Escape To Christmas Past Adult Colouring Book Review

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most well known and beloved Christmas stories of all time. You've probably read the book, you've likely seen at least one of the movie adaptations, and now you can bring the story to life through colouring. Yep, that's right, there's now an A Christmas Carol inspired adult colouring book, called Escape To Christmas Past, and being a fan of the story, I just had to get my hands on a copy to unwind with this Christmas.

Escape To Christmas Past tells the story of A Christmas Carol through beautiful, detailed line-drawing illustrations, so it's basically like a picture-book for adults that you can colour in. The illustrations will lead you through Scrooge's journey of enlightenment and transformation as he returns home to the tormented ghost of Marley on Christmas Eve, learns the lessons from the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future, and finally makes his transformation from a bitter, miserable old money-lender to a kind, generous gentleman on Christmas morning.

The book is filled with a wide variety of Dickensian illustrations, from the ghosts of Christmas and the roof tops of London, to cameos of Scrooge and Victorian typography, to hum-bugs and the graveyard where Scrooge discovers his future fate if he doesn't learn the error of his ways. The book is also filled with dozens of illustrations of all the splendours of a traditional Victorian Christmas, from lanterns and figgy pudding, to decadent desserts and beautiful decorations, carol singers and crackers, to partridges and poinsettias, so you don't have to be a fan of A Christmas Carol to enjoy this colouring book. If you love colouring, Christmas, and the Victorian era, there's a good chance this book will interest you, too!

The majority of the illustrations are drawn in thinly-lined black ink on cream-coloured paper with generous detail, although there are a handful on a black background which helps to keep the book fresh and interesting. The pages are made of reasonably thick paper, so I'd recommend sticking to colouring pencils as the illustrations are printed back to back, and some ink does bleed through, ruining the picture on the other side.

The book is a medium-sized colouring book, about the height of a paperback novel in length and width, so each picture won't take weeks to complete, but should keep you busy for a at least a few hours at a time. It would be perfect for enjoying while travelling to visit family and friends this Christmas, winding down with in front of the TV after a busy day, and for destressing with if Christmas doesn't go quite as perfectly as you hoped for.

I personally think it's a beautiful Christmas colouring book, and I'm gutted that I've been suffering from a bad arthritic flare in my hands all month, as I had hoped to colour my way through it this December, but hopefully I'll do better next year.

Escape To Christmas Past retails for £6.99, and should be available from all good book shops now. I bought my copy from Amazon here.

Have you picked up a Christmas colouring book to enjoy this Christmas?

You might also like

Johanna's Christmas By Johanna Basford Adult Colouring Book Review

Zen Colouring Winter Wonderland Adult Colouring Book Review

Book Review | 642 Things To Write About Me

Last month I treated myself to a copy of the creative writing journal 642 Things To Write About Me, and I've been looking forward to telling you guys all about it ever since. It's a book which I think you're going to love as much as I do if you enjoy creative writing, and also if you're a lifestyle blogger who likes to share a lot of personal posts about yourself with your readers.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you probably know how much I love the Things To Write books. I've blogged about them so many times! I own the three other books in the series that are aimed at adults, and I've lost count of how many hours I've spent happily writing away in them. The number grows by the day. I enjoy these books so much that I was excited to hear that a new book was joining the collection. Amazon had the release date down as March, so I was amazed and excited to stumble up on it last month when I was Christmas shopping in Waterstones. I bought it there and then, and left a happy little camper.

So, like the other books, 642 Things To Write About Me is filled with hundreds of fun and inspiring creative writing prompts that should challenge your creativity and writing skills whether you're new to creative writing or an old pro.

You don't need to be blessed with a wild imagination to work your way through this book because unlike the others books in the series, every prompt in 642 Things To Write About Me is personal. Every single one is about you. You; your life, your memories, your dreams, your past, present and future, your family and friends, your thoughts and feelings, your hobbies and interests, your experiences and milestones... every little aspect of life you can possibly imagine has been covered- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Unlike most creative writing work books, almost all of the prompts are non-fiction, but there are a few fiction tasks mixed in for good measure that ask you to imagine what you would do in certain situations or how your life could be different if you hadn't done x, y, and z.

These are some of my favourite prompts from the book:

♥ Name the person in life who's least like you. How did you meet? What kept you bonded?

♥ Was there a moment when you began to accept a part of your body that you had never liked before?

♥ What's the nicest compliment anyone's given you?

♥ What job would you have been most suited to 400 years ago?

♥ How did the way your parents felt about their bodies or physicality affect you and how you feel about your body and physicality?

♥ What would you put in a personal time capsule and how do they represent your life?

♥ Imagine someone describing you to a blind person. How would they paint a non visual portrait of you?

♥ List five favourite songs. Describe what you were doing when you became hooked on each one.

♥ What's the meanest thing a stranger has ever said to you? How did you react?

♥ If you could go back to one moment in your life and live there for the rest of your life, what moment would it be?

♥ What was on your bedroom wall as a teenager?

♥ What mistake would you gladly make all over again?

♥ What do you do when noone's looking?

♥ Write about an evening at your home from the perspective of your cat.

♥ Describe the outfit that is most characteristically you and why.

.
The entire book is filled with fantastic thought-provoking prompts like these and all kinds of other fun, interesting ideas which should keep even the most eager writer busy for months or even years.You can work through them from front to back or choose prompts at random, it's totally up to you. You're free to work at your own pace, by your own rules.

The great thing about this book is that it gives you plenty of room to complete each task in the book, so there's no need for a separate notebook. All you need is a pen or a pencil, and your imagination. With one to four prompts per page on plain or lined good quality white paper, there isn't room to write lengthy memoirs, and answers need to be fairly brief, but this also means that each task can be completed in a relatively short space of time. It's a great book for creative writers who don't have a lot of time to spare for writing because many of the prompts could be finished in minutes, and you can pick up the book and complete one or two whenever you have a spare five minutes- say on your coffee break or commute to work.

I find that the biggest challenge I get from this book is writing about myself. They say that to write well, we should write what we know, but it isn't always easy to think back to the past and write about certain parts of our lives or expose our personal thoughts and feelings on paper for all to see. (Says the blogger)! That said, it's really fun to work on and a good learning curve, and it would be an interesting read for family to discover in a box in fifty years

I also think 642 Things To Write About Me can be a fantastic source of inspiration for lifestyle bloggers, as there are so many interesting and unique prompts that would translate well in the blogging world, including many about fashion and body image!

As somebody who has enjoyed creative writing ever since I learned to write, I bloody love 642 Things To Write About Me! I've barely gone a day without writing in it since I bought it last month! The Things To Write books are the ultimate creative writing companions- no other books come close, and in my opinion, every creative writer needs at least one of them in their writing arsenal.

You Might Also Like
642 Tiny Things To Write About 
642 Things To Write About
712 More Things To Write About

Book Review | 642 Tiny Things To Write About

Creative writing has been one of my favourite hobbies for as long as I can remember. From an early age, I could often be found scribbling down stories on to paper, and just letting my imagination run wild, and, well, not much has changed in the last twenty-five years. I write something almost every day. Sure, I'm not the best writer in the world and I never will be, but I enjoy it anyway, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day, right?

I usually have a bunch of ideas orbiting around my head, but there are days when I'm stuck for inspiration, so I love turning to creative journal books filled with prompts for a little help. My latest source of influence is a brilliant little book called 642 Tiny Things To Write About. 

642 Tiny Things To Write About is a follow up to two other Things To Write About books, 642 Things To Write About and 712 More Things To Write About, both of which I love and write from regularly. 

Unlike the first two books in the series, 642 Tiny Things is pocket-sized. It's still packed full of fantastic prompts, but the difference is, each task is designed to be completed in a couple of paragraphs or less, with some requiring just a few words. This means every challenge can be completed in minutes, which is ideal if you don't have much time to spare, or if you just like writing in small doses. You can pop it in your bag, and write whenever you get a burst of inspiration or you have some time to kill- say, on the commute to work. There is space beneath each prompt to write, so you don't need a separate notebook; all you need is a pen and your imagination, and you're good to go!

Some pages are plain, some pages are lined, and each features one to four prompts to write about. There's a great variety of prompts and writing styles to try, which keep things fresh and interesting, and I think they will inspire and challenge both amateurs and advanced writers alike.

Some of my favourite prompts in the book include:

♥ You're going to die next week, and you need to destroy a few things before you family find them. What?

♥ Write a headline for the day after the world ends.

♥ Write a thank you note to your feet for some of the places they've taken you.

♥ What piece of advice do you most often give and least often follow?

♥ It's 2045. Describe a road side attraction on the moon.

♥ A postcard arrives. It was mailed 11 years ago. It reads...

♥ Regardless of where you were born, where do you feel like you're from?

♥ You live in a world in which everyone gets one word tattooed on their forehead. What's the word you pick?

♥ If you could kill off one relative, who would it be?
♥ You come home from a cousin's wedding, where something went tragically wrong. But you're secretly happy that at least something interesting happened. What was it?

And of course, there are more than six hundred other tasks to play with, too.

I'm personally inspired by the majority of them, and there aren't any I dislike. I think I'll eventually make my way through every last one. I've only had the book a week, but I'm having so much fun with it already, and have completed a bunch of tasks in the last few days.

I'd say the book is best aimed at adults, as there are a few prompts about sex, nudity, relationships, and violence. None are particularly graphic. but I'd recommend checking the content over before you give the book to your kids, teenagers, or anybody particularly sensitive.

The book is currently available from Waterstones, although Amazon have the release date as mid September, which is confusing. I'm not sure how easy it is to find UK bookshops right now. but I bought my copy from Wordery on eBay here, where it is currently £6.77. I received my order in five days, and had no problems with them at all.

I'd recommend 642 Tiny Things To Write About to any adult who enjoys creative writing, particularly those who have limited time to spare for the hobby, but still want to write.

Are you a creative writer? Where do you turn for writing inspiration?

You Might Also Like

642 Things To Write About

712 More Things To Write About

642 Things To Draw

Q&A A Day 5 Year Journal

Listography books

Travel Listography

Literary Listography

The Fuck It List: 1000 Things I'll Never Do Before I Die

Book Review: 642 Things to Draw

It's been a while since my last book review, but rather than rectifying that with a novel review, I'm here to tell you about a fun, creative book instead. It's called: 642 Things To Draw.

642 Things To Draw is an inspirational sketch book packed full of prompts to inspire and encourage its owner to draw. Rather than just being a collection of inspiring words and ideas, the book is designed to be used as a sketch book, with room beneath each prompt to complete each one.

If you're like me, you might long to draw but often lack the inspiration when you pick up your sketchbook; there's only so many fruit bowls and wine bottles you can draw before you get bored and give up altogether. Sound familiar? If it does, then I think this could be the perfect book for you.

With 642 different prompts to work through, this book is a great source of inspiration for beginners and pros alike, and it should keep even the most productive artists busy for months, if not years. It includes a wide range of different topics, such as: animals and people, landscapes and buildings, food, every day objects, emotions, body language, fantasy, and so much more. They've got everything covered! The wide variety of subjects helps to keep the sketchbook interesting, and also challenging- well, at least for amateurs like myself!

The pages each feature one to four things to draw, and are neatly divided by thin black lines in to halves, thirds, or quarters (when more than one topic fills a page). The space provided for sketching is limited when the pages are divided in to three or four, but the advantage is that most tasks can be completed in a relatively short space of time- which is ideal if your time to draw is limited.

Here's just a selection of the prompts included in the book:

♥ A crash test dummy.
♥ Sea spray.
♥ A circus.
♥ Freckles.
♥ Unmentionables.
♥ A narwhal.
♥ Head in the clouds.
♥ A scream.
♥ A gravestone.
♥ The view from an airplane window.
♥ A tattoo.
♥ A celebration.
♥ A spiral staircase.
♥ Best friends.
♥ Polka dots.
♥ A lemon meringue pie.
♥ A Beatles song.
♥ A shoulder shrug.
♥ Tears.
♥ Hills and valleys.

What I love about this book is that the majority of the topics are suitable for artists (or budding artists) of all ages and skill. Some prompts are easy, others more complex, but you're free to interpret each prompt in your own way and draw in your own style, at your own level; you don't need to be Van Gough or Banksy to give them a go. You should be able to complete many of the topics at home, but you could also carry the book around with you, completing tasks as and when you find the inspiration. It's totally up to you!

I bought this book because I used to really enjoy drawing, but I haven't picked up a pencil or paint brush in several years. My art supplies are just gathering dust, and I'm eager to start using them again. I knew I needed a little help with inspiration, though, so having already gotten a lot out of the Things To Write books, I knew this book would be the ideal way for me to slowly ease my way back in to art. 

I'm not a great artist by any means, but using 642 Things To Draw is a great way for me to give it a shot, practise, and attempt to draw a bunch of things I've never drawn before. I haven't drawn anything worth sharing yet, but I'm looking forward to working on more this Spring and Summer when the days stretch out and the daylight is better quality to work from. There are so many interesting things to draw in this book, and I plan to eventually work my way through all of them. Although, knowing me, it'll probably take me a while!

I think 642 Things to Draw is a fantastic inspirational sketch book for any person who loves to draw; and it's a great book to challenge yourself with if you're looking for something new to try this year.

There are a couple of other books in the series, too, including 642 Places to Draw, 642 Fashion Things to Draw, and 712 More Things to Draw, which are all available through Amazon.

Have you got a copy of 642 Things to Draw, yet?

Book Review: The Fuck It List- 1000 Things I'll Never Do Before I Die

I was browsing through the gift section on ASOS last week, looking for birthday gifts for my little sister when I came across a brilliant book. 

The Fuck It List. 

I know what you might be thinking and no, it's not a book for listing the people you want to sleep with! The Fuck It List is basically an anti-bucket list; a place to list all of those things that you're never going to achieve before you die. 

Most of us will have a list of things we hope to achieve before we die- I know I do- but realistically speaking, we're never going to cross off all of our ambitious goals. We're unlikely to trek to some of the remote corners of the globe, write a novel, own a mansion by the sea, or scale Kilimanjaro. That's where this book comes in! The Fuck It List provides a place where you can be realistic with yourself and nip some of your aspirations in the bud before you get your hopes up, saving you  the effort of pointless day-dreaming and lying to yourself for decades to come. 

'If crossing things off your to-do list is therapeutic, then crossing things off your "I'll never do these things anyway" list is preventive medicine.'

It might sound as if it's encouraging people to be pessimistic about their future lives, but it's meant to be light-hearted and a bit of fun. I thought it was a brilliant idea, so I had to get myself a copy.

The book is an A5 paperback, with a bold tomato-red cover, and a simple, tasteful design.

It has a hundred lists of ten for you to fill in to your heart's content, with one gap of each list already filled in as part of the design. Each list gets a full page, and some are given a double-page spread, with a corresponding illustration and a fact or two relating to the subject.

Some of the lists included in the book are:

♥ Countries I'll never travel to.

♥ Risks I'll never take.

♥ Phobias I'll never over come.

♥ Songs I'll never sing with the correct lyrics.

♥ Great books I'll never finish.

♥ Causes I'll never get passionate about.

♥ Adrenaline rushes I'll never experience.

♥ Music I'll never appreciate.

♥ Epic journeys I'll never undertake.

♥ Recipes I'll never master.

♥ Luxury items I'll never afford.

♥ Things whose popularity I'll never understand.

There are also four blank lists at the back of the book for you to fill in as you please.

I love this book and I've already completed several of the lists. I think there's a great selection of interesting topics to list from, and the design, fonts, and illustrations are all tasteful and aesthetically pleasing.

I think this book is perfect for anybody with a sense of humour who enjoys writing lists, and setting goals for the future. It would make a fun birthday or Christmas present.

It's currently available on ASOS here for £11, and it should be available from all good book stores, too.

It's a great little book and I enthusiastically recommend it!

Would you write an anti-bucket or "fuck it" list?

Literary Listography: My Reading Life In Lists Book Review

Over the last year or so, I've expressed my love of the Listography books on several occasions here on Polka Spots and Freckle Dots, and I'm here to do it once more.

I recently added a sixth Listography book to my collection, the newly released Literary Listography: My Reading Life in Lists book, and as an avid reader and list-maker, I've been looking forward to this book for months! When I finally got my hands on a copy last week, I wasn't disappointed.

Like the others, Literary Listography is a fun creative journal book full of prompts to create lists from. In this case, all of the lists are reading themed, providing you with a place to record your reading life; the books you love, the authors you admire, the fictional characters you adore and so much more.

There are more than 70 lists spanning 160 pages, and they really have covered everything a book lover could ever wish to document.  I can't list them all, but here's a little taster of some of the lists the book has to offer.

Some of my favourite lists in the book include:

♥ My top 20 most beloved books.

♥ My favourite authors.

♥ Dystopian books I love.

♥ Books that made me cry.

♥ Books I hope they make in to films.

♥ Fictional characters I connected with.

♥ Books I couldn't finish.

♥ My favourite book covers.

♥ Books I could pin a song to.

♥ Favourite films adapted from books.

Each list is given a double page spread, with a water colour style illustration on one page, and the writing prompt and space to list on the other. 

Some pages have a full page of lines to write on..

 ...while some are split in to two columns.

There are also pages at the back of the book dedicated to favourite book beginnings and endings, favourite quotes and books to read before you die. These topics have been given three or four pages of writing space each, and one for the illustrations.

I love the beautiful watercolour illustrations. Just look how stunning the tiger is for Life of Pi!

The reason I love the Listography books is because they're fun to fill in and they get me thinking about a variety of different subjects, some I may never have given a lot of thought to before. I love documenting my life in this way; it's like creating my own autobiography through lists! I think the completed books would be interesting for family members to discover in fifty years time, stored away at the back of the cupboard with old photos and mementos. I know I would have loved to have found books like this filled in by my parents or grandparents. 

I can't wait to work my way through the Literary Listography. I've already filled in several lists, but I'm trying not to fill it in all in one go. I could happily sit for hours and work from list to list. I tend to pick up these books whenever I feel inspired and fill in a list or two at a time.

Literacy Listography: My Reading Life In Lists really is perfect for any book lover, and I think the selection of lists covers everything even the most book-obsessed person would hope to be included. It would be an ideal gift for any book lover, and an even better present for yourself!

Will you be picking up a copy of Literacy Listography?

You Might Also Like
Travel Listography Book Review
Listography Book Reviews