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  • Published: 1 December 2006
  • ISBN: 9780440867333
  • Imprint: Yearling
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $19.99

The More the Merrier




A savagely funny Christmas tale from a multi-award-winning author - reissued with a sparkly new cover

Christmas comes but once a year. Luckily . . . The Christmas holiday is, traditionally, a time when families gather together. In Ralph's case this means ten or more relatives coming to stay, including assorted aunts and uncles, nutty Great-Aunt Ida (the Home tells them to be careful not to let her out) and his ghastly cousins: Titania in her silly, sick-making frilly fairy dresses and the twins Sylvester and Sylvia (it took until Easter last year before the family dog got over them).

Jammed into one small house for three days of merriment and family fun, with the tv on the blink and Mum on the verge of a breakdown, it soon becomes obvious that, in this house, more definitely does not mean merrier . . .

  • Published: 1 December 2006
  • ISBN: 9780440867333
  • Imprint: Yearling
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $19.99

About the author

Anne Fine

Anne Fine is one of our most distinguished writers for children. She has written over fifty highly acclaimed books and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and both the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal twice over. Anne was appointed the Children’s Laureate from 2001-3, and her work has been translated into over forty languages. In 2003 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Anne lives in County Durham.

Anne Fine was born and educated in the Midlands, and now lives in County Durham. She has written numerous highly acclaimed and prize-winning books for children and adults.
Her novel The Tulip Touch won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Goggle-Eyes won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal, and was adapted for television by the BBC; Flour Babies won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Bill's New Frock won a Smarties Prize, and Madame Doubtfire has become a major feature film starring Robin Williams. Anne was the Children's Laureate 2001 - 2003 and won an OBE in 2003.

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Praise for The More the Merrier

Anne Fine at her wittiest

TES

Fine powerfully captures the chaos, frenetic activity and disharmony some families generate. The pace, humour and dramatic repartee could be those of an Alan Ayckbourn play

The Bookseller

There's a grim cast in this hilarious but barbed story of how Christmas can go so wrong for so many people

Guardian

Anne Fine works miracles with her just sharper-than-life observations

Junior Education

A gorgeously observed tale of what Christmas can really be like

Katie Nicholl, Daily Express