Former Leamington resident releases collection of short Christmas stories featuring the town

Francis, an author who lived in Leamington from 1963 to 1987, has recently brought out a collection of festive short stories called Someone’s Christmas.

Some of the tales are set in the town and he has said how he remembers growing up in Leamington in the 1970s and having friends who worked the Christmas post, or in Currys at the top of the parade.

Francis said: “Some of the stories are happy, some more poignant, but none of them are your traditional Christmas stories.

"Christmas means different things to different people,” he explained. “For some it is Church, but for others it is presents, food and the Christmas walk on Willes Meadow.”

At the launch of the book, Francis read two of the stories from the collection including a shorter one about buying presents and a longer one about the big Christmas meal.

Brian Graham, founder member of Abbey Road Spoken Word Group where the book launch took place, said, “People laughed at the idiocy of Christmas shopping, but we were silenced by the pathos of the meal.

"We have a wide variety of writers in our group and it is good to celebrate the completion of a collection like this."

For more information about ‘Someone’s Christmas’ visit www.fjpc.co.uk or visit Amazon to buy copies.