Publication day!

Win a *signed and personalised* copy of The Almanac 2025

It is publication day for The Almanac 2025!

The eighth edition of my almanac is out today. I think most here know my almanacs by now, but a quick re-cap just in case: these books lead readers through the year ahead in moon phases, sunrises and sunsets, the sky at night, tide times, celebrations, seasonal food, meditations, folklore and folksongs, and more. The 2025 edition’s theme is a particularly juicy one: Ancient Astronomy. This was inspired by the fact that 2025 is a ‘major lunar standstill’ year, when the moon is at its most extreme point in its 18.6 year cycle. If you have been noticing particularly low and glowing moonrises this is why - there’s going to be a lot more of that in 2025. Many stone circles and megaliths appear to reference these extremes, and so I have sought out a megalith of the month to help us mark out the year in stone and shadow. We also have constellation myths from around the world and lots of information about the great many ways in which the sun, moon and stars influence our day to day lives through the year, even now.

This edition has ended up feeling really kind of epic to me. This was partly in the act of writing it - it was by FAR the toughest to write of any of my almanacs, with so many concepts to get my head around and make accessible, and so many links to make and coincidences to fathom out. But it is also in the themes, the vast stones and the dates they point to in shafts of sunlight, the ancient links between songs, stones and dates and, well yes, even some of the cakes. I also had the strange and entirely new experience of one mythical character popping up everywhere I turned, just again and again, as if determined to nosy her way in. The Cailleach is the pre-Celtic creator-goddess of winter and landscape and I had only the vaguest notion of her before I started writing this edition, but she came up time after time in stories of stones, and in poems and even crafts and cakes. I let her in, of course, as you will see, and she is absolutely the patron of this edition. It created a sense that this one really wanted to be written, and was kind out waiting out there for me to wrestle it into being.

Every year as well as a new theme we have a new illustrator, and 2025’s is Sarah Abrehart, who goes by @Nemesista on Instagram. Her work feels strong, epic, folkloric - this really feels like the perfect match of illustrator and theme.

We also have Moon Meditations from Louise Press, whose wise words I know many of you are loving in the 2024 edition, so I had to invite her back. We have nature observations from the ancient meadow with Kate Bradbury, an idea I intended as an echo to the megaliths of the month, most of which are situated on ancient meadows. We also have a Cake of the Month, and some of the most ancient folksongs I have ever featured in the almanacs.

I am so excited to hear what you make of it all.

A competition

So yes, another competition! They are like buses around here, it seems. Please leave a comment below and I will put your name into the hat to receive a signed and personalised (as/if you wish) edition. I’m happy to send it anywhere around the world.

First of all though, I have a favour to ask. I know that many of you buy the almanac and put it away until the new year, and this is all exactly as it should be! My favour is this: whenever you do buy it, can I ask you to have a peek at it first, and then to drop me a very brief review on Amazon as soon as you can manage. You don’t have to have bought the book on Amazon but unfortunately it is the place that even bookshops look to see what people are saying about books, so it does me a huge favour. I have many copycats, sadly, and several of them have really mastered the art of getting lots of reviews in very early. So I thought I would turn to you, my lovely community, and see if you can help me out with that. Thank you if you can, it takes a minute or two at most and really helps me to keep this almanac show on the road.

This is absolutely not a requirement to enter the competition though! In order to enter, please just leave a comment below. You might tell me what you like about the almanacs you have had in the past, or any traditions you have around them, or something like that. Anything will do, but hey if it convinces some casual reader to buy an almanac for the first time well, all the better…I will put everyone into the big pink cowboy hat of fate again and draw out a winner.

In the meantime I hope you will join me in wishing bon voyage to The Almanac 2025!