A Little Something to Fill the Gap

A brief despatch in place of my regular wind up

“I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know.”
– Tove Jansson 

🎩 👜 🎩 👜 🎩 👜 🎩

I couldn’t let this weekend pass without noting that it marks the start of Tove Jansson & Moomin Month at Book Jotter. Tove’s birthday falls on the 9^th August – a date celebrated as both Finnish Art Day and Tove Jansson Day in her native Finland. I simply enjoy keeping the revelries going throughout the rest of summer (winter for some of you, of course) and invite you to do the same.

As mentioned in WUTW #478, I have just returned from a refreshing break in Middle–earth Mid Wales but, since I’m posting, I may as well share a few things that are happening over the next couple of days and weeks.

Today, keen stationery enthusiasts around the globe can embrace National Planner Day; it is also Food Canada Day, National Raspberry Cream Pie Day (celebrated everywhere), World Wide Web Day and, in my corner of the world, the National Eisteddfod of Wales continues to honour Welsh culture until 8^th August. Tomorrow brings Friendship Day in India and National Friendship Day in the USA – while all nations get to enjoy National Ice Cream Sandwich Day and National Colouring Book Day. 🖍️

Every August, the blogosphere marks Women in Translation Month, a celebration dedicated to women whose writing reaches English‑language readers through translation. Launched in 2014 by Meytal Radzinski of Biblibio (who, regrettably, no longer hosts the event but is still involved), the initiative aims to challenge the long‑standing imbalance between the sexes in translated literature and to champion women’s voices across languages and cultures. In 2026, the tradition continues throughout the month, encouraging lovers of literature to read, discuss, review and share books by women in translation – all in support of the broader mission to amplify writers who too often go unheard. And naturally, it offers the perfect excuse (if one were needed) to reach for something by Tove Jansson.

Among those having a 🐳 of a birthday today are writer of the American Renaissance period Herman Melville (1819), English medievalist scholar and author M.R. James (1862), English writer Rose Macaulay (1881), American novelist and journalist Edward Streeter (1891), Canadian poet F.R. Scott (1899), British writer Vivien Greene (1904), Pakistani poet of modern Urdu poetry Noon Meem Rashid (1910), Canadian author and poet Anne Hebert (1916), American author Robert James Waller (1939) and British author of heroic fantasy David Gemmell (1948). 🎂 On Sunday, it is the turn of English poet, novelist and short-story writer Ernest Dowson (1867), American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin (1924), Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende (1942), English novelist and short story writer Rose Tremain (1943), English SFF novelist Robert Holdstock (1948) and Chinese-American poet and writer Bei Dao (1949).

That’s all for now, folks. Normal service should resume next week with my usual wind up appearing on Saturday. 📰

>> See my monthly digest at the Book Jotter Journal on Substack. >>

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