Anna Shepard, Eco Worrier

May I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews or godchildren…or anything else that leads to requiring a good bedtime story. It’s everything that a children’s book should be and more. Yes, I admit, the author is one of my best friends, but my 19 month old doesn’t know that – or at least he can’t make the link between the person and the name on the cover of his favourite book. The best thing is that it is a pleasure for an adult to read so when my son demands to me to start over again from the first page, I do it with relish rather than the usual guilty boredom that comes with reading bedtime stories over and over again. Other favourites include The Gruffalo (obviously), Mr Gumpy and the rather sinister but strangely compelling Into The Forest. Oh and to vote for Dog Loves Books as the Independent Booksellers Book of the Year, go here

For all you carbon geeks out there, this is absolutely the book for you. It tells you the carbon footprint of everything – from a pint of ale in a pub (compared to an overpackaged supermarket bottle of lager) to a newspaper (taking in the differences between broadsheet, tabloid and weekly digest, of course). And I know you are out there, you hordes of green geeks. You used to bombard me when I wrote the Eco Worrier column for The Times, asking me obscure questions about carbon footprinting and demanding intricate scientific knowledge that I didn’t have. In the future, I will simply direct you to this book.

Read on The Times website

Cream first or jam? Plain scone or currants? Raspberry jam or strawberry? There are hundreds of ways to assemble a cream tea, but no clear rules on what works best. Not that it doesn’t matter. Don’t imagine that a cream tea is just a frivolous summer treat to enjoy in the garden. It is a serious thing, one that has recently prompted sparks to fly between Cornwall and Devon as both counties claim ownership. Each says the cream tea is its own speciality. Meanwhile, dairy farmers, bakers, tea growers and jam-makers across the country have their own ideas about how it should be put together. Some things are clear: time should be set aside for this mid-afternoon feast and only the finest ingredients should be used. Almost everything else is up for debate.

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