First Yawn: The Collectors Edition of Angela Carters Wayward Girls & Wicked Women, J.D. Salinger Book Covers & Popcorn Recipe and A Love Letter To Snail Mail.

Find out what caught my eye this weekend

The Collectors Edition Of Angela Carter's Book Of Wayward Girls And Wicked Women

I'm a huge admirer of Angela Carter's lyrical writing and her bold, feminist approach to storytelling, so when I came across this stunning collector's edition of The Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women by Virago, I knew I had to have it.

The book, limited to just 1,000 copies, is a true treasure for any Carter fan or lover of powerful, subversive literature. It features captivating art by the immensely talented Andrea Zanatelli, whose work has graced the projects of icons like Courtney Love and Florence & The Machine. The moment I saw this edition, with its intricate design and the promise of Carter’s enchanting prose, I added it to my cart faster than you can say The Magic Toyshop.

This is more than just a book—it's a piece of art that celebrates the rebellious spirit and imaginative genius that Carter is known for.

This marvellous collection of stories about bad girls, wicked women and unsatisfactory wives is designed to promote the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners, and to give a positive role to women who will not put up with the status quo, and to hell with the consequences.

Widely ranging in time and place, these subversive tales -- by Grace Paley, Bessie Head, Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Jolley, Djuna Barnes, Colette, Angela Carter, Jamaica Kincaid, Ama Ata Aidoo, Jane Bowles and many more -- all have one thing in common: to restore adventuresses and revolutionaries to the rightful position as models for all women, everywhere.

Leonora Carrington's debutante swaps places with a hyena who exchanges the cage for the ball -- and goes dressed to kill. Christina Stead's seedy seducer is eventually wrecked by the utterly conventional bride. Some of these stories celebrate toughness and resilience, some of them low cunning: all of them are about not being nice.

Purchase The Collectors Edition Of Angela Carter's Book Of Wayward Girls And Wicked Women

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J.D. Salinger On Rainbows & Popcorn

J. D. Salinger was born in New York City in 1919, he attended public schools, a military academy and three colleges; he served in the army from 1942 to 1946. Salinger had been writing stories since he was fifteen and was already familiar to New Yorker readers when The Catcher in the Rye was published by Little, Brown in 1951 and became a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. After winning wide –not unanimous— critical acclaim, the novel made it to the best-seller list in The Publishers’ Weekly and stayed there for five months. It’s now an iconic piece of literature, where majority of homes and local libraries have multiple copies adorning their shelves.

Salinger was very particular about how his novels were portrayed - in particular the covers. He was unhappy about the design of the initial Signet printing and its illustrated cover. ‘He said he would be much happier if the book had no illustrated cover at all. In fact, he would be happier if the book was distributed in mimeographed form.’

Salinger was notoriously resentful of including cover art and illustrations in his published books, insisting that he did not want to reader to be influenced by any preconceptions forced on them by an outside illustrator.

When they next printed the novel they attempted to appease Salinger, adding a painting by James Avati of Holden Caufield in his red cap on the streets of New York. Alas, Salinger didn’t like this either, so when the book’s license was being renewed, Salinger, now a famous best-seller, again asked for changes.

Salinger was a visionary and took it upon himself to sketch out idea’s of his ideal book cover. One that eventually saw it’s way onto the Bantam paperback edition. In a sea of highly eclectic illustrated covers one stood out apart from the rest - with it’s minimal typography and rainbow in in the top left corner.

‘I would prefer, of course, that the title and author’s name be placed lower, more nearly centered on the cover than outlined in the attached sketch … Bantam thought my original mid-cover placement of the title for Franny and Zooey not suitable for ordinary sales-rack display. (So I added thin green parallel bars across lower third of the corner, to compensate for any imbalance, top-heaviness, or placing the title too high at the top. I think my vivid diagonal bars should carry things off nicely enough.’

Bantam executed the design nearly exactly as sketched, and this copy is still on bookstore shelves today. I love uncovering the design process and decision making behind what makes it onto our book covers. I can imagine Salinger was a difficult client to please and can only envision the publishers and designers eye rolling as they took yet another meeting to discuss the infernal Mr Salinger and his book cover.

Here are a few of the various covers for J.D. Salingers Catcher In The Rye. Do you have a favourite edition?

Oh and ever wondered what a movie night with Salinger would look like in snack form? Well the writer was particular even about his popcorn it seems.

Salinger’s popcorn seasoning recipe

6 tsps sea salt

2 tsps paprika

1 tsp dry mustard

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp celery powder

½ tsp thyme

½ tsp marjoram

½ tsp curry

½ tsp dill powder

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Why Does Snail mail Hit So Differently

There’s something intimate about receiving a letter - a hand inked envelope pushes its way through the letterbox and into your home - laying there on the cusp of the doormat. A stamp afixed to the front, issuing information about the many miles its travelled to meet you there in your hallway.

A letter is full of thoughtful scribbles and tiny abstract portraits - of notes written in a rush as you can’t wait for the ink to dry. They have spirit, depth of character and spill into margins with little arrows pointing to unconscious thoughts overleaf with P.S P.S.S and P.S.S.S’s. It’s a hurried, fumbling frantic declaration - just one more thing!

Letter’s however mundane feel like a grand romantic gesture, they’re not a offhanded text or a casual email. Someone has taken a moment to think only of you, putting pen to paper to describe their innermost thoughts. Isn’t then every letter a love letter?

I think essayist Phyllis Theroux says it most profoundly ‘To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart’.

When I think of letters I imagine the post box in the wood in Little Women - that Jo, Laurie and the rest of the March sisters use as a way to show affection, sending trinkets, invitations and treasure to each other. Letters scream celebration, commiseration, sympathy and empathy, they carry the full spectrum of human heart.

This year I’m going to bring back snail mail! I want to live a life unfiltered, unapologetic and truthful. I want to tell the people I love - what I love most about them. I want to mope with them when things don’t quite go to plan or cry with them when we’re feeling sad.

I want to go on adventures together across the globe with postcards sent scrappily with the wrong postage attached - because who knows the rules and what stamp. you’re supposed to use?

Let’s make a promise together - I'll write to you. A super-long letter, like in an old-fashioned novel, for to write is human, to receive a letter: Divine!

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