Excellent author Goodreads ReviewHer captivating bestseller of loss and the healing power of love now re-issued with a stunning new jacket look. Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in the pretty Hampshire village. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog Horace and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash and he finds himself homeless when his stepchildren claim their dead mother's inheritance.Oscar and Elfrida take refuge in a rambling house in Scotland which becomes a magnet for various waifs and strays who converge upon it, including an unhappy teenage girl. It could be a recipe for disaster. But somehow the Christmas season weaves its magical spell and for Elfrida and Oscar, in the evening of their lives, the winter solstice brings love and solace. (less)

I was a little impatient with this slow-moving story at first, but in the end was glad that I stayed with it. It’s a warm, comfortable story of people who adrift at the end of a relationship, who find one another and begin anew. It’s not a Romance, but it is a story of love in its many forms. It was a little like a book form of those sweet, staid BBC and PBS shows that seem to mostly feature nice people sitting and talking, or walking and talking, with just enough offscreen drama to keep it interesting. I can see why so many people enjoy this story as an annual holiday comfort read.

Audiobook, via Audible. Lynn Redgrave provides an okay performance – it’s possible that this book needed someone a little more lively to spark it up.

I read this for The 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, and I will be using it as the Book Joker for Square 9 December 21st: Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, also known as Yaldā Night in Iran. The same day is the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere, giving them the longest day of the year. This book takes place during the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday, but the key turning point takes place on the evening of the winter solstice.
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I found myself comparing this one to Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter, but I didn't feel like this one held up as well. So much could have been edited out for a stronger story. We limp along with these wounded creatures and I had a hard time caring what happened next. I absolutely loved Coming Home and The Shell Seekers, so maybe my expectations were too high. I wasn't a fan.

“You never really got to know people properly until you had seen them within the ambience of their own home. Seen their furniture and their books, and their manner of their lifestyle.” ( )

4.5 * a really enjoyable re-read ( first read in 2000), an excellent book for this time of year. 2020 listened to the audiobook this time. ( )

Escocia: donde el paisaje, la gente, el clima y el whisky se aúnan para crear un ambiente mágico donde el amor es posible a todas las edades y ante las circunstancias más adversas.
Después de un triste acontecimiento, Elfrida sintió la imperiosa necesidad de huir de sus recuerdos y abandonó Londres para siempre. Buscó refugio en un pequeño pueblo donde pronto encontró la paz deseada. Unos vecinos, los Blundell, le demostraron generosidad y cálido afecto. Sin embargo, una tragedia inesperada provocó un nuevo cataclismo en su vida. Y una vez más se vio obligada a cambiar de domicilio.
Ahora, el destino la lleva a una enorme casa en Escocia, donde casi por azar va congregándose un variopinto grupo de personas, cada cual con sus propios anhelos y desdichas, todas supervivientes de unas vidas marcadas por las desgracias y los contratiempos...