Winter donkey – a Christmas story

18 December 2025, The Tablet

Winter donkey – a Christmas story

They’d just announced the cancellation of my connecting train home when an old man standing next to me on the crowded platform at Northallerton leant in and said: ‘Do you know me?’ As he spoke, a squall of spittle, booze and bonhomie struck me between the eyes. The puritan in me bridled. “Not guilty,” I said, trying to hide my irritation under a veneer of affability. After all, it was Christmas Eve.

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