The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan Sphere, £14.99
WHATEVER ELSE proves in short supply this Christmas, it won’t be the kind of festive romantic fiction designed to be a winter warmer for its primarily female readership. By my perhaps conservative reckoning, there are approximately 50 new novels around in this category. Nonetheless, it’s hard to imagine any doing a better job than The Christmas Bookshop— where, once again, Jenny Colgan manages the neat trick of staying utterly faithful to the conventions of the genre, while also smuggling in some sharp comedy and keen social observation.
Carmen, like many a romcom heroine, is approaching 30 and not feeling good about herself. Single and working a dead-end job in a dying Scottish town, she keeps hearing from her mother about how well her sister Sofia is doing as a high-flying (and thin) Edinburgh lawyer with three children.
Worse, when that dead-end job finally goes, it’s Sofia who comes to the rescue. Reluctantly, Carmen moves into her sister’s gorgeous house and starts the job Sofia has arranged for her in a second-hand bookshop. The shop has potential but, as chaotically run by its owner, will close if Carmen can’t turn it around by Christmas, now a matter of weeks away. So what could possibly go right?
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.
May Fiction
An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month
Wine Not
In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food
Train Booking Hacks
With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again
My Britain: Cheltenham
A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here
Stand Tall, Ladies
Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?
