Editions

A Snow Garden and Other Stories

  • Imprint: Black Swan

  • ISBN: 9781784162047

  • Length: 224  Pages

  • Dimensions: 178mm x 14mm x 127mm

  • Weight: 141g

  • RRP: £8.99

A Snow Garden and Other Stories

  • From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

As read on Radio 4, seven linked stories set in the Christmas holidays - all as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be:

A Faraway Smell of Lemon: The School Term has ended. It is almost Christmas but Binny, out last-minute shopping couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings to all men. Ducking out of the rain she finds herself in the sort of shop she would never normally visit.

The Marriage Manual: Christmas Eve. Two parents endeavour to construct their son’s Christmas present from a DIY kit and in the process find themselves deconstructing their marriage.

Christmas at the Airport: A glitch in the system, travellers stranded and all sorts of lives colliding in the face of a sudden birth...

The Boxing Day Ball: Maureen has never been out with the local girls before. Who knew that a disco in the Village Hall could be life-changing?

A Snow Garden: Two little boys, dumped with their divorced father for his share of the Christmas holidays and none of them with a clue how to enjoy it.

I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas.

Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year.

  • Imprint: Black Swan

  • ISBN: 9781784162047

  • Length: 224  Pages

  • Dimensions: 178mm x 14mm x 127mm

  • Weight: 141g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • Full of bittersweet Christmas moments. A real gem.

    Good Housekeeping

  • These stories are heartwarming.

    Imogen Lycett Green, Daily Mail

  • Joyce is warm and very funny, and she has a merciless eye for those nightmare moments when weaknesses are exposed and everything is called into question.

    Kate Saunders, The Times

  • The perfect tonic for tinsel-itis, [A Snow Garden] is laced with quietly devastating observations on love and marriage.

    Hephzibah Anderson, Observer

  • As sparkling and Christmassy as a selection box.

    Sunday Mirror

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About the Author

Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her new novel, Miss Benson's Beetle, is out now. Rachel's books have been translated into thirty-six languages and two are in development for film. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' in December 2012 and shortlisted for the 'UK Author of the Year' 2014. Rachel has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Bronte novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl. She lives with her family in Gloucestershire.

Rachel Joyce

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