Okay - so I’m a MASSIVE Christmas fan. White Christmas, Holiday Inn, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and then all the family and snow and gingerbread houses and Santa Claus and Christmas Songs…well you get my drift. Then a submission lands in my email which basically encapsulates Christmas, in a book. I was totally sold.

Dr Ceri Houlbrook has written an uplifting and warming story about love, family and the power of a Christmas wish, set on a remote Scottish island. I can’t wait until you get a chance to share the magic with me.

THE STEPPING-STONE POST

She’s making a list and checking it twice…

After losing her job and boyfriend just a few weeks before Christmas, Ellie Lancaster makes a list: 1. Exact revenge on ex (done) 2. Be unboring and, 3. Find a job. So, she uncharacteristically accepts a mysterious archiving post offered by celebrity cook Clementine Jones and her uptight brother Cole, on a tiny Scottish Island that, according to maps, doesn’t exist.

The stunning island is uninhabited, except for Clementine, Uncle Joe and Aiden - another recent recruit - with occasional visits from the straight-laced Cole Jones. Ellie’s first sight of the archives leaves her breathless; a vast network of underground caverns, filled with scrolls dating back centuries. Each document addressed to the same person, in a multitude of languages: Dear Father Christmas…

Over the next year, Ellie attempts to organise the uncanny archives while trying to find out more about them. She adores the island and everything about it, and her feelings for Cole have become more…complicated.

But as Christmas approaches, she begins to disagree with the Jones’ decree that only the most selfless Christmas wishes makes the shortlist. She tries to help with one of the letters’ plea, but her actions lead to a journalist threatening to publicise the archive’s secrets – an exposé that will destroy both the place she loves and her developing relationship with Cole.

Ellie has just one chance to bring about her own Christmas miracle…

This absolutely fabulous book made me laugh-out-loud, had me on the edge of my seat and gave me the warm, comforting glow of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows on a winter’s day. Perfect for readers of Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things, Rowan Coleman’s The Summer of Impossible Things, and Cecelia Ahern’s The Book of Tomorrow.

Ceri explained what inspired her to write this magical story: ‘I’ve always loved Christmas. Loved the warm, gilded fantasy of it. The fluffy slippers, the hot chocolates, the happy endings. And as an academic folklorist, I’m also drawn to the mythology of this midwinter magic. What different stories have been told about it over the centuries? How many family rituals have been built around it, new customs growing into timeless traditions? How many cultures have their own version of Father Christmas? And how many millions of letters must have been written to him over the generations? All questions impossible to quantify, but oh so warming to mull over. And that’s precisely what I was doing when sitting in an archive on a chilly December afternoon, waiting for some historic documents to be brought up from store. My mind should have been focused on the academic research task at hand. Instead, it was pondering how wonderful it would be to work in an archive of Christmas wishes.’

About the Author: Dr Ceri Houlbrook is a Folklore and History Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, and has published academic books (Roots of a Ritual; Unlocking the Love-Lock) and articles on contemporary folklore and domestic rituals. The Stepping-Stone Post is her debut novel and combines her academic interests with her love of magical realism and creative writing.