Bradley Bartleby's Badvent Tweets

Several years ago illustrator Poly Bernatene and I created a picture book called The Santa Trap about a beastly brat called Bradley Bartleby and his attempts to trap Santa Claus and steal all of his presents. You can find out more about the book on this page of my web site.

As far as Poly and I were concerned, the book was a work of fiction. So you can imagine our surprise when, in November 2012, we started to receive threatening messages from Bradley himself. It seemed that the young man was not happy with the way we had represented him and he demanded the opportunity to set the record straight on this blog, which – after some unpleasant threats  – I allowed him to do. You can read his post here.

Stranger still, it seemed that this real life Bradley was putting the finishing touches to a real life Santa trap! The real Bradley had not bothered to finish reading the book, which he dismissed as "made up nonsense". So he was unaware that his subsequent exploits (as documented in Bradley's Twitter feed below) were uncannily similar to those described in its pages.

  Scroll inside the box to read them all  
Badvent Calendar

You might think that after such a humiliating defeat, young Bradley would want to retreat from the public eye, but the following Christmas he was back on Twitter again, doing his best to spoil the holiday spirit by offering some "Tips to Ruin Christmas".

  Scroll inside the box to read them all  
#TipsToRuinChristmas

And this Christmas he's Tweeting once more. In an attempt to discourage people from reading about his villainous exploits, he's offering his own "Rotten Reviews" attacking my and Poly's work. Here's what he's tweeted so far. Watch this space for updates or subscribe to Bradley's Twitter feed.

  Scroll inside the box to read them all  
#RottenReviews

If you have the misfortune to come across any of Bradley's reviews on Twitter, please disregard them. Here are a few things that genuine reviewers have said about the book.

"Bernatene’s cinematic mixed-media illustrations work wicked magic with Emmett’s darkly comedic prose … an ideal Christmas present for children who prefer Halloween."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - Starred Review

"The cleverly constructed plot unfolds with perfect comedic timing and dry wit."
KIRKUS REVIEWS  - Starred Review and one of the 100 Best Children's Books of 2012

"A hilarious adventure. The stylised illustrations complement the story brilliantly, creating a wonderful darkly funny atmosphere."

THE SCOTSMAN

You can read more real reviews of the book here.

UK PAPERBACK EDITION OUT OF STOCK

Unfortunately the regular UK paperback edition is currently out of stock and will not be reprinted before Christmas. However the Let's Read UK MINI-PAPERBACK and the US HARDBACK are still available and can be ordered using the links below.

P.S. There are rumours that a musical theatre adaptation of Bradley's story is being developed for Christmas 2015. I dread to think how Bradley will react to that.