Festive Fun: My Fantasy Christmas Dinner by Cressida McLaughlin

It's the final night of the Fantasy Christmas Dinner parties and it's time to find out just who author Cressida McLaughlin has invited for her evening of entertainment.

There are so many authors I admire and fangirl over on a daily basis, so the thought of having to only invite five to my fantasy Christmas dinner party is properly difficult –  though I guess if I had any more all the cooking and entertaining would start getting too complicated. 

My first author guest is escapist fiction superstar Karen Swan. Her books are an absolute must-read for me, and they’re full of beautiful locations, glamorous people and twisty, emotional storylines. I am sure she’s led a fascinating life, so having her at my dinner party would be wonderful, not least because it would be lovely to finally meet her. She also writes wonderful Christmas books that always fully immerse me in a festive wonderland, so she might even be able to give me a few tips on how to maximise the Christmassy feel of my dinner party. 

Second on the list is Elly Griffiths. I’ve met her quite a few times at events, and she is so lovely. She writes brilliant books set in Norfolk, and it would be lovely to have her back in Norfolk for my dinner party, though I’d have to resist asking her to give me plot spoilers for the next Ruth Galloway book, as I am desperate to know what happens. 

Jane Austen is a very obvious choice, but I love all her books, have read most of them several times and never fail to be affected by them, even though I know what’s coming. I’ve also read about her life and visited the Jane Austen centre in Bath, and I find it so sad that she never found the kind of love she writes so brilliantly about. I would definitely have her at my dinner party – I think her wit would add an extra sparkle to the evening. 

The next guest is an author whose books I’ve only recently started reading, but who I’ve followed on Twitter for a long time. Jane Casey’s crime novels have the most wonderful characters, and while they are very dark – I am a big fan of a dark, twisty book –  she writes with such compassion and understanding. She’s also hugely funny on Twitter and loves Tom Hiddleston, and I think we’d get on really well. 

Guest number five would be another probably cliched choice, but how amazing would it be to have Agatha Christie at your dinner party? Her stories are so clever and sinister, and I imagine she must have been a fascinating person – some of her life reading like one of her plots – so she would definitely get an invite. 

Hopefully that’s a good balance of guests – me, Karen and Jane Austen on the romance side, Elly, Jane and Agatha on the crime. There are so many fictional guests that I could add to the invite list, but if I had to pick just two, I would choose Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson from Elly Griffiths’ brilliant series. I feel like I know them already, I am so invested in their lives and their careers, and Ruth sounds like exactly my kind of person. I have a huge soft spot for Nelson and would possibly get a bit tongue-tied, plus he would be the only man at an otherwise all-women dinner party, and while he would pretend to hate it, I think he would secretly love it. 

In terms of location, I would pick somewhere beautiful but remote on the North Norfolk coast, perhaps a barn conversion with a crackling fire and lots of fairy lights, the bleak wintry landscape visible through floor to ceiling windows. We’d have a bruschetta starter – crispy ciabatta bread with tomatoes and a healthy drizzle of olive oil, then for the main course I’d choose roast beef with all the trimmings - I’m not a huge fan of turkey – but also a cheese and spring onion puff-pastry roulade for any vegetarians (we tried making one at home this week and it was delicious), and then creme brûlée for pudding, as it’s quite light but still seriously indulgent. There would be champagne, followed by an Italian red wine – probably a Barolo, which is one of my favourites, and I always feel is super Christmassy because it’s what we have at home. 

For the entertainment, I would choose Trivial Pursuit. It’s not the most original idea, but I love a quiz and I don’t think it’s as controversial as Monopoly, which I know is adored by some and hated by others. It would also be tempting to get out Cluedo and see how all the crime writers did! We could sit on the thick rug around a low table in the living room, with the fairy lights twinkling, the fire crackling and Christmas music on quietly in the background. The perfect end to a very bookish dinner party.