Santa's been

I've been rather irresponsible with cash recently, which must stop. Today's post was embarrassing - a new camera lens and a reversing ring, two volumes of the US post-apocalypse graphic novel DMZ, and two pieces of beautiful art. One is a limited edition (200 copies) hand-made reprint by Gwasg Gregynog of Social Hymns: A Selection in Celebration of Robert Owen (1771-1858) (he was a prominent social reformer and radical).

The other is a stunning limited edition single sheet of hand-made paper with a Charles Dickens quotation ('There are BOOKS of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts') for the office wall. I should have got a copy for Mark: many of his 15,000 (!) books were bought for their cover art, and he's no intention of reading them.

It will hang next to a photograph of winter in this town I had printed on acrylic, the Evening Sentinel front page the day Stoke City were promoted to the Premiership, a framed poster of the Reds! The Story of the Communist Party of Great Britain conference at the People's History Museum in 2003 and several piles of other art prints which will go on the walls at home once I have a home with more wall than bookcases…