Book - Comfort & Joy, India Knight

You know when you are on the first page of a book and you love it? That.I don’t think this has happened before but somewhere near the bottom of that first page, I fell in love with this book. Not that’s its surprising, India Knight is one of my favourite (Sunday Times) writers but I have had a disappointing experience with one before. What I love immediately is the language, it’s ordinary, and it’s how we speak which fills me with inspiration by the end of the page one. Why? Because I write how I talk too, as you can see.It’s not just me who thinks the book opens well, there’s a review on the back cover talking about the fantastic descriptive scenes of Oxford Street a couple of days before Christmas. Only a man from the moon would go to this shopping heaven/hell at this time of year (him and the 2 million other people there) and our heroine Clara, despite loving Christmas and being organised, has still forgotten some presents.Clara has grown up in Notting Hill (‘when it wasn’t ‘Notting Hill’’) and works for a glossy magazine. India Knight insists this is fiction but we do draw from our own lives and it is not clear what Clara does but she probably writes as she has an editor. However, the book doesn’t delve into her work as it is set over three Christmases.The scores of cast are full on as there are many extended families. Clara has been married twice, Kate – as she calls her Mum, 4 times and there are two sisters. That’s before we get into husbands’ families and best friends husbands etc.With all this chaos, somehow the book grips you as you wait to see what unfolds for every brilliant character, even those with bit parts that pop up now and then. Yes it’s a Christmas book, which I didn’t notice until before I selected it but it doesn’t take reading during the holidays to make this magical.The book is a joy to read and as a writer, an inspiration.8½/10Inspiration factor 10/10