The eager young bookseller in Claremont, all wild hair and hands waving like fly-swatters, chirps about the book. It’s amazing, he says, sort of horror, like a Stephen King. Awesome, even if it was published two years ago! He’s describing NOS-4R2 by Joe Hill, and by now I’m hiding halfway under the counter.
This is his prize pick for the favourite post-school nephew/niece, so if there are parental complaints, blame him. More gift suggestions for family and friends:
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Frazzled friends
Festive in Death by JD Robb has a slightly icky connection to Christmas in its title. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is on duty at a killing while her husband, Roarke, is planning a party. A dark thriller than may offset too much festive sweetness.
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Quirky cousins
Tim Moore is a sucker for punishment. Having trudged hundreds of kilometres along the Camino with a recalcitrant donkey, and cycled the Tour de France route, he’s now off to ride “the very terrible 1914 Tour of Italy”, 3 000-plus km, on a bicycle he built himself using wood and wine corks. Of the 81 cyclists who rode the original tour, only eight made it back. There are jokes, pain, horror, and stuff about bikes you never wanted to know. I grabbed a copy of Gironimo! and can’t wait to tuck in.
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Grannies and grandpas
Yes, even though the iconic British cartoonist has been dead since 1995, Giles lives on. If you’re of a certain age then you’ll remember that no Christmas was ever complete without the latest Giles compendium. Giles: The Collection 2016 is a compilation of some of his best.
All in the Family: Loads of laugh-out loud (or weep quietly into the sherry) collections, of Zapiro (Rhodes Rage), Madam & Eve (Shed Happens) and a slightly disappointing anonymous number, Goodnight Zzzuma – a parody, based on the 1947 children’s classic, Goodnight Moon. The drawings are great, the stanzas not so much. The compendium that impressed me most (in patriotic green and gold) is Absolutely Awesome South Africa by Derryn Campbell. It’s packed with fascinating facts and humour, is a timely reminder of how amazing our land really is, and it’s quite educational with the lightest touch. Lovely to keep on the TV table or take on a long car trip to read out loud. You’ll say “I didn’t know that” quite a lot.
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Brainiac boffins
Germania by Simon Winder was one of my favourite books this year. It’s the history of Germany. No, don’t run for the whisky decanter just yet. It’s entertaining, obsessive, informative, totally OTT, and I adored it. Blows most myths about what we think of as “Germany” to pieces, while offering a fresh and often funny look at a country of good music and odd food.
Turns out there was never really any such thing as “Germany”. Just don’t tell Chancellor Angela Merkel.
If you’re looking for local, then our best political commentator, Justice Malala, has pulled no punches in We have now begun our descent, a reminder of how great we can be, and why we aren’t.
Children, school age and, um, somewhat older: There’s a wide range of Alice in Wonderland-themed books around: yes, it’s the 150th anniversary of the Lewis Carroll classic and the shops are thick with books, DVDs, and even (the latest trend), adult colouring-in books, several of which were about Alice. I was taken with the children’s book that included the original illustrations by Sir John Teniel. I
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Favourite non-relative
Dame Maggie Smith, born in 1934, is a legend. With her famously acerbic wit, not confined to her role in Downton Abbey, she would hate that description, but the Oscar-winning actress is genuinely one-of-a-kind. Her biography by Michael Coveney is faintly hagiographic but nevertheless worthwhile. A good companion piece would be Alan Bennett’s play The Lady in the Van, now a movie with Smith starring, as she did years ago in the original London stage hit. It’s the true story of how a woman in a van parked in Bennett’s driveway for 15 years. Really.
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Please adopt me, Bill
Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling is flying off the shelves this season. His first best-seller 20 years ago was Notes from a Small Island, the quirky, likeable journey of discovery he made as a young man finding his feet as an American abroad in Britain.
Now he’s older, fatter, grandfatherly, but still walking long distances (not always as easily) and after two decades his publisher suggested a sequel, “little glinting pound signs where his irises normally were”, quoth Bryson. Things aren’t quite what they used to be, but on the whole they’re still pretty good. Just as well, seeing he’s recently become a UK citizen.
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Special friends and family
Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer. While his book on Everest, Into Thin Air is the classic, this collection of 12 essays on mad and dangerous climbs – not always on mountains – is the book I have given most often, ever, as a gift: to friends who were bed-bound, those far from home, and the armchair traveller. Can be read over and again, especially when you need to know that there’s someone worse off or crazier than you are.