Book of the day

Dr First
(Doctor Who meets Mr Men: book 1 of 12)
Adam Hargreaves (originated by Roger Hargreaves)
(UK: BBC Books, 2017; USA: Penguin Young Readers, 2017)

An all-new Doctor Who adventure featuring the First Doctor and the Cybermen reimagined in the style of Roger Hargreaves.

Meet Dr First. He is in a bad mood because he can’t find his granddaughter. However, that soon becomes the least of his problems when he stumbles upon an old foe.

These storybook mash-ups, written and illustrated by Adam Hargreaves, combine the iconic storytelling of Doctor Who with the whimsical humour and design made famous by his father, Roger Hargreaves.

Dr First kicks off this series of witty and tongue-in-cheek storybooks – each featuring one of the twelve Doctors.

Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Dr First)
Available in the USA via Amazon (Dr First)

Facts of the day

10 December

1901 The first Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded, to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy

Iceland

Iceland has no army, navy or air force.

Christmas

The record number of Christmas cards sent by a single person in a year is 62,824.

Book

The word ‘bibliosmia’ is defined as the enjoyment of the smell of old books.

Writers birthdays

1538 Giovanni Battista Guarini (Italy)
1741 Aagje Deken (The Netherlands)
1821 Nikolay A Nekrasov (Russia)
1824 George MacDonald (UK, Scotland)
1830 Emily Dickinson (USA)
1870 Pierre Louÿs (France)
1870 Rudolf Canne (The Netherlands)
1891 Nelly Sachs (Germany, Sweden)
1894 Gertrud Kolmar (Germany)
1897 Karl Heinrich Waggerl (Austria)
1898 Yuri N Libedinsky (Russia)
1903 William Plomer (South Africa)
1907 Rumer Godden (UK)
1920 Clarice Lispector (Ukraine, Brazil)
1923 Jorge Semprún (Spain, France)
1925 Carolyn Ashley Kizer (USA)
1946 Thomas Lux (USA)
1955 Jacquelyn Mitchard (USA)

Jokes of the day

Cartoons: Shannon Wheeler, Bedtime story, The New Yorker

Quote of the day

George R R Martin, A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire series: ‘”A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies”, said Jojen. “The man who never reads lives only one.”‘