Festive evening with local author goes down a treat

All proceeds from the event were donated to Carlisle Foodbank.

The festive evening was hosted by Alan Cleaver, of Whitehaven, who has compiled stories about Christmases over the years in the Lake District, alongside newspaper articles and sketches, for his book ‘A Lake District Christmas’.

The owner of the store, Lucy Matthews, was delighted to have Mr Cleaver back for the event, saying: “It’s a beautifully produced little book with lovely introductions and explanations from Alan.

“Alan has hosted talks in our café before and he’s a very clever, natural and entertaining speaker, so we were very keen to invite him back!”

The talk was hosted in the store’s recently opened café, providing a cosy retreat for attendees to enjoy some of Alan’s vast store of stories and anecdotes. It was also the perfect escapism from the recent pandemic news and the potential new lockdown.

This sentiment was echoed by Alan, of Church Street, who said: “Our talk at Bookends was a chance to escape the depressing news of Omicron and wallow in Christmas nostalgia for a couple of hours.

“It was lovely of Bookends to host the event and ensure we were all Covid safe.

The talk was sprinkled with many interesting facts about the history of the region, particularly a wonderful tradition which has almost gone extinct.

"The audience were particularly interested in the nearly extinct Cumbrian Christmas tradition of making and hanging a Kissing Bush in the house. There are only a few Cumbrians who still do this, but it was once extremely popular, particularly in West Cumbria.

“My father-in-law, Jim Park, still makes one each year and remembers walking through his hometown of Whitehaven in the 1930s and seeing a Kissing Bush in almost every window.

A number of people in the audience last night said they would make one next year and help revive the tradition in Cumbria."

That would certainly make for a wonderful Christmas after the isolation of the past year.