A beautiful festive gift from the award-winning poet Carol Ann Duffy, with captivating illustrations from Yelena Bryksenkova.

In this enchantingly illustrated Christmas poem, Carol Ann Duffy invites readers to open the windows on Advent Street. In each one is a gift. You may find yourself back-straight watching a ballerina, poised to begin, or catch your lips moving in time with a festive song that drifts out into the night. Whatever the surprise, when the curtains draw back and the lights sharpen, Duffy's beguiling words will call you inside to feel the warmth.

Carol Ann Duffy's profile page

Yelena Bryksenkov's profile page

Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. She was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for a decade from 2009 to 2019. Her many collections include Mean Time, Love Poems, and The Bees, which won the Costa Poetry Award. Her writing for children includes Queen Munch and Queen Nibble, The Skipping-Rope Snake, and The Tear Thief. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. In 2021, she was awarded the international lifetime achievement award the Golden Wreath for her poetry.

Yelena Bryksenkova was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, grew up in Cleveland, and studied illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (BFA, 2010) and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Czech Republic. She now lives and works in Montreal, Quebec as a freelance illustrator and fine artist. She has worked for a wide variety of clients including Urban Outfitters, The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Chronicle Books, and more.