I was on Silver Sound with fellow-presenter Mervyn yesterday in a show devoted to all things Christmas. I had selected three of my favourite Christmassy reads. These are the ones I chose:- The Pickwick Papers , Charles Dickens What can I say? It’s Charles Dickens. Of course, his most famous Christmas story is A Christmas Carol , and very lovely it is, but my favourite happens to be the “good-humoured Christmas Chapter” (Chapter 28, continued in Chapter 29) of The Pickwick Papers . Mr Pickwick and his friends spend the holiday in the country with their friends the Wardles. The Pickwickian Christmas has got everything: Christmas cheer, kisses under the mistletoe, dancing, eating, drinking, skating. There’s a Christmas wedding. Best of all, there’s a Christmas ghost story – The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton . It’s “a season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness…gay and merry…Happy, happy Christmas…” What if it is Christmas as it ought to be and which it...

Today’s guest was historical novelist Helen Hollick. Helen’s books include the Pendragon Trilogy , about King Arthur; A Hollow Crown about Emma of Normandy; and Harold the King about the Norman conquest of England. Her latest books are the Sea Witch Voyages , which tell the adventures of rather dashing pirate Jesamiah Acorne and his lover, Tiola. Set in the early eighteenth-century, the Sea Witch Voyages are a heady blend of historical fact, historical fiction and a dash of fantasy – Tiola is a white witch, midwife and healer. To date there are five books in the Sea Witch series, with another one planned. Helen is also about to publish a non-fiction book about pirates.  Helen Hollick, author of the Sea Witch Voyage s Helen lives with her husband, daughter and son-in-law in North Devon – the county where both Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were born. A lot of her time is taken up with looking after her daughter’s show horses, three Exmoor ponies,...

I’m so excited about my latest book purchase I just have to share it! I’ve just acquired a copy of Cicely Hamilton’s autobiography, Life Errant (London: J M Dent and Sons, 1935) – so the latest Spotlight On is about Cicely Hamilton.  Cicely Hamilton (1872–1952) is one of my writing heroines. She was a suffrage campaigner who joined the militant Women’s Social and Political Union founded by Mrs Pankhurst, and wrote the words for the WSPU anthem, The March of the Women , music by Ethel Smythe. Later critical of the dictatorial style of the Pankhursts, she left the WSPU to join the Women’s Freedom League, and edited their paper The Vote . In 1908 she founded the Women Writers’ Suffrage League and the Actresses’ Franchise League.   Cicely Hamilton's autobiography, Life Errant She achieved success with her play Diana of Dobson’s in 1908, and went on to write a   number of suffrage plays with her friend Christopher St John (born Christabel Marshall, 1...