Julia Williams - It’s a Wonderful Life - The Christmas bestseller is back with an unforgettable holiday romance

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2016

Copyright © Julia Williams 2016

Julia Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9781847563606

Ebook Edition © November 2016 ISBN: 9780007464517

Version: 2016-09-20

‘Heartwarming, witty and magical … I shed a few tears!’

SUN

‘As essential as tinsel and turkey if you want to get into that warm, fuzzy mood for Christmas’

Closer

‘Terrifically warm, with lovely, lively characters’

Fiona Walker

‘Warm and completely irresistible!’

Chick Lit Central

‘A brilliant read … absolutely wonderful’

Cosmochicklitan

‘Heartwarming and engaging … poignant’

OneMorePage

‘This story warms you like a cosy cup of cocoa’

Closer

To my family, who light up my life

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Praise for Julia Williams

Dedication

Prologue

Part One: The Journey Begins …

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Part Two: A Long Way Home

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Part Three: A Long Way From Home

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Part Four: The Way Home

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

The Littlest Angel

Keep Reading …

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I have a wonderful life. No, really I do. I’m very lucky. I am pretty healthy, I have a lovely husband and two kids who, if no longer at the adorable stage, still make me laugh on a regular basis, as well as giving me the usual frustrations teenagers do. I have a good career as a picture-book artist, and a family that loves me. Why can’t I be satisfied with my lot? I know my sister, Lou, would never understand, but sometimes I feel as if life is passing me by. Is this all there is? It feels so ungrateful, and yet I can’t stop myself from feeling like this. If my life is so damned brilliant, why do I feel there’s something missing?

It’s a gorgeously hot afternoon in August. I am sitting in my kitchen with the patio doors wide open, to let the little breeze there is in, staring at an email I’ve received this morning from my editor, Karen. I’ve been looking at it for several hours, in between trying to get a sketch right for my new picture book. Inspiration isn’t flowing, and several pieces of paper are scattered on the floor.

The Littlest Angel synopsis

By Beth King

This is the story of a little angel, whose job it is to find the baby Jesus. She sets out with a band of angels and gets lost. All she knows is a special baby is being born in Bethlehem, and she has to follow a magic star which has risen in the East in order to get to him.

On her journey she meets a young shepherd boy, a page, a camel, a donkey and finally some sheep, who lead her to where the baby Jesus is. She is the first angel there and sings him the first ever carol.

Beth, I just love this story. And the spreads you’ve worked up are really wonderful. I know we’ll get a lot of interest in this one, I’m only sorry that I won’t be able to take you all the way through, but as you know, my own little arrival is about to put in an entrance. It’s been great working with you, and I’m sure you’ll be in good hands with Vanessa.

I’m wishing you great success for your little angel. You deserve it so much.

Much love

Karen x

It’s great that Karen likes my new idea, not so great that she’s gone on maternity leave during the biggest crisis of my career. Just as I pick up another version of the spread, and decide it’s as rubbish as the rest, I’m sidelined by my mother ringing.

‘So, what are your plans for Christmas?’

Typical Mum, straight to the point as usual.

I swear she asks this question earlier and earlier every year. Just in case Daniel and I have made devious plans to escape the Holroyd Family Christmas and booked a week away somewhere. As if we would. As if we could.

‘Mum, it’s August!’ I protest. I scrumple up the sketch and throw it on the floor, where it joins all the other discarded pieces of paper. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me, I don’t normally find it this hard to get my ideas down.

‘And soon it will be September and you’ll be too busy to talk to me.’ My mum does such a good line in passive aggression. I not only speak to her every other day, I’m usually round her house once a week. I am after all the dutiful one of the family. This is my job, while my erstwhile brother, Ged, takes gap years aged thirty-six and at thirty-eight my sister Lou lurches from one disastrous love affair to another. I’m the one who did things right: had a family, moved close to Mum and Dad.

They still live in the cosy cottage where I grew up in the small Surrey town of Abinger Lea. Our house is about a mile away from them. Initially we stayed nearer to London, in the house Daniel’s mum left him, but then when the children came along I needed some help and it seemed like a no-brainer to come here. We like being close to the countryside while having good train links with London, which has been useful for my work. Daniel used to work in an inner-London comprehensive, but he’s just about to start a job in the slightly larger town of Wottonleigh, which is only three miles away. That’s going to make life a lot easier.