Viking to publish Nina Stibbe’s An Almost Perfect Christmas

Viking is publishing Nina Stibbe’s An Almost Perfect Christmas, a comedic non-fiction book exploring festive cooking and customs, and the highs and lows of the Christmas season. 

The book will cover perennially dry turkeys and Christmas pudding fires, the round robin code of conduct and the risks and rewards of re-gifting as "an ode to the joy and insanity of the season", accompanied by illustrations by Lauren Tamaki.

"The combination of Nina Stibbe’s inimitable voice and acute observational eye is the perfect accompaniment to Christmas Day," said Viking.

It follows Paradise Lodge, Stibbe's latest novel published in 2016, and her first book Love, Nina which was made into a BBC TV series starring Helena Bonham Carter, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby.

Mary Mount, publisher at Viking, acquired world rights from Jo Unwin at JULA, to publish on 2nd November as an A-format hardback, priced £9.99.

Mount said: "The open plan office of Viking is a relatively harmonious place where we all try to keep the noise down for the benefit of our fellow workers. However, when Nina Stibbe delivers her manuscripts the peace and tranquility all falls apart. The editors around me have to stuff their headphones even more deeply into their ears. Her writing makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. And Christmas is the perfect subject for Nina - a writer like no one else - who charts the charms and horrors of daily life with such an acute and empathetic eye. If you’ve ever tried to make Christmas lunch or bought a Christmas tree that has lost all its needles by the first day of Christmas, this is the book for you."