Last Christmas

Last Christmas
Julia Williams

It’s the most wonderful time of year. Isn’t it?Discover the true spirit of Christmas with this seasonal treat for fans of Love, Actually and The Holiday. Contains a sneak preview of the sequel, A Merry Little Christmas.Catherine Tinsall is gearing up for Christmas - in the middle of summer. As the Writer in Chief on Happy Homes magazine, she is putting together a 'perfect Christmas' competition, to remind readers of the festive season's true meaning.In the sleepy Shropshire village of Hope Christmas, Marianne Mistletan enters with the suggestion that her village's nativity play be held in the ancient chapel of Fitzcross Manor, home to the St Nicholas family.Catherine is completely entranced by the idea, and Marianne to her delight finds that she has won. Waiting in the wings to help Marianne organise the set design is the cool and charismatic Joe Carpenter, who may or may not be just what she wants for Christmas.Meanwhile, for Catherine, the Happy Homemaker image is wearing thin, as her fifteen-year old marriage appears to be in trouble. Then tragedy strikes and Catherine is forced to reassess her priorities, and work out what the perfect Christmas really means.And overseeing it all, is the figure of John St Nicholas, lord of the manor and perhaps, for some, a Christmas angel…For anyone who's wondered whether Christmas is over-priced hype, think again…

Last Christmas

Julia Williams

Copyright (#ulink_cc166987-1013-5278-964a-088ecbf910bd)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Copyright © Julia Williams 2009

Julia Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847560865

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007343751

Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication (#ulink_c68304f4-4285-5715-a045-ab483c03368f)

For Ann Moffatt and Rosemarie Williams,Granny Dreamboats both.

Contents

Title Page (#u64a7c6c0-7a1c-504a-8a00-bc5219508c1c)

Copyright (#uffc43221-9205-5960-84a3-5fafd129539f)

Dedication

Prologue (#u45ba2e5e-bc2d-5d7e-a84a-7d6f4f719d8a)

Part One I Gave You My Heart (#ua77a16ee-6f78-5edd-8a5c-dbe905fb6ed3)

Last Year December 22 (#u7f99629e-f028-5934-b966-13b21f915b4a)

This Year Chapter One (#u638071ce-2819-58c8-891e-7c8b98e3c425)

Chapter Two (#ub00e99fa-dcf9-539c-a7c1-ce959427cbf4)

Chapter Three (#ubd5ba6f8-9b86-5f09-b44a-26ac750fecdf)

Chapter Four (#u09c9e774-8b04-5999-99c2-3c900446145f)

Chapter Five (#u5a2eef60-d4f9-5f12-8db7-5d4d6366ebed)

Chapter Six (#u2a5c47bc-ec53-5daf-8406-fb0b127a57cb)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two You Gave it Away (#litres_trial_promo)

Last Year December 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

This Year Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three To Save Me From Tears (#litres_trial_promo)

Last Year December 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

This Year Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)