A Merry Little Christmas - Julia Williams (2012)

Despite the title, the novel focuses not on the festive season but on a year-long period in the life of three characters, from New Year to Christmas. Cat is precariously balancing her professional life with her increasingly problematic familial duties. She expected motherhood to get easier as her four children got older but the opposite seems to be true, particularly with teenager Mel. And Cat is also worried about her mum, who she seems to be losing evermore to dementia. Pippa feels blessed for the family she has around her - husband Dan, who is a wonderful partner and father, her two boys Nathan and George, and her daughter Lucy, who despite having cystic fibrosis that leaves her wheelchair-bound, is a bundle of joy. But government cuts threaten Lucy's respite care, a vital resource for the whole family and many other families in the area. Pippa vows to fight the bureaucracy, but when Dan is involved in an accident, everything changes. Marianne is trying to settle back into work after having twins and while life at home is good, her husband's ex, Eve, starts getting more involved in her son's life and encourages him to try out at a prestigious choral school, which would mean leaving home. This is a sequel to Last Christmas and perhaps this explains in part the otherwise mysterious, and rather superfluous, part of Michael Nicholas, who turns up at the start of the novel, is implausibly on hand throughout dispensing pearls of wisdom to the three women, and rides off again at the end of the novel. Although it was intended to deliver a bit of magic and fit in with the festive theme of the novel, I did feel that Michael's presence was unnecessary. Whilst I liked elements of the novel, I felt that some stories were a lot weaker than others and the novel seemed to move quite slowly. I must admit I was also quite disappointed with the ending of Pippa and Dan's story which seemed to me to undo the whole festive fabric of the novel. Nevertheless, there is much to get into in this novel and perhaps reading Last Christmas may be the way into it. (JC)

A Merry Little Christmas is the sequel to Julia Williams' Last Christmas. The synopsis says: "With her family growing up and away from her, Cat Tinsall thinks that maybe things should be different next year, and the Tinsalls should have a Christmas away from it all. But does getting away from it all, really solve anything? And will having a newborn grandchild to deal with make or break that special day? In the meantime Marianne and Gabriel North are coming to terms with some changes in their family life, as they face up to the demands of dealing with ageing parents, small children and a teenage son who may be on the path to stardom. Christmas has always been that special family time, but will the next one bring them only heartache? While for Pippa Holliday still reeling from the shock of events two years previously, some days it feels like she will never be happy again. With her two teenage sons verging on leaving home, and her special-needs daughter taking up all her spare time, can Pippa find a way to make a new life for herself, or will next Christmas be as bleak as the last? Into their lives comes an old friend in the shape of Ralph St Nicholas, who together with his nephew, Michael, reminds them all of the true meaning of the festive season."

Back to Home