Otters for Books for Children and Families
NB: All the otters here are now sold, but if you desire to donate between £120 and £135 to the Scottish Book Trust then email me. There will always be more otters while I have blue, and soon there may be foxes, or gold…….
The Scottish Book Trust do amazing work to support literacy in Scotland. This year they have a campaign to get books into the homes of children where there are no books. In support of this, and during an event yesterday ( you can watch the event here. It was for The Song That Sings Us with Nicola Davies), I painted some small otter labels using YInMn blue given to me by Rajeevi Subramanian. My way of saying thank you to her is to try to do some good with the paint. These are the latest batch of YInMn Blue otters, this time on rather gorgeous little labels from The English Stamp Company.
To purchase email me. I will try to mark up as they sell. Email me and I will send the link to the Scottish Book Trust’s donation page. Or, if you want to just donate a bit, maybe the price of a book, use this link. Once the donation is made I will pop the otter into the post for its exciting journey to a new home.
I talk a little about the blue in the event, but if you want to know more then have a look at this:
Early morning walking, I decided I needed to feel the elements, so headed up the hill in a long black dress and not very warm jumper. The rain was sweeping over the land, the wind rising as the rain was falling. It was cold, so cold on the way back the wind hurt my skin. ( I wasn’t far from home, and wouldn’t do this if I were. Just sometimes I need to really hear, feel, smell the world and listen to the rain coming over the land.)
At one point I sheltered under a gorse bush.
Now, back in the house, I have been settling in, still listening to the wind, but now it sings outside the stone walls. The fire is lit, the cats are curled.
The Unwinding and her sister book, The Silent Unwinding, have been published in America. East of The Sun and The Wild Swans are about to be published in their new form in UK. I’m in Stratford in November talking about these Tales From the Wild with John Mitchinson. Also at Kendal Mountain Festival on Sat 20th Nov, talking of the same. And I will be going to Sam Reads Amazing Booksellers in Grasmere.
I’m reading a book that was given to me by Marilyn Brocklehurst some time ago. It’s such a wonderful place to rest into. It is The Great Godden by Mag Rosoff. She’s an amazing writer, much undersung in the UK, but internationally recognised by the international community as one of the recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She has such a cleverness about how she writes, a spareness.
So I am going now, to curl with cats and read for a short while, then I have an event to go to, in India, for Siddharth Pandey’s beautiful book Fossil.
And just incase anyone is worried about the absence of Fishheads, here he is.
its a cat yin yang
Good morning Jackie.
Your otters are stunning, unfortunately my lack of funds means I cannot purchase one. However I can still enjoy looking at then.
Nice to see your cats enjoying the fire.
We said we would try and wait until 1st November until we lit ours. And a as it is the 1st today and I’ve seen yours I have to light ours now(whether it’s cold or not).
Could you please tell me the book title which you show the information about Yinmn Blue.
Best wishes
David
Have sent you an email.
Hello Jackie, There is so much in this post that I could write about, but I just finished listening to the event on The song that Sings us, and I was in tears towards the end when you displayed your painted otters in YInMN Blue as part of your donation to the Book trust. My heat is bursting.
I had made a small donation to The Scottish Book Trust earlier when I saw it on Rob Macfarlane’s Twitter feed, but this makes me so very very happy. And I now see that all the otters are sold!!! Fantastic!
I utterly enjoyed the conversation on Nicola’s and your books. It was filled with hope and that is so much in need right now. I sure hope our world leaders at the G20 and COP26 have more than just words and promises to offer us this time around, as action on their part is very much needed as we are on the brink.
Thank you for your stories and for all that you do that fill us with hope.
Rajeevi.xxx
Hi Jackie. I can’t find details of your event on the kendal mountain festival web site. Is this in person or online. More details please, I am local to kendal and would love to come to this.
It is in person and I think about 10.15, but they’ve not put it up online yet x Will try and put a link when it is.