{"product_id":"five-gold-rings","title":"Five Gold Rings","description":"\u003cp data-lfile-container=\"ee92b56d-982a-4106-b998-96ecfe63635a\" data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNot every Christmas story ends with snow and a kiss. Some end with the council banning inflatables.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a Britain where the algorithm has made Christmas compulsory on the third Tuesday of every month, Marcus and Derek plan a rebellion from the basement of a Tesco. On Christmas Eve in Manchester, an emergency locksmith hears confessions from a wife who locked herself out on purpose. A new-build cul-de-sac goes to war over fairy lights. A widow in lockdown answers the door to find her much younger lover's partner on the step. A woman picks up a hitchhiker at Gordano services and asks him to be her fiancé for the weekend. In Hove, a couple inherits three French hens that turn out to be Swiss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd on a quiet street in the Midlands, Emily lays the table for a family that isn't coming.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFunny, bleak, tender and occasionally very rude, these fifteen stories are about the people hiding from Christmas as much as the people hosting it: the widowed, the sober, the skint, the ones who said they'd come and didn't. Two of them revisit characters from Mo Fanning's novels. One is narrated by a puppy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor readers of David Nicholls, Nina Stibbe and anyone who has ever hidden in the kitchen at a family party.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Spring Street Books","offers":[{"title":"Case Bound - PPC","offer_id":68013596475696,"sku":"9781068394768","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0262\/2357\/5085\/files\/9781068394768.jpg?v=1791879479","url":"https:\/\/www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk\/products\/five-gold-rings","provider":"The Great British Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}