria Frances is to the chiaroscuro technique, Josephine Wall is just as dedicated to the full spectrum of colour.  Her art is so cheerful and happy.  It takes you to a good place and no matter how many times you look at one of her swirling paintings, you always find something new, some fey little creature or tableau detail hidden in the body of the work.  I especially love her mermaids. 

Josephine is heavily influenced by the work of early twentieth century painter, Arthur Rackham, which brings me to the next book by the same author...

This next book in the series is all about one of the original fantasy artists, Arthur Rackham and you might be very familiar with his work already as he is famous for having illustrated many classic children's books during his lifetime, most notably the 'coloured' Fairytale books.  I have the Blue Fairy book and Rackham's illustrations are exquisite.   His delicate line drawings and dainty watercolour images draw you into a enchantingly fey landscape of charm and innocence.  This is the perfect book to flip through when you want to rediscover your favourite childhood fairytales and learn more about the artist who brought them to life for generations of children the world over. 

The author of both these books writes in a fairly academic style, so it feels like you are receiving a valuable and interesting university level lecture in the workings of these artists, their preferred materials and techniques, their influences etc.  He also highlights the journey of each artist, where they began and how they developed their style into something so unique and instantly recognizable along the way. 

The Art of Anne Stokes is a book in the same series, so it's identical in size and shape but it is written by a different author, John Woodward, in a writing style that is far more commercial.  Incidentally, if you want to understand the difference between an academic and commercial register of tone - essential knowledge if you hope to be a published writer - comparing and contrasting this book with one of those mentioned above, would give you a great insight. 

Again, Anne Stokes is a favourite artist of mine.  I have loved her work since I first discovered it in a little sea-front shop at Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast, where they were selling posters, clothing and sculptures of her designs.  Her work is both light and dark, ethereal and gothic and this book tracks her various styles from stylized fairies to modern steam-punk.  While I'm not personally a fan of the steam-punk, I adore all of her unicorns and I find myself mesmerized by her depictions of  these beautiful mythological creatures.  I especially love her unicorns in snowy settings - they take me away to a magical world and calm my mind. 

Images of unicorns, fairies and dragons have always inspired my own writing and I generally have a art card on my desk as I write.  It's one of my little writer tricks to keep the creative juices flowing and inspiration running high.  Having this gorgeous collection of fantasy Art books to hand will be really useful to me in my work and also, just to relax with.  Plus they are a lovely souvenir from my holiday to Scotland and trip to Glasgow last year.  

With scented candles glowing in magical holders, soft mystical music playing in the background and sophisticated picture books like these,  I can while away the hours quite happily and you could too.  Flipping through art books takes less effort than reading a novel but the images still take you to another place, freeing your thoughts and de-stressing your mind after a long day.   

So leave behind all the doom and gloom of the current headlines and turn the concept of self-isolation into self-education with an artistic slant.  I hope this post has inspired you to think of 'picture books' in an entirely new way!

BB Marie x