MO FANNING · CHRISTMAS READS 2026
Christmas is complicated.
Two books for people who've had enough of perfect Christmases. Expect terrible decisions, difficult families and a surprising amount of heart.
No fake snow, compulsory joy or suspiciously harmonious family gatherings required.
YOUR SEASONAL READING, SORTED
Some Christmases need more than a mince pie.
One novel about a department-store Santa who takes a job on entirely the wrong cruise. One collection of fifteen short stories about people escaping Christmas, hosting it, or wondering how they got talked into it. Both are funny, sometimes rude, and interested in what happens when real life interrupts the festivities.
THE CHRISTMAS NOVEL · LATER-LIFE SECOND CHANCES
Ghosted
A fired Santa. A gay Christmas cruise. One last chance to put things right.
Silas French has been a department-store Santa for twenty years. Now he's lost his job, needs a heart stent and hasn't spoken to his son in thirteen years. A Christmas cruise job sounds like a way to get closer to Miami, and to his son. Nobody mentions it's a gay cruise.
Meanwhile, Ellen Gitelman has lost her job and received a lupus diagnosis. Her best friend has persuaded her to finish the bucket list they made at sixteen. What follows involves a drag queen, a near-drowning, a storm and some conversations that are long overdue.
For readers of A Man Called Ove and The Guncle.
Ebook £4.99 · Paperback £9.99 · Hardback £16.99
FIFTEEN FESTIVE STORIES
Five Gold Rings
Not every Christmas story ends with snow and a kiss. Some end with the council banning inflatables.
There's a rebellion against compulsory Christmas, planned in the basement of a Tesco. A cul-de-sac at war over fairy lights. Three French hens that turn out to be Swiss. An emergency locksmith listening to Christmas Eve confessions.
And there's Emily, laying the table for a family that isn't coming. Fifteen stories about the widowed, the skint, the sober and the people who've had quite enough of seasonal goodwill. Funny, bleak, tender and occasionally very rude.
For readers of David Nicholls, Nina Stibbe and anyone who's ever hidden in the kitchen at a family party.
Ebook £2.99 · Paperback £7.99 · Hardback £9.99
‘Fanning’s prose and dialogue are crisp, brisk, and incisive.’
BookLife on Ghosted
BUYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE?
Give them someone else's family problems.
Both books come as ebooks, paperbacks and hardbacks. If you're buying a print edition for Christmas, check the delivery estimate at checkout before ordering. Ebooks are handy for last-minute readers and people who've run out of space on the bookshelf.
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