Bookish Birthday

Yay! It's my birthday today and at the grand age of 26 I feel I am officially a grown adult woman. So to honour the occasion I've put together a small ideas for the literature-lover in your life.


1. Doubleplusgood necklace, quoted from Nineteen Eighty-Four, £28.00, sold here   

I'm a fan of Orwell, so things makes my list. Also it's bang on trend at the moment as delicate gold  accessories are going to be massive this summer.

2. Bookish....and proud of it notebook, £7.99, sold here

I'm always slightly cautious when I get a new notebook as I don't want to spoil it with my dreadful handwriting. Both these notebooks would be perfect for readers to write reviews of make lists of what they want to read next.

3. Old Junk, Penguin Notebook, £8.99, sold here 

4. Roland Dahl Matilda t-shirt, £19.99, sold here 

I think Matilda is my favourite Roald Dahl, but the Fantastic Mr Fox and BFG are also pretty wonderful.

5. Game of Thrones, Westeros leggings, $85.00 AUD, sold here 

Possibly over-priced (and I'm not totally sure I could pull these off) but as a huge GoT fan I had to include these snazzy Black Milk leggings. The print also comes in a dress.  

6. From small seeds necklace, £20.00, sold here

 Staying on the Game of Thrones theme, I think the tree on this locket look like it belongs in a weirwood.

7. Personalised Penguin Kindle Cover, £19.99, sold here

This is so cool! You could use the details of your fave book, but  I think I would be tempted to use my own name as the author, or is that a bit sad? I really love the classic penguin design, when I went to a charity shop I had to really resist buying a bulk lot of these orange and white books, but as I didn't actually want to read any of them it felt a bit fake.

If you want to find my previous gift ideas see here:

• presents for readers 
• presents for tea-drinkers 
• presents for writers
• presents for potterheads  
• presents for feminists 

Or if you are on a budget or fancy giving a home-made present, check out my DIY ideas here:-

quote bunting 

framed penguin postcards 

I'm off to enjoy my day! 

Betty Blythe tea rooms.

For my mum's birthday we treated her to afternoon tea at Betty Blythe, in London.

It was so much fun. The tea party was held in the cosy basement of the tea rooms (upstairs is a drop in cafe), it was beautifully decorated, and private as there was only one other table of three guests. Depending how big your party is, you could hire out the whole room.

The best thing about Betty Blythe is the dressing up box- there is a collection of 1920's style clothes and accessories that are available for you to wear. My only criticism is that some of the them (especially the gloves)  could do with a bit of a wash. Still, we had the best time trying on turbans, feathers and fur stoles. We ended up with about 70 pictures of us preening like old fashioned movie stars and draped on the chaise lounge (we're all too camera shy to put them up on the internet-sorry!)

one of the costumes from the dressing up box. 

We spent a lot of time pretending to be various characters depending on our costumes- lady novelist committed to an asylum by her husband, scandalous lesbian lady-golfer, show-girl, débutante etc. My mum might now be in her 50s, but she's still proper daft. 

The Lady of the Hundred Dresses

Before I pack it away, I wanted to show the birthday card my mum got me:-

A card that looks like a library book- very cool in my opinion. Perfect for a fashionable reader, this card can be purchased at Waterstone's. Apparently, The Lady of the Hundred Dresses is an actual book, I might have to try and track down a copy.   

Gifts for Tea Drinkers

Following on from my post from yesterday, and because I'am undoubtedly still in birthday mode I have a few suggestions of what to buy for the big tea drinker in your life:-

One:
It would be lovely to take that special person out for afternoon tea. A lot of the famous hotels in London do this, but I'm sure you'd be able to find somewhere local. Most places you need to book in advance and some offer gift vouchers. It is a quintessentially British activity and would be a real treat. Tea at The Ritz ranges in price from £47- 67 per person.

picture credit: The Ritz website 

Or, if you budget is restricted, why not host a fancy tea yourself? The Ritz is certainly out of my price range.  Scones and sandwiches are easy to make and I'm sure the birthday girl/boy will appreciate your efforts.

Presents for readers

Today is my birthday (yay!), and as I will be jollying around Lisbon this is a scheduled post of suggestions for presents for bibliophiles:-

One. 

How about a good book? hahaha pretty obvious, but why not? If you're stuck for ideas, have a look at my recent reviews and see what I did/didn't enjoy. Another useful place to look is goodreads which has a massive archive of reviews. Alternatively go out there and get some human contact, your local bookseller will have loads of recommendations. 

Currently on my wishlist are:-

image from Amazon.co.uk

1. The People of Forever are not Afraid- Shani Boianjiu. A coming of age novel about young women doing their national service in Israel 
2.  We, The Drowned- Carsten Jensen. A literary voyage about a crew of Danish sailors in 1848 
3. The Lost Books of the Odyssey-Zachary Mason. Continuing my current hobby for Greek epics. 
4. Far From the Tree- Andrew Solomon. Non-fiction, examining genetics and parenting     

Ok if a book is too obvious or you're not sure what the person you're buying for has read, I have plenty of other suggestions after the cut....