Christmas with the Queen
’Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb.
Christmas with the Queen invites readers to spend the festive season with Queen Elizabeth II as she delivers her traditional Christmas Message during the first five years of her reign, and traces a tumultuous relationship between a young woman working as a royal correspondent, and a chef in the Queen’s household.
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue the tradition of her late father’s Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must evolve with the times, and the queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.
As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—are unexpectedly reunited by the occasion. Olive, a single mother and aspiring reporter at the BBC, leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, but even a chance encounter with the queen doesn’t go as planned and Olive wonders if she will ever be taken seriously.
Jack, a recently widowed chef, reluctantly takes up a new role in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. Lacking in purpose and direction, Jack has abandoned his dream to have his own restaurant, but his talents are soon noticed and while he might not believe in himself, others do, and a chance encounter with an old friend helps to reignite the spark of his passion and ambition.
As Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmases, they grow ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret that threatens to destroy everything.
Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, there is one final gift for the Christmas season to deliver…
PRAISE
“This heartwarming tale weaves together Christmas and a second chance at love into one charming story.” – Booklist
“Christmas with the Queen is, in a word, delicious. As with Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb’s previous collaborations, it balances deftly observed historical details, an engaging plot, and delightful characters (HM the late Queen among them) who become familiar and dear to the reader after only a few pages. This is a story to savor over a cup of tea as the days grow short and the year draws to a close, and I adored every bit of it.” — Jennifer Robson, USA Today and International bestselling author of The Gown
“A page-turning festive read, full of will they/won’t they romance, intriguing glimpses of royal life behind palace doors, and inspiring culinary treats. As delicious as a Christmas pudding topped with flaming brandy and lashings of cream.”— Gill Paul, USA Today bestselling author
“Christmas with the Queen is a delectable and heartwarming novel! A story full of holiday whimsy, second chances, friendship and going after one’s dreams, Gaynor and Webb have penned a page-turner with all the feels. We get an upfront view of the queen, her corgis, and life in the royal palaces, through the eyes of a budding reporter who connects with the queen on a motherly level and the spoon of a chef who’s bonded with their palettes. A must read this holiday season!” — Eliza Knight, USA Today and international bestselling author of The Queen’s Faithful Companion
“Reading Christmas with the Queen felt like tucking into the world’s loveliest Christmas roast. This sweet and thoughtful book had me hooked from the first page, following along not only for glimpses of Her Majesty and the royal retinue, but for Olive and Jack’s irresistible second-chance romance. A triumph and a treat of a novel!” — Bryn Turnbull, author of The Woman Before Wallis
“A captivating Christmas read to be savoured.” — Amanda Geard, author of The Moon Gate