A pleasant short story although I don't remember much about the resolution two weeks after the fact. It is important to accept the hiccups in life otherwise you can never move forward - Joyce portrays this so well. I think the idea could have been further developed, even within the short story format, to make this a more satisfying read. It is enough to have tiptoed to that space beyond the skin, beyond our nerve endings, and to have glimpsed things that beforehand we only half knew. Rachel Joyce has written over 20 original afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4, and major adaptations for both the Classic Series, Woman's Hour and also a TV drama adaptation for BBC 2.

It's a story about loss and love, renewal and change, giving up and letting go, reaching out and reaching in. I liked the way the main character’s very recent break-up is contrasted with all the commercial trappings of Christmas.Rachel Joyce, internationally bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Perfect, delivers an unforgettable Christmas story of moving on from lost love, now available exclusively as an e-short.

What sort of Christmas Binny’s children, Coco and Luke are going to get this year is anyone’s guess. It's not the happiest story you will read this season, but there are lessons to be learned, even if those lessons involve cleaning products. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading. A chance meeting with her polar opposite reveals a pain she hasn't dealt with, buried deep with memories and hurt. Perfect is a poignant and powerful book, rich with empathy and charged with beautiful, atmospheric writing.The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' is among my favorite books so I decided to give this work a go. I'm not much into short stories but the author has managed to infuse this short read with depth and emotion that far longer novels often fail to achieve. This author is new to me and I wanted to read this before undertaking her best-seller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which mostly caught my attention because of the elegant cover. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Even though the story is set at Christmas, the festive period is incidental and the story could have been set at any time.

Wonderfully written this account moves you emotionally and allows you to reflect on Christmas and truely prepare for this special time of year.Not all of the characters are well developed, primarily because of the short-story format, but there is enough flesh on them to make the story feel real. No sermons, without sentimentality Joyce's words wash over you and through these fictional events a deeper truth is revealed. Marketed as a Christmas story, I found Christmas to be incidental and that this tale could have been set at any time of year.