Get them tucked up between the covers
FROM FACT TO FICTION, HANNAH STEPHENSON ROUNDS UP PAGE-TURNERS THAT WOULD MAKE IDEAL CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR LOVED ONES
Book Shelf
WHATEVER your family and friends’ hobbies or pastimes, or fact or fiction preferences, there’s a book that will feed their interests or capture their imagination this Christmas.
So wrap up a book for under the tree, whether it’s a thrilling pageturner, a mouth-watering cookbook or a lifestyle offering to guide them into the New Year.
Here are 10 options to suit a variety of tastes.
FEARLESS
By Trinny Woodall (HQ, HarperCollins, £26)
Mi d - l i f e r s who would enjoy a combination of bite-size selfhelp and style can dip into this book long after the decorations have been put away.
The What Not To Wear TV style guru-turned CEO weaves insights from her own sometimes rocky path, from feelings of insecurity, to IVF, solo parenting and freedom of her 50s, covering subjects like selfworth and confidence, mixed with steps on finding your ideal colour palette and curating outfits.
WORLD COCKTAIL ATLAS
By Olly Smith (Quadrille, £22)
Anyone who loves a cocktail over the festive season and beyond will be able to travel the world of drinks without leaving their home, thanks to award-winning drinks writer and TV presenter Ollie Smith’s exploration into tipples from far and wide.
From the Cape Snow of South Africa to the UK’s Chocolate Manhattan, the Sibelius Black Punch of Finland, to the Guarapita of Venezuela, readers will be left shaken and stirred.
COMFORT EATING
By Grace Dent (Faber & Faber, £20)
This deliciously entertaining read will have you salivating over a mound of comfort food revelations from the restaurant critic and I’m A Celebrity star, who admits she bungs in the oven chips after a day of sampling haute cuisine at the TV studios. It covers all our behind-closed-doors favourites, with chapters on cheese, butter, pasta, potatoes and bread, and there’s even a section on uncomfortable eating – cue green peppers, quinoa and pre-soak pulses. A perfect antidote to the excesses of a posh food Christmas.
CRAFT YOUR YEAR WITH SARA DAVIES By Sara Davies (Bantam, £20)
The bubbly Dragons’ Den crafting queen brings her talents to the page with more than 70 step-by-step projects, ranging from simple flower frames to marbled mugs, succulent plant pots, macrame coasters and cookie gift jars.
Featuring projects for beginners, intermediate and advanced, give this to your loved one and you may well be receiving a home-made hand-crafted present next year.
THE SECRET By Lee Child and Andrew Child (Bantam, £22)
Jack Reacher fans will be escaping to a quiet room to read the
28th book in the series from the bestselling novelist, this time written in collaboration with his brother, as our tough military lone wolf sets out to track down two sisters on a killing spree to avenge the death of their father. It’ll make a great change from the annual Boxing Day action movie.
THE BOOK YOU WANT EVERYONE YOU LOVE* TO READ *(AND MAYBE A FEW YOU DON’T)
By Philippa Perry (Cornerstone, £18.99) Another sage buy for family members and friends who need a little help with their everyday challenges and how to deal with them, with words of wisdom from the psychotherapist and agony aunt.
Awkward situations and relationship, love, change, loss and conflict are all covered – which is pretty timely for the festive season – along with solutions to help us feel more in charge and more able to deal with difficult situations that lie ahead.
THE WOMAN IN ME
By Britney Spears (Gallery UK, £25) Anyone who loves a celebrity tell-all story will feast on the most talkedabout memoir of the autumn, as the ‘Princess of Pop’ reveals her experience of fame, motherhood and her conservatorship, which took over her life for more than a decade.
While her life among the stars may have seemed glamorous, and the big bombshells in the book have already made headline news, this is actually a tragic account of someone who was pushed to her breaking point by the industry and those around her.
ROAST FIGS, SUGAR SNOW By Diana Henry (Aster, £22)
Any foodies who want to snuggle up in winter with some rich, heartwarming dishes and missed the Irish food writer’s book when it was first published in 2005, will be savouring the recipes from this new edition, a collection from cold weather climes, with a new foreword by Nigel Slater and seven new recipes.
Dishes include a Swedish apple, almond and cardamom cake, Danish roast pork and a rich risotto from northern Italy.
THE LIST
By Yomi Adegoke (4th Estate, £14.99)
This corker of a debut was billed as the book of the summer but you can huddle up away from the Christmas chaos this month and immerse yourself in this intense story about a career couple who seem to have it all – until his name appears on a crowdsourced list of sexual abusers online.
It’s a cautionary tale that mines the dark side of social media and its influence on even our closest personal relationships. The novel is cuurently being codeveloped by HBO Max, the
BBC and A24 for the screen.
LAND OF MILK AND HONEY
By C Pam Zhang (Hutchinson Heinemann, £16.99) This dystopian tale, a follow-up to the Booker Prize- longlisted How Much of These Hills is Gold, is set in a near future when a blanket of smog has spread over the world, causing widespread famine and despair.
The narrator, a struggling chef, is given the opportunity to work at an exclusive research community, an elite sanctuary for the super-rich run by a wealthy man and his daughter, set in the mountaintops above the smog and untouched by the blight.
There she discovers more food than she could ever imagine – and finds out what her employers are really up to.
LIVING with a gamer when you’re not one yourself can be a real pain, but especially at Christmas.
This year has seen some great releases, from both big hitters and indie studios. But what is the gamer in your life hoping to find sitting under the tree on December 25?
If they’re too big to write Santa a list, and you’re desperate for some ideas, then allow me to offer some festive inspiration.
STRAY
(PEGI 12) PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX X/S, PC
This year XBOX owners finally got to experience the game they never knew they needed – a cat simulator.
Stray is a third-person adventure which follows the journey of an unnamed cat that has become separated from its family.
Plunged into a subterranean cybercity that’s home to nothing but droids and dangerous creatures, the game’s main aim is to return home to your furry friends.
To survive in this neon soaked, Blade Runner-esque world you’ll need to use all the cunning wiles – and devilment – a cat possesses.
Luckily for the fluffy protagonist it’s not alone for long as the cat is soon joined by a tiny drone – B12 – which kits you out with a backpack which acts as both the drone’s recharge station, and storage space.
Some of the robots are surprisingly charming, and while kitty’s vocabulary is limited to mews, hisses and purrs, you can chat with the machines via your backpack.
Moving through the map feels almost like parkour at times, until you stop and realise this is how cats get around. Leaping surefootedly onto swinging beams, deftly traversing rooftops.
Evoking laughter, joy and genuine tears, you don’t have to be a cat fan to love this game.
DREDGE
(PEGI 12) PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX X/S, Switch, PC
Now bear with me on this one, because just like you, I thought a game about fishing would leave me cold. But Dredge has a darker side too – a much darker side.
It starts off simple enough, set out on your boat, sell your catch and upgrade your vessel.
Pootle off into the remote ‘Marrows’ and sail around in search of curious collectables and attempt to catch some of the 125 creatures which call the archipelago home.
But what begins as a quaint fishing escapade quickly descends into a nightmarish, Lovecraftian voyage.
The map is fairly compact, with five zones to test your nerves.
I have to admit this game also appealed to my slightly obsessive side, in that each catch has to be organised in the ship’s cargo hold – and each fresh haul means reorganising your hold to fit more in, like playing Tetris with sea life.
And don’t forget to retrieve the strange relics which lie in the waters around the islands, they can be sold to a mysterious collector – if you
make it back to shore.
VAMPIRE SURVIVORS (PEGI 12) XBOX ONE,
XBOX X/S, Switch, PC, iOS
One of my favourite indie games of 2022, Vampire Survivors finally arrived on Switch in the summer.
This fabulous little gothic horror rouge-lite has you mowing down hordes of the undead as you bid to make it 30 minutes through the game without dying.
Sounds simple? Trust me, it’s anything but. This game looks like it’s been torn from the remnants of a 90s console, with its flat, 2D graphics barely animated. But while it’s not the best looking game out there, its gameplay is as addictive as it comes.
Your weapons fire automatically, so all you have to do is worry about surviving for as long as you can against a constant wave of monsters.
Defeated monsters drop items like experience gems, used to level up, and “floor chicken”, which restores health.
Depending on the stage you choose, there are three “soft” time limits of 15, 20 or 30 minutes. Once you survive past your chosen limit, all enemies are cleared and “Death” arrives – with a fresh Death spawning every minute over your limit until you’re kersplatted.
What’s even better, this indie title costs around £3.99 on all consoles.
BALDUR’S GATE 3 (PEGI 18) PS5, PC
This CRPG (computer role-playing game) has dominated the final quarter of 2023. As the name suggests it’s the third instalment in the Baldur’s Gate series, set in Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms.
Playable as a single-player or as a co-operative multiplayer, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the first in the series to have turn-based combat.
The story is set 120 years after the previous game, and sees your character forming a party with either computer generated characters, or with up to three other players online, to complete various quests.
There’s a roster of 10 companions to help you and, impressively, all characters – both major and minor – are fully motion captured and voice acted. Graphically it’s beautiful, while the bold story and complex characters help to create an immersive world.
It’s so good, many claim it’s set a new benchmark for the whole CRPG genre – which is some feat.
Currently available on PS5 and PC, it’s due out on XBOX this month.
STREET FIGHTER 6 (PEGI 12) PS4, PS5, XBOX X/S, PC
For a franchise that’s marking its 36th year, Street Fighter feels fresher than ever. After the disappointment of Street Fighter V in 2016, Capcom came back swinging with Street Fighter 6 in June this year.
With a roster of 18 new and returning characters to choose from, there are three over-arching hubs to dive straight into – World Tour, Fighting Ground and Battle Hub.
Fighting Ground is the closest to the traditional 2D Street Fighting action we know and love, while Battle Hub lets you compete against other players around the world.
It’s the World Tour hub, however, that is a game-changer, a sprawling, RPG open-ish world in which your customised fighter can explore and pick fights with just about everyone they meet.
Street Fighter 6 feels like a major reinvention of the series. It’s so good even its wafer thin storyline is easy to forgive.
Moving through the map feels almost like parkour...
On Stray’s gameplay