Virago Secret Santa: Opening!

It's time to begin finding out what lovely books and gifts Virago Angels have been sending around the world!

Let the festivities begin!

I'm going to wait until the 25th as I'm not going to have much to open this year (mostly being given money and Mr Dragon and I are being frugal) and my VSS parcels are the most interesting looking presents under the tree.

Excited to see if others are keeping to our traditional opening day though.

I was unable to participate in the exchange this year due to moving house, but I spent hours baking cookies so help yourself! 😀🎄

Like Dee I tend to wait until the 25th - the temptation is immense though!!

I also wait until the 25th, or even (shudder) the 26th if the 25th has been overwhelming (we have to travel across the city and back and spend the day with 4 older generation, two others our generation and two small children). I can't wait to see what's in those parcels, though!

>1 BeyondEdenRock: Lovely image!

I too am waiting for Christmas, and as usual will save one of those lovely parcels for New Year. Anxious to hear about others though.

>3 lauralkeet: Can you ingest calories just looking?

I'm another who's waiting for Christmas!

>6 SassyLassy: they are special calorie-free cookies!

They look delicious Laura! We are hosting a family of 6 on Christmas Day (Mum (French) has terminal cancer, 3yr old twins, a 5 and 6 yr old and an American husband)

Whilst we are cooking dinner they are insisting that they bring cookies! I had no idea cookies feature so highly . . . !!! Creeps quietly away . . .

Wednesday after Christmas sees us with our own family . . . we have some of the Australian connection coming over . . . no cookies then!

So excited about cookies - I forgot to say . . . I am holding on to Christmas Day as well . . . I hope my Santa doesn't mind too much :)

>9 juliette07: Julie, I haven't baked a single Christmas cookie in real life this year, things are just too busy with moving house. I normally only make 2 or 3 types of cookies because, well, we eat them all! But I do admire the efforts of those who take their Christmas baking more seriously.

We never did cookies when I was a child. Just the usual fruit cake that no one wanted. Making that fruit cake started weeks ahead of time, plus we had Christmas pudding that included a silver coin (on which to choke), which was considered good luck for the person who bit into it. Or was that in the cake? I have finally given up on 'Christmas' dinner. In NZ - with its reversed seasons - we always did roast chicken, salad and a light dessert and in recent years I have gone back to that here. I haven't eaten meat for 12 years now so I usually make myself a quiche. But we always go to friends on the 24th and they do the full American meal including lasagna, so husband and son get plenty of turkey. (And why the lasagna? The Italian/American influence?)

Since it's right around the corner, I'll 'reopen' my parcel on Christmas Day as well. Until then, a very Merry Christmas to all.🌲✨📚

I’ll be opening tomorrow and posting pix at some point soon. Meantime, happy Christmas to all!! 😁 🎁🎁

Thank you LisaMorr for my lovely box of books - Karen Joy Fowler's We are all Completely Beside Ourselves, Francis Spufford's Golden Hill, Ellen Glasgow's Barren Ground (an original style VMC) and Wendy Welch's The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap - lots of lovely treats in store for me!

Sounds lovely Liz!

And thank you to my lovely Santa Simon who knows my reading tastes well enough to have come up with wonderful choices - I’ll post photos soon! 😁😁

I'm so thrilled with my presents from Secret Santa Jane! Every year the VMC Secret Santa gifts seem to have been my most exciting presents - as my nonplussed family look on at my squeals.

I got:
The Cat's Cradle Book by Sylvia Townsend Warner - one of the few STW books I don't have, and in a lovely edition.
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson - also a lovely edition, and signed by her!
Deeper Than Indigo by Jenny Balfour Paul which, as Jane suggests, is entirely new to me - and certainly intriguing.
The Professor's House by Willa Cather - which I read a while ago, but was a borrowed copy, and lovely to have on my shelf. And in a Virago edition!

>16 kaggsy: and you're welcome, Karen! I shamelessly bought books I want you to read, but I think you'll also enjoy them!

Huge thanks to my lovely Santa Dee, who has totally spoiled me with five fantastic books.

A Stranger with a bag and other stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Home Life by Alice Thomas Ellis (meant to read her again for years).
The Doves of Venus by Olivia Manning - a green VMC
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
and Aunt Clara by Noel Streatfeild which looks so adorable I can't wait to try it.
Amazing choices for me Dee, thank you so much.

Thanks to Santa Cate, I now have the most wonderful bag of books beside me during the Christmas festivities.

Cate sent me four perfect choices and a gorgeous Orla Kiely "Books are my Bag" tote bag. Now inside the bag, I have two books from the very top of my wishlist (Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore and Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy) plus two absolutely fascinating looking biographies (Truly Wilde by Joan Schenkar and Rosamund Lehmann by Selina Hastings). All four books are calling me loudly and I keep changing my mind about where to start. Oh, and there was also a really beautiful bookmark.

Thank you so much, Cate! I feel very fortunate 😊

>19 Heaven-Ali: I'm so pleased you like them, Ali. I really enjoyed choosing them.

>17 Stuck-in-a-Book: The Cat's Cradle seems a great choice for you, Simon. Exquisite writing plus cats!!

>15 LyzzyBee: Even more great choices. We are all Completely Beside Ourselves is an amazing book.

Dearest Secret Santa Karen aka Elf 2

Thank you so very much for your delightful and immensely generous VSS gift - a box full of delights. There was even a little polar bear - sorry, she didn't quite make it to the photo!
The Sisters of Sinai was super - I read it a long time ago as a library book and loved it so very much that I wanted my own copy! But couldn't really justify buying it . . .
As a Francophile and lover of novels set in WW2 I'm really looking forward to April in Paris, as well as using the beautiful Paris themed journal for my reflections. Thank you so much.
And then the Jacquetta Hawkes book A Land looks very enticing as does The Virago Book of Christmas

Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness and generosity - Julie x

PS Having trouble adding photos . . . I can;t seem to remember how to do it . . . agh . . .

Heavenly Santa Ali

Thanks so much for your wonderful and thoughtful choices: two authors from my search list and a NYRB classic by an author I wanted to read. In other words, Lucy Gayheart in original VMC green, Rumer Godden's Kingfishers Catch Fire in Virago, and a Virago author in an NYRB classic, Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights. I have kept the fourth book for New Year's Eve as usual, so more later.

Did I mention the chocolate and hilarious bookmark?

Thanks again and I enjoyed your note.

I must thank my lovely Santa, who has been both thoughtful and generous.

I have two - yes two - lovely new Persephones that I have been wanting to add to my collection:

Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginsburg
Maman, What Are We Called Now? by Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar

And chocolate of a kind I have never come across before!

And a lovely little folder with tea!

And - I'm not sure of this was luck or very clever planning - a card that supports a favourite local charity!

You couldn't have done better, Kerry!

Dear SassyLassy

With the resumption of postal deliveries two very securely wrapped parcels arrived for me today: a lovely original green edition of Poor Caroline and an NCL edition of The Tin Flute and a gorgeous skein of random yarn with instructions for a lovely cowl.

The parcels were labelled 1 and 2 of 3 so there may be another one to come. Lucky me, and thank you very much!

Kerry (CDVicarage)

>23 BeyondEdenRock: I'm glad you like it all. I did consider that the charity was local to you when I chose the card but it was luck that you support it!

It was no hardship to buy the Persephones - because of the special offer if you buy three I had to choose one for myself as well...

Though I was unable to participate in the VSS party this year, I have so enjoyed reading all of your comments & sharing (vicariously) in your gift opening excitements. Thank you again elves & Viragoites alike for the pleasure you bring to all of the rest of us throughout the year.
Wishing one & all a very happy & fulfilling 2018.
belva

>26 rainpebble:, I'd like to add my thanks to elves, Jane and Karen for all the work they did this year to keep this wonderful tradition going. I really do appreciate it 🌹

Yes, thanks so much Jane and Karen!

>24 CDVicarage: I'm so relieved you received two of the parcels. I was feeling terrible that they didn't arrive in time. Yes, there is one more!

From my wishlist, my lovely VSS chose Virago's Coming-of-Age series edition of Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet. Thank you so much, Hannah (shypagesniffer)!

>29 SassyLassy: It's nice to spread the present opening over several days!

>25 CDVicarage: I like your thinking!!

>22 SassyLassy: So glad you enjoyed your parcel, happy reading.

>21 juliette07: I'm so pleased you liked the things Julie - I had great fun shopping for them. The buying for your Santee is often the bestest bit of VSS (although the parcels are pretty wonderful too!).

And I think most thanks for Elfing should go to Jane, because she does most of the hard work - it's fun being involved though! :)

As for photos, I'm struggling too but I've uploaded my pic to my profile and will try to link below....

OK, so if this works here are the lovely gifts my Santa Simon got me:



There's an Ivy Compton-Burnett I don't have in a very lovely edition, plus three other titles also new to my shelves which promise to keep my spirits up in 2018 - a Stephen Leacock, an A.A. Milne and a Saki (I *love* Saki).

Thank you Santa! :)

Oh, Elves, you have gone way beyond the call of duty! In today's post I received a parcel from the elves as compensation in case I was disappointed that my real VSS present didn't quite arrive by Christmas day. Thank you very, very much.

P.S. It contained green editions of The Life and Death of Harriett Frean and On the Side of the Angels

>22 SassyLassy: New Year's Eve, so I can open my final parcel. This one turned out to be Henry Green's Living in an NYRB classic edition. I'm very excited about this; it will be one of my first books in the new year. Two great Persephone books marks were tucked inside to inspire me to future acquisitions. So thank you again Santa Ali with the keen eye. All the best in 2018.

>36 CDVicarage: I think wonderful Elf 1 must take the credit for this - she does go above and beyond, doesn't she?? And she's the guiding force behind keeping this tradition going - I am just happy to be able to help! :)

>36 CDVicarage:, >38 kaggsy: awww, that's so nice and very much in the spirit of this group.

>30 bleuroses: You're so welcome! It's one of my all time favorites, so when I saw it on your wishlist I had to get it for you. I'm sorry I couldn't get you more and that I couldn't make it pretty for you.

No worries, Hannah and I loved that you chose one of your favourites! Thank you again! Best wishes for a very 'bookish' New Year! 💚📚

One last LATE post to cap off our wonderful 2017 Virago Secret Santa!

The day before I left for vacation, my husband brought in a box. I was confused when I saw it because it looked like, no - it WAS the box I used to send my VSS recipient her VSS gift. At first I though that somehow it got returned to me by accident, but then I realized LyzzyBee got me and I got her - how cool is that!

Liz was so generous - not only did she include many wonderful books (each with a personal note about why she picked it), but also there was CHOCOLATE and a beautiful set of red felt coasters.

Here are the books:
Spilt Milk, Black Coffee by Helen Cross
The Many by Wyl Menmuir
A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
Anita and Me by Meera Syal
Capital by John Lanchester
and a wonderful VMC to top it off: She Knew She Was Right by Ivy Litvinov

And then when it looked like the parcel might not arrive in time, Liz had Amazon deliver one more, just in case! The Cure For Death By Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Sorry this picture is so small, I tried to make it bigger but it just got really blurry!


Thank you again Liz for a wonderful Virago Secret Santa experience!

(and sorry for the lateness in posting - we got back late from our trip because of weather delays and then I got sick and then having to get back to work and I've just been bowled over with being so behind...)

>42 LisaMorr: So glad you liked the books and gifts, I really enjoyed choosing them for you!