A Proper Family Christmas

William really isn't into Christmas - all that jingly tinselly stuff makes him feel queasy. He'd like to spend it alone in his vast old house with his cat, but Haseley House could be a gold-mine in the right hands, and his relatives want to make sure it ends up in the right hands! As the family gather for a festive house party at Haseley, the question is - whose name is William going to put on the will they're all so keen for him to sign? This particular family Christmas is going to change everybody's lives...

Literature & Fiction

Gordon-Cumming, Jane

Contemporary

Magna Large Print Books

Romance

Headline Accent

Women's Fiction

WritersPrintShop

When I wanted to write a ghost story for a competition, I knew exactly where to set it, - the derelict quarry at Shipton-on-Cherwell, one of the spookiest places I know. They’ve broken my heart by surrounding it with a high fence now, so you can no longer climb the secret staircase beside Baker’s Lock, and you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s as unearthly and magical and extraordinary as I describe. I wanted to share my experience of this wonderful place, before they turn it into a housing estate or an eco-town or fill it with unsold cars, or worse, sanitise it into a visitor attraction with steps and nature trails and barricades to stop you getting too close, like poor old Kirtlington Quarry. And having written The Death Trap, I kept thinking of more places and events connected with the Oxford Canal which would make the perfect setting for a ghost story, - the ruined manor at Hampton Gay, the deep lock at Somerton, the Shipton Railway Disaster. In fact, I realised, I could write a whole volume of them. I have loved the Southern Oxford ever since joining my sister Katie and her husband on a cruise from Banbury to Oxford. That was back in the 70s, when the fighter jets still startled one with a sudden deafening roar as they took off from Upper Heyford, and you might still have to operate the old swing railway bridge across the Sheepwash Channel. Katie and Desmond went on to own a pair of hotel boats, and I cadged a trip whenever they had a spare berth. When I married Edwin, I insisted on a canal-based honeymoon, and he became as bitten by the bug as I was. We used to hire from Aynho, and then from College Cruisers, eventually buying one of their boats for our own. Edwin has now converted Worcester to diesel-electric drive, and we can glide through those beautiful wooded cuttings and hear nothing but the birds. In a way these stories are my tribute to the canal. I should say at once that although the places and historical background are real, none of these are accounts of genuine sightings. I’m sure there must have been a few, in a place so full of history and tragic stories, but I have not come across them. I’ve arranged the stories in geographical order, as one might travel north along the canal from Oxford. Edwin has drawn you a map, so you can see where each story takes place. Like their surroundings, the stories become increasingly spread out as they leave the bustle of Oxford, finally ending in that remote, bleak area of countryside between Napton and Braunston, a Landscape of Ghosts where the past seems so much more real than the present.

The Haunted Bridge: and Other Strange Tales of the Oxford Canal

Genre Fiction

‘Wickedly funny, this Christmas house party is both a delight and a horrible warning.’ Katie Fforde  William really isn’t into Christmas – all the jingly tinselly presenty stuff makes him feel queasy. He’d like to spend it alone in his vast old house with his cat. But Haseley House could be a goldmine in the right hands – and William’s relatives want to make sure it does end up in the right hands! Hilary intends to ignore Christmas. With Daniel away, she won’t have to conceal how desperately she still misses Ben. But widows aren’t allowed to spend Christmas alone, and it sounds as if William might need her support. Frances, the nanny, was hoping for a break from spoilt little Tobias, but now she’s told they’re to stay with his eccentric grandfather in some spooky old house. Can Hilary possibly be having feelings for another man? Will Frances overcome the snobbery threatening to separate her and Daniel? This particular family Christmas is going to change everybody’s lives.

Accent Press

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Books by Gordon-Cumming, Jane