The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2025 – Lia Leendertz | Book Review | #TheAlmanac2025 @lialeendertz @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours

With a beautiful new cover and interior artwork from illustrator Sarah Abrehart @nemesista (IG)

Reconnect with the seasons in Britain and Ireland with this month-by-month guide to the world around us – including tide tables, sunrises and moon phases; wildlife and folklore; seasonal recipes and more.

The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2025 gives you the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark and appreciate each month of the year in your own particular way.

Divided into the 12 months, a set of tables each month gives it the feel and weight of a traditional almanac, providing practical information that gives access to the outdoors and the seasons, perfect for expeditions, meteor-spotting nights and beach holidays. And it’s the ideal gift!

You will find yourself referring to The Almanac all year long, revisiting it again and again, and looking forward to the next edition as the year draws to a close.

Publisher: Gaia/Octopus Books
Format: ebook and hardback (29 August 2024)
Pages: 288
Source: Copy for review

MY THOUGHTS

My thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for the invite and to the publisher for sending a copy of the book to review. I’m new to these Almanacs and was greatly surprised by the amount of information contained inside. This beautiful book may be smaller in size but it has a wealth of information which must have required so much in depth research.

Beautifully illustrated with black and white drawings and endpapers comprising a 2025 calendar, this year’s theme is ancient astronomy. Each page has a printed tab with a letter representing the month so its really easy to use and in addition there is a colour matched ribbon marker.

I can quite understand why it is something that you would refer to constantly as there is so much to learn. In addition to tide tables and sunrise/sunsets there is a Cake of the Month (March has a recipe for Welsh Cakes, a favourite of mine), a Megalith of the Month (January is Stonehenge) and there are folklore tales and songs not only in verse but also with accompanying printed music.

I’m so impressed by how much interesting information it contains and it is such a useful reference book to keep, whether your interest is in gardening or the constellations and just generally to find out more about the world around us. I’m looking forward to following the seasons each month and I can see that these will form a lovely collection for the bookshelf. It’s perfect for a bedside table and would also make a fabulous gift.

Lia Leendertz is an award-winning garden and food writer based in Bristol. She presents a monthly podcast, ‘As the Season Turns’, about what to look out for in the month ahead and writes a free weekly newsletter, ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’.

Her reinvention of the traditional rural almanac has become an annual must-have for readers eager to connect with the seasons, appreciate the outdoors and discover ways to mark and celebrate each month.

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