It is Christmas Eve on a large German estate shortly after the Second World War. The age of aristocracy is now history, but the former peasants and masters have gathered for the evening. Christoph, the elderly coachman, has been coaxed into telling a couple of stories for old times’ sake.

These Christmas short stories, included in the anthology Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old, are taken from Tidings, Ernst Wiechert’s classic post-war novel of healing and redemption, recently released in English by Plough.