An English Christmas

By: John Julius Norwich

Narrated by: John Julius Norwich, Luke Thompson, Nicky Diss, Sandra Duncan, Gareth Armstrong

'If I could work my will,' said Scrooge indignantly, 'every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'

A Christmas anthology from legendary historian and Christmas Cracker compiler John Julius Norwich.

This year go carol singing in the Cotswolds with Laurie Lee or attend church with a grumpy Samuel Pepys. Make plum puddings for bemused French villagers with Elizabeth David; go present shopping with Virginia Woolf, or eat far too much with Agatha Christie. Celebrate Christmas at Chatsworth, in the workhouse or marooned in the ice with Shackleton....

For the last for 45 years, the arrival of John Julius Norwich's latest Christmas Cracker has become as essential a part of the Christmas experience as holly and mistletoe. In An English Christmas, the legendary popular historian has finally gathered all the best writing about this strangest and most memorable time of year into one audiobook.

Vividly evoking all the good things about the festive season, this unexpected anthology is just as entertaining about its darker aspects.

Eight-year-old Princess Margaret's thank-you list jostles with moving letters home from the trenches. Sherlock Holmes solves his trickiest case. George Orwell writes about indigestion, Jane Austen about reluctant socialising and Thomas Hardy about the old folk belief that all animals kneel at midnight on 24 December. There are ghost stories, games and bizarre recipes. Diary entries, recipes and letters sit alongside poems and short stories. An English Christmas could convert any Scrooge into an instant enthusiast.

©2017 John Julius Norwich (P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Where is the Christmas spirit?

I never got past Chapter 1 because it was exhausting to listen. I expected uplifting stories that would help keep Christmas cheers alive in my heart. Instead after the preface, I heard mostly passive aggressive journal entries or letters of complaint. It makes me hopeful that humanity has come farther than I thought when I heard these “stories”.