The next story in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Pie. Please comment below when you've finished it.

St Mary's has never lacked for enemies, but danger has never been closer to home. A state of war has broken out between St Mary's and the Women's Institute - the Raffia Mafia. Markham, Max, Peterson and Miss Sykes must jump to Restoration London in search of real Christmas pie - the honour of St Mary's is at stake. At least that how it all begins, but this is St Mary's after all...

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Nine in the Reading Challenge is The Toast of Time. This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Once again, the Toast of Time falls butter side down. Dr 'Max' Maxwell prepares for her very first Christmas away from St Mary's...

It's that most wonderful time of the year once more. But Max and Markham are a long way from St Mary's. What sort of Christmas will it be without their loved ones? Settle down with a mince pie and a small sherry and prepare for an unlikely combination of Flying Auctions, Fabergé eggs, duped Time Police officers, the Parish Council, a TWOCed Bentley (no, not that one), legendary swords and a belligerent ram. Will it be Peace and Goodwill to all men? Well, we all know the answer to that...

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Eight in the Reading Challenge is The Ordeal of the Haunted Room. This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Where better for the annual festive jump than the chance to experience a real Victorian Christmas? On the longest night of 1895, a terrible storm rages above Harewood Hall. Max, Markham and an injured Peterson are welcomed in by the Harewood family, but soon realise that, in true St Mary's style, they couldn't have arrived at a better moment. For tonight marks the Ordeal of the Haunted Room. Dum ... dum ... dum ... Every Harewood heir must endure one terrifying night alone in the Haunted Room before he can inherit the family seat. Legend says that a ghost will murder anyone who isn't the true successor. Henry Harewood's ordeal will begin at midnight and end at dawn, but it isn't long before everything goes horribly wrong...

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Seven in the Reading Challenge is Why Is Nothing Ever Simple? This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas at St Mary's and time for the traditional illicit jump. Except this one is perfectly legal. It's Major Guthrie's last jump. To the Battle of Bannockburn, no less. An important moment in History for two nations - one that warrants everyone's full attention. But Max soon finds herself grappling with a near-lethal game of pooh sticks, another avian incursion and two turbulent teenagers intent on piloting their own illegal jump. And that's all before they even get near fourteenth-century Scotland. For this is St Mary's and nothing is ever simple . . .

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Six in the Reading Challenge is And Now For Something Completely Different. This is also available in Long Story Short. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Here's a question for you. What's the most exciting thing ever found in a fire bucket? And don't say 'fire' because you'll be wrong. Suppose - just suppose - it was the technology to take a pod to Mars? Yeah, now we're talking! Every Christmas, for reasons which seem good at the time - especially after an eggnog or two - Max and the others leap into the nearest pod and indulge in their illegal Christmas jump. It's a tradition. This year, however, just to be different, they find themselves part of someone else's illegal Christmas jump. It's time to don a spacesuit and bring your own urine!

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Five in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Past. This is also available in Long Story Short. Please comment below when you've finished it.

The First Farrell Family Christmas. Max, Leon and Matthew - together at last for Christmas at St Mary's - a time of conspicuous consumption, riotous misbehaviour and the traditional illegal Christmas jump. And this time, it's inter-generational. Donning her unfamiliar mother hat, Max takes Matthew back to 19th-century London, where they plan to deliver a parcel of Christmas cheer to his former friends, but find themselves confronting the terrifying Old Ma Scrope in the process. 'Tis the season to be jolly. It's also the season of goodwill towards all mankind. Pity nobody told Max…

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Four in the Reading Challenge is My Name Is Markham. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas and time for the first (and almost certainly last) St Mary's Annual Children's Christmas Party - attendance compulsory, by order of Dr Bairstow. Discovered practising his illegal reindeer dance and poo-dropping routine, our hero, along with fellow disaster-magnets Peterson and Maxwell, is dispatched to Anglo-Saxon England to discover the truth about Alfred and the cakes. In his own words, our hero reveals Major Guthrie's six-point guide to a successful assignment and the Security Section's true opinion of the History Department. And of historians in general. And of one historian in particular. And, just to be clear, it is time travel, for God's sake. Forget all that pretentious 'investigating major historical events in contemporary time' rubbish. This is history without the capital 'H'. Because this is the way the Security Section rolls!

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Three in the Reading Challenge is Ships, Stings and Wedding Rings. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas at St Mary's and time for Max's obligatory illegal jump. On this occasion, however, they're right up against it. A loaded gun has been left behind in Ancient Egypt and it's up to them to retrieve it before anyone accidentally blows their own head off, thus affecting the timeline for centuries to come. And as if that's not enough, someone (Max) has inadvertently poisoned Mr Markham. It's hot, they're running out of supplies, they can't find the gun, and it's all going horribly wrong. Again.

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Two in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Present. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas Eve at St Mary's And all through the house Nothing is stirring... Except for Max, Peterson and Markham, sneaking out at midnight for an assignment that is very definitely off the books. It's ten years ago tonight that Senior Historians Bashford and Grey went missing in 12th century Jerusalem. So how did they end up in AD60 Roman Colchester? Max has a theory. Peterson has a plan. Markham has bacon sandwiches. Colchester has Boudicca and her bloodthirsty Iceni hordes. And then there's the giant pig ... the enraged, giant pig...

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Who’s up for joining in the St Mary’s Christmas Reading Challenge?

You simply need to read all eleven St Mary’s Christmas short stories and comment as you finish them. All the stories can be found here

Most of the short stories are also available in anthologies and we’ll give you details of those too.

So let’s get festive and reading!

The first story in the challenge is When a Child is Born

We kick off the St Mary's Christmas Reading Challenge with When a Child is Born. This is also available in the anthology The Long and Short of It.

St Mary’s historians set out to observe a crucial moment in history: the coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day, 1066. However, as is often the case with time travel, events take an unexpected turn. Instead of the grandeur of Westminster Abbey, Dr Madeleine “Max” Maxwell and her team find themselves in a humble peasant’s hut, assisting with the birth of a child under mysterious circumstances. As they navigate this unforeseen detour, Max begins to question the true intentions of History and the profound impact of seemingly small actions. This delightful tale weaves together humour, historical intrigue, and the timeless wonder of Christmas.

CLICK HERE to enjoy an extract from When A Child Is Born read by Jodi Taylor

Leave a comment

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

Story Eleven in the Reading Challenge is Lights, Camera, Mayhem! Please comment below when you've finished it.

Buy now from Amazon

It’s drama, darling! In this year’s festive tale, the nation’s favourite film producer, Calvin Cutter, returns to darken the doors of St Mary’s once again...

Coming to a screen near you...

TEMPORA, THE TIME TRAVELLING TOURIST

Starring Astrid Gustafsson as Helen of Troy - ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’

With Dirk Thrust as Achilles - ‘demi god and hero’

And the Wooden Horse as Himself - ‘easily the least wooden performance from anyone participating in this particular travesty’ (Dr Maxwell)

Watch and weep as this epic tale unfolds...

Get ready for this year’s traditional St Mary’s Christmas Day jump…

Pre-order this year's Christmas story

The stories in the Christmas Reading Challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

11. Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

We hope you have enjoyed this St Mary’s Christmas story - please leave a comment to show you have read it and are participating in the challenge.

Leave a comment

The final book in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Pie. Please comment below when you've finished it.

St Mary's has never lacked for enemies, but danger has never been closer to home. A state of war has broken out between St Mary's and the Women's Institute - the Raffia Mafia. Markham, Max, Peterson and Miss Sykes must jump to Restoration London in search of real Christmas pie - the honour of St Mary's is at stake. At least that how it all begins, but this is St Mary's after all...

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Nine in the Reading Challenge is The Toast of Time. This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Once again, the Toast of Time falls butter side down. Dr 'Max' Maxwell prepares for her very first Christmas away from St Mary's...

It's that most wonderful time of the year once more. But Max and Markham are a long way from St Mary's. What sort of Christmas will it be without their loved ones? Settle down with a mince pie and a small sherry and prepare for an unlikely combination of Flying Auctions, Fabergé eggs, duped Time Police officers, the Parish Council, a TWOCed Bentley (no, not that one), legendary swords and a belligerent ram. Will it be Peace and Goodwill to all men? Well, we all know the answer to that...

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Eight in the Reading Challenge is The Ordeal of the Haunted Room. This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Where better for the annual festive jump than the chance to experience a real Victorian Christmas? On the longest night of 1895, a terrible storm rages above Harewood Hall. Max, Markham and an injured Peterson are welcomed in by the Harewood family, but soon realise that, in true St Mary's style, they couldn't have arrived at a better moment. For tonight marks the Ordeal of the Haunted Room. Dum ... dum ... dum ... Every Harewood heir must endure one terrifying night alone in the Haunted Room before he can inherit the family seat. Legend says that a ghost will murder anyone who isn't the true successor. Henry Harewood's ordeal will begin at midnight and end at dawn, but it isn't long before everything goes horribly wrong...

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Seven in the Reading Challenge is Why Is Nothing Ever Simple? This is also available in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas at St Mary's and time for the traditional illicit jump. Except this one is perfectly legal. It's Major Guthrie's last jump. To the Battle of Bannockburn, no less. An important moment in History for two nations - one that warrants everyone's full attention. But Max soon finds herself grappling with a near-lethal game of pooh sticks, another avian incursion and two turbulent teenagers intent on piloting their own illegal jump. And that's all before they even get near fourteenth-century Scotland. For this is St Mary's and nothing is ever simple . . .

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Six in the Reading Challenge is And Now For Something Completely Different. This is also available in Long Story Short. Please comment below when you've finished it.

Here's a question for you. What's the most exciting thing ever found in a fire bucket? And don't say 'fire' because you'll be wrong. Suppose - just suppose - it was the technology to take a pod to Mars? Yeah, now we're talking! Every Christmas, for reasons which seem good at the time - especially after an eggnog or two - Max and the others leap into the nearest pod and indulge in their illegal Christmas jump. It's a tradition. This year, however, just to be different, they find themselves part of someone else's illegal Christmas jump. It's time to don a spacesuit and bring your own urine!

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Five in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Past. This is also available in Long Story Short. Please comment below when you've finished it.

The First Farrell Family Christmas. Max, Leon and Matthew - together at last for Christmas at St Mary's - a time of conspicuous consumption, riotous misbehaviour and the traditional illegal Christmas jump. And this time, it's inter-generational. Donning her unfamiliar mother hat, Max takes Matthew back to 19th century London, where they plan to deliver a parcel of Christmas cheer to his former friends, but find themselves confronting the terrifying Old Ma Scrope in the process. 'Tis the season to be jolly. It's also the season of goodwill towards all mankind. Pity nobody told Max…

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Four in the Reading Challenge is My Name Is Markham. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas and time for the first (and almost certainly last) St Mary's Annual Children's Christmas Party - attendance compulsory, by order of Dr Bairstow. Discovered practising his illegal reindeer dance and poo-dropping routine, our hero, along with fellow disaster-magnets Peterson and Maxwell, is despatched to Anglo-Saxon England to discover the truth about Alfred and the cakes. In his own words, our hero reveals Major Guthrie's six-point guide to a successful assignment and the Security Section's true opinion of the History Department. And of historians in general. And of one historian in particular. And, just to be clear, it is time travel, for God's sake. Forget all that pretentious 'investigating major historical events in contemporary time' rubbish. This is history without the capital 'H'. Because this is the way the Security Section rolls!

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Three in the Reading Challenge is Ships, Stings and Wedding Rings. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas at St Mary's and time for Max's obligatory illegal jump. On this occasion, however, they're right up against it. A loaded gun has been left behind in Ancient Egypt and it's up to them to retrieve it before anyone accidentally blows their own head off, thus affecting the timeline for centuries to come. And as if that's not enough, someone (Max) has inadvertently poisoned Mr Markham. It's hot, they're running out of supplies, they can't find the gun, and it's all going horribly wrong. Again.

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie

Story Two in the Reading Challenge is Christmas Present. This is also available in The Long and Short of It Short Story Collection. Please comment below when you've finished it.

It's Christmas Eve at St Mary's And all through the house Nothing is stirring... Except for Max, Peterson and Markham, sneaking out at midnight for an assignment that is very definitely off the books. It's ten years ago tonight that Senior Historians Bashford and Grey went missing in 12th century Jerusalem. So how did they end up in AD60 Roman Colchester? Max has a theory. Peterson has a plan. Markham has bacon sandwiches. Colchester has Boudicca and her bloodthirsty Iceni hordes. And then there's the giant pig ... the enraged, giant pig...

Leave a comment

The stories in the challenge are:

1. When A Child Is Born

2. Christmas Present

3. Ships Stings and Wedding Rings

4. My Name Is Markham

5. Christmas Past

6. And Now For Something Completely Different

7. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple

8. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

9. The Toast of Time

10. Christmas Pie