BEST BOOKS ON... TWIXMAS

FOR some, Twixmas — this lazy, liminal period between Christmas and Hogmanay — is the most wonderful time of the year. No presentbuying or turkey-wrangling to fret about, plus you can enjoy the cream of the TV schedules.

The Quality Street tub may be down to everyone’s least favourites, but the stilton is still going — and smelling — strong.

Me, well, I like a bit of structure to push against. Traditionally, it is around now, feeling broken after several days of overindulging in an overheated house, that I will lose the plot completely if not taken out and briskly exercised.

I also miss the traditions this period used to have. In my childhood, shops closed properly; and when they reopened with grand sales, it was genuinely exciting. These days, consumers are bombarded by a constant dribble of discounting.

Many of us will be having a different kind of run-in to the New Year than planned. In the story Rumpole And The Health Farm Murder, collected in Rumpole At Christmas, the epicurean criminal barrister is dismayed by the decision of his wife Hilda to book them into Minchingham Hall health retreat over Christmas.

‘They’ll make sure there’s less of you by the time you leave,’ enthuses Hilda. But things don’t really work out as she hopes.

Twelve Nights, by acclaimed Swiss author Urs Faes, is a short but profound winter’s tale, recording a man’s retreat into the memories and landscape of his childhood.

Manfred has come to the Black Forest, over the Christmas period, to try to bridge a decades-long rift with his brother Sebastian. There, walking the snow-bound landscape, he must face down his demons. Just his own? In this period between the years, superstitious locals believe that unhappy spirits wander.

Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down both begin with characters looking back unhappily on the past year and despairing of the future. Then they meet the people who restore a sense of agency.

Whatever your Twixmas and New Year plans, make the most of them.