Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal

I am a huge fan of Jim Henson's work and am always on the lookout for books about him and his projects.  I only found out about the existence of Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal in late November.  Upon my discovery, I immediately asked nicely if I could perhaps receive a copy for Christmas and my lovely Mum bought it for me.

 

Imagination Illustrated is a glorious book; there are so many beautiful things within to admire and new facts about Jim to be amazed by.  Every time I pick it up, I discover something new.  I had to share a few photos, especially of the inside cover, as I don't think my words can ever convey how wonderful this book is.

 

 

Jim Henson's iconic puppet characters, fantastic worlds, and warm humour have delighted millions of people of all ages.  His incredibly diverse body of work, from the Muppets to the world of The Dark Crystal, reveals his charm and genius o fans old and new.

 

  Compiled directly from The Jim Henson Company archives, Imagination Illustrated adapts the diary that Jim Faithfully kept throughout his career, supplementing it with a trove of little-seen visual material, including rare sketches, personal and production photographs, storyboards, doodles, and much more.  Throughout, archivist Karen Falk delves into the behind-the-scenes details of Henson's life and his artistic process.

 

Sure to delight anyone who has enjoyed Henson's creations- seeing early drawings of Kermit and Rowlf is like seeing childhood photos of dear friends - this lovely book celebrates Jim's life and his magical creations.

 





 

 

 

If you're a Henson or Muppets fan, please track down a copy of this book (or visit the Blog that inspired it's creation ) as you won't be disappointed.



'You know you're just what I needeed....I needed someone to feed.'

I love food.  I love books.  So to find a good combination of the two is heaven for me, as you can read a chapter and then put the book down and then resume again days later for the next morsel.  After a bit of a 'down' weekend, I needed some cheering up and have the perfect two books on loan from the library to make me feel if not a little happier, a little hungrier also.


The Man Who Ate The World - Jay Rayner

What price indeed?  Fearlessly, and with huge wit and knowledge and verve, award-winning food writer Jay Rayner has searched the world for the perfect meal.  Sparing neither his wallet nor his digestive system, he has been to places, met people, and eaten things the rest of us can only fantasize about.  From Las Vegas and London to Moscow and Tokyo, the result is an enormously entertaining and informative romp through the world's best - and worst - restaurants.


Table Talk: Sweet and Sour, Salt and Bitter - A. A. Gill

Table Talk is an idiosyncratic selection of A.A. Gill's writing about food, taken from his Sunday Times and Tatler columns.  Sometimes inspired by the traditions of a whole country, sometimes by a single ingredient, it is a celebration of what great eating can be, an excoriation of those who get it wrong, and an education about our own appetites.  It spans a decade, focusing on A.A. Gill's general experiences with food rather than individual restaurants - food fads, tipping, chefs, ingredients, eating in town, country and abroad and the infinite variety of dining experiences.

Burton on Burton

Burton on Burton was a Christmas present; maybe one of my better ones.  I hadn't read anything for a while and this was the perfect fix for my reading drought.  The book is made up of interviews conducted around the time of each of Tim Burton's films up until 2005 (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Corpse Bride).  How the contents are arranged makes it easy just to dip in and out of chapters without following a chronological order.  It may be a tad repetitive in parts, but it is still informative for any Burton fan.  As a bonus, the updated version that I received has not one, but two forewords from Johnny Depp.  I found both equally brilliant, as they were pre and post families so they offered different perspectives.  Like a crazy person, I could hear Depp's voice in my head reading the words to me.