Happy Cakes

It's very lovely that the Wolf Princess has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2013. It really has been such a short time since we ate cake (pictured) to celebrate the publication. Thank you Chicken House... and thank you Waterstones for including me on the shortlist. (And of course, best of luck to all the nominees in all the categories... it's an enticing list).

Admire the world

'Admire the world for never ending on you as you would admire an opponent, without taking your eyes off him, or walking away.'

Catherine Deneuve behind the camera.

Teenage dream

Andy Warhol greets The Clash, the Shea Stadium, 1982

Quietly waiting

'Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting and modern.'

Frank O'Hara

Emerald Eye

'Thus thou has the glory of the whole world; therefore let all obscurity flee before thee.'

The Strange Affair

'A work has two levels of meaning: literal and concealed.' Roland Barthes

Photograph by Carolyn Quartermaine

The White Tower

"Those who were masters of this craft built a tower with great skill; there could be none more beautiful, for it was great and broad and high."

The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun