Actually some quite generous offers from Charlotte Tilbury today – 40% off certain gift sets, which look worth having, especially The Morning Routine and The Night Time Routine.
There is also 20% off at Other Stories, using the code FRIDAYNOIR, all weekend. I have seen these boots on and they are fabulous, like a sort of dainty Doc Marten – if you are still shopping for yourself.
And this is a terribly now sort of a sweater to have at the moment.
Fabulous shimmery very wearable dress for a tricky party.
There is 20 and 30% off at Liberty, including at KC Designs, which made the tiny “g” that I wear – down to £300 from £375. Also 20% off Alex Monroe, if you’re into that.
I like this little wooden doctor’s set for kids, at 20% off
I absolutely adore this baby’s hanging mobile decoration
And it wouldn’t be Liberty without a scarf would it – I think this is a real bargain – Lily and Lionel pretty star print scarf, down to sort of £130 from £190.
And that’s it from me, bargain hunters! I’m glad you had fun with all this. I’m sorry not to have featured absolutely everyone doing a discount but I wanted to cut out the noise for you and only alert you to the major people doing the major deals.
Next week! I will be putting together a list of gifts for you to email out to husbands/people you are blackmailing etc, featuring a lot of jewellery – also your BRILLIANT handbag suggestions. In December I will hit you up with all the best from smaller brands and independent shops. So don’t worry if you’re not one for doing Christmas shopping just now, Black Friday or not, there will still be plenty of ideas in the run-up.
I will also be doing a books of the year roundup if anyone has anything they’d like to recommend? Possibly not very famous books like Eleanor Oliphant/My Brilliant Friend etc but other books, possibly more niche yet still fantastic reads that might otherwise get overlooked. Nothing with dead or missing/abused children please. Sorry but I just can’t deal with it. I’m off to lie down in a dark room with cucumber slices over my eyes.
Hush have got quite a lot in their “weekend sale” – not everything, like their really popular dresses, but they do have that blouse you linked to at a reduction and some other nice things. I’ve just rewarded myself after a week searching for Lego and Barbie deals. I feel depleted.
Just bought some Christmassy Maileg mice from Liberty with the discount- thanks! https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/christmas-mice-in-book-R241837006.html?dwvar_000606631_color=99-ASSORTED&referrer=brands&listsrc=Maileg#gclid=Cj0KCQiA597fBRCzARIsAHWby0GJ3Os8dWNqX4Wsz360tqAiU3GwLDnG3YGqMWmODAFbWIOkEYtgdRgaAnp9EALw_wcB&start=1
In case anyone is looking for presents/stocking fillers for girls, Maileg mice are lovely. They come in sweet little boxes and IME girls from 5 to above 12 or even older go nuts for them (obviously it depends on the girl). Not on the Liberty site and so not on sale but this Princess & the Pea one is great and comes with its own pea https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maileg-16%C2%81-6792%C2%81-00-princess-pea/dp/B01LZNU0SQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542972990&sr=8-1&keywords=maileg+princess+and+the+pea I am obsessed.
… comes with its own pea…
All the best gifts do!
I laughed too hard at this
I don’t understand why it’s so funny but it is
Ottessa Moshfegh has recently got a lot of attention (here and elsewhere) with My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but I really recommend her novel Eileen (which I think you also read?), about a lonely young woman who has, let’s say, an eventful Christmas. (It was published in 2016, but I only read it this year, so does it count?)
Madeline Miller’s Circe is a beautiful retelling of the Circe myth, from her point of view.
In near-future dystopia, Red Clocks by Leni Zumas seems to have got lost in the hype around Vox (Christina Dalcher), which is a shame because I believe Red Clocks is the superior novel.
East of Croydon, Sue Perkins’ book, is fabulous. Membership for Beauty Pie obvs. Comfort by John Whaite which is really fab cookbook, as is How to eat a peach by Diana Henry and any of her books… Also solo by Signe Johansen is really good.
On a slightly more mundane note, Photobox has excellent discounts today, free delivery over £40 and best of all, CREDITS so you can slam 3 calendars into the basket today, feel smug, and sort them out within 14 days. I, dammit, caved in at the last minute for yesterday’s deal which was nothing like as good. So go, Spikers! And thank you so much, Esther, for all this slog xx
Book : a gathering light – Jennifer Donnelly – I think it’s yA fiction but my adult book group loved it
I have loved Putney by Sofia Zinovieff, Home Fires by Kamila Shamsie and Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys this year
I loved The Brittle Star by Davina Langdale.
Could you do suggestions for husbands gifts? Currently got a crappy poker set for husband (who doesn’t really play poker) such is my desperation.
My favourite book of this year was Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Have recommended it to lots of people and it’s been a hit. Great characters and plot.
Just working my way through episode 3 of Little Drummer Girl thinking, ‘where are the spy novels with spy women in?’ when I remembered I read Transcription by Kate Atkinson. And then I remembered how funny it is in parts and thought other Spikers might enjoy.
A prayer for Owen meany. John Irving. Oh lordy what a book. You’ll be bent double with laughing and amazed and touched. Read it many years ago and I think I’m going to re read it now as I’ve just remembered.
The best I’ve read this year were Days Without End, Milkman, and Circe, so not really off the beaten track but it’s my truth. Older ones I happen to have read this year and liked a lot are This Thing of Darkness, about Darwin and Fitzroy, and A Month in the Country by JL Carr (a lovely little book that tells you a lot about the Great War and its impact without ever looking at it directly). Also one of my all time favourites which I have revisited many times is on the Kindle deals today, True Grit by Charles Portis. It has a foreword by Donna Tarrt, who I hope now is getting on with her next book instead of writing forewords, but I guess she also liked it that much.