A week of cheerful seasonal details found in stained glass windows in English churches. This endearingly colourful and wonky Christmas tree is by Irene Dunlop (née Shakerley, 1893-1965) in a Nativity window which commemorates her father who died in 1943. Little is known about her artistic training; the few windows she made in what could be loosely described as an Arts & Crafts style can be found in a trio of Cheshire churches. This is in All Saints Chapel on what was the Shakerley family estate. 

Finally this week, as illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (1900-79), independent bookshops are wonderful, magical places where you can enjoy browsing, make serendipitous discoveries, chat to fellow book-lovers, and support local businesses. Buying books in person in interesting surroundings (we include our shop here) is so much more enjoyable and rewarding than being sold to by an algorithm. It's also possible to buy from independent booksellers online at Bookshop.org.  

Coram's Foundling Hospital (1739), now the Foundling Museum, was one of our close neighbours when Persephone Books shop on Lamb's Conduit Street in London. The Coram charity group continues Thomas Coram's admirable work, and the Coram Beanstalk partners with volunteers and schools to "provide one-to-one support to children who are behind, giving them the help and encouragement they need to catch up ...to learn to read and become readers for life" These Italian Girls (1938) by Roland Vivian Pym (1920-2006) in Manchester Art Gallery look like happy, confident readers, something we would all like for our children.

The Guardian ran a feature on the "warrior librarians of Ukraine" such as Oksana Bruy, President of the Ukrainian Library Association, and their determination to safeguard Ukrainian culture and archives. It says, "Cultures flourish in peace but define themselves in resistance. In the 21st-century wars of meanings, you do not want to be up against the librarians. They keep meaning alive." Libraries are also acting as bomb shelters, reception points for refugees, and hubs for distribution and information - as well as books. Donations to help Ukraine, its librarians and readers, can be made in many ways, including the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

The charity Give A Book uses donations in a 'practical and targeted way' to get books to 'prisons, schools and...disadvantaged children' and to 'promote...the pleasure of reading in the hardest to reach places'. With so many threats, cuts and limits to free access to books, this admirable work is needed now more than ever. Reading by Lamplight (undated) by Donald McIntyre (1923-2009) is in the Paintings in Hospitals collection; it captures exactly what the charity aims to achieve. 

This week on the Post: giving books at Christmas. Icelanders celebrate Jolabokaflod ('Christmas Book Flood') on Christmas Eve, a tradition whose origins are unclear but which was popularised when paper was one of the few unrestricted commodities in the 1940s. Books are given as presents, and it's part of the tradition to start reading immediately, often with hot chocolate or beer. No wonder books are the most popular Christmas gift in Iceland. (Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik, completed 1986.)

It's December, so heated discussions about the merits or otherwise of sprouts are taking place. Whichever side of the debate you favour, it is good to see that sprouts are now being sold on their stalks, and are being cooked in more creative ways. (It is fair to say that boiling them for twenty minutes before testing with a knitting needle, as suggested in Dinners for Beginners, does not do them any favours). These are Charles Jones' magnificent 'Brussels Sprouts' (c1900).