As the festive season approaches, I have been looking for books that capture the Christmas spirit. My concentration levels have suffered recently so I have found short stories to be the perfect escape. It is wonderful to read a complete story each night. Having discovered ‘A Feast of Christmas Stories’, I asked Patricia Feinberg Stoner, contributing author and editor of the anthology, to capture the essence of the magical collection.
With the nights getting darker and longer, and Christmas approaching fast, it’s time to seek out books to curl up with by the fire. ‘A Feast of Christmas Stories’ is an anthology of seasonal tales with a Sussex flavour, produced by the authors’ network Chindi.
In this book of sixteen short stories you will find something to please every taste, with contributions from best-selling authors such as Beryl Kingston, Carol Thomas and Angela Petch, as well as less well-known but no less accomplished writers.
If ghosts are your thing, sample ‘Moon Shadows’ by Bruce Macfarlane, ‘Stranger on the Shore’ by Angela Petch, and ‘Tiny Tim and the Glittery Reindeer’ by Christopher Joyce. If you prefer dragons, take a look at Christmas through the eyes of the Knucker, a local beast who’s a lot less fierce than his reputation suggests.
Alan Readman’s ‘Side by Side’ and Phil Clinker’s ‘Christmas Repeats’ are set in very different eras and locations, but both will have you reaching for the tissues.
Two sisters feature in two very different tales. The many fans of Beryl Kingston’s novels will love ‘The First Christmas of the War’, a poignant tale of sibling rivalry, while ‘Pudding’ by Lexi Rees is a truly feel-good story with a succulent Sussex Pond Pudding at its heart.
What would Christmas be without presents? Maralyn Green and Susanne Haywood have very different takes on the subject. Susanne’s heart-warming ‘The Gift’ reminds us that Santa so often goes unappreciated, but ‘The Christmas Present’ by Maralyn Green – easily the sauciest story in the book – suggests an indulgence every lady of a certain age might hope to find in her stocking.
For a taste of crime at Christmas, look no further than Peter Bartram’s ‘The Mystery of the Phantom Santa’. Peter is the author of the much-loved ‘Crampton of the Chronicle’ series of cosy mysteries, featuring Colin Crampton, intrepid crime reporter. In the final story of the book, Colin is desperate to find a news story on Christmas Eve which doesn’t involve elves and mistletoe and Santas. With strange goings-on in the alleyway, Colin’s reporter’s nose soon detects that the stranger in the fur-trimmed, scarlet-hooded cloak is no merry bringer of gifts for children. Suffice it to say, Crampton gets his story.
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