By nature I tend to be a tree person rather than a wood person but I console myself with the thought that at least I recognize it and consciously try to look beyond the details. But there are some things that just bug me.
I'm reading Norman Collins' London Belongs to Me which is a suitably undemanding bit of entertainment for a dark February evening. It's second rate Dickens by way of Priestley but let's be honest I don't always feel like Proust after a hard day at t' mill. So the thing is this: the action in chapter one starts on the afternoon of the 23rd December 1938 and it is implied that this is Christmas Eve, but the events of chapter two seem to take place the following morning, which is Christmas Day. How can this be?
Did Londoners in the 1930s celebrate Christmas in the continental fashion? Is the date a typo? Or is a day of the action just skipped? It is all very mysterious.
I've searched the all knowing WWW but come up with nothing apart from an Irishman asking the same question on a message board (and getting no reply). Does anyone know the answer?
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Because of the "look inside" feature of Amazon we can read the whole of Chapter 1 for free. But we don't need to because the reference to Chrismas Eve appears in thew second paragraph.
My interpretation would be that it feels (to Mr Battlebury) like Christmas Eve because it is Friday evening and his last opportunity to buy last minute presents - Christmas Day being Sunday and assuming that he doesn't work on Saturday.
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