I am an Anglo-Irish writer and anthologist enjoying a life-long love affair with Christmas, which I have successfully transplanted to my home in Japan. I have edited three Christmas-themed anthologies, with many more to come. My own writing has been translated into French and Japanese. Determined to never grow up, in my sixtieth year, I still firmly believe in Father Christmas!
I wrote...
A Treasury of Christmas Stories: Classic Tales For The Festive Season
A heart-warming illustrated collection of Christmas stories, poems and newspaper articles collected from around the world. Spanning the years 1823-1920, A Treasury of Christmas Stories captures the spirit of the most joyous season of the year with timeless classics alongside less well-known festive writing. Containing many vintage illustrations, this enchanting anthology contains stories for every age and is ideal for families to read together.
This large-format book has been my firm favourite for over forty years. I love it because it encompasses every aspect of the Christmas season.
It is my handbook on how to enjoy the season. Bookended with festive boardgames, it is wonderfully illustrated with many full-page original illustrations highlighting the text. It includes classic stories alongside explanations and histories of the many Christmas traditions, carol lyrics, poetry, craft ideas, recipes, and much more.
I can’t imagine celebrating Christmas without it. It truly is Christmas in a book.
I knew that I would love this book from the moment I first set eyes upon it. I like that the stories and illustrations have been reproduced exactly as they were originally published in the Victorian magazines.
This is a book which I always read alone and free of distractions so that I can not only lose myself in the stories, but also contemplate the messages they contain. Like our Victorian forebears l love the sentimental aspects of Christmas, and this anthology never fails to cause me to think back with a smile, and sometimes a tear, to Christmasses long ago with relatives and friends no longer with us.
The Victorian Christmas is everyone's ideal of what a Christmas ought to be; children enraptured before a candlelit tree, tables groaning under an abundance of turkey, goose and pudding, stories of ghosts and hobgoblins, carol singers, church bells ringing through the midnight air. It is only in the last hundred years or so that such Christmas feasts and entertainments have been shared by the majority, rather than by the privileged few.
In Victorian times, 'Christmas as at Windsor' became the established order, for it was the festivities of the Royal Family that people took as their model. The popular Press…
I love this book because its slim size makes it ideal to carry and read on the move.
I often read it on the train, in cafes, or in the park when I take a break during my busy workday. The twelve stories it contains are all well-loved classics that have been anthologised many times, but it is that familiarity that I like about this anthology. I never tire of reading these stories, many of which were read to me as a child.
Christmas is a time of warmth, and this selection fills me with festive warmth even on the coldest of park benches.
Poems, stories, and excerpts from novels, including O. Henry's "Gift of the magi," Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas," and works by Willa Cather, Louisa May Alcott, and Charles Dickens, offer a look at the holiday season
A family reading session bathed in the glow of the Christmas tree lights is one of my traditional activities during the Christmas season.
I like this anthology because the selected stories are the perfect length – neither too short to disappoint the older members of the family nor too long to lose the attention of the younger ones. I am also fond of the illustrations which perfectly illustrate the classic stories in a contemporary style, and enthrall young listeners.
I would recommend this collection for any family Christmas gathering.
I love curling up in my favourite armchair by the tree with a mug of hot chocolate to read this heavy, bumper-sized anthology.
It takes me back to Christmas Days spent lying on the rug in front of the fire reading festive annuals left under the tree by Father Christmas. Its twenty-eight stories are reassuringly familiar, ensuring satisfaction wherever I randomly choose to dip in. I really can’t imagine Christmas without it.
As a trauma therapist and dedicated researcher, I love uncovering valuable insights within lesser-known books. There are hidden gems, free from the pressure of commercial success, crafted by authors deeply committed to research, understanding, and the art of writing itself. Their dedication resonates with me, as I believe in the profound value of information and the power of critical thinking. Through my own book, Traumatization and Its Aftermath, I aim to emphasize that psychological concepts often lose their depth in translation and my mission is spreading awareness and fostering a deeper understanding of trauma and its intricate facets. With that idea in mind, I chose these five titles.
A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.
The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster of symptoms to be tamed, but instead best understood as development gone off course, away from growth and towards (only) survival.
This book prompts a profound shift in perception, inviting to view trauma as an intricate and diverse experience, a point of view that ultimately leads to sharper treatment and, hopefully, more healing. It encourages a transition from asking, "What happened to you?" to the deeper question, "What is your relationship with what happened to you?"
Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders
The book is comprehensive, bold, and practical-a much-needed resource for the assessment and treatment of trauma. Instead of the traditional focus on the overall importance of healing, Traumatization and its Aftermath decodes why some people don't heal as easily as others, analyzes the various failures of diagnosis, and explains how to make therapeutic interventions truly effective.
This book offers a systemic deep dive into traumatization that clarifies myths and misinformation about the entire spectrum of trauma and provides both clinicians and non-clinicians with the right level of validation, preventive measures, conceptualization methodology, assessment tools, and healing facts that have not…
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