GROWING up in rural Leicestershire, as a child Marc Burrows remembers listening to his parents’ 1985 Christmas album. “Now That’s What I Call Music: The Christmas Album” was the first compilation of f

CAROLS are playing softly, their melodies floating into the kitchen where Miranda is standing at the hob, gently stirring mulled wine. From the bubbling pot, the smell of cinnamon and clove wafts thro

FROM the moment she entered the room, Zoe knew she’d made a big mistake. Seven pairs of eyes stared at her as if she’d just walked through the door stark naked. “Err, I’m not sure I’m in the right pla

I’M bored.” Ruth looked up from her magazine. How could something so crammed with TV programme listings have so little in it? “There’s nothing on, Max,” she said. Her husband turned his head. “Nothing

Christmas advertising has become an arms race, as British retailers vie to win the nation’s heart over the crucial festive season. Stuart McGurk reports

Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers