When: Thursday 6th September
Where: Selfridges toy department
Why: Emma Thompson is my one true love
As I was aimlessly wandering
downstairs in Selfridges in search of a financial notebook (you know, like
those little red ones that taxi drivers used to have to note down all their
fares? Like income and outgoings etc. Trying to organise my pennies) while my
mother had her eyebrows done at Estee Lauder, I spotted a sign in the WHSmiths
concession (I know, I know – I’m a traitor to Waterstones) with Emma Thompson’s
face on. So I went to have a look and when I saw that it was for a book signing
I almost fell over on the spot. Imagine if I hadn’t seen that sign? Suddenly I
was grateful for my mother’s obsession with her eyebrows and all the years of
lurking sullenly around department store makeup counters became (almost) worth
it.
Anyway, so I met her. She was
signing copies of her new children’s book, The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit. She was commissioned
to write it by Peter Rabbit himself, no less (with the aid of his publishers I
think) and she takes Peter on a journey to Scotland. There he meets an
enormous, be-kilted bunny who takes him in and shows him the ways of the
Highland games. Peter finds an enormous radish and gets seriously involved, and
hilarity ensues. It’s a very sweet read and feels very authentic to the
original Peter Rabbit stories. I’m sure Beatrix would approve, and their
writing styles are not very far removed from each other – both dry, funny and
tender.
Emma T was sporting a long tartan
dress in the same pattern as the tartan inside the book, as well as one radish
and one carrot earring. She was very striking and charismatic, and every bit as
you would imagine her to be. She was kind and engaging and I basically just
burbled out that I was so glad to meet her, then stumbled away and reeled
slightly into a man dressed as an enormous Peter Rabbit, who gave me a
steadying hug. Which was nice. Squishy.
What a day.
Brixpig x
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