Watership Down at 50: A conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Richard Adams’s beloved book

7 Jun

I didn’t have a blog planned for this week but have just seen this all over the book trade press so I have to post about it because I think as many people should get involved as possible.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Watership Down (which just happens to be my favourite book), some academics are holding a 3-day conference at the University of Glasgow from 2-4 September 2022. It is hoped that a collection of essays, primarily based on papers given at the conference, will follow. Current keynote speakers include Richard Adams’ daughter Rosamond Mahony, as well S. F. Said and Briony Wickes.

Here’s the website: https://watershipdownat50.com/

It looks like more details are to come, currently they’re asking for 20-minute papers on “any aspect of Watership Down, its influences and legacy.” With a list of suggested topics:

  • Adams’s other works
  • Adaptations
  • Animal-human relations
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Crossover fiction
  • Ecology and the environment
  • Influence on later children’s literature
  • Invented languages
  • Mythopoeia
  • Precursors
  • Real and fictional geographies
  • Richard Adams’s biography
  • The animal story tradition

If you’re interested in contributing then send abstracts (up to 200 words) to Dimitra Fimi (Dimitra.Fimi@glasgow.ac.uk), University of Glasgow, and Catherine Butler (ButlerC6@cardiff.ac.uk), Cardiff University, by 31 August 2021.

I don’t know about you but I’m fucking hyped.

(Unrelatedly, I have a YouTube video about rabbits and books coming out this Wednesday, make sure you’re following my channel when it drops…)

Hundred Acre Wood Honey Biscuits*

4 Jun

pooh_biscuits

Isn’t it funny
How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?

I don’t know if I’ve ever said this before on my blog but I think Winnie the Pooh is so fucking funny and underrated. One of my favourite moments from the books is when Pooh accidentally eats Eeyore’s birthday present (honey) and gives him the empty jar instead, as a Useful Pot to Keep Things In, inscribed by Owl to read:

HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY

I feel like this Hundred Acre Wood biscuits would be a great gift in a pot inscribed with HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY which imo is peak comedy. And this is a really ridiculously simple recipe that takes less than five minutes to put together. Since I originally drafted out this post (it’s been sitting in my drafts for… uhhh.. at least five years) I’ve become a vegan so I would recommend using a vegan honey alternative like Hunee instead, and a banana or vegan egg yolk substitute like Vegg for the yolk. And whatever butter substitute you probably already have in your house..

Ingredients

  • 120g butter /vegan alternative
  • 120g sugar
  • 1 tbsp honey /vegan alternative
  • 1 egg yolk /vegan alternative
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 180g self-raising flour

Method

  1. Cream the ingredients together with a spoon
  2. Roll the mixture into small balls with your hands and put them on a lined baking tray
  3. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees – take them out before then if they get too brown!
  4. Wait for them to cool and then eat all of the biscuits

*I named the cookies ‘Hundred Acre Wood Honey Biscuits’ because I thought ‘Pooh biscuits’ wouldn’t sound as appetising, somehow.

Anastasia Krupnik

1 Jun

I just wanted to share this old pic from when I realised I am literally my tween fave Anastasia Krupnik.

It is my way of saying (like I do every year….): I’m back babeey!

You might see I’ve renamed the site. I’m not sure how but someone stole the Gliterature domain from me, so now we will be known as FAEVOURITE! I will be focusing on fantasy books (and maybe video games and films). Byeeee!

Reading Round-up March 2020

3 Apr

Reading Round-up February 2020

29 Feb

 

Reading Round-up January 2020

1 Feb

Happy New Year!

 

Reading Round-up December 2019

7 Jan

Reading Round-up November 2019

6 Dec

Bit late but……………… well….. here!

Reading Round-up October 2019

31 Oct

Happy Halloween y’all! Here’s some more stuff I’ve read that you should too:

Reading Round-up September 2019

1 Oct

Feeling driven to post something so here’s a quick round-up of some articles about books/reading/etc. that I found interesting last month. Enjoi~