Antony Miall A Victorian Christmas - Crime at Christmas

December 24th, 1864. Hollingford Hall, a grand but slightly decaying country estate in Kent, is hosting a traditional Victorian Christmas. Guests arrive by train, greeted by sleighs, flickering gaslight, and the scent of spiced wine.

The hostess, Lady Eugenia Morrow, has spared no expense — there are paper crowns, roasted pheasants, and footmen in livery. The centrepiece of the evening is to be a Twelfth Night masquerade followed by a reading of a specially written Christmas ghost story.