Season of Goodwill

Season of Goodwill, as the title may purport to suggest, is about Christmas, or rather, Christmases. But, not the sort of Christmases any of us could easily relate to. The author's wonderful description of her early life in the country vividly takes us back to those balmy days of innocent childhood, when the world seemed a much safer place, and Christmas was a family event. We are then moved on to urban life and the pressures that distinguish it from rural existence. For the author, those pressures exposed themselves harshly in the changing relationships within the household; relationships which were tested to the absolute limit, resulting in Christmas being a time of confusion and sadness. The author frankly, and with dauntless honesty, addresses the relationship with her parents, affording us a valuable insight into her strength and courage. This book is a revealing account of one child's memories of a time that should have been filled with love and happiness. Instead, her experiences of Christmas, which culminated in a final horror, ensured that she would never again be able to fully embrace the 'season of goodwill'.