Welcome to another Christmas Reads post. This week I’m featuring The Little Christmas Library by David M Barnett. David has written several novels but this is his first festive romcom. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to David about his book and his favourite Christmas traditions.

THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS LIBRARY

Molly McGinley has had enough of London and, feeling like a failure, heads home to the unremarkable Northern town of Merry-le-Moors, to move back in with dad Jack for Christmas.

Jack, still mourning the loss of his wife and Molly’s mum ten years ago, nevertheless maintains a positive outlook on life, and to lift Molly from her slump insists she goes out with him on his daily rounds driving the town’s mobile library.

When an elderly man, Cliff, starts coming into the library for warmth and companionship, Jack and Molly provide tea and sympathy… and begin to attract the lost, lonely and jaded people of Merry-le-Moors, who gather each day at the mobile library to talk about books, life and love. Each of them is searching for something in life, and Jack and Molly know just how to find it in the library.

As friendships – and more – begin to form, Christmas approaches… and so does a dark cloud on the horizon. The library is under threat, and so too the fragile friendships that have been formed.

But this is Christmas, after all, and magic – like love – can be found in the most unlikely places.

Buy Link:

 https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/titles/david-m-barnett/the-little-christmas-library/9781398725119/

Welcome to my blog, David. Do you have any favourite family Christmas traditions? If so, what are they?

When the children were younger we always used to ceremoniously leave a carrot for Rudolph and a glass of sherry for Father Christmas on the hearth. In the morning, the glass would be empty and a huge bite taken out of the carrot. This went on for many years, until one year… well, let’s just say I fell asleep on the sofa after perhaps one too many Bailey’s, and must have caused Santa to have to rush to do his present drop so as not to wake me. In the morning, the carrot and sherry were untouched. Honestly, I think that’s the moment I ruined Christmas forever.

When do you open your Christmas presents?

Now the children are older — 20 and 21! God! That makes me feel ancient — it tends to be when they drag themselves out of bed, as opposed to the 6am or 7am it used to be. That has to be fitted around me going to collect the grandparents to come for Christmas dinner, so usually some time in the morning.

If you could invite any author living or dead to share your Christmas lunch, who would it be?

I bet everybody says Charles Dickens, don’t they? Well, I’m going to say Charles Dickens too. He’s Mr Christmas, after all. He’d be very complimentary about the spread, he’d probably bring a fine bottle of something, and then he’d regale us with a reading from his latest festive work after lunch. He’d probably be able to get us all on the guest-list for Mr Fezziwig’s Christmas Ball, as well.

What book would you like to find in your Christmas stocking?

I am coveting a copy of the Reader’s Digest Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain book from the 1970s. They tend to go for silly money on eBay, and I’m hoping to stumble across one in a charity shop one day. It really is the Holy Grail of popular folklore textbooks.

Fingers crossed you find a copy in your stocking this year, David!

Meet David

Author bio

David Barnett is a journalist, author and comic book writer. He lives in West Yorkshire, though is originally from Wigan, Lancashire. He writes on a variety of subjects for the national media, and this year has had two books released, WITHERED HILL, a folk horror novel from Canelo, and THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS LIBRARY, a festive rom-com published by Orion.

Contact links

Website: davidbarnett.com,

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidmbarnett.bsky.social,

Threads: @davidmbarnett,

journalism: author.com/davidbarnett

Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today David. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and lots of writing success in 2025.