Character Guest Post
Gilly Wimsey Explains the Christmas Carol, The 12 Days of Christmas
HI, I’m Gilly and I manage the antiques centre at Akemans. Dotty kindly helped me in the lead up to Christmas and suggested a fantastic marketing initiative based around the Christmas carol, The 12 Days of Christmas.
We were a little late getting started, and I didn’t want to work Christmas Eve as that’s family time, so we actually shortened our promotion to 10 Days of Christmas. Even so, it was a great success and the stallholders in the antiques centre really engaged with the idea. Those who wanted took a day and ran a giveaway, or a quiz with Christmas related prizes, or special discounted Christmas bundles.
The vintage clothing stalls even grouped together and organised a mini fashion show on their day. We had lots of fun, but my husband, Peter, was keen to point out that in Christian theology, the twelve days of Christmas follow after Christmas day.
They begin with the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day and end on the 6th of January, Epiphany, with the arrival of the three kings or wise men. It’s always a rush in our household to take down all the Christmas decorations by Epiphany.
The period before Christmas is Advent, which is why, of course, we have advent calendars. But even these have been overtaken by commercialism as my kids insist on chocolate ones, and I have to be really strict with Thomas, who finds it so hard to wait and tries to eat all the chocolates at once.
Peter looked up the history of the 12 Days of Christmas carol and told me that the current version, popular in the UK, was written by English composer Fredric Austin in 1909. He composed the music and altered the lyrics slightly and giving singers a break in the middle, at five gold rings.
About Gavels, Tinsel and Murder
A charity ball. A dead guest. Can an amateur sleuth solve the case or will it ruin Christmas for ever?
Aspiring antiques expert, Dotty Sayers, is excited about organising a ball in a Cotswold country house. When a lecture on modern art leads to a kiss under the mistletoe she thinks all her Christmases have come at once. But her festive cheer turns sour when a partygoer is found dead on the dance floor.The police ask Dotty to help wrap up the case of a stolen painting, but as the search continues she becomes entangled in the murder investigation. When this amateur detective realises the culprit could be a close friend, will she face the Yuletide music?
Can Dotty put aside her personal feelings and herald a murderer?
Gavels, Tinsel and Murder is the fourth book in the charming Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series. If you like to eat, drink and be merry with a group of entertaining characters, then you’ll be entertained by Victoria Tait’s festive tale.
Christmas comes but once a year so buy Gavels, Tinsel and Murder today!
About Victoria Tait
I was born and raised in Yorkshire, UK, and never expected to travel the world. But I fell for an Army Officer, and I’ve followed him from Northern Ireland, up to the Scottish Highlands, across to Africa and the Kenyan Savannah, back to the British Cotswolds, and we are now living in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Southern Europe.
I never expected to be an author, but all this moving is not ideal for holding down a job. Instead, I’ve taken the experiences of the places I’ve lived to write vivid and evocative cozy mystery books with determined female sleuths.
I have two fast growing teenage boys, and together we’ve learnt to ski on the Bosnian mountains. I also enjoy horse riding, mountain biking and I’ve started running as a way to improve my physical fitness, mental well-being and shed some excess pounds.
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Thank you so much for reading, reviewing and hosting my book, Gavels, Tinsel and Murder. Victoria
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