In the early 1840s, Charles Dickens wrote a special Christmas-themed story for his magazine ‘Household Words’, which was intended to be read aloud around the family fireside. It was called ‘A Christmas Carol’ and it was so successful that he wrote several more Christmas stories in the next few years, most of them featuring a paranormal element. Then in 1852 he published five of them together as a book. This is a new edition of that book.

‘A Christmas Carol’ is by far the best known of these stories with its ghosts, its antihero Ebenezer Scrooge and his ‘Bah! Humbug!’ Christmas catchphrase. I also enjoyed ‘The Chimes’ and ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ which I’d never heard of before. The final two stories, ‘The Battle of Life’ and ‘The Haunted Man’ didn’t seem up to the same standard. But the whole collection was a great read for the Christmas holidays!