Season's Greetings and Other Stories

Curl up this winter with five short stories from the wonderfully warm and funny Fiona Walker

Especially for you, Fiona tells us about the special inspiration behind the stories and what they mean to her:

Season's Greetings
Receiving the annual round robin from friends is a Christmas tradition I devour with the same indulgent pleasure as the green triangles in the Quality Street box. Season's Greetings tells Holly's story through a decade of Christmas letters.

The Nativity Scene

I'm now proud to count myself among the ranks of tear-stained parents who hold camera phones wonkily aloft at the school nativity play each year. In The Nativity Scene, the under 9s in home-made wings are not the only ones for whom the day could spell high drama.

Dine Out On It

When I was moving house a lot in the nineties and noughties, I clung onto spare front door keys as a keepsake. Dine Out On It came from seeing the clutch of Yales swinging on a hook at the back of a cupboard, and wondering what would happen if I ever tried them out again.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth was written for a Sunday newspaper at a time my heart regularly came unglued when falling in love without a safety net. I loved the idea of a complete reinvention, and the secret hope that somebody would one day find my leopard's spots beneath the whitewash.

Freudian Slips

This story was inspired by something a friend of mine did, and the image of lipstick on cricket whites was so heavenly, I just had to write Freudian Slips . . .

Plus bonus content! This collection contains the first three chapters from Fiona's bestselling novel The Summer Wedding.