A Year In The Life

A Merry Little Christmas by Julia Williams is a very charming contemporary novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the second book in the Hope Christmas series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The novel is set in the Shropshire village of Hope Christmas and the surrounding countryside. There is a bank of leading characters and their families. All of whom are friends and all of whom have various challenges to face during the year.

I loved the inclusion of a character who appears real – but is he? There is an other-worldly feel to him which reminded me of Clarence in the movie It’s A Wonderful Life.

We meet farming families who pull together after a terrible accident injurers one of their own. Lives are altered as we see the strain that having a brain injury puts on a family unit.

There are families with children – step children, toddlers, babies, teens, and a beautiful wheelchair-bound young girl who is bright and funny but non-verbal. We witness the impact of withdrawing funds from a respite centre by the government will have on families. The village pulls together to fight for funds for the charity.

A teen is set to be a very young mum. We see how this alters family dynamics and relationships but ultimately love wins.

With new life, we also witness the opposite side of the coin, with loss. A grandmother who has Alzheimer’s – it is hard to “watch someone die by slow degrees.” A family mourns who she was, though she still lives.

A Merry Little Christmas was set over a year in the life of the village. There were highs and lows; friendships and foes – but over it all there was love, so much love.

JULIA WILSON