The book contains a story within a story and certainly reminds me of the magic of Christmas.

If you had lived in Hamburg in the fourteenth century, or Venice in the ninth century, you might have glimpsed – just for a second – a strange procession rushing past and out of sight. There were, at different times, a little girl, a flock of sheep, shepherds, angels, a Roman governor and the Emperor Augustus, and they were hurrying to Bethlehem to see the Christ-child.

The little girl was Elisabet Hansen, who disappeared from Norway at Christmas in 1948. Years later, a young boy called Joachim opens the 24 doors of a magic Advent calendar and pieces together Elisabet’s story – how she was taken on an astonishing journey, not just from Norway to Bethlehem but back through two thousand years of history.*

Now all that remains is for me reach 24 on the church candle that I bought in York Minster. It is such a good quality candle it is taking a lot longer to get through than the book

*From inside front book flap.