Christmas at the Keep: A moving and uplifting festive novella to escape with at Christmas

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It is only 129 pages long, small scale and with a lot of white space, so don’t expect one of her full-length novels.

But we can hardly complain, with so much to revisit if we know her books, and to discover for the first time if we don’t – thirty two novels under her own name and four as Willa Marsh, and all, of course, written after the age of fifty. She weaves a good plot, too, and while this isn’t exactly crime fiction, or a mystery, or even a ghost story, I would perhaps categorise it as a gothic romance, albeit in a rather mild forum. With so many characters from previous novels, it probably wouldn’t be a good one to start with if you haven’t read any other of this author’s books. But I’m glad I re-read these first two, which reminded me just why I liked them so much as a teenager, and I’d recommend them to anyone aged about eight or nine and up who likes this kind of book.

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. In particular, I’d quite forgotten the storyline involving Darrell’s friend Sally, who is a new girl at the same time as she is. Some readers did not like how little conflict there was in the novel, and just seems to be about people having a good time with everything that they do. She’s the only companion who has ever been able to stand up to her employer, and hopes she won’t overstep the boundaries.

Amongst the hostages there’s a caring elderly woman, a middle-aged married couple, a young lesbian couple, one of whom is quite heavily pregnant, and an older, single woman who is either obsessive-compulsive or autistic. Yes, the leaves are now falling from our walnut tree, lots of sweeping will be done I expect in the coming weeks, but much depends on how husband’s health is for this strenuous job. There’s quite a large cast, with ten children (including Joey’s niece Sybil) as well as the four mothers, Phoebe and Debby, and a few doctors too, including Joey’s husband. Lovely to continue reading about the Chadwick’s, your writing takes us to the Keep, and I feel like I know it so well. As a book intended for people of around nine or ten and upwards, I think it’s remarkable in the way it helps build understanding of those who may be different from us.I started out with the best of intentions, but sometimes I forgot… but, as I’d written on the dates, it was easy to ‘catch up’ by reading an extra one. I’ve made an appointment this morning for the Practice Nurse at our surgery to attend to the dressing on his ear (surgery last Friday) this coming Friday. Some quite heavy issues are covered in the gradual unfolding of people’s personalities, so it’s impressive that there is also some humour, with several places where I smiled at the phrasing of a comment, or the way people were behaving. I love all Marcia Willett books and have just been re reading The Christmas Angel for about the fourth time.