OXFORDSHIRE CHRISTMAS (PB)

This seasonal anthology of festive fare will delight Oxfordshire readers - and those further afield - during the season of goodwill, from Advent to Twelfth Night. Here are reminiscences of Christmases past at Blenheim Palace and Broughton Castle, and, contrastingly, the simpler pleasures enjoyed at Flora Thompson's rural Lark Rise. Cecil Day Lewis describes 'The Christmas Tree' in verse, and Henley's first peace-time celebrations after the end of the First World War are poignantly recounted. Pam Ayres and Mollie Harris mingle in this anthology with distinguished Oxford scholars, J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Southey, John Donne and Joseph Addison, and share with us their experiences of yuletide. Also includes ghost stories, local carols and traditions and folklore, including the ancient ceremony of bringing in the boar's head at Queen's College and the Boxing Day wren hunt.