This is a serene book that nudges its way into your heart. —Malachy McCourt, New York Times bestselling author of A Monk Swimming

For more than 30 years as a roving reporter, AP Special Correspondent (and legendary storyteller) Hugh Mulligan wrote witty, quirky, and sometimes poignant Christmas columns from many distant datelines.

Whether he was writing from London or Austria, Israel or Vietnam, or the snows of Greenland and the Canadian Artic, Mulligan managed to capture the essence of the holiday spirit for all to enjoy.

Now The Associated Press has assembled these delightful stories in a new collection, Mulligan’s Christmas Stew. This serving of tasty tales is sprinkled with humorous and touching observations, as well as enchanting reminders about the joy and reflection the time of the year brings to all, both young and old.

The volume features an introduction by Malachy McCourt, as well as Christmas quizzes, artifacts from the AP Corporate Archives, and an interview with the author on his incredible career in journalism.

Mulligan’s Christmas Stew is a journey through the world of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, the birth of Christmas carols, the real cost of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Christmas at the White House and so much more!
Have yourself a Merry Mulligan Christmas!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hugh Aloysius Mulligan was born in New York City in 1925. After service in the 106th Army Division during World War II, he completed a bachelor of arts degree at Vermont’s Marlboro College, and later earned graduate degrees in journalism at Boston University and in English literature at Harvard. But for an early stutter, he would have sought ordination in the Roman Catholic priesthood. Instead, Mulligan joined The Associated Press in 1951. He retired in 2000.

In all, Mulligan visited 146 countries on assignments that included wars in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Ireland, Cyprus, Angola, and the secessionist Nigerian region of Biafra. Among those he interviewed were Marilyn Monroe, Margaret Thatcher, the Shah of Iran, John Glenn, Joe DiMaggio, and a bevy of writers including Brendan Behan, John Steinbeck, and Tennessee Williams. He returned to Ireland with presidents Kennedy and Reagan, went to China and Russia with Richard Nixon, toured with jazz great Louis Armstrong and comedian Bob Hope, carried a spear at the Metropolitan Opera and rode a camel caravan in Oman.

He was best known for his feature writing, including his long-running column “Mulligan’s Stew.” Mulligan died in Connecticut in 2008, at the age of 83.