Our Booksellers’ Christmas Guide 2026
Selected by the Bookshop
Recommended by Saff
I read this book 2024 and it is still one of my go-to books to recommend. Matar writes with empathy in this compelling exploration of male friendship and displacement set against the backdrop of London.
From the publisher:
I'm not a portrait painter. If I'm anything, I have always been an autobiographer.Self-Portrait reveals a life truly lived through art. In this short, intimate memoir, Celia Paul moves effortlessly through time in words and images, folding…
Recommended by Saff
‘This might be a perfect novel. Some would call this a psychological horror, I might call it a thriller... of sorts. Read it – you’ll see what I mean.’
From the publisher:
Translated by Megan McDowellSOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX DRAMASHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017'The book I wish I had written' Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women and AnimalA young woman named Amanda…
From the publisher:
Join Rene and Glumfoot at the Cafe at the Edge of the Woods - this time with some unexpected visitors beneath the floorboards ...…
Recommended by Caleb
Stretching from birds and bergs to caves and ohm, this is a trove crammed with art, artefacts and compelling writing. It’s the perfect compass for embarking on a new project with plenty of unusual threads to tug on.
Recommended by Caleb
‘This has been my pocket companion ever since it was gifted to me. Each entry has that uncanny ability to describe exactly what you’re going through at that moment. It’s the ultimate self-help book for self-help haters and a perfect gift for the creative in your life – or anyone for that matter.’
Recommended by Saff
Published in 2025, this feels eerily predictive... what happens when the seas close, and oil stops flowing? It is essential reading for the Iran crisis and for the wider implications of a society which is reliant on extraction.
From the publisher:
Andrey Tarkovsky was the most important Russian filmmaker of the post-war era, and one of the world's most renowned cinematic geniuses. He directed the first five of his seven films - Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror and…
From the publisher:
A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no…
From the publisher:
WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025…
Recommended by Caleb
Any picture book illustrated by Júlia Sardà is a must (including her recent collaboration with Susanna Clarke), but this is my favourite. Harking back to a bygone era when bedtime stories were strange, spooky and warm, The Wolf’s Secret is for children destined to be raised on Ghibli and Over the Garden Wall.
From the publisher:
'It's time to share a little more of my love for home cooking and the merry dance of appetite and technique that lies behind the dishes I make, to bring to the table more of the home cook that I have become.'Following his bestselling Nights…
From the publisher:
The sixteen days of the Peasant’s Revolt, when new versions of England were born under the charismatic leader Wat Tyler, brought to life in a dazzlingly inventive novel by the author of The Manningtree Witches.It is 1381. England,…
Recommended by David
From the starting point of Homer, poet Alice Oswald’s rich, digressive essay celebrates the oral tradition, poetry that exists before, beyond and without writing. Max Porter writes ‘I can’t remember being as excited or as wholly engaged by a book in years. The words vibrate through you as you read, thronged by the living and the dead, human and animal in splendour and agony. It is a revitalising and radical manifesto. I will cherish it and revisit it as long as I live.’
From the publisher:
An immersive journey through trees in Japan by celebrated writer Aya Koda - now available in English for the first time'Trees are not just living things, but feeling beings, like us. Better keep a watchful eye over them...'Ezo spruce,…
Recommended by David
Subtitled ‘Seven Composers and What They Taught Me’ Stephen Johnson examines pieces from Bruckner, Rachmaninoff , Bach, Lili Boulanger, Wagner, Sibelius and Beethoven in a highly personal reflection on the transformative power of music
From the publisher:
Northern Ireland is on fire. But rather than attending to the conflict raging around her, the young Sinead Morrissey is obsessed with the Cold War, East Germany and the utopia of the USSR.Set against the distinctive cultural milieu of…
From the publisher:
What we call growth today is in fact a tumorous growth, a cancerous proliferation which is disrupting the social organism. These tumours endlessly metastasize and grow with an inexplicable, deadly vitality. At a certain point this growth is…
From the publisher:
At a time when it feels like every year buildings get larger and more impersonal, sheds remain a beacon of ergonomic simplicity. Maybe it's the nostalgia of the ancient huts from which humanity evolved, or the sense of focused calm produced…
Recommended by Charlie
Gaining Ground is a profound novel about one woman’s determination to become her true self, even at the expense of others. An essential reissue.
Recommended by Anya
A beautiful debut poetry collection on rupture and what it means to regain and redefine your sense of self from childhood to adulthood.
Recommended by Charlie
Jeremy Lee is a joyous companion in the kitchen: this is a book to read and cook from with great pleasure.
From the publisher:
'Enchanting, illuminating and tender' - Nigel Slater'The lasting message of How to Begin is one of empowerment' - The Observer'I believe you can live in a book of poems'A book about finding a creative voice and becoming an artist via a…
Recommended by Charlie
My favourite new novel of the year, a surreal tale of fractured identities that is both wily and moving.
From the publisher:
In 2009 writer John Berger visited Le Corbusier’s pilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp in eastern France. His companions on the trip were Sr. Lucia Kuppens and Sr. Telchilde Hinckley, two Benedictine nuns from Connecticut, and artist John…
From the publisher:
Ingeborg Bachmann’s short fiction – each piece a razor-sharp feminist masterpiece, as urgent as a confession – arrives here in full force. This major collection draws together all the stories Bachmann wrote over her…
From the publisher:
A painter’s memoir of obsession, loss and creation during a trip to Venice Alone in Venice for an artist’s residency, Celia Paul records her daily painting practice. Her days are both charged with and interrupted by the turmoil…
From the publisher:
My Destination, Daisy Fried's fifth book, explores renewal amid great loss - a struggle as common as rain. As full of lived life as ever, as formally various, and as wide-ranging in both subject and tone, these poems are sophisticated and…
Recommended by John
A joy to see the wellsprings of what would become the early masterpieces; generously edited, also including essays and letters.
From the publisher:
A three-part collection of songs recalled and misremembered; of singing or / as stilled life.
From the publisher:
A collection of poems and a selection of field notes by the late Daphne Astor: artist, farmer, poet, environmentalist, philanthropist and founder of Poetry in Aldeburgh and Hazel Press.The dog barks, pasts unfurlit is time to accept there…
From the publisher:
A dazzling, soul-stirring journey through the lost and endangered crafts that shaped Britain from multi-award-winning historian and broadcaster James FoxBritain was once a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands shaped our…
From the publisher:
In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been…
Recommended by Claire
Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge was home to Jim and Helen Ede and their art collection. This book is a walk through that collection and includes writing and letters between Jim and his artist friends such as Barbara Hepworth, David Jones, Ben and Winifred Nicholson and Joan Miro. Divine.
Recommended by Claire
More Moomins! These strips are somehow very of their time and also remarkably fresh AND cute and daft AND ALSO full of sharp social commentary – I love spending time in Moominvalley (and would give it 5 stars on Tripadvisor if I was allowed to).
From the publisher:
Two friends meet in an art gallery after decades of silence. The idealism that once bound them together fissured and fractured under the weight of collective and personal griefs.Through their memories of youthful certainty, the antagonism…
Recommended by Claire
The Pot Book is finally back in print! This is a gorgeous survey of ceramics over 30,000 years, curated by Edmund de Waal, full of texture, colour, technique and history.
From the publisher:
Flora is visiting home in Mexico when the family dog leaps up and bites her hand. She winds up in hospital where she undergoes several surgeries under anaesthesia and meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects…
From the publisher:
A wondrous tale of bonds forged when two men are pitted against each other on a remote island during the Highland Clearances, from the prize-winning author of West.LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZEWATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE…
Recommended by John
Not just an account of two remote Scottish islands and their inhabitants but so much else: Kociejowski’s scope, depth and empathy are unparalleled, and also he writes like an angel.
From the publisher:
Discover the haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy set in a deserted world.Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned?…
From the publisher:
Is it possible life without romantic love isn't so bad?An essential memoir about building life on your own terms***A SUNDAY TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***'The book I've been waiting for my entire life'DOLLY ALDERTON, author…
Recommended by Anya
Château Rouge is a joyful, vibrant, short novel about one of Paris’ most underrated neighbourhoods. It is a modern take on the flâneur, who is absorbed in trying to find an authentic experience of the city.
Recommended by Anya
London Falling is a true story about the mysterious death of Zac Brettler, and his family’s search for truth as they uncover their son’s fantasy life in London’s wealthy and violent underworld.
Recommended by John
A book that will change the way you read poetry.
From the publisher:
The rural terrain of John Challis's second collection provides a new lens for exploring history, class and work, our relationship to the natural world, and cycles of growth and decay. Much of his debut collection The Resurrectionists…
From the publisher:
'I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the frigid, the unfucked and the unfuckables, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh, and for all those guys who don't want to be protectors, for those who would…
From the publisher:
In a family home in the north of France, a crime has been committed. But a crime of what order? Who exactly is the victim and who, if anyone, is the criminal? In Twenty Minutes of Silence, Helene Bessette unleashes a polyphonic…
From the publisher:
A friendship is a filiation we choose. It holds love and laughter; it can extend our sense of the possible. Moved to honour a form of relation often subordinated to romantic and familial ties, and to explore a part of her own history,…
From the publisher:
She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the…
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