A lustrous darkness deep in ice-age cold
One of the peculiarities of the Winter Solstice is that although the days start to stretch out on their journey through the rest of the season, the mornings appear to stay darker for longer – and over this Christmas week the heavy fog has diminished any prospect of morning sunlight even further. But the Rubicon has been passed, the shortest day is behind us, our daily dose of daylight will only increase. And with the coming New Year, and the optimism it brings, the sunny uplands await. The week between Christmas and the New Year is always fulfilling, a time of reflection on the year just passed, a time of hope for the year about to start.
At the Solstice by Shaun O’Brien (from The Beautiful Librarians)
We say Next time we’ll go away,
But then the winter happens, like a secret
We’ve to keep yet never understand
As daylight turns to cinema once more:
A lustrous darkness deep in ice-age cold,
And the print in need of restoration
Starting to consume itself
With snowfall where no snow is falling now.
Or could it be a cloud of sparrows, dancing
In the bare hedge that this gale of light
Is seeking to uproot? Let it be sparrows, then,
Still dancing in the blazing hedge,
Their tender fury and their fall,
Because it snows, because it burns.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year has graced us with a bounty of fantastic books, so I thought I would present you with our bestselling twelve unsigned books of 2024. Alan Bennett’s Killing Time has taken one of this year’s top spots; this is what Spectator calls “a geriatric Lord of the Flies,” as anarchy descends on a nursing home during Covid. Our top non-fiction seller of the year is Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare, the real-life story of when Dalton rescued a baby newborn hare from the wild, raising it through Covid, ready to release it back into the wild again.
Other top fiction of the year also includes Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, the tale of a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story; The Booker Prize winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a thought-provoking novel set in space; Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, an exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family; and Barbara Kingsolver’s tome Demon Copperhead, the heart-breaking story of the modern opioid crisis in the US.
For non-fiction these writers take the crown: Nigel Slater’s A Thousand Feasts is a book of ponderings about food written at Slater’s kitchen table, with the occasional recipe thrown in for good measure. David Mitchell’s Unruly is an interesting and quirky history of the British Monarchy. I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You is Miranda Hart’s hilarious biography of her journey from illness to recovery. And Rory Stewart’s Politics on the Edge is still our best-selling political book, even though it was first published well over a year ago!
The best of children’s literature this year features Adam Kay’s debut into children’s fiction, with Dexter Proctor the 10-Year-Old Doctor, great for 9-12 year olds this is the story of one of the most clever little boys in the world! And Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Jonty Gentoo was always bound to be a hit, this is the story of a little Gentoo penguin trying to get back to his colony
As always, if you want anything ordering in, or you need anything, do let us know!
From Amber
The full newsletter with links to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be found HERE
