The best Christmas novel of all

Advent and the pleasures of re-reading

If reading is a pleasure, re-reading is surely an even greater pleasure. When it comes to poetry, I’m not sure the first time even counts: if your reader doesn’t want to read your poem again immediately, you can hardly call it a success. And ‘re-reading’ more generally is somehow the proper pleasure of Christmas. In the British media, it’s semi-traditio…