Milly Johnson is a Sunday Times best-selling author born and bred and still living in Barnsley. She has sold millions of books all over the world, all with a strong Yorkshire theme, and is a Vice President of the Yorkshire Society.
Christmas for me starts when….
I’m wrapping up the presents with Handel’s Messiah playing through my headphones. I stop occasionally to conduct the orchestra.
Favourite traditions...
I go to the panto every year with a bunch of pals. When the kids got too old to go, we felt bereft so us mums all decided to go together. We have a few drinks in town, enjoy the panto at our Lamproom Theatre and finish the night off with a curry. And every single year, I shut myself in our little snug with a big Baileys, a box of chocolates and watch The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant. I love that film so much.
Christmas Eve ....
A quiet one in with the other half with our pets draped over us, log fire, mulled wine and a Christmassy film. It’s usually something more on the 'Die Hard' side of things than ‘Elf’ though.
The big feast
We eat Christmas dinner at my house - I’m the designated cook. The number of people around our table has got fewer over the past couple of years, sadly, but while my sons are still living at home, I cook the feast and we have it at ours. I’m too much of a control freak to let anyone else join in with that duty. One day the lads will be off doing their own thing, so I just enjoy the years we are all together.
Favourite festive foods?
I love a Black Forest Gateau at Christmas. And I think I enjoy the Boxing Day mash up of leftovers more than the big dinner. Creamed parsnips, pickled red cabbage, … but my favourite of all are tiny baby sprouts. When available, I buy them by the ton. Plain boiled, nothing fancy. You can't gild a sprout lily.
What you'd like under the tree
Much as I’d love a Tiffany watch, I enjoy the novelty presents - jokes, gadgets, smellies in the shape of snowmen, and anything stationery. Presents that show the buyer ‘gets me’. And books of course. You can never have enough of those.
The best place for a Boxing Day walk
Our bonny Cawthorne Park. It always feels so full of the freshest of air that place. It’s a jewel of a park.
The book you'll be giving …
Bob Mortimer’s 'The Satsuma Complex'. I love to buy books that I’ve read and enjoyed enough to want my loved ones to enjoy them too.
Milly's twentieth novel ’Together, Again’ was published in hardback in September.
