The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

This is an illustration inspired by The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, a book of 11th Century poetry from Persia which you should read if you get the chance. Most printings include a series of colour illustrations, much more detailed than my simple watercolour.

Ancient Writings

Ahoy there, matey! Today Rob Scholten and I met up after nearly one and a half years. He's been living in Thailand, you see. On a trip around St. Kilda, I found this old book in a bookshop called Nefertiti. It's a Latin religious text printed in 1733, and published only once. The bookshop owner was only able to locate one other copy in the whole world.

What made this book intriguing was that on the endpaper was half a page of handwriting in that was done in the 18th century – well, it mentions "January 1766", at least. How's your Latin?

I Know My First Name Is Sweden

A proud bearded Viking-helmeted Swede, seen at the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar at the weekend.