A memory fitted across my mind today, of a book I really really loved. I would love to read it again. Maddeningly, I can't for the life of me remember either the title or the author. I have tried Googling but no luck so far. So, the very sketchy details I remember are:
It is set in the north of England;
It is set in the run up to Christmas;
Par of it is set with an elderly couple living in a council house (?) and hoping to see their grandchild on christmas day but are too ill to travel to see them;
the grandchild lives in a very odd sort of place (a farm??) with a group of Tibetans who do traditional crafts, and a sort of experimental art group. The farm / retreat / whatever is in financial diffuculty and life there is hard;
there is a big theme of "negative space" in the book;
there are two estranged brothers;
there is a teenager who goes to a conventional secondary school in the middle of it all;
it is beautifully written, really quirky and somehow manages to capture the spirit of Christmas in a really unique way.
If you recognise this, please put me out of my misery!
Thank you!