Hello booklovers,

What is it about Christmas and night time? Despite the darkness and cold which would usually induce grumbles and misery, Christmas evenings are my favourite time of the day. I love seeing Christmas lights brighten up dark windows as the sun goes down, and the beauty of a cold starry night is a sight for sore eyes. And of course, most importantly, Christmas Eve is the night where Father Christmas is at his most busy. Night time is of particular significance in today’s Advent calendar offering, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.

We meet James, the central character to the story, on a very snowy and bright morning. He rushes downstairs and out into the bright cold morning where he proceeds to build the snowman that every child dreams about. Complete with raisins for eyes, a tangerine nose and coal lumps for buttons (and a generally very sweet, kindly expression) James fashions himself the companion who he is lacking in the form of friends or siblings.

Next comes the most magical part. James is packed off to bed and, after all the familiar evening routines of tea-time and bath-time, night falls over the house. During this night of all nights, James’s snowman comes alive! Our friend, crying out for fun and laughter, goes on a night of adventures, including a ride on a motorbike, flying to the North Pole and attending a party hosted by snowmen. And all back in time for bed, without Mum or Dad even knowing. The magic of this simple tale is enough to spark the festive imagination of any reader, young or old.

Despite the twinkly lights and multi-coloured baubles, the festive season is also often a time for reflection and melancholy. Never has such a feeling be encapsulated better than by the final page of The Snowman where the magic comes to an end. But who knows what will happen next time it snows…

Merry best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

All hail Shirley Hughes, providing the most decorative of bookish back drops to my childhood and that of my children,  whose literary and illustrative genius definitely comes to the fore at this time of year.

Her Christmas treats – Alfies Christmas, Lucy and Tom’s Christmas, The Christmas Eve Ghost to name but a few, has been added to recently by Snow in the Garden that I was lucky enough to receive under last year’s tree; a glorious compendium of stories, poems, recipes and craft all accompanied by the most delightful pictures, unsurprisingly.  This year there is another welcome addition, combining Shirley Hughes’s beautiful illustrations with that other Shirley (Edwards’s) wonderful creation, My Naughty Little Sister. Originally entitled The Naughtiest Story of All, this new edition, My Naughty Little Sister and Father Christmas, is surely a must for every Christmas book shelf, combining the wit and charm of the tale of our heroine’s run in with a venerable, bearded, old man dressed in red, with some very lovely, festively adorned, illustrations.

I end on a memory of a Christmas nearly 50 years ago, when I first laughed out loud at Eight Days to Christmas by Geraldine Kaye, in the Nipper range of readers for the young at that time. It was, and still is to me, the funniest Christmas read, describing as it does, the build up to a Christmas concert for one primary school class in a school that could be anywhere in the country. The illustrations are provided by Shirley Hughes, and her images, particularly the picture of the audition for best baby doll to play Jesus, will stay with me forever.

Yuletide wishes,

Anna and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

I am thrilled to bring you festive literary fans a Christmas anthology from one of my all time favourite writers, Jeanette Winterson. Christmas Days is an anthology with a tale and a recipe for each of the twelve days of Christmas. A lovely celebration of the period of time after Christmas day where traditionally Christmas is enjoyed and celebrated for twelve days. If anything, this book serves as a timely reminder of the true meaning of Christmas rather than the hurry and the flurry that, these days, seems to start on December 1st. Jeanette gives us the perfect tonic to a hectic time.

Each of her twelve stories are completely varying and perfect to dip in and out of. Our anthology opens with the serene Spirit of Christmas which is accompanied by a recipe for Mrs Winterson’s Mince Pies. Spooky Dark Christmas (my personal favourite) sits alongside Kathy Acker’s New York Custard. If you rummage deep enough, amongst various other delicious stories you will discover recipes for Ruth Rendell’s Red Cabbage, Kamila Shamsies Turkey Biryani and many, many other tasty treats.

Unusual and eclectic, Christmas Days is soothing and genuinly cheering to savour over the course of the festive period.

Yuletide felicitations until tomorrow!

Imogen and the festival team x

Hello booklovers,

To add to the already riveting conversational topics with which I bore my friends and family throughout the year, I am particularly fascinating at Christmas.

I know a great deal about the story behind the bringing in of the Yule log; the history of the Christmas tree; where the plum is in the pudding; the contents of the original mince pie;  why the pantomime is so called; St Nicholas and his transformation into Santa Claus; and my particular favourite, the story of the poor isolated mistletoe plant. The Norse legend of Balder the Bright and Beautiful is a particularly affecting tale that has stayed with me ever since as a small child, I was introduced to the delights of The Christmas Book by Enid Blyton, the source of all my interesting facts.

Love her or hate her, Enid Blyton in didactic mode has a very accessible style, that certainly appealed to my 5 year old self, and still informs me today. The family she uses as a vehicle for the discussion of all the traditions of Christmas could easily be updated to accommodate 21^st century life, with the stories themselves requiring less tweaking, to be accessible to all. But the copy in my possession now, published in 1944, with lovely illustrations and a gorgeous dust jacket,  is still much beloved by 3 generations of our family.  Allowing us to be aware that it is very much of the time in which it was written, it does provide a delightful parcel of stories to explain many of the traditions we take for granted at this time of the year.

Merry bookish best,

Anna and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

On the 7th day of Advent, we give those needing an escape from all this merriment a tale from one of our most prestigious crime writers, P. D. James. The Mistletoe Murder is a wonderfully self aware collection of four short crime stories with a festive theme threaded through each.

The eponymous The Mistletoe Murder is a richly dark tale and enough to curb anyone’s festive malaise. Our narrator is a best selling crime writer (an accolade we can easily bestow upon James herself) as she looks back on a Christmas from her deep past, in 1940. As a young war widow anticipating a lonely Christmas day, she accepts an invitation to the ‘warm house with plenty of wood fires, home cooking and good wine, peace and quiet’ offered to her by her estranged grandmother. Fellow guests include a mysterious cousin who she has not seen since she was a child and, more unexpectedly, an distant relative who adds an air of unease and poor taste to the otherwise pleasant company.

The whole scenario is deliciously noir and perfect to curl up with in front of the fire. Records are played, the snow falls from ‘a gun metal sky’, claret is decanted and a murder occurs in the library, not far from a bough of fallen mistletoe. I shall go no further as I wouldn’t want to spoil such a dark and delightful tale for its future readers…

Throughout all four stories, P. D. James is expertly aware of the conventions of her genre and both uses and challenges them to excellent effect, with exquisitely clever plot twists encased into such short works. Injustice deals a hand throughout each story in varying forms which is always thought provoking. A selection box of festive hints and grisly murder, perfect for crime fiction fans and for those who have, like many of James’s characters, simply had enough of all the festivities for one day…

Festive wishes,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

There appears to be an inadvertent feline theme to this year’s festival Advent calendar – we will try and introduce some other species into the mix at some point, but for now it seems that cats are winning the day. Which brings me to a certain literary cat whose antics usually involve her winning the day too, regardless of the mayhem that she has caused.

Mog’s Christmas begins with Mog, the family cat, not really embracing the Christmas Spirit. Everybody is busy cooking or wrapping presents. There are too many people in the house, including lots of aunts and a jolly uncle. A tree starts growing INDOORS. No one has time to play with Mog. So she retreats to the warmest spot outside of the bustling house, on the chimney pot. I’m sure many of us can relate to the fervent urge to escape from the hustle and bustle and business of the festive season for a little, much needed, peace and quiet.

An incident involving Mog and the chimney pot means that she does return to the bosum of her busy family, adding a flurry of soot to the festivities. One of the last beautiful illustrations of this beloved story shows the family enjoying simple gifts and sharing crackers, and Mog sitting contentedly, complete with turkey and her trademark boiled egg.

This image of contentment is completely in-keeping with the wholesome goodness that runs through all of the stories of the much loved and dearly missed Judith Kerr who passed away earlier this year. In Mog she captures the sweet and simple aspects of Christmas, in the gathering of families enjoying each other’s company. Even Mog – the quintessential household cat- enjoys herself in the end…

Merry wishes, until tomorrow!
Imogen and the Festival Team

P. S. Earl the cat enjoyed his second outing as a festive model very much…

 

Hello booklovers,

Two stories for the price of one today. Rumer Godden wrote so beautifully, and was a particular favourite of mine, as a child.

Her tales set at Christmas are a particular joy. The Fairy Doll and The Story of Holly and Ivy feature two small girls and two dolls, none of whom are happy at the beginning of their stories.

The Fairy Doll has her moment of glory atop the Christmas tree, but spends the rest of her time packed away in a trunk. Lucy who lives in the house with that trunk is the youngest of four, much put upon by her siblings and classmates.

Holly is a doll for Christmas, dressed in red and green for the season, sitting on a shelf in a toy shop, waiting to be sold. Orphaned Ivy is abandoned at Christmas, and whilst seeking shelter, looks into the window of the toy shop on Christmas Eve…….

How Holly and Ivy, and the Fairy doll and Lucy get together and help each other, are tales of resilience and determination, and the strength of wishing, amid the glitz and glitter of the festive period.

These stories are very much of their time (both written in the 1950s), but should not be too hastily dismissed as old fashioned flim flam. Very much in the vein of all good fairy stories, the good end well and the bad not so well, or are redeemed in heartwarming fashion. These are timeless qualities for us all to enjoy in such rich prose, with the crack of a doll’s heart  breaking, and a wand faintly stirring on the Christmas tree.

Festive wishes, until tomorrow!

Anna and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Behind Advent door number four, we bring you a story which, whilst not necessarily classed as a piece of Christmas literature, certainly has its festive associations. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first tale in The Chronicles of Narnia, tells the story of the four Pevensie siblings, Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund.

Evacuated from London during the Second World War, they find their new home in the gloomy old house of a mostly absent Professor and his austere landlady. During a game of hide and seek Lucy, the youngest sibling, settles upon a wardrobe in the spare room, in which she conceals herself from her siblings. Determined not to be found, she moves further and further into the wardrobe until she unexpectedly sets foot on… snow.

Into the land of Narnia we go, and at this point C. S. Lewis transformed the imaginations of children for generations to come. I think we all harbour a secret desire to be able to disappear, have an adventure and even live a life with the possibility of being able to return from our adventurous place as though nothing has changed – and C. S. Lewis gave us the gift of the opportunity to be able to imagine such a scenario.

The Narnia that Lucy discovers is under the cruel rule of the infamous White Witch who has declared that in Narnia it shall be ‘always Winter and never Christmas’.She inflicts the cold and the darkness without the light and joy brought by such a festival. However, luckily for the Narnians, the arrival of Lucy and, eventually, her siblings, sparks a series of events that suggest the end of the rule of the white queen.

Quite magically, Father Christmas arrives at a point in our tale when the White Witch’s icy spell over Narnia is beginning to break. Never have I been so relieved to realise that the children are not being chased by the evil Queen but are in fact being pursued by Saint Nick.

‘He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as holly berries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest… Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.’

Lewis portrays here not only the spellbinding encounter of four children with a most beloved festive spirit; he emphasises the power of the presence of Father Christmas in Narnia. He presents the children with ‘tools, not toys’, preparing them and providing hope for the momentous task ahead.

His return marks the thaw in a long cold winter, which strikes me as one of the most wonderful things about the festive season. We face dark mornings and cold nights and miserable news being reported left, right and centre. So the thought of the gladness of Father Christmas, and the bright lights and merriment of Christmas itself, are an absolute tonic.

Yuletide wishes, until tomorrow!

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

At this time of year, I am reminded of a conversation that took place over 30 years ago, between my mother and my soon to be father in law. Reminiscences about their respective childhoods revealed a shared Christmas experience. In the late 1940s, young Ken and even younger Dorothy were both glued to their wirelesses one Christmas, listening to The Box of Delights, on Children’s Hour (the great saviour of the pre television age for many young people).

There are two battered copies of this strange and rather wonderful book that unite our families, and provide an extra bond at Christmas.

The story is indeed a box of delights, set in the mid 1930s in the days leading up to Christmas. It boasts a wealth of characters; quirky and adventurous children, dastardly thieves and kidnappers, wicked governesses, good guardians, magical showmen, time travelling philosophers and mythical heroes and heroines, as well as a Bishop and his clergy, and the best Punch and Judy show ever! All this is brought to life in the glorious prose of the poet and author John Masefield, with a central theme capturing the very essence of Christmas with the help of an ancient cathedral and a box; a box of delights, that must be kept safe, must be kept secret, until it can be revealed for good purpose in the eternal battle of good and evil that underpins all the best stories.

My dear father in law is sadly no longer with us, but this book, amongst a wealth of memories, keeps our thoughts on happy Christmases past, very much alive, as does the excellent TV drama made in the 1980s that captured the soul of this story so well, with the welcome addition of the same haunting music (a variation on The First Nowell from Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony), the accompaniment to the radio series that so entranced Ken and Dorothy and many other children, over 70 years ago.

Festive wishes, until tomorrow,

Anna and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Behind Advent door number two you will find a family literary favourite – Cat in the Manger by Michael Foreman. This sweet story involves a rather grumpy mog who frequents a manger in a stable. From the offset it is clear that this particular feline is not keen on anything disrupting his cosy set- up, especially not goats, donkeys or crying babies. And yet he finds the peace and quiet of his snug little sanctuary interrupted by the arrival of, you’ve guessed it, a donkey. To add insult to injury, the donkey arrives complete with a heavily pregnant lady and her husband. Needless to say, the cat in the manger is less than impressed and his outrage continues as mayhem occurs and he is tipped out of the manger, all in order to make way for a crying baby.

Then, suddenly, the mayhem stops…

‘Everything was silent. It was as if all the animals held their breath. It was as if the whole world held its breath, and we all looked at the baby, and the baby looked at us.’

Despite a moment of serenity the cat’s peace and quiet continues to be disrupted. In come the shepherds and their sheep, the wise men and their camels and even a troop of mice scuttle into the warm of the stable to witness this wonderful moment. So entranced by the scene before him, our feline friend decides to let them off, just this once…

Gradually the shepherds and the wise men depart and eventually the man and the woman and their baby follow suit, and normality is restored to the life of the cat in the manger. All except for one thing. He has suddenly developed an aversion to catching mice…

All the very merry best, until tomorrow,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

P.S. Many thanks to Earl the cat for modelling with our Christmas book so beautifully…