Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide For Book Lovers

Papier

Papier’s aptly-named Joy Reading Journal comes in 13 colourways, but we think this pink and red option will really put the, well, joy into chronicling your reading habits.

Joy Reading Journal, 13 colours, £29

Kindle

If you’ve been trying to convert the book lover in your life to digital, this might just seal the deal: Kindle’s brand new Colorsoft model breathes fresh life into the world’s most popular e-reader, featuring high contrast, fast page turns, auto-adjusting light, and weeks of battery life.

Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, £269.99

Soho Home

Bring some style to your book lover’s shelves with these hefty bookends from Soho Home, inspired by Soho House Rome and the abundant marble in the eternal city.

Lola bookends, £195

Biblio Bloom

Curating your reading nook? Add a ceramic book vase into the mix, with various classics available.

Little Women Ceramic Book Vase, £40

CRANBOURN®

Speaking of book nooks, inspire some scentscaping with a candle. We love CRANBOURN®‘s Nordic Serenity range, with fresh woodland notes conjuring a dark academia vibe.

Nordic Serenity White Glass Candle, £36

Farrar & Tanner

Delight the book lover in your life with this walnut wood book which, when opened, transforms into a fanned lamp emitting a soft white light.

Gingko Design Large Smart Book Light, two colours, £69

Ettinger

Up your bookmark game with this Ettinger x Morris & Co collaboration: soft Italian calf leather embossed with the iconic William Morris Marigold pattern.

Morris & Co. X Ettinger Bookmark, two colours, £27

National Book Tokens

If in doubt, a book gift card will do the trick.

From £10

Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney’s latest release could be her most lauded yet. With its granular exploration of two brothers, Intermezzo signals a gear shift into Rooney’s next literary phase.

Faber & Faber, £20

V V Ganeshananthan

You can’t go wrong with a Women’s Prize winner, and 2024’s is a goodie. Brotherless Night by V V Ganeshananthan paints the tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war with granular detail.

Charlotte Mendelson

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is an acutely observed, emotionally intelligent, witty account of the rise and fall of a marriage. The two central characters, contrastingly domineering and self-effacing, are brilliantly drawn.

Mantle, £18.99

William Boyd

A new William Boyd novel is always an event and Gabriel’s Moon is no exception. This spy story displays all of Boyd’s customary invention, narrative élan, and eye for detail.

Viking, £20

Oisin McKenna

His writing has been compared to Zadie Smith, and Oisin McKenna taps into a heady 2019 weekend in London to tell the five intertwined tales making up Evenings and Weekends.

HarperCollins, £16.99

Percival Everett

Huckleberry Finn gets a revisionist makeover in Percival Everett’s latest novel, James, immersing the reader in the brutality of slavery, cushioned by lyrical and richly textured prose.

Pan Macmillan, £20

Samantha Harvey

Weighing in at just 136 pages, Samantha Harvey’s lyrical analysis of the planet as viewed from the International Space Station is the perfect Christmas gift for the space-obsessed book lover in your life.

Vintage, £9.99

Rita Bullwinkel

Making the Booker Prize Longlist earlier this year, it was hard to get your hands on a copy of Rita Bullwinkel’s ‘unflinching debut’ for most of the summer it was so in-demand. It tells the story of a young women’s boxing tournament through punchy flashes of prose.

Daunt Books, £9.99

Coco Mellors

Last year, Coco Mellors’ debut novel was the talk of the time, and it’s over to her even better sophomore work, Blue Sisters, this Christmas.

HarperCollins, £16.99

Richard Osman

We Solves Murders is the first in a brand new series by the man who has topped bestseller lists consistently over the last few years thanks to the cosy appeal of Thursday Murder Club.

Penguin, £22

Ali Smith

A painted red line signifies dread to lost children in the dystopian landscape of Ali Smith’s enigmatic but gripping Gliff.

Penguin, hardback, £18.99

Jonathan Coe

Satirist Jonathan Coe treats us to a droll crime caper in The Proof of My Innocence.

Penguin, hardback, £20

Alan Hollinghurst

Alan Hollinghurst’s hero, Dave, is the clever outsider magnetised by traditional English life and class distinctions in Our Evenings.

Pan Macmillan, hardback, £22

Haruki Murakami

The lovelorn narrator of The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami works as a librarian and dream reader as he slips between real and shadow worlds.

Vintage, hardback, £25

Michael Palin

The fourth volume of Michael Palin’s diaries, There and Back, covers the period 1999–2009. As Palin writes, diaries ‘show what it’s like to survive’, but he provides much humour, interest, and insight along the way.

W&N, £30

Hugo Williams

Fast Music is the latest collection of poetry by Hugo Williams. Williams’s work is always a joy to read – packed full of humour and wistfulness, quintessentially English.

Faber & Faber, £12.99

Sue Prideaux

Paul Gaugin has long been a controversial figure, but Sue Prideaux’s new biography of the artist, Wild Thing, reappraises him in the light of recently emerged evidence and looks anew at his work.

Faber & Faber, £30

Martin Gayford

Martin Gayford’s new book, How Painting Happens, examines the creative process through the eyes of the painters themselves. The result is a fascinating exploration of how and why paintings come into being.

Thames & Hudson, £35

Lee Seong-bok

Lee Seong-bok is one of Korea’s most prominent poets, and Indeterminate Inflorescence (translated by Anton Hur) is a collection of life-affirming aphorisms lifted from his creative writing lectures and complied by his students.

Allen Lane, £12.99

Susan Keevil

An anthology of essays by renowned wine writers, On Tuscany explores the region’s famous wines, its grapes, and winemakers. A must for any oenophile.

Academie du Vin, £35

Petroc Trelawny

Cornwall considers itself a land apart. Trelawny’s Cornwall by Petroc Trelawny offers an impressionistic, beautifully written exploration of the Duchy’s past and present.

W&N, £22

Henry Hemming

Henry Hemming’s Four Shots in the Night tells the story of a notorious murder in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. A compulsive read.

Quercus, £22

Anthony Seldon

Liz Truss’s tenure of 10 Downing Street was the shortest and most ignominious in British history. Anthony Seldon’s Truss at 10 lays bare the hubris and political ineptitude which precipitated her fall.

Atlantic, £22

Alex Christofi

Cypria is a history of Cyprus but also a travelogue, reflecting the author Alex Christofi’s background and many visits to the island. The result is an engaging portrait of Cyprus’s variegated and sometimes troubled past.

Bloomsbury, £20

Dan Jones

Dan Jones’s gift is in bringing the distant past alive, something he achieves in spades with Henry V. The victor of Agincourt leaps off these pages, full of fight.

Head of Zeus, £25

David Kynaston & Harry Ricketts

Ostensibly about the 1961 Old Trafford Test between England and Australia, Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts, ranges widely and enjoyably across the social and cricketing history of its era.

Bloomsbury, £22

Clive Aslet

Sir Edwin Lutyens was a practitioner whose scope extended from the domestic to the monumental and commemorative. Sir Edwin Lutyens: Britain’s Greatest Architect is a sumptuously illustrated book by Clive Aslet, and an ideal introduction to Lutyens and his work.

Triglyph, £20

Neneh Cherry

The Swedish singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry’s memoir A Thousand Threads is a vivid account of her life and career, from her bohemian childhood to her breakthrough hit Buffalo Stance in 1988 and beyond.

Fern Press, £22

Guy Shrubsole

The Lie of the Land is an angry book. Its author, Guy Shrubsole, an impassioned campaigner for land reform, explains his ideas for the future of landholding and stewardship of the countryside in Britain.

William Collins, £22

Carol Donaldson

Carol Donaldson’s The Volunteers is a gentle, reflective account of the author’s time as leader of a team of countryside conservation volunteers. It affirms the restorative power of nature and collective activity.

Summersdale, £10.99