Having read The Postcard a few months ago, I was delighted to be able to read more of Fern Britton's work. She has such a warm writing style and it's lovely to be able to return to Pendruggan and Trevay, the fictional Cornish homes of her characters.

In A Cornish Gift, we are treated to three stories of around 100-130 pages each. The length means that there is plenty to get your teeth into, lots of action to keep the reader interested.

I know that these stories have been published elsewhere before being made into this one book, but I hadn't read any of them. The first is A Cornish Carol which is a story of redemption, of the joy of Christmas overcoming the things in life that might get us down and make us feel miserable. Piran Ambrose is the main player in this one, but his partner, Helen, is also quite prominent. I liked this story because it was ultimately a feel good Christmas read. However, this book is not one to only confine to the Christmas reading pile because (a) it's about the meaning of the story rather than the festive season and (b) the other two stories are not about Christmas at all.

The second story, The Beach Cabin, is about Penny Leighton's location manager, Ed Appleby. Penny Leighton is a TV producer and readers will know her from previous books, including The Postcard. But Ed and his family are the focus here and again it's about turning around your life and looking for the good instead of the bad.

The third story is about A Stolen Weekend away in London for Penny and Helen. What I liked about this one is the message that the grass isn't always greener on the other side but sometimes we need to see the other side to realise it.

A Cornish Gift was a lovely, lovely read. It's charming, heart-warming, easy to read fiction at its best and it's got me really looking forward to reading more books by Fern Britton. ( )