A festive treat from a treasured comic writer. It's Christmas-time at Cold Comfort Farm and it's the worst sort of family gathering...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmas: Adam Lambsbreath dresses up as Father Christmas in two of Judith's red shawls. There are unsuitable presents, unpleasant insertions into the pudding and Aunt Ada Doom orders Amos to carve the turkey, adding: 'Ay, would it were a vulture, 'twere more fitting!'

'Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the 20th century' Lynne Truss, author of the Constable Twitten series.

Introduction by: Alexander McCall-Smith