It's Chriiiissstmas!

Had a lovely evening at the Portico Prize dinner last night, in the majestic surroundings of Manchester Town Hall's Great Hall (lots of bees). I didn't win, but it was an honour just to be on the shortlist. I bought a copy of Madeleine Bunting's The Plot, the winner of the non-fiction category, which one of the judges called 'Sebaldian' – it has a lot to live up to! And the dinner itself contained a Mastercheffy trio of mini-desserts; so it wasn't so much a case of 'close, but no cigar' as 'close, and I got a chocolate cigar'. I pressed a copy of The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street on Stuart Maconie, who looked at me as if I was a nut job till it dawned on him I was a shortlistee and not a random punter.\

Now that a jingle of bells is audible in the distance and sales of suet are going through the roof, you're probably worried about what to buy all your friends and family for Christmas. Well, I've made things easier for you this year, with this instructional video:

It's Chriiiiisssstmas from Tony Williams on Vimeo.