Saturday, March 13, 2010

Tea and Books Saturday #11 - "A nice cup of ... Tea, Coffee, Chocolate"



A nice cup of ... Tea, Coffee, Chocolate & other liquid delights!
By Michelle Lovric
Virago Books, 2004


It dawned on me the other day that although this book is six years old, I haven't seen it mentioned on any tea blogs and it's certainly worthy of a mention, as it's the world's first tea-themed pop-up book! I got mine at the Pasttimes store in Bath, England, but copies are available on eBay for less than $10, including shipping, from a few sellers in England. The author is Michelle Lovric, whose wonderful "Love Letters" anthology was a best-seller back in 1995. It was the first book I'd ever seen which had the very clever idea of using facsimile copies of letters tucked into little envelopes within the book. And since tea, coffee and chocolate are often linked in the history books, I think it's very smart that the author features all three "liquid delights" in her delightful book.

Typically with these Saturday book reviews, I prefer to feature only the cover of the book, but I have a feeling I need to share a couple of photos so you'll get a glimpse of the goodies that await inside this book. The "Contents" pages are just beautiful.

And these pages from the "Tea" section feature an old trade card in the shape of a teacup ...

... which then folds down for us to read and enjoy. There are also a few moveable pieces, and even a pop-up dining table that is probably my favorite feature in the book. There were also some tea quotes that were new to me, but even if I'd been familiar with them all, I would still adore this unique gift book!

9 comments:

  1. A nice up of Chocolate! Yummy! What a lovely little book you've got there! Again, another fun idea for a hostess gift or my own library~! hee hee

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  2. Hello Angela, I love your review and this book looks like one to get!

    The illustrations look beautiful - and you can't miss with that title..."A nice cup of...Tea, Coffee, Chocolate."

    Thanks for sharing & hope you have a nice weekend,
    Joanie

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  3. That looks like a really pretty and unusual tea book. Thanks for the photos.

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  4. What a cute book! Seems like most popup books are for childern, it's nice to see one for adults.

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  5. What a fun book. Thanks for sharing it.

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  6. What a wonderful book, I hope I can find one.

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  7. Thank you for your lovely review of my book, and the excellent photos. I very much enjoyed researching A Nice Cup of ...

    All the pop-up and die-cut elements are faithful reproductions of Victorian advertising ephemera, quite a challenge for modern technology. I sourced some of it from collections in the USA, and some from ephemera fairs in the UK. I now have quite a good collection myself.

    I also wanted to let you know, too, that I am now writing novels as well as producing gift books like this. Given my personal interests, tea, coffee and hot chocolate are a big feature of them, particularly The Undrowned Child, a crossover novel for older children, set in Venice. It will be published by Random House in the USA later this year.

    There's more info on my website:
    Michellelovric.com

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  8. This is a beauty. I leant my copy to someone about 4 years ago, it's still away!

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