This as your basic family Christmas tale really. You know the family are going to fall out, disagree or generally annoy each other and it’s unlikely to have a super happy group-hug type of ending. The story is narrated by 13 year old Theo as his extended family gather at his grandparents for Christmas 2008. The underlying conceit is that he’s narrating the story from 50 years after the events take place. On the whole I liked the book but didn’t think it was anything particularly special. The “50 years time” device is happily underplayed - too much of it would have annoyed me - but perhaps it’s so lightly done that it barely needs to be there and I didn’t really feel it added anything to the story in the end. A good four star book, but I’d have liked it to have been better.