T is for Treasure, heaped into a pile

librsa bought me The Dangerous Alphabet, which is by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Gris Grimly. librsa's superhero powers are Confusing Fog of Non-Sequitur, and Perfectly Chosen Gifts. Dangerous Alphabet introduces itself thusly:

A piratical ghost story in thirteen ingenious but potentially disturbing rhyming couplets, originally conceived as a confection both to amuse and to entertain by Mr. Neil Gaiman, scrivener, and then doodled and elaborated upon, illustrated, and beaten soundly by Mr. Gris Grimley, etcher and illuminator, featuring two brave children, their diminutive but no less courageous gazelle, and a large number of extremely dangerous trolls, monsters, bugbears, creatures, and other such nastiness, many of which have perfectly disgusting eating habits and ought not, under any circumstances, to be encouraged.

I'm particularly fond of the "diminutive but no less courageous gazelle". It's bug-eyed and spindly.



Everybody needs a copy of The Dangerous Alphabet immediately. I'm just saying.

I am back at work today, hacking, snuffling and reeling slightly, but immeasurably better than The Great Flattened Horizontality that was last week. My day has also been pleasingly improved by the receipt of four SMSes, five Facebook messages and six e-mails in addition to a dangerous alphabet. Thank you, all you nice peoples.