Jim's Spectacular Christmas

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But she agreed to this one because it was pitched to her as an invitation from Henry Cole himself, just as the three Peter Rabbit books she has previously written were pitched as invitations from Peter: “There’s still a little bit of me that thinks it was Peter Rabbit himself who asked me,” she says. I mean, he'd meet a baby and shake his hand and go, ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’ and was quite forthright and firm with children. As well as starring on the big screen, Emma is well known for her screenplays, including her 1995 hit Sense and Sensibility.

She said: “It’s actually about canine conscience…because he does something that makes him feel guilty.On what readers, young and old, should take away from reading Jim’s Spectacular Christmas, Emma replied: “I think it's a nice thing to read.

Scheffler still has the letter and has brought it along 34 years later to an interview to mark their first literary collaboration, on a children’s picture book, Jim’s Spectacular Christmas. For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky , weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here .She opened her handbag, in which she had an unwrapped dog biscuit, and when she drew three circles over the head of three corgis they all rolled over. This prompts a bit of banter between the duo as to what else she might have kept in her omnipresent bag: carrots for the royal horses, perhaps.

From that inglorious beginning he goes on to become part of the 19th-century invention of Christmas, presenting Queen Victoria with the world’s first commercial Christmas card. Drawn in by its lit windows, the heartbroken figure is comforted by the various tableaux on show – one cold, dark night after another.

The card, drawn to Cole’s design by his artist friend John Horsley, still exists and copying it has given Scheffler an unprecedented opportunity to depict a child drinking wine: “That’s really not allowed in children’s books,” he points out. Then she trumps it, by announcing that she still has the envelope in which Scheffler sent the two pictures. That’s amazing,” says Thompson of the letter, which predates her six-year marriage to Branagh and was written from the flat they shared in 1988.

He wrote and narrated The Magic Roundabout, which targeted families as a whole, rather than just little ones. He was playing Hamlet to her sister Sophie’s Ophelia and she wanted something to commemorate a moment in time. With illustrations from Axel Scheffler (best known for his work with Julia Donaldson, including The Gruffalo), Jim’s Spectacular Christmas tells the tale of a grubby pooch who is losing his sight, and so liberates an eyeglass from a very regal acquaintance while delivering his master’s latest invention – Christmas cards. An icon of her craft, Cradock became synonymous with Christmas cooking, due to her no-stress, cost-effective extravagance. This year, we are introduced to Sky Terran, a woman in flux – she’s just lost a job she loved, and has moved back to the town of Middledip, where she had happy memories as a child.So began a correspondence that continued over the years with requests to Scheffler to design letterheads for both Thompson and her actor mother, Phyllida Law. So I always go, if I'm writing something for children, generally speaking, I go and do it in Scotland, because it's quiet. For Jim’s Spectacular Christmas, the Love Actually star teamed up with Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, and Emma explained to Chris why she wanted to centre a story around a dog and his feelings in the festive season. Actress and author Dame Emma Thompson is feeling festive with her latest children’s book, Jim’s Spectacular Christmas, which is out now. It's something to make you feel cosy at Christmas time, thinking about family and thinking about Christmas cards.