
a novel about Christmas past and present
about living and loving
about losing and finding
It’s half past four on Christmas Eve, 1976. Lori Bloom, aged three and three quarters, is leaving a busy department store with her mother when the tannoy announces that a child in reception is lost and crying for her parents.
The impact on Lori is immediate. ‘Calippa Cumberland’, the mysterious girl with blond hair and a curious name, becomes her imaginary friend and a constant presence into adulthood. For as one Christmas follows another, Lori finds herself confronting painful questions and in need of a companion in whom she can confide.
But will there ever be someone Lori can completely trust? And will Christmas Eve ever be about finding and being found, rather than losing and being lost?
This is a challenging story that faces the reality of the human condition:
- the relentless passing of time
- the searing pain of loving and losing
- the astonishing power of the imagination for both good and evil
But it is also a Yuletide tale to warm the heart and offer hope:
- hope that what is lost can be recovered
- hope that lasting friendship can be found
- hope that the Christmas can be all we ever wished it could be
Talking to Calippa Cumberland is Chick Yuill’s sixth novel to be published by Instant Apostle and has all the characteristics that have endeared him to his growing band of faithful readers – a cast of convincing characters who linger in the mind long after the book has been closed, a series of revealing events and encounters that propel the narrative ever forward, and an ending that is as satisfying as it is surprising.
Praise for Chick Yuill’s previous writing:
‘I was totally mesmerised. It’s one of those rare books which is genuinely un-put-downable.
For anyone who likes a hard-hitting novel which addresses serious issues head on,
I heartily recommend this.’
(Anne Rogers on The Man Who Broke into St Peter’s in Together Magazine)
As with Chick’s previous novels, all author royalties are being donated to charity.
This time his chosen charity is Compassion (UK).
Talking to Calippa Cumberland by Chick Yuill (ISBN: 978191272648-6) is published by Instant Apostle and is available on 22nd October 2021 from bookshops and online retailers. Fiction, paperback, 224pp, £9.99.