What’s Not to Love About Colouring?

My latest book column for the parenting magazine Today’s Child licensed me to do a bit of fun research into colouring and other activity books.

Anyone who read my piece in this month’s Hawkesbury Parish News will already know I have had a life-long passion for colouring. I’m so glad that this year’s publishing sensation of adult colouring books, which The Bookseller magazine describes as a huge contributor to bookshops’ summer profits everywhere,  has licensed fellow adult colourers to come out of the closet.

All the Rage – I Mean, Calm

Colouring books are everywhere, to suit all tastes and interests, and it’s not only the cost of the books that are boosting booksellers’ economy. After all, what’s a nice new colouring book without a lovely new pack of pencils – then a pretty box to keep them in – and top quality sharpener to keep them all pointy…

Before you know it, your low-budget hobby can start to rival the cost of a golfing habit. You might as well just go out and buy a yacht.

That’s why I was also pleased to include in this issue’s feature a delightful book that will excite any adult raised on the BBC children’s TV programme Blue Peter, which in my day always worked hard to find a delicate way of describing the inside of toilet rolls, as much as staple of their craft projects as good old “sticky-back plastic” and “sticky tape”, which we all knew were BBC code words for brand names Fablon and Sellotape. (As the BBC likes to say, other products are available.)

Here’s One We Prepared Earlier*

Now here’s a new craft idea that should suit anyone’s budget, provided you don’t start using more sheets than strictly necessary to liberate another toilet roll tube for decorating…

Happy colouring, folks! 

• To read the article in full in Today’s Child’s online edition, click here.
• To read my previous post about colouring, click here.
• And for a fun anecdote about my Grandma’s attitude to toilet roll, click here.

(* for those who weren’t raised on Blue Peter, that’s one of their famous catchphrases when demonstrating craft projects for viewers to try at home)