A blackly funny, tender dissection of the meaning of love - family love, sibling love, children love - Comfort and Joy will make you laugh and cry. Written by a Sunday Times columnist, it's a portrait of family Christmases over three years.  It’s very astute, a sort of extension of her column, a vehicle to air her views on marriage, child rearing, love, manners and relationships.

Comparison: Adele Parks, Adele Parks, Emily Barr
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Synopsis

'I'd say Christmas was about hope. Yeah. Hope. And optimism. It's like the fairy tales in the window: for families, every Christmas is a new opportunity for Happy Ever After. No pressure, then...' Oxford Street, two shopping days left to Christmas, and wife and mum Clara Dunphy is desperately, madly trying to make everything, not perfect, but just right for her extended family on the greatest day of the year. But then she gets distracted...

Reviews

'Breathless, -colourful, hilarious and honest; the dialogue is sitcom-snappy and the opening scenes in Oxford Street positively Joycean' - Wendy Holden, Daily Mail

'So kindly and funny and affectionate that you could probably warm your hands on it. Miraculously, this is a feel-good story that manages not to be saccharine. There are a great many good jokes here ... but concealed amid the fun, like silver coins in a Christmas pudding, is a serious theme. This is a book you could safely give to practically anyone. Snap up plenty of copies to hand around under the tree' Spectator

'I loved Comfort and Joy, a hilarious, bawdy yet touching portrait of Christmas over three years' - Jilly Cooper Guardian, Books of the Year

'Fabulous. Laugh-out-loud funny, moving and as cuddly as Santa Claus, this is perfect for snuggling up with over the Christmas holidays' Cosmopolitan

'Touching...it will make you laugh, maybe make you cry and keep you reading past bedtim'e - Lauren Laverne, Grazia

'A wickedly funny, painfully honest look at families, festivities and romantic love' Marie Claire

'Tender, tough, schmaltzy, witty and heart-warming all at once. Knight has a great comic touch - there are some wonderfully rude bits and a fantastic rant about the ridiculous expectations piled on 21st-century women to be perfect - and writes with a deceptive lightness. At the heart of this funny, affectionate novel is an acknowledgement that families, like love, come in odd shapes and sizes, and that both matter more than anything Metro Witty enough to make you laugh out loud, but there are moments of real emotion that keep the book from being too light' Psychologies

'A superb ear for dialogue...wonderfully comic' Evening Standard

'Riotously high in laughs and glamour. I defy a festive grump not to be cheered by it' Independent Books of the Year

'Fast-paced and funny' Women & Home

About the Author

India Knight was born in 1965. She is the author of two novels for adults, My Life on a Plate and Don’t You Want Me?, a non-fiction collection of essays The Shops, and a book for children called The Baby. India also writes a column for the Sunday Times, alongside other newspapers and magazines. She lives in London E8 and is a mother of three.   Author photo © Francesco Guidicini More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation