Jack Frazer is resigned to spending Christmas in the country with his family, even knowing that his grandmother has invited a young lady and her family with the specific intention of matchmaking for him. His grandmother has also invited the newly widowed Isabella, Comtesse de Vacheron, an acclaimed actress, and her two children. The whole family is delighted to have the comtesse among them to enliven their traditional family theatricals. All except Jack, that is. He once lived with Isabella for a whole year and has been unable to forget her in the nine years since.

Mistletoe, Maine, is buzzing and not just because Christmas is around the corner! Dante West, local cutie-turned-Hollywood hunk, is returning home to make his next movie. Everyone in town is excited . . . except librarian Lucy Marshall. When Dante took off for LA without warning—or even a goodbye—he broke Lucy’s heart. She swore not to spend one more minute thinking about her ex, but Dante makes an offer Lucy’s struggling library can’t refuse: a major donation to film on-site. Dante is thrilled to help boost his hometown’s economy and finally begin making amends to the people he hurt years ago when he left, starting with Lucy. But seeing his former best friend on set every day feels a lot less like closure and more like a fresh start. It’s one thing for Dante to fall for Lucy all over again, quite another for a famous movie star and a small-town librarian to find lasting romance. Can the magic of the holiday season give Lucy and Dante’s first love a second chance?

Perfect for pupils aged 11+, this stage version of Dickens' classic tale uses John Mortimer's much-loved dramatisation first produced by the RSC in 1994. This educational edition in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Building on a decade of highly effective work and publications endorsed by national organisations and supported by teachers and consultants across Britain, each book in the series: - meets the new requirements at KS3 and GCSE (2010) - features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis - places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities - will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3 - will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources. Dickens' tale of cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge has delighted generations of readers. This edition of the National Curriculum recommended author's work provides an engaging, active approach to studying the Literary Heritage and developing a range of reading, writing and speaking skills. Combining Mortimer's acclaimed adaptation with expertly written activities, this is the perfect edition for classroom use.

THE STORY: An adaptation of the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's journey from an embittered, ungenerous creature into a giving, caring human being at the hands of three spirits, who, one Christmas Eve, show him what life means. Of his new stage version

Holiday Cheer from the Antebellum South! Columbia, South Carolina. December 24, 1862. It is the week of the Christmas Raid of Kentucky and the height of the war among the states. The chill in the air carries hickory-scented plumes of smoke upward from colonial chimneys. Within Antebellum homes, Confederate soldiers cuddle-up with southern belles beneath mistletoe and share mint jelly, ambrosia, and chestnuts from the hearth. Ebenezer Scrooge, wealthy plantation owner, will have none of it. That is, until the miserly curmudgeon is haunted by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future and forced to review his wasted life of misanthropy. Never straying in message from Charles Dickens novella, Chris Cook has set the Christmas classic in the American Civil War, a time of strife and struggle not unlike the pain and poverty that belied 1830s Dickensian London. Also included is a delightful companion piece to the play. CONFEDERATE BILL, Memoir of a Civil War Veteran is the real-life autobiography by Cooks great, great grandfather, William E. Trahern. Published for the first time ever, it is an important piece of history, documenting the adventures and vagaries of a young rebel soldier. Both stories are southern-fried treats! Yule love em!