One December Morning

One chance meeting. Two strangers. And a sprinkling of Christmas magic…

Fifty-five-year-old Peg has been lonely for as long as she can remember. As she battles through traffic while the snow softly falls around her, the best she can hope for is to get home for Christmas safely, and to spend it wrapped in a blanket by a roaring open fire in her tumbledown cottage in the Cotswolds. Little does she know that everything is about to change… Because Henry is also stuck on the road, and when their cars come to a complete standstill, he and Peg strike up a conversation over a homemade mince pie and a flask of hot tea. Towering over Peg, his navy waffle-knit jumper charmingly threadbare at the elbows, he chats effortlessly. With his tortoiseshell glasses pushed back into his mass of curly dark hair, Henry makes Peg laugh, and the two click. As something shifts, Peg realises that it’s been a long time since she smiled like this. Peg discovers that Henry is single too, but he’s off to grit his teeth through the forced jollity of another family Christmas with his insufferably perfect daughter-in-law in the next village. Before they get a chance to exchange numbers, the traffic starts to move and Peg and Henry are wrenched apart… She doesn’t expect to see him again. But then, days later, there’s a knock on Peg’s door: Henry needs her help. In an instant, she knows this will be a Christmas she’ll never forget, in ways she could never have imagined. Can she let herself get involved and risk being vulnerable, or will she shy away? Peg doesn’t open her heart to anyone. But can the magic of Christmas persuade her to give it to someone special…? Fans of One Day in December, Jill Mansell and Sally Page will adore this totally uplifting and page-turning novel of finding hope and love in the most unexpected of places.