Capote, Truman

Looking back on childhood Christmases on his relatives’ sprawling Alabama farm, Buddy records his unlikely friendship with his beloved maiden ‘aunt’, Sook: foraging for pecans to bake into fruitcakes and greenery to decorate the house; rising before dawn to prepare feasts for a ragged assembly of family, farmhands and neighbours; making kites – too broke to buy gifts – to fly beneath crisp winter skies. And he remembers how it was fair-minded, kind-natured Sook who comforted him when harsh realities – luckless parents, cruel classmates and the injustice of the adult world – intruded on this simple existence. With her irrepressible sense of wonder and fun, Sook taught him the true meaning of good will.