AustLit

One December during WWII, Mrs Spargo and her friend Mrs Roberts discuss their troubles, and the upcoming Christmas season. Mrs Spargo is so downhearted that she thinks 'we won't keep Christmas at all this year.' Her husband is away at the war, she has six children to care for, and her ten-year-old daughter Effie has been charged with larceny and with 'being an uncontrollable child, and living under conditions likely to lead to a life of vice and crime.' Mrs Roberts's lot is just as bad: her husband died seven years earlier, and she raised her two boys alone. The older boy was killed in the war, and now the younger one is a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese. Some of their friends suggest that they form a friendship club to meet once a month in Mrs Spargo's kitchen. As it happens, the first meeting falls on Christmas Eve. Perhaps the disillusioned Kitchen Club will find a way, through their friendship, to renew their hope and regain the spirit of Christmas in the middle of war.