I always 'do a Dickens' each winter, hoping to read them all before I shuffle off, and this is a good warm up to get my ear in before I begin Edwin Drood.

A novella, in the Christmas Carol mode, with a man haunted by a spectre who teaches him a life lesson. The poor chap's issue is somewhat more complex than Ebenezer Scrooge's. He is stewing on past hurts and has the choice of being relieved of the pain of those hurts on two conditions - that he is also loses the memories of the cause, and that he passes the contract on to everyone he meets. As in A Christmas Carol, events take place over one night and conclude on Christmas morning. The more gnostic 'message' and the complexity of the contract was, I found, difficult to hang on too - I have the same problem with existentialism! The characters were the usual mix of the jolly poor alongside the disenchanted middle class, and I was taken with some of the characters, notably, (and in thrall to authorial manipulation) of course, benighted Johnny and his burden. It was satisfyingly concluded and I am glad I read it - tick!