Christmas might look different for many of us this year, but you’ll still want to find the perfect presents for your friends and family.
With Christmas shopping destined to be largely online, if you’re struggling for gift ideas, look no further than our handy guide to the latest releases in fiction and non-fiction, for loved ones of all ages.
If you’re looking to gift a new book this Christmas, here are seven of the best.
1. Love, by Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle’s latest novel begins with two middle-aged men meeting up for a drink on a scorching summer evening in Dublin.
Childhood friends, Davy and Joe were inseparable in their youth but now lead separate lives. They have their own jobs, wives, children. And their own secrets too.
Davy now lives in England but visits regularly and hasn’t forgotten his Irish roots: “‘Grand’, ‘jaysis’ – I packed the words with my clothes and toothbrush when I was coming to Dublin for a few days.”
Davy is back in Ireland visiting his sick dad, but it is Joe, who has the story to tell. He’s recently left his wife and family for a woman he and Davy met once before, in a Dublin pub, 37 years ago.
Through their colloquial and natural dialogue, a story of friendship, love, and memory unfolds. Packing a punch in relatively few pages and a deceptively easy read, Love would make a great gift this Christmas.
2. Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata
Murata’s Convenience Store Woman was an international bestseller. A quirky and deadpan tale of a long-time convenience store worker’s struggle to understand the world around her, the follow-up is another outsider tale.
Earthlings follows ten-year-old Natsuki, her cousin Yuu, and her favourite toy and best friend, Piyyut. Piyyut is from the planet Popinpobopia and has been sent – by Popinpobopia’s Magic Police – to Earth, on a mission to save it from an impending crisis.
Skip forward twenty years and Natsuki is in a marriage of convenience, feeling more alienated than ever: ‘All I can do is keep my head down and pretend to be an Earthling’. She heads back to the mountains of her youth and a reunion with Yuu.
3. The Hand and Flowers Cookbook, by Tom Kerridge
If your loved ones aren’t fiction fans, why not opt for culinary non-fiction.
The Hand and Flowers Cookbook is the long-awaited recipe book from the world’s only two-Michelin Star pub.
Situated in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the Hand and Flowers is a Green King pub owned by TV chef Tom Kerridge. The cookbook features 70 recipes to have graced the pub’s menu since he took it over in 2005.
4. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
Better known for his BBC2 ‘House of Games’ and as co-presenter of ‘Pointless’, the film rights to Osman’s debut novel have already been snapped up by Steven Spielberg.
In the peaceful retirement village of Coopers Chase, four elderly residents meet up every Thursday to investigate unsolved murders. Until that is, a brash property developer dies in a scuffle on their doorstep, and the Thursday Murder Club has a live case to crack.
Funny, heart-warming, and unashamedly British, Osman’s debut is a record-breaking bestseller and a great gift to give this Christmas.
5. Code Name Bananas, by David Walliams
Comedian and actor turned bestselling children’s author David Walliams released his fifteenth children’s novel at the start of November.
It’s 1940, London at the height of the Blitz, and as the city’s inhabitants live in fear, so do the animal inmates of London Zoo. When the bombs start falling too close for comfort, Eric and his Zookeeper uncle Sid launch a rescue mission.
The unlikely fugitives – Eric, Sid, and Gertrude the Gorilla – head to Bognor Regis. But the adventure is only beginning as they uncover and become embroiled in a secret Nazi plot.
6. No Shame, by Tom Allen
Stand-up comedian and panel show regular Tom Allen releases a funny and moving memoir in time for the festive market.
Elegantly dressed, well-spoken, and the youngest member of the Noel Coward Society, Allen felt like an outsider growing up in his hometown of Bromley. He still lives there today, with his mum and former-bus driver father.
Across ten chapters – and with biting good humour and honesty – Allen shares observations on growing up, fitting in, and coming out.
7. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
Obama already has two critically acclaimed books under his belt. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance was originally released in 1995, while The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream arrived in 2006, just two years before he became president.
A Promised Land is the first of two proposed volumes of post-presidential memoir. The author recently tweeted that he hoped they would be seen as ‘an honest accounting of my presidency, the forces we grapple with as a nation, and how we can heal our divisions and make democracy work for everybody.’
From his early political aspirations, through his appointment as the first black US president and his opening term in office, A Promised Land offers a thoughtful, personal, and beautifully written account of history in the making.
