I love this - it's a keeper

I found these short (and often moving) stories, intervened with the authors christmas foody traditions, inspiring and reflective - I am going to make listening to them again one of my Christmas traditions. The readers are superb - clever and funny.

9 people found this helpful

A thoughtful choice for the Christmas season

Overall I enjoyed this miscellany of Christmas stories and the author's observations of the season. But it is when Jeanette Winterson talks about her own life and her own experiences that the book is by far the most interesting. The little stories in between her reminiscences are a bit formulaic and predictable with shades of A Christmas Carol or the Hollywood movie It's A Wonderful Life. But I really enjoyed the author's insights into her own life as the adopted child of Pentecostal parents living in Accrington in the 1960s. The message of the whole book is to carve yourself out some time at Christmas for philosophical reflection and to do this by taking a little 'time out of time' to cook or read or remember or plan. Well worth a shot.

9 people found this helpful

Fabulous!

Wonderful stories and anecdotes. The most festive and heartwarming book I have read or listened to in years. I'm going to give this as a gift to friends next year. Highly recommended.

7 people found this helpful

Bloody fabulous!

I must be inspired, having never considered myself to be a particularly good reviewer, certainly not in the written word. Rarely been a book reader, having the attention span of around 3 sentences.
So.......I'm giving audio books a go. My best pal recommended Jeanette as an author, as she is a Lancashire lass, just as we are.
I adore this format - lots of short stories, bursting with light hearted intrigue, with the odd (!) recipe interspersed - even I managed to focus on each one! love it!
Jeanette mentioned something in the Gravadlax recipe that resonated personally, I literally felt a jolt. This has enticed me to take a leap to a whole big book next, it's sat waiting for my attention, after all Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal........
Great job Jeanette, so happy I was guided toward your stuff! 😁 L

7 people found this helpful

wonderful

I love listening to Jeanette reading this mixture of life stories and her Christmas fiction. I learned things about Christmas that I didn't know and Best of all, there are recipes throughout. This was a wonderful suprise as I love books that contain recipes as part of the narrative. I shall be trying some of them out as they sound delicious.
Thank you Jeanette for a glorious book

1 person found this helpful

Loved every minute of it

loved it. Jeanette and Imogen read beautifully x
The stories are heartfelt and poignant. The coming and going of life highlighted and shared wonderfully. Thank you to the author xx

1 person found this helpful

I will listen every Christmas (my new tradition)

I loved every minute of this warm and funny and clever book.

I enjoyed the feasts and the stories the whole book enhanced my Christmas and I learnt some interesting facts.

It will definitely be my own personal tradition to listen to this book from now on.

1 person found this helpful

I love this book

I did so enjoy listening to the book, the stories are intriguing, uplifting and entertaining
I don't normally listen to short stories but at this busy time of year I don't always have as much time so listening is much easier when I don't have to concentrate and follow a long complex story. The authors interludes are wonderful, I even purchased the book so I can savour the stories and reread the recipes (I do wish you could have a discount on the paper format if you have the audible version) The narrator was also wonderful, some of the stories i listened to with my daughter we especially loved the Snowmama! Thankyou Jeanette I will revisit this book every Christmas

1 person found this helpful

A beautiful book

I absolutely adored the print copy of this and as reading it has become something of a tradition for me I was thrilled to be able to listen to it as I went about my Christmas preparation.

this was wonderful

listening to this has meant so much to me. it has been a recent sad time and this book has given me hopeful signs that it will be ok. thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing these wonderful short stories, full of meaning and wonder.