• December Newsletter

December Newsletter

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From the Desk

We’d like to begin the festive season with heartfelt good wishes to all our readers. December is a wonderful month, whether you’re getting together with family, celebrating with friends or planning a holiday that’s exactly your taste. There are those who never feel they’ve had a real break until they can lie about somewhere with a book, relaxing in the shade or stretched out on a beach. If I see someone reading on a park bench, on a bus or on the sand, I can never resist walking a bit closer to see if I can peek at the book title. One summer on Bondi beach I saw a bikini-clad reader holding up a massive novel by Margaret Atwood against the light: if it had slipped it would have caused severe facial damage, but it made a good sunshade … In such a scene it can be an enjoyable contrast to hear about midwinter in the northern hemisphere, so for a Christmas read from us, Click here to discover a love letter from a young Scotsman pining for his Australian girlfriend. This comes from The Sixty Miler by Norma Sim, a tender memoir about young, enduring passion, centred on Sydney in the 1950s, when coal ships still plied the New South Wales coast. Happy holidays and happy reading, everyone!

A 1950s Christmas letter that will make you smile

Winner of the 'Dear Dawn' contest
In October we invited readers to write to Dawn French. A signed copy of Dear Fatty goes to reader Jan Marsh, for this letter: Dear Dawn, Thank you for making me laugh. Thank you for encouraging me to think. Thank you for allowing me the audacity to appreciate myself, as myself, not some advertising marketer’s ideal woman shape. I absolutely love irony and the bite of satirical wit. Intelligent humour, I call it. The world, with all its faults and horrors, is a much more agreeable place, thanks to your passion for intelligent humour. Thanks Dawn.

This month we have a new contest for you: tell us in 300 words or less why you love your favourite Christmas book, to win a full-length deluxe edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Reader’s Digest World’s Best Reading).

Alexander McCall Smith and the Spirit of Christmas...
Best-selling Scots author Alexander McCall Smith (centred in the picture) is an amateur musician who has formed a private orchestra for fun, in Edinburgh — an idea that he explores in the charming novel we’re featuring in Select Editions this month. La’s Orchestra Saves the World tells the story of Lavender, a widow who retreats to the English countryside during WWII and tries to build a new life in the hard, uncertain war years. Her orchestra raises morale in unexpected ways.

Meet Alexander McCall Smith

Read a Christmas conversation from La’s Orchestra Saves the World

From the store

The Story of Danny Dunn

Local Balmain boy Danny Dunn has everything going for him: brains, looks and sporting prowess. But with just six months of his university degree left, he signs up for the AIF, driven by a desire to serve his country. After serving in south-east Asia for three and a half years, he returns home a broken man, embittered and facially disfigured. He knows full well his life will be very different from the life he led before the war.

Click here for more!

Parky: My Autobiography

From prizewinning journalist to chat show king, Michael Parkinson’s starry career spans over four decades. Now an international celebrity himself, the man from a humble but colourful Yorkshire mining family who can tease out the secrets of even the most reticent star guest, at last reveals his own story in Parky. A witty, humorous memoir that is a joy to read!

Click here for more!

Silent Scream

In this gripping new mystery featuring D.I Anna Travis, a young film star is found murdered after deciding to write her tell-all memoirs and there is no shortage of suspects . . .

Click here for more!

From Reader's Digest Interactive