The Virago Book of Christmas

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781860499227
• ISBN10: 1860499228
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Virago Pr

Summary

Christmas began with a good but harassed woman giving birth in difficult domestic circumstances. Somewhere between then and now, the circumstances have changed, but for women today, Christmas is still a time of joys garnered against the odds. We have moved on from stables and mangers to supermarkets and microwaves; palm fronds and shepherds have given way to a spangled conifer and a fat man in a red suit. In this anthology, reflecting the experiences of more than 50 women at Christmas, Ntozake Shange and Agatha Christie rub shoulders with Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf. Curl up with a tantalizing volume that gives full reign to the seditious humor, peculiar discomforts, and exquisite social tortures of the season.

Author Biography

Michelle Lovric is the author of CARNEVALE and VENICE:TALES OF THE CITY. Born in Australia, she now lives in London and Venice.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(5)
the nativity: mary's christmas
Moira Andrew	6	(3)
St Bridget of Sweden	9	(2)
Emily Henrietta Hickey	11	(3)
Edna Ferber	14	(12)
U. A. Fanthorpe	26	(4)
childhood christmases
Coralie Bryant	30	(11)
Winifred Foley	41	(7)
Colette	48	(5)
Roisin Tierney	53	(3)
Charlotte Bronte	56	(3)
Sue Townsend	59	(6)
Ntozake Shange	65	(11)
christmas at our place
George Sand	76	(3)
Edith Sitwell	79	(3)
Stella Gibbons	82	(16)
Jane Carlyle	98	(5)
Kate Cruise O'Brien	103	(7)
Emily Dickinson	110	(3)
Virginia Woolf	113	(5)
christmas abroad
Rose Macaulay	118	(3)
Valerie Josephs	121	(2)
Dame Freya Stark	123	(4)
Lady Mary Anne Barker	127	(5)
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu	132	(4)
the real gifts: christmas transformations
Elizabeth Goudge	136	(5)
Christina Rossetti	141	(2)
Mrs Patrick Campbell	143	(2)
Isabel Bolton	145	(13)
christmas foods
Sue Arnold	158	(4)
Spasenija Markovich	162	(5)
Catherine Maria Fanshawe	167	(3)
Isabella Beeton	170	(2)
Rachel Ferguson	172	(7)
Janie Mitchell	179	(4)
Laurie Graham	183	(9)
mischief and malfeasance at christmas
Agatha Christie	192	(6)
Jenny Eclair	198	(4)
Nancy Mitford	202	(10)
Janet Hills	212	(5)
Selma Lagerlof	217	(23)
christmas at war
Rose Luxemburg	240	(5)
Vera Brittain	245	(8)
Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna	253	(2)
Elizabeth von Arnim	255	(6)
Kathleen Hersom	261	(9)
christmas romance
Kathleen Norcross	270	(2)
Cora Sandel	272	(14)
Edith Nesbit	286	(4)
Pheobe Cary	290	(3)
Clare Boylan	293	(10)
Stephanie June Sorrell	303	(2)
Amy Lowell	305	(2)
Acknowledgements	307