Harvest...

Presies, freebies; books, zines and catalogues: Bologna compressed into 2kgs of paper. Plenty to think about and enjoy and pore over while planning for the next Inis. Better get reading!

Last day

Final tour of the fair and city brought a lovely harvest of books and pics, a felt Elizabeth Bennett, the icecream of the decade and a manly night cap and shirt. Ciao Bologna!
(illustrations by Holman and Jack Wang; Mariana Rio; Torben Kuhlmann; Akihiro Misaki)

Sharing the picture love

Trying not to dribble with envy on the Planeta Tangerina stand.

Fantastic picture by Cheng-Ting Shih in the exhibition of Taipei illustrators

One of the walls where artists can try and catch your eye for all your illustration needs.

The students of the illustration MA in Cambridge start their own wall. More as they draw more...

Incredibly cool edition of James Stephens' The Crock of Gold on the Latvian stand (Liels un Macis Publishing)

A picture from the illustrators' exhibition by Rashin Kheiriyeh, from Iran. Lots of very strong entries from over there, I thought.

Another one, this time from Italy's Philip Giordano. 

Anch'io!

Me too! My stuff on the Auzou stand.

E la commedia va!

In no particular order: beating a dessert into shape (icecream and balsamic vinegar); waiting for Tove Jansson's (of Moomin fame) 100th anniversary (next year), wowing at a fantastic picturebook from Croatian piblusher Algoritam. And you?

Crazyness

One does encounter instances of crazyness in this place. (as well as liquorice liqueur, laurel-crowned PhD graduates, plenry of marinated artichoke, Hervé Tullet, Babette Cole and Sarah McIntyre, Pingu, and what have you!)

Avanti!

Speeding through misty mountains, timber country, pale-looking naked vineyard, bumping into swaying fellow travelers, tuning into the language of Rodari, Munari and Geronimo Stilton, catching a first snow-capped peak... and all this to the sound of music. Only on the train that's taking me towards Milan, there's no Julie Andrews, but a jazz trio invited to celebrate the Torino jazz festival. Which makes me think that one could take books and stories (and puppet shows, Sadie) onto trains. Avanti!

And so...

... After a bout of last-minute packing, a lot of rain and a fair bit of running around like a headless duck, i'm off to Bologna via Paris. How hard is the life of the jetsetting author/editor...
(haven't decided yet if i'm going on the digger or with Noddy...)