BOOK OF CHRISTMAS - Tapa dura

A sumptuous gift book collection to be savoured time and again. Lavishly illustrated in full colour throughout, it features wonderfully rich and detailed artwork by Matilda Harrison. The extracts have been selected from favourite poets and authors - both traditional and contemporary - to create an irresistible blend of Christmas magic. Contributors include Charles Causely, Wendy Cope, Michael Morpurgo, ee cummings, Norma Farber, Ted Hughes and Christina Rossetti. By turns celebratory and joyous, nostalgic and poignant, this is a treasury that will endure.

Fiona Waters is an established anthologist and author of over fifty books, particularly well known for her poetry collections and gifted retellings of classic tales such as The Selfish Giant (Bloomsbury), Cat in the Dark (Frances Lincoln), The Poetry Book (Orion) and the Chrysalis titles Wizard Tales and The Arabian Nights. She has also worked in the children's publishing world for many years - testimony to her broad knowledge of children's books and poetry - as a publisher and a bookseller, as a consultant for television and radio, and as a judge of several book prizes. Fiona lives in a seventeenth-century cottage in Dorset with thousands of books and her many cats. Matilda Harrison studied at Middlesex Polytechnic and St. Martin's School of Art. She has been an illustrator for many years, working for numerous editorial, design and advertising clients. More recently her meticulous eye for detail and love of narrative art have led her to focus on illustrating children's books. Her previous books include Lucy and the Pirates by Glen Petrie (Trademind) and Bisky Bats and Pussy Cats: The Animal Nonsense Rhymes of Edward Lear (Bloomsbury). Matilda lives in London with her partner Tom and daughter Inez.