This collection of 32 stories, anecdotes and reflections drawn from a period of ten years or so in Woman and Home are grouped around the themes of Christmas, Easter and life in general. These pieces range from: the story of a poor coloured child at a Christmas service in South Africa without a present because his father had recently been killed; an imagined piece in which the innkeeper's wife gives her account of the birth of Christ; and an account of the author's gruff, practical father's gift to his wife. Stuart Jackman is the author of The Davidson Affair.