Bex Blogs

Today is my turn on the blog tour for Renard Press's latest title, The Zebra and Lord Jones by Anna Vaught. Set in the midst of the Second World War, this is the story of the titular Lord Jones, disappointing only son of fascist sympathiser parents, and his encounter with a zebra, escaped from London Zoo during an air raid.  An interesting exploration of class, nationality and expectations of the 1940s, the beginning of the novel jumps around between Lord Jones and his parents, the keeper of the zebras at London Zoo, a boy called Ernest from Deptford who is evacuated to Wales, and Anwen Llewellyn, a defiant and independent servant at Lord Jones' Carmarthenshire house. As the story begins to come together, it becomes clear that what all of the characters have in common is loneliness and a feeling of not belonging where they are. With words and without them, they gradually come to understand each other, and themselves, better.  Although Lord Jones is the title character and the

This is a re-post from the old Ninja Book Box blog, but a subject I still feel very, very strongly about and so I thought it was worth sharing again! Everyone who wants one should feel 'allowed' to have an Indie Book Advent Calendar, for goodness sake.  Recently, I made a quick video about my thoughts on hearing a woman tell her grown up child that she was 'too old for an advent calendar now', and as I'm trying to post more regularly on this blog it seemed like a brilliant chance to expand my thoughts. Here is why you are never too old for an advent calendar... The whole festive season often gets harder as we get older, for a multitude of reasons. Personally, this year brings a whole new set of adjustments from our usual 'one year in Kent, one year in London with the grandparents' rules, as our extended family grows and includes an international contingent as well as many more grandchildren for my parents to divide their time between. A good thing of course,