Christmas Gift Guide for Book Lovers: 12 UK-Published Books for Every Type of Reader
Books make generous presents. They are easy to post, they do not need batteries, and unlike most gifts they can be enjoyed twice: once in the unwrapping, once on a dark January evening with the curtains shut. The difficulty is choosing well. A book bought for the wrong reader sits on a shelf for a decade, which is a quiet sort of waste.
The twelve below are matched to reader personalities rather than genres alone. All are available in British editions from high-street shops, independent bookshops and online retailers, and none of them require the recipient to have read anything beforehand.
Fiction for long evenings
The Remains of the Day — for the reader who values restraint
Kazuo Ishiguro's novel (Faber) follows Stevens, a butler at an English country house, on a motoring trip through the West Country in the summer of 1956. He is polite, exact and quietly unreliable about his own life. Give this to the friend who likes a novel with no shouting, who notices punctuation, who has probably already read their way through Ian McEwan. It rewards patience.
Wolf Hall — for the history devotee
Hilary Mantel's opener to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy (Fourth Estate) turns Tudor politics into something close to a thriller, all of it told from inside Cromwell's head. Present tense, sparse punctuation, and three hundred pages gone before you notice. One for the reader who has watched the costume dramas and now wants the messier version.
Piranesi — for the fantasy reader who thinks they have read everything
Susanna Clarke's second novel (Bloomsbury) is short, strange and set in an infinite house of tides and statues. Almost anything you say about the plot spoils it, so say nothing. Ideal for the reader who grew up on Ursula Le Guin and now wants a book they cannot predict from the first chapter.
Short books for busy weeks
Small Things Like These — for the reader with twenty minutes a night
Claire Keegan's novella (Faber) runs to a little over one hundred pages and is set in an Irish town in 1985. A coal merchant notices something he was not meant to notice. A good gift for new parents, night-shift workers and anyone who has abandoned three books this year.
The Midnight Library — for the reader who needs a lift
Matt Haig's novel (Canongate) places its heroine in a library between life and death, where each shelf holds a life she might have lived. Warm rather than sentimental, and it suits the friend who reads mainly for comfort rather than experiment. Reassure them it is a novel, not a self-help manual.
Persepolis — for the reader new to graphic novels
Marjane Satrapi's black-and-white memoir (Jonathan Cape) describes growing up in Iran through the revolution and the war with Iraq, and being sent abroad as a teenager. Clean panels, sharp humour, and a firm argument that comics can carry anything prose can.
Crime, myth and comfort reading
The Thursday Murder Club — for the cosy crime fan
Richard Osman's first novel (Viking) gathers four residents of a retirement village who meet to review cold cases — until one of the cases turns out to be current. Funny, generous and easy to read in company. A reliable stocking filler for a parent who rings you to discuss the ending.
The Song of Achilles — for the reader who wants to feel everything
Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) retells the Iliad through Patroclus, who loves Achilles and watches him choose glory anyway. Anyone who claims not to cry at books will be proved wrong somewhere in the final third. Wrap it with a packet of tissues for an unsubtle joke that always lands.
True stories and beautiful objects
The Five — for the reader who likes social history
Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday) recovers the lives of the five women killed by Jack the Ripper — their work, their marriages, their poverty — rather than the killer's. Meticulous and quietly furious. Give it to the friend who listens to history podcasts and always wants the sources.
Educated — for the memoir reader
Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho with no formal schooling and a deep distrust of institutions, and later studied at Cambridge. Her memoir is as much about family loyalty as it is about education, and it is the sort of book people press on friends. Do not oversell the hardship; let them find it.
The Salt Path — for the walker and the nature lover
Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph) writes about walking the South West Coast Path with her husband after they lost their home and received difficult health news. Wind, cliffs, cheap campsites and a stubborn refusal to give in. One for anyone who likes their memoirs muddy.
The Lost Words — for the reader who loves books as objects
Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton) made a large illustrated book of spells for nature words — acorn, wren, otter — after they were dropped from a children's dictionary. It works for every age, and it may be the most beautiful object on this list. Check they have shelf space before you commit.
How to wrap and personalise a book gift
Presentation does quiet work here. A paperback handed over in a supermarket bag feels like an afterthought; the same paperback with a note inside feels considered.
- Write in it. A date, one sentence about why you chose it, and your name. Gifted books become objects with a history.
- Wrap with the jacket on, but slide a sheet of tissue between the jacket and the board first so the corners do not scuff in the post.
- Match the paper to the book. Brown kraft and string for the nature writing, something brighter for the crime novel. Plain paper always looks better than creased novelty wrap.
- Add one small companion. A bookmark, a decent tea bag, or a packet of wildflower seeds tucked inside The Lost Words.
- Include a follow-on list. An index card reading "if you like this, try…" with two or three titles turns one gift into a reading plan.
- Be honest about second-hand. A charity-shop copy with a previous owner's inscription is charming if you mention it, awkward if you do not.
- Consider the format. If they read only on an e-reader, a signed hardback becomes decoration. That can still be a good present, as long as you both know it.
If you are still unsure
Ask one question and listen properly: what was the last book you finished? Not the last book they bought, or the one they feel they should have read. If the answer is vague, a book token from an independent bookshop is a genuine gift rather than a surrender, and staff there will happily match a title to a personality if you describe the person.
Keep the receipt tucked in the back cover. Books are personal, and a reader who does not click with a title should feel free to swap it for one that fits — no guilt, no explanation needed.
Photo: 6979608 / Pixabay
