You can find Fiona on Twitter, and her blog here, where you can find links to her fiction and other work. You can buy Fiona’s book on Doctor Who: The Robots of Death here. Fiona’s tiny buildings can be found on Instagram and Beau Paddington’s wardrobe on Twitter.
Fiona’s choice was Edward Eager’s Knight’s Castle, which easily available in secondhand editions. However, N. M. Bodecker’s illustrations are hard to beat, so try to find an edition including them. My favourite is here. Fiona mentions the Christmas song Silver Bells, and we discuss the 1952 film Ivanhoe, with Elizabeth Taylor playing Rebecca. See the trailer here. The E. Nesbit book The Magic City is out of print, but you can read it free via Project Gutenberg.
Ali’s choice was Stephanie Burgis’s The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart. This book has to be read under a blanket, drinking hot chocolate. This recipe for vegan hot chocolate with chili looks perfect. Stephanie’s most recent book, The Raven Heir, will be my Christmas holiday read this year.
Fiona also mentioned Audrey NIffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry as an example of an unreliable first-person narrator.
What is your favourite seasonal read? Record a voice message with your name, the title of your favourite book to read at this time of year, and email to fantasybookswap@gmail.com. Include your postal address if you would like a Fantasy Book Swap badge.
Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.
Ep 37: Totally Elemental with Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Chair of Glasgow 2024 WorldCon
Ep 36: Ghosts, machines and aliens with Kit Power
Ep 35: A Confusion of Susans with Juliet Kemp
34: Dragons and radical empathy with Trip Galey
Ep 33: A refreshing lack of Wizard Dads with SJ Groenewegen
Ep 32 Imaginary horse husbands with Kari Sperring
Ep 31 Getting rid of parents and grumpy magical helpers with Kate Towner
Ep 30: Hot Gladiators and Plague Gods
Moomintroll and a china rabbit with Laura Mauro at FantasyCon 2022
Ep 28: Two horse girls’ training montages with Caroline Mersey
Ep 27: The Anti-Reepicheep League with Ang Rosin
Ep 26: Fairies and witches and toads, oh my!
Ep 25: Timeslips and dreams with Tony Keen
Ep 24: Look into my eyes with Russell Smith
Ep 23 Sweet Polly Oliver goes Over The Hills: Sharpe and Monstrous Regiment
Ep 22: I’m just a teenage necromancer, baby
Episode 21: Fantasy Book Swap Live!!! at Reclamation 2022, with Tasha Suri
Deploy Emergency Podcast
Ep 19: Fairytale retellings and socialist fantasy with Ali Williams
Ep 18: Going Underground Joan Aiken’s Is and Frances Hardinge’s A Face Like Glass
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