I think The Christmas Carol, synonymous of Charles Dickens is a well-known story and one that I can read again and again at this time of year. Liz Fenwick has taken the premise, the structure and the approach and given it a Cornish twist in this her short story.
Abigail is avoiding Christmas at all costs, she has done it before she can do it again and she can avoid a Cornish Christmas which were the ones she loved the most when she was a child.
Trouble is the journalist she was sending to Cornwall to cover the carols there is forbidden to fly due to her pregnancy, there is no one else to go apart from Abigail. She has to go.
She has to confront everything she has left behind in her drive to get to the top of her profession, but with this trip to Cornwall she is in fact going back to basics and back to the very beginning and she is going to confront everything that Scrooge had to face.
Will Abigail discover herself again? Or will she drive through everyone and still come out on top?
Within the pages of this short story, the author has you guessing about the past of Abigail, as you try and fit all the pieces together that form herbackground. Anyone that can do that, give you characters to love and hate in equal measure, as well as bring the Cornish countryside to life is on to a winner as a storyteller.
Read this and experience Liz Fenwick’s wonderful storytelling and I also promise it will make you want to go back and read Dickens’ version as well. Always difficult to base a tale on something so well-known but the author pulls it off here with aplomb.
A Cornish Christmas Carol is out now.
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