Father Christmas

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As a family we watched The Snowman every Christmas Day but after my dad died in 2013 we couldn’t watch it for many years as it was so evocative. The music alone can still make me well up! My child's purest inventions were Sitty the cat - for whom they tried to sneak real cat food into my shopping basket - and Sitty's friend, Ruffy the dog. Distinct personalities evolved, and we spent many hours creating, retelling, and reworking stories about them.

You can’t just add a character halfway through a story” said a friend of the family when I showed them one of my first story attempts as a child. I had studiously traced a spread from Briggs’s Fungus the Bogeyman and was trying to insert my own words to accompany his brilliant illustrations. The comment from the family friend has stayed with me as an unintended guide to writing, to keep the audience in the know, to lead them by the hand. The tone and content of the letters changes over time to reflect the children growing up, and Tolkien Father Christmas doesn’t shy away from mentioning the horrors of the world, including war and hunger. The letters incorporate aspects of the children’s lives and things they'd written to him, but there is some continuity in the stories of what FC and his elves etc get up to. Lovely illustrations, too. Ripeto, non conoscevo questo titolo e averlo scoperto mi rende felicissima. Trovo che sia davvero un libro particolare e che la scelta dello scrittore sia stata davvero un’azione super bella: non è da tutti diventare Babbo Natale per i propri figli e renderli così felici in questo periodo magico. Per questo penso che sia un libro originale e magnifico, adatto sia ai più piccoli che ai più grandi. Un libro da leggere sia come libro della buonanotte per i più piccini o come libro di piacere per i più grandi. Perché una cosa è certa: anche se si è il Grinch, questo libro non può non far innamorare del Natale.

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Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poem

I was commissioned to film a promo for Raymond’s new book Ug at his home in Sussex. I was the first there, so he invited me in for a cup of tea and a chat. He asked me where I’d come from and I said Gloucestershire. “Where in Gloucestershire?” he asked. Tolkien put a lot of work into these letters. Not only did he come up with a new story for his children pretty much every year, the envelopes are also handmade, and he drew the pictures and even designed the post stamps. A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", 1823) attributed to Clement Clarke MooreJ.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892-1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic extraordinary works of fiction as 'The Hobbit', 'The Lord of the Rings', and 'The Silmarillion.' His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. Meet dragons and giants, goddesses and kings in these tales, which bring to life the ancient myths and legends of the British landscape. Sail with Trojans, ride Scottish stags and watch Stonehenge rise. Join Father Christmas on his busiest night of the year in this 50th anniversary edition of the hilariously irreverent Christmas classic!