We have a bonus Author in the Festive Spotlight this week. Martin Davis, author of cosy crime novel Mrs Hudson and the Christmas Canary, is answering my festive questions today.
Welcome Martin. First of all, would you tell my blog readers a little about yourself?
Christmas, it’s often said, is a time for family, so I asked my son to answer this one for me:
‘He’s an all-right dad, but sometimes he’s really annoying. His most annoying habit is foraging for things in hedges. His books are actually quite good. He’s good about driving me to places. The dog loves him. He really likes Christmas. His best Christmas habit is that he loves Christmas trees, but he never wants to put them up as early as everyone else, and then he always makes us keep them up till Twelfth Night.’
In a nutshell, what is your Christmas book about?
December in Victorian London, and fowl deeds are afoot – someone is sending unsolicited gifts of live hens to eminent gentlemen. But why? And how are the recipients linked? Meanwhile, a drunkard stumbles into Baker Street with a strange question about Christmas trees; a world famous violinist steps out for a breath of air and disappears; a magician’s hat goes missing on the train to Bognor; and Sherlock Holmes is intrigued by strange goings-on in a stately home.
Could all these things be linked to the daring theft, some twenty years earlier, of a golden Christmas decoration belong to the sixth Lord Empingham? It is up to Mr Holmes’ house maid, Flotsam – with a little help from the great detective’s housekeeper – to reveal a timeless love story and to restore the famous Christmas Canary to the dying lord.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I confess that the title came first and the book followed.
How do you plan to celebrate Christmas this year?
I’m going to be in New Zealand for a family wedding. I confess to a pang at missing out on a Northern Hemisphere Christmas.
You have £5 to buy a Secret Santa gift – what would you buy?
A fiver on Tranmere Rovers to be promoted. It doesn’t happen very often, but if it does, I’d like to think that I’d spread the joy.
What’s your favourite Christmas song?
‘Silent Night’, as played on the little clockwork church that was my grandparents’. It is very out of tune, and you have to nudge the fly-wheel thing with a finger to make it play. But I love it.
[Well I couldn’t find a clockwork church recording so here, have Charlotte Church instead!]
What’s your essential Christmas food or drink?
I generally start panic-buying panettone sometime in the first week of December.
What Christmas book are you looking forward to reading this year?
This year and every year, Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. It never grows stale.
How can people follow you or connect with you on social media?
www.martindaviesauthor.com or MartinDaviesAuthor on Facebook. Or if you’d like to see a clip of my dog looking for chicken, you could try me on Instagram.
And finally, what’s your favourite Christmas tree decoration?
The tumbling snowman? The man with a big fish? The very old homemade one which looks a bit like a shiny blue poo? No, there are too many special ones to choose from. Even the small, slightly rusty silver bauble that I found one summer under a hedge at my parents’ house in Wales holds a surprisingly fond place in my heart.
Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour
You can order a copy of the book here: Mrs Hudson and the Christmas Canary
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