Talking to Calippa Cumberland

It’s half past four on Christmas Eve, 1976. Lori Bloom, aged three and three-quarters, is leaving a busy department store with her mother when the tannoy announces that a child in reception is lost and crying for her parents.

The impact on Lori is immediate. ‘Calippa Cumberland’, the mysterious girl with blonde hair and a curious name, becomes her imaginary friend and a constant presence into adulthood. For as one Christmas follows another, Lori finds herself confronting painful questions and in need of a companion in whom she can confide.

But will there ever be someone Lori can completely trust? And will Christmas Eve ever be about finding and being found, rather than losing and being lost?