Christmas and Magic intertwine throughout the holiday season to create joy, hope and love. From elves solving disasters to angelic visitors, from opinionated talking toys to the temptation of the faerie folk, the stories in this collection bring more than a hint of magic to brighten winter evenings. Includes “The Sleigh Crash of ’74”, “Angels We Have Heard”, “Toy Shop Nights”, “Rules” and “Christmas Pipes”

George dreads the thought of Christmas without his father, until he finds a mysterious old ornamental pipe floating in a puddle near Londons Putney High Street. His world is turned upside down when it collides with the world of Veturlia, abode of elves who make exquisite Christmas gifts for humans. Veturlias annual delivery is under threat from a human infiltrator, a disillusioned spell-casting Sylthastrean and their band of evil grawkins. Why do they want the pipe and how will its safekeeping win the battle to save Christmas? A Christmas fantasy adventure featuring striking illustrations and sheet music.

Ralph William Larsen would have you think of his latest effort, DOCTOR OF PIPES, as you would a cracking good piece of hard candy, a Tootsie Pop of a book, its chewy center being the dog doody dull subject of briar pipe smoking. But as he asserts in his introduction to the very same book, yes, there are pipes here, lots of pipes. But for those who could care less about the stinky old habit of briar pipe smoking, yes again, there is lots more as well. As the author himself boldly asserts, when he's "writing well" - and we all must hope he is writing well here - the discussion of pipes is for him "but a safe harbor from which to sail forth toward some greater understandings." Within the teeming pages of DOCTOR OF PIPES you will encounter Dud, the stoner brother-in-law who good-naturedly drills holes in other peoples' pipes, Edgar Gower, the compassionate undertaker who goes the extra mile and places smoking pipes in the cold dead hands of corpses, Karl, the Buddha-like German POW who sits out WWII sporting soccer shorts and munching breakfast crumpets in four-star English hotels. For exotic flavoring there are even some up-to-no-good Russian Indian chiefs and the violent death-by-briar of the obnoxious Safari Man. And as the cherry on the sundae, you'll be treated to a whole host of worthless tidbits about how to smoke a pipe from a man who professes to know nothing about the subject. And hold onto your hats, because as if all that were not enough, there's even a series of priceless illustrations by Mr. Lizard (Michael Jodry), who has finally consented to play Ralph Steadman to the Ironist's Hunter S. Thompson. It almost sounds too good to be true. It's another verbal pinata, a grand mishmosh of high holy Ironist mirth.

This volume features pipes from all over the world, carved and molded in a vast array of forms, including classical models, some depicting human faces, others animals, arms, legs, shells, and a wide selection of out of the ordinary examples.

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