If your Christmas list includes someone who desperately needs a laugh (and frankly, who doesn’t in December?), Quiet Please! and Other Humorous Tales by Denise Dumont may be the most delightful little stocking filler you didn’t realise you needed. It arrives with all the charm of a hand-written Christmas card and the warm glow of a well-brewed cuppa, bringing together twenty light-hearted short stories designed to restore one’s faith in everyday absurdity.
Dumont’s collection is the literary equivalent of slipping into comfy slippers: instantly soothing, quietly joyful and just the right amount of silly. Her stories take place mostly in recognisable English towns and villages, though she’s not above the occasional detour through a wizard’s workshop, a time-travel mishap, or a haunted house with an unfortunately lingering pong. Think Midsomer Murders meets The Beano, with a pinch of Christmas magic.
Inside these pages, readers meet a puppy rescued by a lawnmower (as you do), a blackbird who decides to become an unofficial family member, and a long-suffering woman pushed to the brink by her husband’s endless DIY disasters. There’s also the middle-aged man who becomes briefly famous thanks to a rogue wasp, and a Christmas Eve baby born in the back of a car – because nothing says festive joy like a story you can later tell at every family gathering for the next eighteen years.
Dumont seems to have dedicated this book to all the little irritations of modern life: software updates that refuse to install, domestic mishaps that turn into epics, and moments of chaos we all recognise but seldom admit to. Yet she wraps them in such warmth and gentle humour that even a malfunctioning laptop begins to feel like a quirky family member rather than an enemy of progress.
What’s especially charming is how cheerfully the book glides between the everyday and the enchanted. One minute you’re reading about a wizard with questionable magical competence; the next, you’re back with a beleaguered office worker who becomes convinced she’s a government assassin – possibly a relatable feeling after too many late-night emails.
The stories are bite-sized – perfect for dipping into during a tea break, hiding in the loo for five minutes of peace, or reading before bed when your brain is too tired for anything heavier than a biscuit. And each one ends with the sort of cosy satisfaction that feels wonderfully nostalgic. They’re the kind of tales you’d happily share aloud to whoever’s loitering in the kitchen while the roast potatoes crisp.
Part of what makes the book so moving, beneath the comedy, is the author herself. Denise Dumont spent most of her working life wrangling numbers, armed with qualifications in Maths, Statistics and Economics. It wasn’t until after a major health challenge in her seventies – a cancer diagnosis and mastectomy – that she enrolled in a creative writing course and discovered, in her own words, “a new focus to keep me feeling positive.” Eight years cancer-free, she decided to celebrate by publishing the stories that had grown from that moment of reinvention.
It’s impossible not to feel inspired by that. Dumont’s debut is not only a testament to her sense of humour, but to the sheer joy of finding a new passion when life goes slightly, or spectacularly, off-script. And perhaps that’s why the book feels so uplifting: it’s written by someone who understands the power of small joys and the gentle magic of everyday life.
Whether you’re shopping for a friend, your mum, a teacher, or simply trying to survive the Christmas holidays with your sense of humour intact, Quiet Please! and Other Humorous Tales is the kind of pocket-sized merriment that can brighten even the bleakest midwinter afternoon.
Just add tea. And possibly a biscuit.
The book is available from Amazon.
Monica Costa founded London Mums in September 2006 after her son Diego’s birth together with a group of mothers who felt the need of meeting up regularly to share the challenges and joys of motherhood in metropolitan and multicultural London. London Mums is the FREE and independent peer support group for mums and mumpreneurs based in London https://www.londonmumsmagazine.com and you can connect on Twitter @londonmums
