The Christmas Ark
Why did magic leave our world? What happened to the goblins, elves and fairies that used to inhabit the tales of yesterday? What if they were coming back?
London, winter 1858. Amory, an eight-year-old boy, carries water buckets throughout the iced streets of the city. In order to survive, the orphan is responsible of the drinking troughs in a fancy neighbourhood. The evenings, Amory takes shelter in the attics of a very selective Club. There, he is warm and feels safe. He can doze while listening to the lords and baronets talking…
One day though, he is awaken by shouting voices. Intrigued, the boy observes the scene: angry noblemen are hurling abuse at a man who is brandishing a grimoire that seems invaluable to him. The subject of the book: fairies, goblins, every magic creature, and the reason why they disappeared, a thousand years ago…
This is how begins The Christmas Ark. It is followed by Duane Reilly’s small hopes, in which we discover the misfortunes of a little Irish boy who seen the good side of everything; Christmas at Coldbath Fields, in which Bernabas Witham, victim of a judicial error, learns that Chance sometimes wear a long white beard and a red overcoat; Santa Claus’s spanking, in which Black Peter’s biography is revealed…
Discover moving, happy and mysterious tales to remember the spirit of Christmas and the magic of childhood.
