Christmas Holiday

W Somerset Maugham's classic coming-of-age Christmas tale of one man's descent into Paris' dark side.

At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a 'glorious, wild and romantic' Christmas in Paris with one of his oldest friends. Yet Paris is not what he expects - in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the tragedies and ugly dramas of its underworld, through the young Russian émigré, Lydia, who has plenty of dark stories to tell.

'Effortlessly readable' The Times