The gift that keeps on giving

Every year Christmas records sell — but do the artists live happily ever after? Simon Hattenstone asks those who know, from the Pogues to Boney M to Slade.

IN Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy, Will Freeman never has to work again because his dad wrote a huge Christmas hit.

Every December the record sells, kerching, kerching, and he lives happily ever after. But is that true? Are those lucky enough to have written a classic Christmas hit, living in clover?