Many authors have attempted extensions, recreations and imaginings of what happens next to the March sisters in Louisa M Alcott’s novel, Little Women, but there is always room for another!

In Daisy Buchanan’s version, we are in the modern day and Marmee has been replaced by Louisa, a sensible nod to the original author. Louisa is forty-nine years old and looking forward to a quiet Christmas when a series of events mean that all her ‘girls’ arrive for the festive period and, possibly, beyond. The characters of Jo, Meg and Amy are nicely re-imagined for the 21st-century and the family falls back into familiar ways except that the father is not away at the war but divorced from Louisa.

There are other changes, but the relationship to the original is largely maintained while modernised in terms of roles and attitudes. There are still plenty of confusions of course but, in this version, romance eventually triumphs over commonsense!

Louisa is possibly the most interesting and convincing character as updated for the modern day and rather more happens to her than in the original, but it all turns out well.

If you remember enjoying the original story from childhood, there’s nothing in this to upset you and quite a lot to make you think, yes, it might have turned out like this! If you haven’t read the original, this might inspire you to do so. It’s an enjoyable read.