Comfort and Joy

''Riotously high in laughs and glamour. I defy a festive grump not to be cheered by it.'' --_Independent_ (London), a Book of the Year

''Laugh-out-loud funny . . . Perfect for snuggling up with over the Christmas holidays.'' --_Cosmopolitan_ (UK)

''A wickedly funny, painfully honest look at families, festivities, and romantic love.'' --_Marie Claire_

If Bridget Jones had two ex-husbands, three children, and invited her entire extended family over for Christmas...

It's December 23, and Clara Dunphy is running around Oxford Street like a chicken with its head cut off trying to pick up "a few last- minute bits and bobs." Despite the frenzy, the twice-divorced mother of three loves Christmas and always wants to make it perfect. A challenge even in the best of times, but particularly when "family" means an extended network of in-laws, out-laws, ex-stepfathers, and hangers-on, totaling sixteen. Is the madness of Christmas really worth it? Clara is a witty, blackly funny everywoman who will win over anyone who has ever longed to shut out the holidays with "a giant martini . . . and some olives."