Our Christmas Book Wish Lists

With Christmas just a couple of weeks away, the CVP/MM team reveal which books they’re hoping to find under the tree this year…

Rose

THE book on my Christmas list this year is Jilly Cooper’s Tackle. Judging from the (gloriously risqué) title and cover illustration, the subject matter is rugby. However, as a true devotee of Jilly’s writing, her newest release could be about philately or drain-cleaning and it would still be at the top of my festive wish list.

We have ten coming for Christmas Dinner this year…but unless my family hides the book immediately after I’ve unwrapped it, there is a very real risk that no one will get fed on Christmas Day, as I will be giving Jilly and NOT the turkey my undivided attention!

Tommi

The book I’m most looking forward to getting for Christmas is The Book of Finnish Elves by Mauri Kunnas. As a child I used to love Mauri Kunnas’ books and we had the Finnish original version of this book Suomalainen tonttukirja which told stories of all the elves that live in our house and society without us seeing them. I would love to share these stories with my English family and friends – an elf is not just a toy you put on your shelf at Christmas to amuse your children and to pressure them to behave. They play an important role in our lives throughout the year and we anger them at our peril.

Sara and I still leave a drink for our “saunatonttu” at Midsummer, Christmas and New Year, as well as whenever we go away for a longer period. We have two of them as we felt asking one sauna elf to move from Finland to England to look after our sauna for us was a recipe for an even more reclusive and curmudgeonly sauna elf then normal… The one year we prepared to go on holiday having forgotten this important mark of gratitude, our sauna mysteriously caught fire in the night! We learned an important lesson and we will never again take our saunatonttu for granted.

Flo

I like a good seasonally themed book and last year around this time I read a book of short stories called The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales For Long Winter Nights, which introduced me to Elizabeth Macneal, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Bridget Collins’ writing, all of whose novels I’ve subsequently read and loved. So imagine my delight when I saw a follow-up anthology has recently come out: The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights. I’m looking forward to dipping in and out of some more spooky winter stories this Christmas and maybe discovering a new favourite author in the process!

Rosie

I haven’t asked for any specific books this year, as I love seeing what my friends and family think I will enjoy. Random charity shop finds are especially appreciated! I may end up raiding the January sales for a new cookbook too. I’ve seen a few seasonal ones recently which would be very helpful as I attempt to grow more vegetables next year!

Anna

I really shouldn’t want more books for Christmas, as my TBR pile is out of control. But if someone absolutely insisted, I’d be very happy to receive The Deluge by Stephen Markley. It is a speculative novel about what the near future might look like that isn’t utterly terrifying and apocalyptic, and instead emphasises the importance of hope and solidarity. I feel I could do with this right now!

Sarah

One of the books I’ve asked for this Christmas is The House in the Cerulean Sea which has been on my list for a while. Its tagline is: ‘A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.’ – which sounds like a fun festive read!

Elinor

I haven’t asked for any particular books this year but am hoping I get a couple of new ones and if not, maybe I can just spend a bit of time tackling my huge pile of books that I already have and haven’t read!

Stanzi

On my Christmas list this year is Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara. The Christmas break is also my time to raid all the new books my family have bought. My dad’s requested a book on historical coins for his present this year though, which I doubt I’ll be trying to steal!

Christmas 2020

As a strange and difficult year draws to a close, the CVP/MM team are trying to think positive by reflecting on what they’re most looking forward to this Christmas.

Tommi

This year Christmas will no doubt feel very different to normal in many ways, but for me the most important part of Christmas will not have changed. Our family has always celebrated Christmas eve with a sauna and a nice meal of typical Finnish Christmas foods, and spending the evening quietly and peacefully together with those closest to us. It’s a really lovely opportunity to slow down for a while and just be together with no distractions.

 

Rose

Despite, or perhaps because of, the challenges 2020 has brought, I am particularly looking forward to Christmas. It will be a time to stop and take stock, and really appreciate what we have managed to achieve… primarily buying and moving into our first family home (and all during a lockdown!). As an Army family, we have moved A LOT, so, this year, watching our children hanging their stockings in the fireplace, choosing the perfect spot for the tree and decorating their bedrooms feels even more special, knowing this is the first of many Merry Christmases in our own home.

 

Flo

I’m usually fairly militant about Christmas and its traditions – everything has to be the same as it’s always been. So it’s strangely freeing this year to just accept that it’s not going to be! Roast dinner is my absolute favourite meal so I’m looking forward to a really good one after weeks (maybe even months) without. Otherwise it’ll just be lovely to spend a couple of days with my family (inside – how novel!) and see the back of 2020…

 

Sarah

I am looking forward to spending my Christmas matching my decorations to those on telly! Not really (but for all those non-His Dark Materials fans this is Hester the hare meeting Hester the daemon hare, such is lockdown entertainment) – I am most grateful and thankful that my family and friends are healthy and happy this Christmas. And I’m always very excited about turkey and bread sauce sandwiches – bring on all the Christmas food! 🎄✨🍗

 

Anna

As with everything this year, my Christmas will be much more Somerset-focused than usual. This December, Cheddar (it’s a real place!) is participating in Window Wanderland, for which people decorate their windows and light them up during the evening. My daughters wanted a Harry Potter theme, so here are our windows and our Christmas lights. We’ll be going on lots of evening walks to enjoy the window displays and the thousands of Christmas lights that have appeared this year.

 

Elinor

I’m most looking forward to seeing my children’s excitement. They are at the age when Christmas is very magical and love all the lights and decorations. It’s also lovely to have a break from the usual routine and spend time as a family.

 

 

 

 

Alice

I’m most looking forward to being back in Dorset with my family and doing lots of baking, Christmas crafting, and playing ridiculous games.

 

 

 

 

 

Laura

We moved house last month and I am looking forward to having some time to spend working on it – for we have great plans for how we’ll make it our own. I shall enjoy learning new skills and taking out all the frustrations of 2020 on some walls which we’ll knock down! Our little Christmas tree is likely to get a dusting of debris rather than snow this year! And of course, I shall be doing plenty of Christmas baking to make sure we are well fuelled for all of this hard work.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happier and healthier 2021. 

Laura and Sarah: Christmas Book Q&A

In the final instalment of our Christmas-themed blog posts, Laura and Sarah team up to talk about Father Christmas and Anne of Green Gables.

Which book characters would you like to have Christmas dinner with?

Sarah: I always wanted to have dinner with the Blythe family from the Anne of Green Gables books. The most fun Christmas dinner guests would have to be the Weasley twins and Merry and Pippin 😊

Do you have any Christmas book traditions?

Laura: As a child we used to read Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs many, many times over. I think I still know the words off by heart!

What book would you like to receive on Christmas day?

Laura: I’ve asked for Oh My God What a Complete Aisling as it has been recommended to me by several friends who say it resonates with our generation while being funny and light-hearted too. Fingers crossed Father Christmas delivers!

Which book would you give as a Christmas present?

Laura: I heard and thoroughly enjoyed the serialisation of Becoming by Michele Obama so I am giving that to my sister this Christmas (fingers crossed she doesn’t follow the blog and see this spoiler!)

Sarah: I gave Anne of Green Gables to my friend’s daughter last year which was lovely – she then read it to me next time I babysat!

Favourite/least favourite book you read in 2018?

Laura: I’ve just started reading the complete Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis ahead of a trip to Belfast (his place of birth) in January. I’m really into them but the only problem is, Elinor accidentally told me a major plot spoiler!

Sarah: I really enjoyed The Astonishing Colour of After (Emily X.R. Pan), Love, Hate & Other Filters (Samira Ahmed), How to Stop Time (Matt Haig) and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Natasha Pulley) – difficult to pick one! 😊

My least favourite was The Bricks that Built the Houses (Kate Tempest) – it wasn’t awful but I didn’t particularly enjoy it.

Anna: Christmas Book Q&A

Merry Christmas! Here’s the third instalment in our Christmassy book Q&A in which Anna talks Wind in the Willows, poetry and pulling a cracker with Professor McGonagall. 

What is your favourite Christmas scene in a book?

A snowy view from Anna’s window

I do really like Chapter 5 of Wind in the Willows which is about many things, but includes an impromptu party thrown for carol-singing field-mice by Ratty and Mole. The chapter ends with Mole drifting off to sleep, thinking about the importance of having a community and a place to call home, which seems especially apt at this time of year and in 2018:

He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to; this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.

Do you have any Christmas book traditions?

We have a book with a short poem or extract from a book for every day of Advent, and I try and buy a new Christmas book for the girls each year (this year is Grandpa Christmas by Michael Morpurgo). I also try and find time on Christmas Eve to read A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas aloud to Alys and Elin…

All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen.

What book would you like to receive on Christmas day?

I’d be happy with just about any book to be honest, but I would really love ‘Honey and Co. at Home’ or ‘The Phantom Atlas’, which is about mistakes on maps.

Which book characters would you like to have Christmas dinner with?

Mrs Cratchit, Professor McGonagall and Becky Sharp.

Which book would you give as a Christmas present?

Jeanette Winterson’s ’Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days’

Favourite/least favourite book you read in 2018?

I hate giving up books, but I did abandon ‘Judas’ by Amos Oz this year. I felt like I had already read enough books about middle-aged men and their obsessions with beautiful and unobtainable women.

Some of my favourite authors have published new books this year, so it’s been a good year for favourite books, but I’d probably pick ‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead. It’s a brutal read, but utterly engrossing and the central character Cora is a force of nature.

Rose: Christmas Book Q&A

Part two of our Christmas book Q&A is a chat with Rose about making Christmas candy and The Night Before Christmas.

What is your favourite Christmas scene in a book?

Predictably, given they are my favourite childhood books, the Christmases depicted in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. There is a gorgeous bit in The Little House in the Big Woods when the sisters make Christmas candy from molasses, drizzling shapes in pans of snow to freeze.

One morning Ma boiled molasses and sugar together until they made a thick syrup, and Pa bought in two pans of clean white snow from outdoors. Laura and Mary each had a pan, and Pa and Ma showed them how to pour the dark syrup in little streams on to the snow. They made circles, and curlicues, and squiggledy things, and these hardened at once and were candy. Laura and Mary might eat one piece each, but the rest were saved for Christmas Day.

Do you have any Christmas book traditions?

We have read The Night Before Christmas to Theo on Christmas Eve for the past 3 years so I guess we will keep doing that!

What book would you like to receive on Christmas day?

Well, if you are asking, the new Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered, please! 😉

Which book characters would you like to have Christmas dinner with?

I’d feel terribly disloyal if I said anyone other than Laura, Mary, Ma and Pa but for an entirely unique experience, I’d certainly accept an invite to dine with the Mortmains (I Capture the Castle)

Which book would you give as a Christmas present?

I’ve just bought my brother the new Michael Ondaatje, Warlight, but on the proviso that he lends it to me straight after he’s read it!

Favourite/least favourite book you read in 2018?

Perhaps controversially (and why I will never be a Booker judge!) but I’m just not getting on with Milkman. But I absolutely loved the new Markus Zuzak YA novel, Bridge of Clay. It is amazing and beautiful and heart wrenching. But a word of warning if you do read it, find a nice private place for the ending; read this on the bus and people might think you are having some kind of breakdown.

Tommi: Christmas Book Q&A

To celebrate the season we will be publishing a series of posts combining two of our favourite things – books and Christmas – in a festive book Q&A. Here’s the first one from Tommi…

What is your favourite Christmas scene in a book?

I think my favourite Christmas “scene” in a book is probably from Mauri Kunnas’ “Joulupukki” and is basically the whole book. It’s a lovely book explaining how the real Father Christmas’ operations work in Finland.

Do you have any Christmas book traditions?

Yes! As well as always getting and giving books for Christmas, when we sit down for our Finnish Christmas meal on the 24th December, mum always reads the “Jouluevankeliumi” from the Bible. I don’t really have a faith myself, but whether you are a believer or not, it’s a nice way to quieten down on for the Christmas meal. Once mum has finished reading, we turn the electric lights off and we have a quiet meditative moment before enjoying the food on the table.

What book would you like to receive on Christmas day?

Any book that someone has thought I might enjoy.

Which book characters would you like to have Christmas dinner with?

The aforementioned “Joulupukki” of course! It would mean that he definitely had visited my house, and I imagine he has a lot of stories to tell. And since he has the ability to slow time in order to reach everyone on Christmas eve, it would give me more time to eat and digest my food too…

Which book would you give as a Christmas present?

Another of Mauri Kunnas’ books “The Book of Finnish Elves”, which explains the rich variety of Finnish elves or “tonttu”. An elf is not just for Christmas, a fact that is often forgotten in the modern world.

Favourite/least favourite book you read in 2018?

I have a very short memory and I know I read some really good books earlier in the year, both in Finnish and English that I cannot remember. I am currently enjoying reading “Full Tilt” by Dervla Murphy, “Alone in Berlin” by Hans Fallada, and dipping in and out of the No Such Thing as a Fish “The Book of the Year 2017”. As for least favourite, I also have a selective memory and have forgotten the books I didn’t enjoy reading!

Merry Christmas!

As an office, we take Christmas very seriously! Celebrations start on 1st December, when we decorate the office and get the Christmas tunes playing. In this post we put a Christmassy spin on our recent Desert Island Discs blog post and share some photos of this year’s CVP/MM Christmas festivities!

Decorating day in the CVP/MM office

If you’re bored of hearing the same 10 Christmas songs played on loop in every shop, you can check out our office’s carefully curated Christmas playlist on Spotify here. Here are our personal favourites, including the one we’d each save from the waves marked with a star.

Sarah

• *Proper Crimbo – Bo Selecta
• Don’t Shoot Me Santa – The Killers
• Must Be Santa – Bob Dylan
• Donde Esta Santa Claus – Augie Rios
• Christmas was Better in the 80s – The Futureheads
• Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes
• The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
• One More Sleep Til Christmas – The Muppets Christmas Carol

Favourite Christmas Film: All I Want For Christmas

Favourite Christmas Food: Turkey & bread sauce sandwiches

Anna

• Must be Santa – Bob Dylan
• *Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
• All Alone on Christmas – Darlene Love
• It’s Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
• O Holy Night – Tracy Chapman
• (Don’t Call Me) Mrs Christmas – Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler
• Santa Claus Meets the Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
• Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – Ramones

Favourite Christmas Film: It’s a Wonderful Life, with Nativity! a very VERY close second place

Favourite Christmas Food: Bread sauce

Laura

Time for a quick photo on the way to Christmas dinner

• Gaudete – Steeleye Span
• Feliz Navidad – José Feliciano
• *I Was Born On Christmas Day – Saint Etienne
• Last Christmas – Wham!
• Walking In The Air – Aled Jones
• It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas – Pet Shop Boys
• The Power of Love – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy

Favourite Christmas Film: As I’ve only seen 3 Christmas films I have very few to narrow down, so it’ll be The Holiday

Favourite Christmas Food: Brandy butter (with mince pies on the side!)

Flo

• 2000 Miles – The Pretenders
• Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
• *O Holy Night – Tracy Chapman
• Christmas Eve, 1943 – Tom McRae & The Standing Band
• Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
• Will You Still Be In Love With Me Next Year – Hot Club de Paris
• It’s Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
• Kindle a Flame in Her Heart – Los Campesinos!

Favourite Christmas Film: The Muppet Christmas Carol

Favourite Christmas Food: Yule log

Tommi

• 

  Christmassy cocktails

  Sylvian Joululaulu – Various different artists

• Tonttujen Jouluyö – Various different artists
• Joulupuu on Rakennettu – Various different artists
• Joulupukki – Various different artists
• Joulupukki puree ja lyö – M.A. Numminen
• *Herra Huu Pelkää Joulupukkia – M.A. Numminen
• Näin Sydämmeeni Joulun Teen – Various different artists
• On Hanget Korkeat Nietokset – Various different artists

Favourite Christmas Film: I don’t have a favourite Christmas film, I think they are all pretty appalling and besides I can’t think of anything less Christmassy than watching TV on Christmas Eve, so I would rather sit in a wood fired sauna staring at the flames flickering under the stove. I hope, by the way, that my desert island will be an arctic desert island so I can jump in the snow from the sauna and it will be properly dark.

Favourite Christmas Food: Joulukinkku (Christmas ham)

Alice

• A Spaceman Came Travelling – Chris de Burgh
• *Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
• Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea
• Last Christmas – Wham!
• 2000 Miles – The Pretenders
• Stop the Cavalry – Jona Lewie
• Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
• In Dulci Jubilo – Mike Oldfield

Favourite Christmas Film: It’s a Wonderful Life

Favourite Christmas Food (/Drink!): Mulled wine!

 

Merry Christmas from all of us – see you in 2018!

Christmas dinner with the whole team

 

 

Office closed for Christmas

The Channel View/Multilingual Matters office is closed over the Christmas period from 22 December and will reopen on 5 January. We hope that you understand that we will be unable to deal with any queries at this time but we will do our best to respond to anything urgent as soon as we return in January.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Our Christmas charities

This Christmas we are pleased to be donating to two charities who we feel are particularly deserving of our support.

The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) is an independent national charity that defends persecuted academics and assists them in rebuilding their lives and careers in safety. Our contribution will help CARA to provide refugees with education, training and employment advice as well as financial support for their research or training.

Tourism For All is a UK charity dedicated to making tourism accessible for everyone, especially older and disabled people. Our donation will help to allow people with disabilities, their families and carers to have the holiday they deserve.

Merry Christmas from Channel View!

The Channel View Christmas Tree

The Channel View team would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Our office will close on Friday 21st December and reopen on Thursday 3rd January as we will all be off enjoying the festive season.