WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

A glorious collection of stories from the author ofCold Comfort Farm. The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmas: Adam Lambsbreath dresses up as Father Christmas in two of Judith's red shawls. There are unsuitable presents, unpleasant insertions into the pudding and Aunt Ada Doom orders Amos to carve the turkey, adding: 'Ay, would it were a vulture, 'twere more fitting!'

Stella Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She went to the North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including theEvening Standard. Stella Gibbons is the author of twenty-five novels, three volumes of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. Her first publication was a book of poems,The Mountain Beast(1930) and her first novelCold Comfort Farm(1932) won the Femina Vie Heuruse Prize for 1933. Among her works areChristmas at Cold Comfort Farm(1940)Westwood(1946),Conference at Cold Comfort Farm(1959) andStarlight(1967). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. In 1933 she married the actor and singer Allan Webb. They had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.