#patcadvent
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Day 5 (2019): Today's #patcadvent is Moomin looking a little nonplussed at being served soup by invisible shrew mice, from Tove Jansson's Moominland Midwinter.

Moomins, as you may know, normally hibernate all winter with a tummy full of pine needles, but one year, Moomin wakes up by accident... 💙📚
Day 5 Today's #patcadvent image is Moomin looking a little nonplussed at being served soup by invisible shrew mice. This illustration can be found in Tove Jansson's Moominland Midwinter which is currently sitting next to me ready for its seasonal re-read. Moomins, as you may know, normally hibernate through the winter with a tummy full of pine needles but one year Moomin wakes up by accident... It's also the Moomin book that contains the most Little My of all Little My antics. Prudence has a very rude nickname for Little My but I will not share that here 😆 - C
December 5, 2024 at 7:35 AM
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Day 13 (2023):

It's Day 13 of the Prudence and the Crow advent and it is time, at last, for my favourite Christmas story - A Christmas Carol - here illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger and published in 1988. #patcadvent #AChristmasCarol 💙📚
Scrooge discovering Jacob Marley has become his door knocker.
December 13, 2024 at 7:01 AM
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Day 22 (2021): #patcadvent regular: Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales.

You can listen to a 1952 recording of Dylan Thomas reading directly from his copy of Harper's Bazaar here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4-...
Day 22: Three children walk up a snowy driveway towards a distant house.
December 22, 2024 at 7:11 AM
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It's Day 22 of #patcadvent. A merry Winter Solstice to you! Today we celebrate the shortest day of the year with Karin Celestine's The Lightbringers. Prudence gave me this beautiful book a few years ago which follows little creatures in their quest to return the light. #needlefelting
A beautiful needle-felted scene with a fieldmouse, weasel and badger carrying lanterns through a little woodland trail.
December 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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#patcadvent Day 9 (2023): more Quentin Blake illustration - Tales of Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken 💙📚

Know anyone who deserves a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking this year or need some supplies for your snowman's eyes? You'll have to get past Mortimer first. He sleeps in the coal scuttle!
Day 9: Mortimer the Raven stands proudly on top of the fallen coal scuttle. Arabelle, with her long blonde hair and short blue dress, smiles proudly out of the picture as she stands in the mess.
December 9, 2024 at 12:44 PM
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#patcadvent Day 1 (2017):

First up is one of Crow's favourites, Brian Selznick's The Marvels.

Based around Dennis Severs' house in Spitalfields, this adventurous and well-constructed mix of text and soft pencil drawings is, like all Selznick's books, both pure magic, and absolutely human. 💙📚
1. A copy of The Marvels, by Brian Selznick, on a table, lit by red and pink fairy lights. A winter branch is visible around it. This is quite an intensely "creative" photo Prudence took back in 2017...
December 1, 2024 at 8:11 AM
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#patcadvent Day 6 (2018):

Alan Lee's illustrated Tolkien's Lord of the Rings are Crow's childhood versions of it, and nothing says, cosy winter, like watching all the Lord of the Rings films in their most extended form (preferably whilst eating a good deal of cheese and mince pies, if you're me).
Day 6: Alan Lee's illustration of Gandalf filling his pipe and looking serious, at the start of Fellowship. Frodo is holding the ring in his hands and looking a bit foreboding.
December 6, 2024 at 7:01 AM
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Day thirteen of the Prudence and the Crow advent is The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, a book Prudence and I recently re-read. Full of dark and ancient things, this makes for a marvellous Yuletide read... #patcadvent
A stylised illustration of a group of children huddled in an archway, seemingly under attack from a flock of crows during a snowstorm.
December 13, 2025 at 7:25 AM
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#patcadvent Day 10 (2021):

A Swedish Christmas is something wonderful and if you ever have the chance to have one, you must! Today's illustration is by Ingrid Vang Nyman for Astrid Lindgren's 'Christmas in Noisy Village' and depicts the highly important activity of making gingerbread pigs. 💙📚
Day 10: a black and white outline drawing of two small children with curly hair at a kitchen table shaping gingerbread biscuit dough into adorable pig shapes.
December 10, 2024 at 7:38 AM
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#patcadvent Day 20: Mr Christmas is actually a Roger Hargreaves original who managed to pass me by. I'm glad I found him at last 🙂🌲
Day 20: Mr Christmas, a green triangle with a Santa hat, red gloves and red shoes, doing jazz hands as he walks happily along in a snow storm.
December 20, 2024 at 7:36 PM
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Today's #patcadvent sees Babar the Elephant and a dog called Duck having a bit of an altercation with some snowball wielding gnomes (not to be confused with elves) just outside the Bohemian town of Prjmnestwe which, as everybody knows, is the home of Father Christmas, right?
Babar, on skis, in a snowscape, beholding a group of elves who are in disarray...
December 17, 2025 at 5:49 PM
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Day 12 (2018):

Today's #patcadvent is the wonderful Paddington Bear illustrated here by Peggy Fortnum. Fortnum was the first artist to illustrate Michael Bond's books. They were always in black and white, but some have been coloured by other artists including her niece, Caroline Nuttal-Smith. 💙📚
Day 12: A line drawing of Paddington Bear sat on his suitcase, looking anxiously over his right shoulder. He's wearing his wide-brimmed hat and has his Please Look After This Bear label visible around his neck.
December 12, 2024 at 8:47 AM
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Yesterday's #patcadvent - C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and here, the Witch from the BBC TV version so beloved by us both (and fully available on YouTube).
The White Witch, with a piercing stare, sits, a menacing figure, dressed in furs, with a sharp white crown on her head.
December 19, 2025 at 7:34 AM
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Day 11 (2020):

Today's #patcadvent image is Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas. Probably my favourite depiction of Father Christmas ever.

If you have somehow missed this wonderful gem you can watch it here: www.dailymotion.com/video/x6bhi5q

All together now: 🎶 Another blooming Christmas 🎶

-C
Raymond Briggs' illustration of a large round Father Christmas stopping to pet a cat and a dog as he does his rounds
December 11, 2024 at 7:11 AM
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The perfect book for Day 4 of #patcadvent - Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge Winter Story.

Such an ideal cost cover - bookshelf tucked nicely back from the fire, fingers and toes and tail extended, squashy old armchair - wonderful. 💙📚
The book Brambly Hedge Winter Story, on a cosy blanket. The cover features a mouse dozing in an armchair in front of the fire; everything looks cosy and adorable.
December 4, 2024 at 6:59 AM
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I'm not doing the "twenty books, a book a day" (yet XD) because daily posting and I are skittish friends, and it's coming up #patcadvent again so I need to save my reserves, but I am going to start posting some of our many favourites here, bc, well, new space, same us ❤️📚❤️
November 12, 2024 at 8:40 AM
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Day 3 of #patcadvent is Waiting for Christmas by Monica Greenfield. Published in 1996, Waiting for Christmas follows the gentle adventures of two children as they decorate the tree, visit relatives and generally look forward to Christmas Day.

Illustration by Jan Spivey Gilchrist.
Two small children look happily at each other over a beautifully-decorated gingerbread house.
December 3, 2025 at 8:18 AM
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Day 17 (2019):

Today's #patcadvent image shows the cover of the first edition of L Frank Baum's Glinda of Oz. Those of you who have seen the 1980s film Return to Oz (Crow's fave) will note how incredibly accurate its portrayal of Ozma, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow (horror!) were. 💙📚
Day 17: Glinda of Oz, illustrated with Glinda, holding on to Dorothy and Ozma. A very scary Scarecrow is in the background, as is a less frightening Tin Man.
December 17, 2024 at 7:20 AM
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Day 12 of #patcadvent is Petunia's Christmas written and illustrated by Roger Duvoisin. Originally published in 1952, Petunia is a slightly unhinged goose whose object of affection, Charles the gander, is destined for the farmer's Christmas table. Don't worry though - this story has a happy ending.
A happy-looking goose is hanging a little angel on a string of Christmas decorations.
December 12, 2025 at 6:41 AM
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#patcadvent Day 21:

“This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends”

A merry and bright Yule to all!

Words by Susan Cooper, illustration by Carson Ellis. 💙📚
Day 21: a group of five people, dressed very warmly in coats and hats, can be seen welcoming the sun with open arms as it crests a distant hill.
December 21, 2024 at 7:13 AM
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Day 7 (2022):

Day seven of #patcadvent is Frog and Toad all Year, by Arnold Lobel in which Frog tries to convince a reluctant Toad to leave his warm house for some fun winter adventures. Unfortunately, Toad remains unconverted 😆

Very much staying home at #patchq today though...
Day 7 - A concerned Frog, well wrapped up in scarf and jacket, leans over Toad who's sunk into a thick snowdrift. A fir tree covered in snow is visible in the background.
December 7, 2024 at 6:46 AM
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Here, in a cosy evening edition for Day 9 of #patcadvent, the tiny child characters of Wind in the Willows have come to carol sing at Mole's house. It is a delightful scene, and Crow has been telling me at length how absolutely adorable it is in the TV series.
Adorable tiny woodland creatures are clustered in front of Mole and Ratty, stood in the doorway of Mole End.
December 8, 2025 at 9:23 PM
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Day 6, #patcadvent winter-y, seasonal-ish read is Soonchild, by Russell Hoban,
illustrated by Alexis Deacon. It's a very peculiar, different piece of storytelling, audience unclear, which leaves you with a fair bit to reflect on. The illustrations make this quite the experience 💙📚
A hardback copy of Soonchild, with a soft pencil illustration of a polar bear on the cover. In the photograph, our smooth polar bear figurine is positioned next to the book, as if looking curiously at a portrait of himself.
December 6, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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It's that time of year again! Tomorrow is 1st December which means it's time for our most beloved annual tradition - the Prudence and the Crow Advent! A festive bookish illustration a day.

This year, we're doing a #patcadvent greatest hits! We can't wait to revisit favourites both old and new...
image text "The great, annual Prudence and the Crow Advent starts tomorrow! Stay tuned..." Image: an illustration of Judith Kerr's beautiful cat character Mog running away from a Christmas tree smiling broadly - she appears to have captured a paper chain to run away with!
November 30, 2024 at 5:58 PM
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#PatCadvent Day 8 (2017):

Whether in his best tutu for a tea party or having an unfortunate trip through the washing machine, Teddy Robinson is a faithful and thoughtful friend, although he does occasionally get a little bit ex- and shoff. A true delight in fractious times 💙📚
Day 8: a real teddy bear, made by Mymble Bears, lies on a blue-and-white striped sheet. He's got little red wellies on, and a white vest-dress. He's just like Teddy Robinson, who can be seen on the cover of the Teddy Robinson Storybook next to him! A string of fairy lights decorates the top of the picture.
December 8, 2024 at 7:15 AM