This anthology had been kicking around for a while, so over Christmas I finally got around to reading it. It’s a collection of short stories by various writers, all of which have been set around Christmas. Not all of them are tales of murder, and not all of them are by famous writers.

Indeed, not all of them are very good. But the better ones make up for some of the feebler entries, and even some of the very shortest stories – like the episode that portrays Morse as a Scrooge-type characters – are some of the best. I also really enjoyed the opening Campion tale of nefarious doings in deepest Essex.

A fun read at Christmas, even though a handful of the stories are eminently skippable.