Merry Christmas from Mary Nichols

One Christmas, when my children were still living at home which was some time ago now, I couldn't find the fairy to put on the top of the tree. Instead I fixed a card to it which read: Situation vacant: Christmas tree fairy. Duties: to guard the tree and the presents under it and to grant wishes wherever possible. Hours of work; 24 hours a day for fourteen days a year. Remuneration: Smiles.

It did produce smiles and was a talking point for everyone who came to our home that Christmas. The following year I received, through the post from my sister, a rather smart fairy, dressed all in gold, with a note to the effect that she would like to apply for the vacant post. She topped our tree every subsequent year until the children left home and we no longer had a big tree. But I still bring her out at Christmas and sit her on the bookcase to remind me of Christmas past. 

Mary's latest book…

Summer, 1939. The de Lacey family of Nayton Manor believe they are ready for the changes the war will bring. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, is due to return home from her grandparents' farm in France and is expected to marry the dashing Captain Max Coburn. But when Grandpere suffers a stroke while driving Elizabeth to the station, her future is changed. Instead of returning home to Norfolk, Elizabeth chooses to stay and help her grandparents. Max is also stationed in France - but will this help their courtship, or will the war threaten to separate them for ever? Meanwhile, in the village of Nayton, Lucy Storey dutifully cares for her father the stationmaster, running their home in the little cottage by the railway. Her long hard days are brightened by meetings with the handsome Jack de Lacey, who brings a brief escape from her daily routine. As their friendship grows, can they overcome the class prejudices set in their way, or will the jealous signalman Frank Lambert succeed in destroying their romance? For all at Nayton, war becomes a time of risk and danger, of secrets and betrayal, and of finding love in the most unexpected places.

marynichols.co.uk

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...Kate Jackson

On the eleventh day of Christmas Kate Jackson decorates the RNA Christmas tree...

Our Christmas tree is decorated with an odd assortment of decorations, some bought and others homemade. There are delicate wooden toys and chunky salt dough bells, which my children made at playschool. My favourite is our angel which I made for our first Christmas in the first house we bought. Money was tight so I decided to make an angel, Blue Peter style. She's part cornflakes box, part kitchen roll inner tube, with a felt dress, paper wings, felted wool head with embroidered eyes and mouth and her hair is sheep's wool from when I had time to spin - pre-children. She’s has a wild hippyish look about her and is not a typical angel, but we love her and still use her as the tree wouldn't be right without her. She's always the last to go up on the tree, and after her job is done she spends the rest, of the year in a bed of tinsel in the decoration’s box.

Kate's latest....

Daisy Chain Summer and other stories is a collection of stories about family, friendships and love, all previously published in The People’s Friend magazine. Now available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Daisy-Chain-Summer-Stories-ebook/dp/B00AQX46YM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356279665&sr=8-2

For more information on Kate and her work...

http://katejacksonswriting.blogspot.co.uk/

On The Tenth Day of Christmas...Charlie Cochrane

On the tenth day of Christmas Charlie Cochrane decorates the RNA Christmas tree...

This old glass stand plays a part, in some shape or form, in our Christmas decorations every year. It belonged to my mother – I have no idea where or when she got it, but it always appeared on special occasions, laden with jam tarts or whatever snack was the favourite of the time. (Whenever I think of Christmas I think of Ritz biscuits with Dairylea and celery on them and I bet this glass stand saw a few of them in its time.)

This year’s incarnation has seen it used as a candle holder all through Advent and now it’s gracing the Christmas table. There’s a story behind those fabulous pine cones, as well. A big branch came down off a tree just across the road from our house, laden with huge cones. At the risk of life and limb I diced with the rat run traffic to rescue it, with the intention of drying it out and using it on the fire pit. I’m pleased I resisted the urge to do that and found a more constructive use than just fuel.

On twelfth night that glass stand will go away for another year, taking memories of happy Christmasses – then and now – safely with it.

Charlie's latest book...

Two officers, one ship, one common enemy.

Alexander Porterfield may be one of the rising stars of Nelson's navy, but his relationship with his first lieutenant, Tom Anderson, makes him vulnerable. To blackmail, to the exposure of their relationship—and to losing Tom, either in battle or to another ship. When sudden danger strikes—from the English rather than the French—where should a man turn?

On the Ninth Day of Christmas...Jenny Haddon

On the ninth day of Christmas Jenny Haddon decorates the RNA Christmas Tree...

My favourite is a Very Old Friend. She is four years younger than I am. I remember her arrival.

My parents were a) a whole generation older than most people's parents and b) hard up. The first time either of them made Christmas it was for me and they did it on a shoestring. My father hacked a branch off a major conifer in our garden and my mother anchored it upright, somehow.  They made decorations, bought lights. But there was no money for a Fairy, they explained. I went to bed on Christmas Eve and there was a workmanlike star on the top of the tree.

But when I came down in the morning there was -  a Fairy.

I can still taste that feeling of not daring to believe because you are so much luckier than you deserve or thought possible. (Didn't feel that again until my first book was published, now I come to think of it.) I adored her. 

My mother had acquired a sub Barbie from a bring-and-buy sale and dressed her out of floaty white scraps, with starched muslin wings and a wand made of glittering milk bottle tops wrapped round a matchstick.

Mind you, that fairy was always a free spirit. When he thought I was listening my father said, 'That fairy has been on the toot.'  It was her expression. It still is.

Over the years she has been Roman (toga made out of a silk handkerchief) a hippy (tinfoil and doilies) and, these days, at the behest of a Shakespearian actor friend, the Duchess of Malfi (remnant box). But she still leans unto the wind with That Look in her eye. Way Hey!

Jenny's latest book... To Marry a Prince by Sophie Page, published by Arrow

On The Eighth Day of Christmas...Kate Walker

On the eighth day of Christmas Kate Walker adds an angel to the RNA Christmas tree...

A long time ago, before I was published,  and so I  had time to do things like crafts and such, I found a pattern to make some lovely felt decorations for the Christmas tree. In a rush of enthusiasm and wanting to make Christmas very special for my son who was just two at the time,  I decided to have a go at making them. Here is my little felt angel that I made all those years ago.

There were a couple of other little decorations I made as well that year - Father Christmas with a wonderful beard, and the Snowman with his jaunty hat and scarf, a very red nose. 

I have very special memories of the evenings I spent cutting out felt, stitching it, stuffing the little  bodies, and gluing on decorations. I had to do it in secret so that my son had no idea about the decorations until he first saw them on Christmas morning on the tree.  My Mother in Law was staying with us at  the time and she decided to help me so we did the job together.   We had a glass (or two) of sherry while we were working so we were lucky that the decorations turned out so well – we got fits of giggles several times and when  bits like the  angel’s red cheeks or the snowman’s conical  ‘carrot’ nose just wouldn’t stick in the  right place.

Sadly my Mother in Law died last year and so Christmas 2011 was the first time that we put the decorations on the tree without her seeing them. The little angel is a bit battered and worn – she’s see a lot of Christmases – but when they are hanging on the tree together that always makes me feel it's really Christmas.

Kate's latest book....The Devil and Miss Jones

Martha Jones has never taken a risk in her whole life. Until the day she runs out on her wedding and succumbs to the magnetism of a man she has only just met! A man she knows only as Diablo.

Lone wolf Carlos Ortega won't promise Miss Jones more than one searing-hot night. Yet Carlos is shocked by Martha's sweet innocence. This runaway bride is a virgin, and it seems the repercussions of their sizzling encounter could last forever . . .

For more about Kate and her books...

http://www.kate-walker.com

http://kate-walker.blogspot.co.uk/

The Seventh Day of Christmas...Chris Stovell

On the seventh day of Christmas Chris Stovell adds to the RNA tree...

My parents rarely took holidays when my sister and I were growing up; there simply wasn’t enough money to go round.  In later life, however, there was no stopping them and my dad took great pleasure in the growing number of pins in his travel map of every place they’d visited.  I love this nativity scene, which they brought back from Peru for me, not just for itself and because it’s so jolly, but because it reminds me of Mum and Dad’s beaming faces (under Peruvian hats!) when we picked them up from the airport. 

One of the highlights of that holiday had been their river trip up the Amazon.  The skipper must have decided to give them added value as the trip went on far longer than my parents had anticipated.  With only bananas and Coke to sustain them – generously provided by their host - but no loo on board, by the time they disembarked they felt as if they’d travelled the entire length of the river.  They always roared with laughter when they talked about it, but it was a very long time before either of them could eat bananas again!

Chris's latest book...

When is it time to stop running?

Coralie Casey is haunted by her past. Deciding it’s time for a fresh start, she sets up ‘Sweet Cleans’, a range of natural beauty and cleaning products, and escapes to Penmorfa, a quiet coastal village in west Wales.

Gethin Lewis thinks he’s about to put his home village Penmorfa behind him for good. Now an internationally-acclaimed artist living in New York, he just has to return one last time to wind up his father’s estate.

But the village soon disrupts their carefully laid plans. As truths are uncovered which threaten to split the community apart, Gethin is forced to question his real reasons for abandoning Penmorfa, and Coralie is made to face the fact that some stains just won’t go away.

The Fourth Day of Christmas...Anne Bennett

On the fourth day of Christmas Anne Bennett adds her ornament to the RNA Tree...

This is why the boots mean so much to me.

"I'm sorry, Mr Bennett, but you have lung cancer." the surgeon said.  It was September 2010 and my husband. Denis had just recovered from a very virulent strain of double pneumonia that had badly scarred his lungs and the surgeon's words shocked us both  The good news, if there is any good news that can come for cancer diagnosis, was that the tumour  was localised and not in the blood stream.  Surgery to remove it  was the only option, but Denis's lungs were so scarred the surgeon didn't know whether he would either not survive the operation, or die shortly afterwards.  However he decided to go for it and so in late September he was in the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and I was in the Robert Owen House  in the hospital grounds. 

He pulled through and though the cancer was gone so were two lobes of his right lung, for the tumour was blocking the airways to both, and he was advised to have chemotherapy in case any stray cell had escaped.   It was as we came down the stairs in December after his first bout of chemo lasting eight hours that I saw the two hand knitted boots hanging from the tree the 'Friends of the Hospital' had put up.  I don't know why those boots affected me so much but they did.  We both knew ahead of us was four months of harrowing chemo  and to me those boots symbolized hope and the belief that life was worth fighting for and that year and every year those boots will hang on my tree to remind us that that time that is now behind us and we must look ahead.

Anne's next book is out on the 17th of January 2013...

Their love crossed the class divide, but will it survive the ravages of war?

When Lucy’s father dies and her family is plunged into poverty, she is forced to take a job in service as a housemaid at Windthorpe House, home to the aristocratic Hetherington’s, who lost three of their four sons in the Great War.
When their only remaining son, Clive, returns home from university, he and Lucy strike up an immediate bond, which only deepens as Lucy becomes indispensable to the family. Clive however, much to his family’s consternation, decides to volunteer to fight against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War, though he returns injured and full of rage at the hated regime.
As Lucy tends his wounds, the two fall in love and Clive is determined that the class difference won’t keep them apart. But Hitler’s troops are gathering and fate has something very different in store for both of them…

On The Second Day of Christmas...Scarlett Bailey

On the second day of Christmas Scarlett Bailey add to our RNA Christmas tree...

This is the Glitter Globe I brought home from my first ever trip to New York, one Christmas a few years ago now. It was a magical trip; New York was cold and brightly dressed in sparkling lights, and I truly felt like I had stepped out of my humdrum life and onto a movie set. I felt like a film star, even though no one noticed little old me.

It was in New York, on the rink under the Rockefeller centre, whilst listening to Christmas Carols that I first tried my hand at ice-skating, and spent most of the time of my backside.

It was standing outside the Christmas window at Saks, that I finally understood all the fuss about shoes that my friends regularly made when I saw how the Saks window dresser had turns a pair of Prada shoes into works of art, as dazzling as any I might find in MOMA.

And it was in Macy’s that I found, right at the front of store, in the part designed to attract tourists, my Glitter Globe. Now it sits on my desk with a few other treasured items, and I look at it everyday. And when, in ‘Married by Christmas’, Anna is awe struck by the wonder of New York at Christmas, and feels like she is living in her own little snow globe world, its was my Gorgeous, kitschy, lovely Glitter Globe that I looked at every time I needed inspiration. Oh and by the way, it also plays Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’. Perfect.

Scarlett's latest book....

All she wants is a perfect Christmas Eve wedding...

It's been on Anna's wish-list since she was a little girl, dreaming of a far happier family life than she'd ever experienced.

But now - only two weeks before her big day - her perfect husband-to-be drops a bombshell...

Only nothing's going to stop Anna's plans - not even the pesky inconvenience of discovering her groom already has a wife!