Hello booklovers,

Behind today’s Advent door I present you with a very special book of mine. Given to me by my grandparents the Christmas after I returned home from my first term at University, A Literary Christmas is very precious to me. This anthology is to all intents and purposes a literary Christmas stocking, full to the brim with festive extracts from stories and novels, with sprinklings of poetry and verse.

A Literary Christmas is organised into eight different sections: Before Christmas, The Nativity, Christmas Day, Christmas Fare (my favourite – very entertaining to read about the varying success of festive foods in literature!), Christmas at War, A Child’s Christmas, Seasonal Snow and Ice and New Year. So, as you can imagine, there is something here for everyone at any point in the festive season!

We encounter a festive scene from Wuthering Heights alongside ‘The Oxen’ by Thomas Hardy. You can find Samuel Pepys’s diary entry from Christmas 1662 right next to an extract from Nancy Mitford’s highly entertaining Christmas Pudding. Or how about a giggle in the form of the brilliant Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘Talking Turkeys!!’, an anthem for our feathered friends who have a tricky time over the festive period, with a smattering of animal magic from The Wind in the Willows? I have only mentioned a fragment of this glorious celebration of Christmas in literature which truly is a delight to dip in and out of throughout the Christmas season.

Yuletide wishes, until tomorrow!
Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

All hail the magnificent Michael Rosen who has been bringing joy, fun and a great deal of common sense into the literary world for many years. His impact on the literary diet of generations of children, from the wonderful ‘Chocolate Cake’ to the brilliant ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and so very much more, has been immeasurable. Behind today’s Advent calendar door we are delighted to bring you a festive offering from Mr Rosen, in the form of Bah! Humbug!

‘Every Christmas needs a little Scrooge…’

Never has a statement rung more true and especially so in the case of Harry Gruber and his dad, Ray. Harry has the honour of playing Ebenezer Scrooge in his school Christmas play and it appears as though he is actually rather talented in the acting sphere. But his main concern doesn’t lie with his performance – he is most worried about making his dad proud which, it turns out, is easier said than done. Ray is a very impatient man, glued to his phone and obsessed with the success of his career, regardless of Christmas celebrations and his family’s achievements… to the extent that he leaves the performance to make an important call at the very moment when Harry is getting into his stride.

Just as Harry in his guise of Scrooge is visited by several spirits throughout the course of the play, Ray has similar experiences as he is haunted by memories of his past and realisations about his future if he doesn’t change his ways, expertly touching upon Dickensian themes of longing and regret. A wonderful read for adults and children alike, I think we have a new festive classic upon the horizon!

All the very merry best,

Imogen and the festival team x

Hello booklovers,

Our outgoing Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is behind today’s Advent door, bringing with her one of her magnificent festive poems, Pablo Picasso’s Noel. Throughout this charming little book, beautifully illustrated by Léa Maupetit, we follow Pablo Picasso and his dog on an artistic journey around a small town in France on Christmas Eve. His voyage is punctuated, as so many festive celebrations are, by people, music and food. Our duo of man and dog spread joy and merriment wherever they go.

‘A sweet winter light blushed

as Pablo Picasso walked with his dog

under the cypress trees

and the bell of the old chapel guessed at the hour.

It was Christmas eve.’

Duffy manages to capture perfectly that beautiful stillness that we can sometimes feel on the night before Christmas, a moment of peace and reflection before the mayhem and festivities of the day ahead. Just as Advent makes everyday items and rituals in the days building up to Christmasspecial, Picasso adds a sprinkle of festive magic through the painting and drawing on his Christmas Eve  journey. He paints objects, like plates and wineglasses, and people; a barmaid and a caroling musician. He paints a wall with the mural of a dove, a potent symbol of peace. Last of all he sketches the townsfolk as they troop into church for Midnight Mass and waits and watches as a young boy leads a lamb into the church for the Christmas service.

Through this short and sweet nugget of festive fun, Carol Ann Duffy and Pablo Picasso reminds us of the simple, everyday pleasures and joys of Christmas.

Yuletide wishes,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

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