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Gaia, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has picked up The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2022 by Lia Leendertz.
Stephanie Jackson, publishing director at Aster, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Adrian Sington of Kruger Cowne. It will be published as a hardback on 2nd September at £12.99 with a simultaneous e-book and an extended audiobook that incorporates material from previous editions, including specially recorded folk songs.
The fifth instalment of the seasonal guide has the theme of folk celebrations, looking at the ways in which people gather together and commemorate the passing of time. The guide is illustrated this year by book illustrator, wood engraver, stone carver and letter cutter Harry Brockway.
Its synopsis states: “Every month includes a method of navigating using the stars, sun or moon. Plus, information on eclipses, meteor showers, and the naked-eye planets. A full tide timetable is given each month, including the spring tide and neap tide. This year, tide timetables are in a new, visual format that should make it easy to convert them for your local port. Plus Lia delves deeper into various moon gardening methods, outlining which jobs to attempt at different phases of the moon throughout the year.”
Leendertz is an award-winning garden and food writer based in Bristol. She writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph, the Garden, Simple Things, the Guardian and Gardens Illustrated.
Jackson said: “Lia Leendertz’s annual almanac has become an absolute institution, with a dedicated audience that returns to it again and again, and new converts all the time – as demonstrated by its steady growth in the Total Consumer Market year in, year out. It’s the kind of book that has a universal appeal: perfect for just about every home and gifting occasion, it’s a banker at retail. Each year’s edition contains new features and the specially commissioned work of a new artist – and, as ever, the 2022 edition is beautiful, distinctive, useful and inspirational.”
Leendertz commented: “I am delighted that the fifth edition of the Almanac is about to go out into the world. It’s an absolute beauty, and I am particularly excited by the new visual tables we have designed for the tides, sunrises and sunsets and moon phases, which lay each month open at a glance. For 2022’s theme it has been a total joy delving into the living folklore of the British Isles, the celebrations that still mark the seasons along with their accompanying recipes, songs and stories, all of which show how strong our collective desire is to connect with the year as it turns.”