I took a trip to the Illustration Cupboard on Bury Street, which I would hugely recommend if you are near by.My initial reason for the trip was to view Jill Murphy's original artwork for her children's book 'Five Minutes Peace'. I remember reading this book when I was small and it was super fun to see all the original drawings, it's amazing how you remember so much detail. I was particularly pleased as there is the picture of an open paint box - in the story the mother elephant accidentally sits on the paintbox (having been left by a rogue child) and the squares of paint leave a perfect colourful imprint on her dress, unbeknown to her.I have never been to this gallery before, and it turns out they have all sorts, I was so excited to find original artwork by Jan Pienkowski - his illustrations for the book 'A Necklace of Raindrops' are so delightful (I really love 💗💕💓 them a lot, they are some of my favourite). There are many old friends such the original artwork for Elmer the Elephant by David McKee 🐘, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 👑and also beautiful illustrations of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse by Rae Smith 🐴.They have lots of books too, mainly illustrated by their artists. It was such a treat being able to see so much original artwork for so many loved books, discovering new illustrators and putting names to images.After I went to dinner in Koya, we had to queue (of course - we're in London) but it is well worth the wait. It's Japanese and you sit at the bar - I had noodles 🍝 with veg tempura and it all comes separately which is rather fun, so you dip you noodles into the soup rather satisfyingly. We enjoyed ourselves very much!Alice xxx

Mar 15 Five Minutes Peace

Mar 16 The Burger, Please

Mar 13 Point-to-Pointing