Comfort and Joy

Reintroduces Clara from "My Life On A Plate" several years later, and is just as much of a comfort read as the earlier book.I'm already familiar with, and generally fond of, India Knight's world view and tone of voice and both are very much in evidence here. It's quite hard not to see this as wholly autobiographical although apparently it's only partially so.Either way it's funny and sweet and posh and opinionated and quite reminiscent of Nancy Mitford, and I really liked it.

As many other reviewers have said, I love India's writing. I have read all her other books, and am a regular reader of her column and posterous site. As such, I really wanted to love this book and found myself slightly disappointed that I only liked it. It was great in patches, and somewhat disappointing in others. India's writing style has great flair and panache, and that was still present. I was looking forward to meeting some of the characters from her previous works again, and it was fun to see what Clara is up to now, but as a whole the book really didn't work that well for me.The tone was uneven. Some of the narrative seemed rather rushed, and hastily put together. There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments, but there was less of the poignancy that Knight is so good at, which is the cement that holds her other books together. At times you get the impression that there were clearly deadlines looming, which is a shame, because Knight is a fluent, clever, affecting writer with interesting things to say, and it doesn't always come across here.If you are new to Knight's work as a novelist, start with her earlier novels, you won't be disappointed, she really can deliver the goods. Once you have seen what she can do you may be prepared to be more forgiving of this one's flaws.

Fed up of novels portraying Christmas as a happy time when everyone gets on and there is buckets of good will going around and you end up wondering where you went wrong? If so then this is the book for you!This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years and being a bit fed up with the traditional tinsel and turkey Christmas novel, I thought it was time to try this."Comfort and Joy" is separated into 3 parts. The book opens on December 23rd 2009 with Clara, a 40 year old mum of 3 running down Oxford Street in a frenzy buying last minute presents for her nearest and dearest whilst worrying that in 2 days time she has to put on a feast for 16 of her relatives and friends (however distant!). The book then moves to Christmas Day 2010 and then in part 3 onto Christmas Eve / Day 2011. Each time the characters get together and more is revealed about their lives through these dysfunctional gatherings.Through this book India Knight captures, in my opinion, the true stress of the festive season in a very funny way. The book made me smile and laugh out loud in parts but there is a serious message that family (although they may be irritating at times) are a very important part of our lives.An excellent read which captures the TRUE spirit of Christmas

I'm a big fan of India Knight, and bought Comfort and Joy as soon as I saw she had written a new novel. However, as a previous reviewer has said, this is more of a series of India Knight's columns, who expresses her views via long internal monologues from Clara, the main character, on exes, children, friends, and more randomly, people who don't like foreign food.A lot of it is funny, but some of it sounded smug and slightly snobby, and I felt it was cynical to package it as a novel, as it had very little plot and characters that were sketchily drawn.

I'd never read India Knight before, but last year before Christmas, I fancied something seasonal and picked up Comfort and Joy.And what a joy the book was! I could really identify with Clara, who on the day before Christmas Eve, stressed and laden with shopping, decides to leave Oxford Street and instead allow herself the luxury of a solitary pre-Christmas drink at the posh London hotel, The Connaught. The drink turns out not to be so solitary, and the perfect family Christmas Clara has been planning and working so hard to achieve, is also full of surprises.Comfort and Joy is a really enjoyable read, which I've recommended to all my friends.

Imagine a room full of self confident, braying, superficial and smartly dressed people, clutching Champagne glasses and kicking small children out of the way. These are the people whose three Christmasses we learn about in Comfort and Joy.My oh my, what cliched middle-class nonsense.India Knight has a fine ear for dialogue and the dinner party bust up, where everyone falls out in spectacular style, is well captured. But these people are so self absorbed and so patronising of Sam's "working class" mother Pat, I couldn't warm to any of them. A toast at the end is supposed to make us think "aahhh how lovely" but I was bristling on Pat's behalf. I particularly took issue with the asumption that the rest of the family were somehow more well evolved because they could be friends after divorces, or because they could endlessly discuss their angst with each other. Pat's family, we were told, were unable to share emotions, except to brutally fall out with each other after divorce, hurting the children in the process.I certainly wouldn't to rub shoulders with this lot again, and confine them all to the cargo hold along with all their trunks and other excess baggage.

I loved this for many reasons. I love this writer, funny and warm, I love the characters set up in 'my life on a plate'. I also love Christmas in all it's mad ways you panic spend on people and obsessively try to win parental affection every year, and fail. This is a fab book to start reading on December 17th.