Fi Phillips

Today I'm taking part in a blogsplash titled 'My Most Beautiful Thing'. It was inspired by Fiona Robyn's new book, The Most Beautiful Thing . You can find more information on the blogsplash here . When I started to think about what 'my most beautiful thing' could be, I found my mind travelling along many branches of thought. Some ended in sawn off stumps. Others furled out and and onwards into a narrowing path which reached further into the sky than I could see. All of them had merit but none of them alone were right. I have my mother's silver locket which holds photographs of her parents and her grandmother. I have a book of important dates, a gift from my great grandfather Alfred to his future wife. I have my extensive collection of photographs, online and in albums, that stretches back a hundred years. There's my engagement ring, a circular diamond in a plain setting that speaks to me more of eternity and harmony than bling and money. There's ...

What is your most beautiful thing? On Tuesday, 24th April, I'm taking part in a blogsplash to celebrate beautiful things, inspired by Fiona Robyn's new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing . People all over the world will be blogging, tweeting and writing about their most beautiful thing. You could post a photo or write a piece of prose about your most beautiful thing. Perhaps it's a piece of artwork or a memory. It's completely up to you. If you'd like to be included in the list of bloggers who are taking part, Writing Our Way Home are compiling a directory. They'll also repost their favourite entries on their blog over the following month. If you'd like to join in, email fiona@writingourwayhome.com for more details. That's not me, by the way.

I recently returned to a book I started reading years ago, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I got about half way through before we packed up to move house and I've only now found it in a box of miscellaneous items. I packed the box in 2004. Keeping to my 2012 resolution to read more, I've re-started Shadow and in the first section came across a passage that I thought would appeal to the writers and readers in us. Enjoy. "This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs their eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens." The Shadow of the Wind

You would have been 86 years young today.