A series of short stories specially written for BBC Radio 4 by Alexander McCall Smith, the bestselling author of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Each story is set at Christmastime and features the giving of gifts.

In this fourth story, "The Colourful Life of Cousin Grace", read by Stephanie Cole, three young siblings sit entranced as their worldly cousin Grace mixes herself a very dry Martini and regales them with tales from her four marriages.

The other stories in the series are read by James Fleet, Trevor White, William Gaminara and Hannah Gordon. They range in subject matter from a generous German female owner of a Wall of Death, to a hot-tempered Canadian chef discovering humility at the hands of a food critic, to an enterprising elderly Professor escaping the confines of a compassion-free care home, to the dutiful President of an Eastern European country attending to the poor of his community.

Reader: Stephanie Cole

Writer: Alexander McCall Smith

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron. Show less