Kingly reads

Mummy has always loved Christmas. Sure, the kids turn into demons, the dinner gets burnt to a crisp and Aunt Louisa's general staggering inappropriateness sends Mummy reaching for the nearest maximum-strength festive tipple, but nevertheless, for her, Christmas is always special. This year, she w...

Think of this memoir as a Christmas special in book form, from someone who has been involved in a few of those and understands a bit about the concept. But a Christmas special very much like 'Only Fools and Horses', in the sense that the stories will be always heading outwards, ranging far and wi...

No stockings, no gifts, no tinsel and no tree - has Christmas been cancelled? It's mid-December and for the fifth year in a row, there is little sign of the festive season in the Sullivans' home in South London. That is, until, a mysterious someone starts sending strange gifts to widower Henry an...

From Christmas music to gifts and food, as well as a look back through the country's rich and troubled history through the perspective of the festive season, this beautifully illustrated and powerful book introduces readers to Ukraine's unique Christmas traditions.

As the dark winter nights get longer, prepare to lose yourself in the world of the strange. With a tale for each day of Christmas and a rather unlucky 13th, Christmas is not the only spirit in these pages. 'Tis the season for sacrificial feasts, cultish communities and a train with a rather final...

When the four Essinger children gather in Austin for Christmas, they all bring their news. Nathan is hoping to become a Federal judge. Susie's husband has taken a job in England. Jean has asked her boyfriend and boss to meet her family. Paul has broken up with Dana, mother of their son Cal. But t...

It's always the same - Mum and Dad hosting, carols playing, Mum pretending she made the Christmas pudding, and the next-door neighbours coming round for sherry in their terrible festive jumpers. And now it's even easier with online bargain-shopping sites - if you spend enough you even get free de...

Why is Christmas the way it is? How did we get from the birth of Jesus to everyone pushing their credit card and their belts to their maximum extent? Starting with the events surrounding Jesus' birth, this book takes us through centuries of commemoration, celebration and over-consumption. Along t...

Moving house has never flustered author Jane Christmas. She loves houses so much that she's moved thirty-two times. There are good reasons for her latest house move, but after viewing sixty homes, Jane and her husband succumb to the emotional fatigue of an overheated English housing market and bu...

Truman Capote makes whiskey-soaked fruitcake in Alabama; Laurie Lee slides across a frozen pond in Gloucestershire; and Shirley Jackson is outwitted by a wily Santa Claus at the bank. Ghosts haunt the Christmases of Muriel Spark and Elizabeth Bowen, while Dostoyevsky, Daphne du Maurier and Italo ...