A kind of Raymond Briggs for the millennial generation – The Maccabees, incidentally, covered Walking in the Air – The Gritterman offers a vignette of English life that speaks directly to our national sense of obligation and stoicism. Dislocation, too. It’s the story of an elderly widower who goes out alone at Christmas time to grit snowy roads – that is, until he learns from the council that his “services are no longer required”. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Orlando Weeks’ (The Maccabees) heartbreakingly poetic 2017 original score for his book ‘The Gritterman’ becomes our first ever Christmas drop; exclusively pressed to vinyl for the first time and limited to 1,000 copies.

Weeks says the project was partly inspired by the similarity between his own circumstances and his father’s retirement. “I didn’t see my dad retire and think: right, I’m going to write an illustrated book. But I think it definitely played a part, along with beginning to question my own purpose and where my passions lie; thinking about how I fill my time, and seeing how he does. It’s very difficult, if you’ve invested in what you do, to allow yourself the freedom of not doing it any more, of not working all the hours that God sends.”

Review’s list includes books that are viewed as classics, more contemporary options and cover an array of themes and settings. There’s already been talk of turning The Gritterman into an animated film, much like Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman (“I’d love that; that’s the long-term ambition”); but, before that happens, Weeks is firmly focussed on bringing The Gritterman to the live stage.

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? A song for the unsung hero, this is a story about stoicism, dignity and a man leaving behind the work that he loves. It is accompanied by the author's own illustrations. Grandad would make his own bolts because no one else made them big enough. There were constantly these enormous greasy cogs on the kitchen table, even though he had a workshop in his shed. It was chaos in there, and it was incredibly cool. I remember it smelt like an engine, of grease. Everything you touched never came off you.” Weeks credits Bullion’s class, taste and open-mindedness, noting that “I’ve never worked with anyone who had such an identifiable aesthetic to their own music. There’s a class to what he does that I really wanted this record to be a part of.” Wildly productive, the album was completed from start-to-finish in just seven months, whereas Weeks’ previous albums and work with The Maccabees could take two to three years. This is for many reasons, though most readers would agree it is the superior escapism that Christmas offers: sceptic, old, or not, anyone can become a child at heart again with Christmas books.

That’s the album that will be the Orlando Weeks classic? “Yeah, just four stinkers and then one opus,” he laughed. Big Skies Silly Faces’ echoes Weeks’ original idea of poetically examining the rewarding and exhausting facets of fatherhood. But as a writer with an instinct for duality, it’s part of a wider idea inspired, in part, by the early Mike Leigh film ‘Nuts in May’. Sometimes it feels like I might be the only person awake in the whole country. People might find that a lonely thought. Not me...' He recalls how, on his sixth birthday, he was permitted by his grandad to sound the whistle on a traction engine, a type of steam engine once used to move heavy loads on roads and to plough fields. “At the time, I wasn’t aware it was such a sweet gesture on grandad’s part, to let me pull that whistle. But I was the first person to do it, on an engine he had been restoring for longer than I’d been alive.”

Other artists that appear on the record include Heavenly Recordings signee Katy J Pearson, Willie J Healey and Frank Ocean collaborator Ben Reed. Working with other musicians allowed Weeks to hear what he’d been working on with fresh ears. “If someone else is doing it with you, it’s a lot easier to draw a veil over my insecurities,” he explained. Agatha Christie doesn’t exclude Christmas from her murder mysteries, creating a must-read for the festive times. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Orlando Weeks: The megaphone is in the video for ‘Deep Down Way Out’. I guess I premiered ‘Deep Down’ and ‘Big Skies, Silly Faces’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and I used a megaphone there. I thought it might be just a good prop, but it sounded good. Arcade Fire always use them, and the Flaming Lips; I feel like that’s a good heritage that I hope to follow. Orlando Weeks: This is the artwork for the new record. And I’m trying to think… I’ve been trying to figure out how to make something that will be like a special giveaway for people. I guess like a prize draw or something like that. For those Hop Up prints, I’ve been printing with lino onto cyanotype, and I think that’s how I’m going to do it. But this one here is straight onto the cyanotype.

In a tiny, second-floor room in South London, Orlando Weeks has built himself a miniature world. A narrow space at the top of the house he shares with his partner and their son, it has the feel of a particularly creative teenager’s bedroom: posters, books and trinkets line every wall, with pieces of clothing hanging on the door and a small desk providing a studious focal point. This is the place he comes to write, print, stamp, draw and think. Twelve Nights is a short novella that has been hailed for its stunning writing and plot. It follows Manfred, who has been estranged from his brother since a bitter argument over love and inheritance, as he reminisces on returning to his childhood home. This tale of wonder is a beloved story from most people’s childhoods, remembered for its beautiful magic and a familiar nostalgia that will restore every reader’s childish and nostalgic excitement for festivity and Christmas. E.T.A. Hoffman really created a must-read for the festive season to get absorbed into the Christmas spirit. The result is his new album ‘Hop Up’, its title being a buoyant, idiophonic representation of the spirit that it contains. Weeks wrote the songs at home before spending two sessions, each spanning three weeks, with the producer, solo artist and Deek Recordings founder Bullion. He helped Weeks hone in on a specific, open-hearted approach to leftfield pop: very natural, warm instrumentation manipulated in imaginative ways.

It’s a project which has certainly raised a few eyebrows. But, in truth, Orlando Weeks’ transition from indie frontman to children’s book author isn’t as surprising as it might first seem. Parenthood has altered the way Weeks works, largely out of necessity now that other responsibilities – which he characterised as both “very serious” and “ridiculous” at the same time – take up a big chunk of his time. “You have less time, you’re more tired so how do you work smarter rather than longer,” he explained. At this point in his career – and in light of the impact of the pandemic on the music industry – he’s also begun to see his job as less of an indulgence and more of a “treat”. Along the way he contemplates everything between now and then, the good and bad times. Filled with myths and superstitions of the days leading up to Christmas, an epiphany may finally bring some hope of reconnection with his brother. This story emphasises the power of Christmas and the importance of family in the festive season. The story of The Gritterman centres around the overlooked ‘seasonal hero’ working in a dying profession. “A lot of people’s work goes unrecognised and this is one of those jobs where that’s the case,” Orlando explains, “To just go about your business and not need thanks is a very attractive quality, and he finds comfort in that sense of purpose.”When I was a kid,” he reminisces, “I used to love the Christmas stories of Raymond Briggs. They’re really understated; I love the way he could hide the more fantastical elements of his stories in plain clothes. They’re like an antidote to that bombastic, bells and whistles version of Christmas. For me, a story like The Snowman (Briggs’ most famous work, of course) really sums up the spirit of Christmas.” A story of love, loss, and hope. One More Christmas at The Castle is a heart-warming tale of love found in the most unexpected places as Dido, a party planner, finds herself planning for more than she bargained for with Sabine, an old widow who knows this is her last Christmas. There’s also a castle that unveils secrets and old crushes are brought to light again. Praised for its beautiful writing and plot, this is a great way to escape into the festive spirit of family. This is a classic that everyone has read or watched before — and most likely more than once as it has been successfully adapted into multiple movies and books. So what would his grandad think of the book? “I expect he would ask me: where is the manual where you learned to do this? He would find it odd that you just kind of do it, with your fingers crossed. But I know he would have respected how I feel about my work. And I think he would have been proud of me, and hoped that I was happy. He was a very kind man.”