2018 Highlights

Prue Leith

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith draws on a life-long passion for food with a hundred recipes from her own kitchen table. Whether it's Halibut with Green Linguine, Fast Roast Teriyaki Lamb or Slow-cooked Rat-a-tat-touille, these are delicious, fuss-free dishes that Prue has cooked countless times for family and friends. Inside are quick-to-whip-up suppers and dinner party showstoppers that are as much a pleasure to cook as to eat. Expect firmly established favourites, lazy leftovers, meat-free meals, exciting new flavour combinations and fresh takes on classic dishes.

There’s also a chapter of puds inspired by Prue’s time on Bake Off – every one guaranteed to be ‘worth the calories’. This is Prue’s first cookery book in twenty-five years, and she has woven intimate and witty stories from her life around many of the recipes. Celebrating the food we all want to make at home, Prue gives an unparalleled view into the cooking life and style of one of the nation’s best-loved cooks.

Treelines: A collection of poems selected by Janie Hextall and Barbara McNaught

Barbara has always loved trees, has shelves full of books about trees and rushes outside every time she hears a chainsaw . . . Janie nurtures her orchard and counts blossom as one of the most joyous things in her life. We both recognise that trees are necessary and beautiful and make us feel better. So if you love trees, this is for you. It is the fourth anthology published by Lautus Press, and is similar in style and feel – the other titles are Washing Lines (about washing and laundry), Strings of Pearls (about jewels and jewellery and the stories they tell) and Shorelines (about beaches and beachcombing, collecting shells and pebbles).

Amanda Brookfield

Author Biography: Amanda Brookfield is the author of fifteen published novels, including Relative Love, Before I Knew You and The Love Child. This is her first work of non-fiction. Amanda has two sons and lives in London with one cat, and a dog.

For the Love of a Dog

Description: After the death of her mother and the end of a post-divorce relationship leave her heartbroken, novelist Amanda Brookfield finds her once secure world imploding. As despair closes in, she talks of getting a puppy to revive her optimistic spirit. Amanda is advised that her lifestyle will not suit becoming a dog-owner but she can't resist Mabel, a beautiful golden doodle puppy. Arming herself with an arsenal of equipment, Amanda learns that there are no short-cuts to training and caring for a dog. Through battling daily challenges and constantly regrouping, Amanda realises she is starting to come to terms with her bereavement and the prospect of facing the rest of her life alone. For the Love of a Dog tells the bigger, more poignant story about the labour of emotional recovery after the trauma of loss. Mabel shines like a light throughout, the unwitting architect of rebuilding self-belief. Mabel’s own journey is equally captivating: as she blossoms into a mischievous, endearing head-turner of a companion – as affectionate as she is glorious.

Jani Tully Chaplin

Jani Tully Chaplin, author & illustrator of The Manor House Stories, with foreword by Julian Fellowes, will be signing & personalising 1st editions on Tuesday & Wednesday. This year there are 2 new titles from the 12-book series; Radish Robin the Gardener – The Harvest Home, which follows on from last year’s book, Chesterfield Penguin the Butler – All At Sea. The other new title is Miss Miranda Mistlethrush – The Birthday Party. Jani will have a limited number of 1st edition copies of Chesterfield Penguin available for customers who did not buy the book at last year’s fair.

Jani will be pleased to meet visitors to the WellChild Fair and to recount her family connections to Beatrix Potter, the National Trust and the current tv series, Poldark.

Paul Vanstone

Paul Vanstone studied sculpture at Central & St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He was awarded the Darwin Scholarship (1990), the Royal Academy of Art Travel Scholarship (1992), and the Henry Moore Award in 1991 and 1992.

Vanstone is fascinated by the hardness and light reflecting qualities of stone. He is interested in how this can be transformed to portray the curvature of the human body, and the delicacy and flow of covering cloth. Vanstone’s meticulous technique and his focus on quality and finish follow in the tradition of classical sculpture. He uses mar- bles, onyxes and alabasters sourced from around the world. His images and influ- ences reflect the 21st Century passion with the curvaceous architecture of Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, together with the continuing allure of the human form as por- trayed by artists such as Henry Moore. Vanstone’s distinctive sculptures define a new thread in contemporary art.

Vanstone’s work has been chosen by many distinguished interior designers including Kelly Hoppen, Tom Dixon and David Linley. He has held over 30 solo exhibitions and has proved very popular with collectors in the UK and overseas with installations in France, USA, Canada, Majorca, Australia, Mustique, Italy and Germany. In the last twelve months he has sold works to collections in Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, Russia, Norway and Austria as well as to many collectors throughout the UK.

Natasha Kumar – New Indian Woman Series

I paint contemporary India, as I find it, from village scene to market place or palace view, but I’m particularly inspired by Indian women. Not just the bold colours or fall and fold of a diaphanous sari, those quintessential things that we find so alluring about them.

Rather by capturing a moment of their lives, veiled, glimpsed or elusive, they help me on my own artistic journey in seeking a fuller sense of my heritage. After all every painter paints themselves and my great question is what can I know of their lives, that might have been mine.

The new collection in the Cotswold Christmas Fair, are observations on the cultural roles available to Indian women, and their individual and collective journey to empowerment.