New official Wombles website and first two books
The first two Wombles books - The Wombles and The Wandering Wombles - are now on sale. They had been out of print for almost ten years, but were republished by Bloomsbury on 1 November, with brand new illustrations by Nick Price.
Bloomsbury has also launched a new official Wombles website this week at www.thewomblesbooks.com. The Flash website includes:
- a synopsis of each book
- a downloadable PDF of the opening chapter, ‘Bungo’
- brief information about the author and the illustrator
- Elisabeth Beresford’s preface to the books
- Great Uncle Bulgaria’s introductory note
- a who’s who of the Wombles
- some wombling trivia
- a Wombles activity pack to download
- a competition (for UK children aged 8 to 17)
The books are available in paperback and ebook editions. At the time of writing, the cheapest place to buy the printed books is The Book People, at just £3.99 for the set of two books (plus postage depending on your total order size). Amazon is also among the cheapest online stores, with prices fluctuating regularly in line with its competitors.
You can buy the ebooks from Amazon.co.uk (Kindle format) or WH Smith (ePub format for Sony, Samsung, iRiver or Elonex readers), and in the US from Amazon.com or the Sony Reader Store. The books don’t seem to be in the Apple iBookstore, but you can use the free Kindle app if you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
The next two books will be out on 4 January (The Invisible Womble / The Wombles At Work), followed by the final two books on 7 March 2011 (The Wombles To The Rescue / The Wombles Go Round The World).