…this book. it was on sale in a great art bookstore that i just discovered near the concert gebouw.

it’s monday afternoon, and although i have a list as long as my arm, i’m very tempted to make a cup of tea and sit outside on le petit deck of le petit bateau, leisurely turning the pages of my new treasure until the sun goes down.

somebody stop me.

You may all be well aware by now that as much as I love music (and taking photos, food, nature, art, all things handmade…), I love books. And it just so happens that on one of my favourite wanders in paris: made by hand (that being wander 6) there is one of my favourite bookstores in the world. It is a rather particular bookstore. To be precise, it sells comics…

The French love comics, and it didn’t take me long to understand why – comic books these days are bound pages of incredible hand drawn illustrations by both well-known and lesser-known artists. These books are like short films on paper, storyboards. And for me, they have been the most fabulous way to learn the French language. The first French comic I read with French Boy’s help was Les Schtroumpfs, or as I’ve known them best, The Smurfs. Just to be able to pronounce ‘schtroumpf’ is not so easy (its something like schhhhhhtrrrroooompf), and you may recall the stories are filled with such sentences as “the smurfs smurfed this and they smurfed that, and everything is smurfalicious”. It’s bloody hard to say this in French. I persevered.

Today I am rather proud to announce that I can now read such books on my own. And my very first illustrative book which I’ve read on my own in French, I bought at philippe’s during my recent weekend in paris. It is called mon frère nocturne by joanna hellgren, and it is one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read…

mon frère nocturne is a little story about a boy who is about to turn ten. and that’s all I will say. Its a very moving story that resonated deeply with me. It also features a piano. Here are a couple of pages from the book which I found on the publisher’s website …

I highly recommend you check out more of Joanna’s work on her extensive online portfolio. And of course, while on wander 6, please go and check out philippe’s fabulous bookstore – it’s just opposite galerie vegetale.

Lilibeth (haven’t we missed her?! Harriet too!) insisted on stopping by this morning -or evening, if you are down under – to let us all know that Paris: Made By Hand will be in the following fabulous bookstores by June 1st (that’s this Monday!)…

IN AUSTRALIA:

Pulp Creative Paper, MANLY
Kinokuniya in the Galeries Victoria, SYDNEY
Oscar & Friends Booksellers, DOUBLE BAY
Sun Bookshop, YARRAVILLE
Better Read Pty Ltd, NEWTOWN
Reader’s Feast RFM Melbourne, MELBOURNE
Abbeys Bookshop Pty Ltd, SYDNEY
Gleebooks Pty Ltd, GLEBE
Collins 941 Floreat, FLOREAT
Dymocks Sydney, SYDNEY
Dymocks Broadway, BROADWAY
Dymocks Nowra, NOWRA

…………………………………………

**updated 29/5, includes the following:

Readings Carlton VIC
Ang & Rob Norwood SA
Dymocks Belconnen ACT
Dust Jacket Inverell NSW
The Hive Braddon ACT
Elliot Collection Essendon VIC
Turner & Lane Malvern VIC

…………………………………………

For my Australian readers, if you don’t see the name of your favourite local bookstore above, I would absolutely love you (yes, LOVE you) if you could ask them to stock the book. I really really want the book to be in your local reading retreat, and the only way I know how to do that is to ask for your help. My local bookstores in Sydney would be Bookoccino in Avalon, and Berkelouw Books in Mona Vale. If anyone from the Northern Beaches could call these stores to ask for them to stock the book, I would be so so thankful. And I think my grandmother might just bellyflip to see them in her local bookstore! I would love my grandmother to bellyflip. I don’t know exactly what it means as I just made it up. But in my head, it’s an air born sommersault of sorts.

IN EUROPE:

American Book Center, AMSTERDAM
Sterling Books, BRUSSELS
Alexia Hollinger, rue Therese, PARIS
Galignani, PARIS
Shakespeare and Company, PARIS
Village Voice, PARIS
WHSmith, PARIS

There will be more stockists throughout France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece, still to come. And there should be a number of bookstores in the UK but I haven’t had confirmation of these yet.

I will now go and pop these stockists onto the book’s webpage for your future reference…

This is a new book from The Little Bookroom that was also released a couple of weeks ago. It’s called The Flea Markets of France and is a great guide for finding fabulous brocantes around the country. I was asked to create the cover! That’s my handiwork you see above. I collected things that I had bought at brocantes, and lay them out on an old pretty map of France. The fab book design team at The Little Bookroom made the label for the title. What do you think?

In more exciting news, both my book Paris: Made By Hand and this one, The Flea Markets of France were featured in the latest issue of British House & Garden magazine, with special mention about the covers!

The article reads “The covers of most travel guides are predictably pedestrian…so when you come across jackets as charmingly whimisical as those of Paris: Made By Hand and The Flea Markets of France, you foresee something different, more personal, within them.”

I’m chuffed to bits…

Words cannot describe how I feel to be able to finally share this with you my dear readers. It has been a moment I have been waiting for for so long. And without warning, the news of its impending arrival was sprung upon me today in the most beautiful of ways – I received an email from the owner of a gorgeous boutique in California letting me know that she just received a stack of my books that she had on order and loved it so much that she had to email me to let me know. Thank you dear Michele, your email made my day.

So, without further ado, I want you all to know that my very first book is available in all good bookstores around the world right …now.

Wow. I can’t believe I can finally write that.

I promise I will show and tell more about the book very soon (you know I have so much to show + tell!!!) but for now, please click here to read all about it, and to purchase your copy.

xx

oh dear. i’m not sure i can sleep now.