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    A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories
    A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories
    A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories
    Ebook68 pages45 minutes

    A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories

    By Ian Ashley

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    About this ebook

    It's Christmas in Biddermouth on Sea and the inhabitants of this small English seaside town are getting ready for the BIG DAY only as usual the lives of Maureen, Beattie and their friends and neighbours never run as smooth as they would like. This collection of short stories follows them through the run up to the climax of the festive season.including a breast-feeding riot, the traditional Mince Pie Eating Competition and a burst pipe that threatens to ruin the Biddermouth On Sea nativity scene.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIan Ashley
    Release dateNov 28, 2015
    ISBN9781311587619
    A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories
    Author

    Ian Ashley

    Born and raised in United Kingdom and living in the historic English market town of Newbury in Berkshire, England and author of 'BELL, BOOK & HANDBAG' and a collection of 30 short stories 'TOURIST TROUBLE'. Both soon to be available on SMASHWORDS. (http://ianashley.co.uk/books.html )Ian is also the creator of the 'BIDDERMOUTH GAZETTE' a highly readable weekly blog about the life of the inhabitants of a small English seaside town. http://biddermouthgazette.ianashley.co.uk

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      Book preview

      A Festive Falling Out And Other Christmas Short Stories - Ian Ashley

      A Festive Falling Out

      &

      other short

      Christmas Stories

      By

      Ian Ashley

      Copyright 2015 Ian Ashley

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edtion

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or givem away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only then please return it Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Introduction from the author

      These short stories began life as a weekly blog for my friends who had enjoyed the exploits of Maureen and Beattie in my novel ‘Bell, Book & Handbag. Then something exciting happened. Strangers started reading them, leaving comments and talking about The Biddermouth Gazette on social media. Now Beattie and Maureen plus their friends enjoy a world-wide following of regular readers from as far away as Japan.

      Biddermouth on Sea may not exist (and some readers have tried to look it up without success) but the trials and tribulations of everyday life the stories reflect are real enough. The humour is warm, the gossip is biting and the retribution for anybody getting above their station is usually swift. It’s a small world and if you’ve ever lived in a quiet English town you’ll recognise many of the situations – if you haven’t then in this collection you can still enjoy a slice of English life viewed sideways.

      Bell, Book & Handbag is available on http://ianashley.co.uk/books.html

      Tourist Trouble is available on http://ianashley.co.uk/books.html

      More short stories from the Biddermouth Gazette are available at http://ianashley.co.uk/blog.html

      More details are available at http://www.ianashley.co.uk

      Table of Contents

      A Festive Falling Out

      Dial 999 For Christmas

      Big Money Bingo

      Black Friday Madness

      It’s The Thought That Counts

      Breast Feeding Ruins Mince Pie Eating Contest

      Dark Forces Ruin Christmas

      Panto Dilemma t

      Biddermouth Christmas Legends

      The Biddermouth Tree

      Dowsing the Virgin

      A Grave Mistake

      The Trouble With New Year

      A Festive Falling Out

      Christmas is a funny time of year isn’t it? For something that started out as a message of peace and goodwill to all men it doesn’t half seem to bring out the worst in people. I mean we’re only in the middle of November and already two of our friends are not on speaking terms over the casting of the nativity play at St Matthews and All Angels. Thankfully not having grandchildren means that neither Beattie nor I have to take sides but that doesn’t stop Vera and Hilary trying to pull us into one camp or the other.

      Now traditionally that Sunday night before Christmas provides an ideal opportunity for hatchets to be buried, a rousing rendition of ‘Hark the herald angels sing,’ and in the case of Stella Wheatley the chance to spread a bit more goodwill to all men, especially the ones sat at the back who have had a drop too much to drink and managed to escape from their wives for a couple of hours. It also gives the local play group a chance to dress up as angels whilst the older children who aren’t subject to ASBO’s get the speaking parts. Of course over the years even that has been radically altered since none of the proud parents are allowed to take photographs lest one of them turns out to have a thing about toddlers dressed as beasts of the field.

      However not only did Vera’s three year old granddaughter fail to make it through to the final round of the heavenly host but to make matters worse Hilary’s eldest

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