EPISODE TWENTY: SEASON'S GREETINGS

The Night I Met Father Christmas by Ben Miller is told with the help of a small boy who stays up late one night to finally catch a glimpse of Father Christmas who falls down the chimney and injures himself. while the child helps, Father Christmas tells the tale of how he became to be. This is a sort of re-telling of a Christmas Carol, based on an elf who starts off the story like scrooge but through a series of visions sees the error his ways and turns into Father Christmas.

A Very Merry Murder by Kate Wells is the sixth book in the Malvern Farm series. As Jude prepares for her sister’s wedding, a national TV series begins to shoot its latest series on her farm. When one of the presenters nearly dies of anaphylactic shock live on air, Jude suspects foul play. She soon discovers a dark side to the cast & crew of this wholesome TV show and then somebody dies. As Jude and the police compile evidence, the list of suspects narrows. Classic cosy crime in a great setting with lovely characters.

I’m also about halfway through the book Growth: A Reckoning by Daniel Susskind, a fascinating delve into our obsession with growing the economy based on a measure called GDP. Why is it so important, is it flawed and what are the repercussions of our politicians’ obsession with this concept? More on this next month.

The script for our latest pantomime, a rom-com set in the village of Soggy Bottom is finally finished. We’ll share it with our local am-dram friends in the new year and aim to get it published soon after. Really chuffed with how it has come together. Other than that, not much new writing this month.

Lots of running and circuit training in December after my lungs finally recovered from the cough and cold that lingered for most of last month. Getting closer to breaking 20 minutes for my 5km runs. Only one tennis match – a hard-fought 4-4 draw in the winter league – and some fun friendly matches on the padel court. I also managed a swim in the sea on boxing day. It was a freezing cold day on the south coast and I lasted about 4 minutes in the water! One round of scrappy golf in high winds.

My main Christmas present this year was Undaunted 2200: Callisto by Osprey Games. The latest title in the Undaunted series uses similar game dynamics to the others in this series but with a sci-fi setting and some proper solo rules. Very impressive components, including 4 double-sided huge map boards, standees and lots of counters and cards. I have played the first couple of scenarios myself and am about to try scenario 3 once I’ve finished this newsletter (see photo). Can’t wait!

Meanwhile, there have been lots of family boardgames played with our daughter back from uni and while visiting family too. We tried Wavelength – a great game where you have to give a hint as to how extreme a hidden pointer is set to by answering a random question. Sounds weird and complicated but is really easy to pick up and fun to try and get inside the head of your fellow players. We also played Herd Mentality where the object of the game is to find the most common answer to a simple question. And a co-operative game where you all try to find unique hints to a word so your team mate gets as many clues as possible - all duplicate hints are removed - but I have forgotten the name of that one!

Thank you to all my readers this year. I hope 2026 brings you lots of love, joy, success and peace.