Last Christmas

By Julia Williams

It’s the most wonderful time of year. Isn’t it?
Discover the true spirit of Christmas with this seasonal treat for fans of Love, Actually and The Holiday. Contains a sneak preview of the sequel, A Merry Little Christmas.

Catherine Tinsall is gearing up for Christmas – in the middle of summer. As the Writer in Chief on Happy Homes magazine, she is putting together a 'perfect Christmas' competition, to remind readers of the festive season's true meaning.

In the sleepy Shropshire village of Hope Christmas, Marianne Mistletan enters with the suggestion that her village's nativity play be held in the ancient chapel of Fitzcross Manor, home to the St Nicholas family.

Catherine is completely entranced by the idea, and Marianne to her delight finds that she has won. Waiting in the wings to help Marianne organise the set design is the cool and charismatic Joe Carpenter, who may or may not be just what she wants for Christmas.

Meanwhile, for Catherine, the Happy Homemaker image is wearing thin, as her fifteen-year old marriage appears to be in trouble. Then tragedy strikes and Catherine is forced to reassess her priorities, and work out what the perfect Christmas really means.

And overseeing it all, is the figure of John St Nicholas, lord of the manor and perhaps, for some, a Christmas angel…

For anyone who's wondered whether Christmas is over-priced hype, think again…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 29, 2009
• ISBN: 9780007343751

Julia Williams

Julia has always made up stories in her head, and until recently she thought everyone else did too. She grew up in London, one of eight children, including a twin sister. She married Dave, a dentist, in 1989, and they have four daughters. After the birth of the second, Julia went freelance and decided to try her hand at writing. Ten bestselling books later, it’s safe to say the gamble paid off! To date, Julia’s books have sold over half a million copies.

Reviews for Last Christmas

[lara335 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Looking at the train ticket bookmark, I can see I started this before Christmas 2010 and abandoned after a chapter or two. Picking it up 3 years later and re-starting, I can see what annoyed me so much the first time round. Williams is obsessed with giving every dull back-story, and explaining her characters at length every time they manage a 'hello', treating her readers as complete imbeciles who need everything spelt out and repeated. A scream of 'show' don't 'tell' was relentlessly cannoning round my brain. Bah humbug.Still, it had an attractive seasonal cover.Merry Christmas.