近期,中产阶级盛行着各种活动,如侍弄小菜园、弹奏由克里里、自制葡萄酒、家庭烘培等等.但与这些不同,涂色手绘更多地是营造一种淳朴、简单的怀旧氛围.
However, while it might be healthier than tucking into a home-made sponge cake inspired by the Great British Bake Off, there is still an element of a guilty pleasure to it.
然而,尽管比起由英国家庭烘培大赛掀起的自制松糕热,涂色作画好似更为健康,但人们在享受绘画愉悦的同时,仍存有一丝罪恶感.
For not everyone approves of university-educated adults dedicating their spare hours to a pastime that - in the view of critics anyway - ranks somewhere below puzzler books and Ludo.
上过大学的人应该在这种消遣上花时间吗？并非所有人都认同——至少在批评家眼里是这样的：涂色画画比不上拼字和鲁多游戏.
Leading the chorus of disapproval is the comedian Russell Brand, who produced a recent sketch entitled "Adult Colouring Books: Is This the Apocalypse?"
喜剧演员拉塞尔·布兰德是反对这种娱乐方式的主力,他为此画了一幅素描,题为"成人涂色书：是灾难吗？"
"What has turned us into terrified divs that want to live in childish stupors?" he raged, accusing colouring-in fans of being scared of the modern world.
"是什么让我们变成了胆小的巨婴？"他气愤地说道,指责涂色书迷们是在逃避现实.
And what did Ms Basford say about detractors like Mr Brand? "It's a case of whatever makes you happy, there's no right or wrong about it," she said. "Who knows, maybe he just hasn't found the right colouring-in book yet."
那么贝斯福女士如何看待布兰德等人的评价呢？"这件事只与快乐有关,和对错无关,"她说."谁知道呢,也许只是因为他还没找到他喜欢的那种涂色书而已."
As Ms Basford saw it: "Colouring-in fans just love their pens and pencils, they become real artists. I get messages from people in New Zealand and Australia saying there are big shortages now. It's really nice that something I was passionate about is now shared worldwide."
她认为："热衷于涂色作画的人就是单纯地喜欢画笔,这时的他们是真正的艺术家.我听说新西兰和澳大利亚的铅笔市场现在供不应求.我热爱的东西能够被全世界的人喜欢,真是太棒了."
Ms Basford's first three books of drawings have now sold some 16 million copies worldwide, with three million alone in China. A new one, Magical Jungle will come out in April.
贝斯福女士最早发行的三本绘画书现在在全球已经售出了1600万册,光是中国市场销售量就达300万册.新书《魔法森林》将于四月份出版.
"Colouring-in" clubs have formed worldwide, meeting in cafes and online to compare their works, and keeping the lead in the pencil of the stationery industry.
世界各地纷纷成立了"涂色"俱乐部,会员们会在咖啡馆或网上比较各自的作品.这也促成了铅笔在整个文具市场的销售领先地位.
英文来源：英国每日电讯报
