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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, where each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud.

I'm Patrick Gibbons,

and this week, for our very special second part of our bumper Christmas out loud, Dominic Sandbrook,

reads his historian's notebook and reflects on whether Lady Emma Hamilton is the 18th century's

answer to Bonnie Blue. Philip Henscher celebrates the joy of a miserable literary Christmas. Steve Morris argues

that an angel is for life, not just for Christmas. Christopher Howes ponders the spectator's enduring

place in fiction. Michael Han explains what links Jeffrey Dahmer to the Spice Girls. And finally,

the spectators' agony aunt Mary Killen, Dear Mary herself,

answers Christmas queries from Emily Maitliss, Elizabeth Day, Rory Stewart, and an anonymous

Chief Whip of Reform UK. Up first, Dominic Sandbrook.

For me, the past 12 months have been about one man, and that man is Alan Partridge.

The veteran broadcaster's return to BBC screens this autumn, with a documentary about mental health, was only part of the story.

The bigger issue is that at the turn of the year, my 13-year-old son discovered Partridge's podcast from the Oast House and became completely

obsessed. No everyday interaction, no matter how Humdrum, can now pass without a Partridge reference.

Should we hear, say, Kings Lynn mentioned on the news, my heart sinks, for I know that an

enthusiastic anecdote about his birth of the local hospital in

1955 will soon follow. In no household in Britain at Darrell Fletch's tanning centres discussed

...