Anyone who has read this blog before, or who follows me on Instagram, will know just how much I love vintage children's books. As well as collecting Ladybird books I'm also rather fond of old Topsy and Tim books. When I was a child I recall the small soft-back format that was published by Blackie and these are the ones that I look out for in charity shops and at car boot sales, although they are very hard to come by these days. Before these smaller format ones, Blackie actually published larger versions of the same books. With so many Topsy and Tim editions over the years I've always ... read more
Topsy and Tim Learn to Swim
I think it's fair to say that I was more than a little bit excited with a recent eBay auction win that I had - vintage Topsy and Tim books! The thing that possibly excited me the most though was the fact that I now am the proud owner of two different vintage versions of Topsy and Tim Learn to Swim. Whilst this might not sound like much to get excited about my Topsy and Tim collecting to date has shown me that there are often changes between different versions of the books and I'm always fascinated to see what they are and to try to work out why the changes have been made. I've ... read more
Calming down after Christmas with a bedtime story
I don't know about you, but after Christmas here it seemed like the kids went more than a little bit loopy. I'm not sure if it was all to do with life being really busy with lots of friends and family to see over the holiday, or going away, or the influx of new toys for them both, but this year it's really taken a while for life to get back to normal. I've often found that the only time of the day that's been more predictable was just before bed. That nice bit of time when all the stress of getting them upstairs for a bath is behind you, and all that is left is a good old bedtime story and ... read more