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I have just started reading the most lovely book that I would like to recommend: William Winstanley, The Man who saved Christmas by Alison Barnes.

The Winstanley’s were a local family. William lived at Quendon in what sounds like a lovely old farmhouse called Berries, which sadly has been pulled down now. His nephew, Henry, lived at Littlebury and was the builder of the first Eddystone Lighthouse. Adam Hart-Davis wrote a fascinating book about him a while ago and that makes a good read too.

However back to William. He was a writer and very enthusiastic about Christmas. They were a religious family and he thought that a lovely way to celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas was to have huge family parties with lots of food and general merriment. They sound a lovely family and Alison’s descriptions of the preparations for Christmas - riding into Saffron Walden to purchase all the food and Anne’s cooking on the days leading up the celebrations make for wonderful feel-good reading. There are even some of the recipes from the cookbook Anne used in the back of the book.

I should have said that William lived from 1628 to 1698, so through the Puritan period when Christmas was banned (although the Winstanley’s along with many others, continued to celebrate). However it was William’s writing that encouraged people to start celebrating Christmas again when Charles II came back to the throne. William was a prodigious writer producing his own newspaper and an almanac that came out every November under the pen name of Poor Robin, as well as several books.

The book is produced by Poppyland Publishing who have some lovely looking books on their website.

If you are interested in history, local stories or just want a heart-warming read for Christmas I can highly recommend “William Winstanley - the man who saved Christmas”. You can buy it from Amazon or direct from Poppyland Publishing.

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