FESTIVE GREETINGS, HURRAH AND PROMISES

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - and if you're celebrating something different - I hope that everybody has a fabulous time.

As usual, I seem to have ended up with too many presents still to wrap....

I've spent the morning cooking (a motley mixture of two different types of chilli and some cauliflower cheese! This is because my son's Christmas Eve party has now become an annual event) - and I know that there are a whole pile of things I should be doing - if only I could remember them.

But one of the reasons for my disorganisation is that I have spent the last few days tweaking my latest manuscript and my editor has just phoned to say that it's been accepted. Hurrah! What a lovely way to start the holiday!

So for all you readers who wanted to know if Zahid and Francesca had their own story - well, they do now!

For everyone who has read and commented on this blog - thank you. And for all the people who still haven't received their prize-winning books - these will be reaching you very soon.

Try to listen to the Carols From Kings - which start at 3pm GMT today, sung live from Cambridge - and which you should be able to access due to the marvels of modern technology. The sound of that lone choir-boy's voice is pure, spine-tingling perfection.

I wish you all peace. And love.

Sharon

TWO TYPES OF PIANO

Yesterday, I was singing carols around a baby-grand piano (and eating far too much pastry) during a glorious afternoon spent in London.

Hurtling by train through the foggy and still-frozen snowy fields of Hampshire - I was amazed to be greeted by bright blue skies and sunshine the minute I arrived in Canary Wharf.

And when I stood on the terrace of my friends' apartment - it looked and felt as if I was on a luxury cruise-liner, headed for some balmy destination.

It was also an extremely inspirational day - because this is exactly the kind of achingly-cool urban penthouse in which one of my heroes would live.

Look in the distance and you will see Renzo Piano's controversial Shard which is in the process of being built.




And here's the Christmas tree in the dining room. Quel view!

And the best carol?

Silent night, probably (especially the verse sung in German).

Or Good King Wenceslas (sung in parts).

But every one of them gave me the requisite lump-in-throat-now-where-on-earth-did-I-put-my-tissues?

What did you do which was inspirational this weekend?