Thinking about Christmas presents? Do you want to buy a loved one something faff-free, meaningful and joyful that isn’t made of plastic?
Buy them a book!
You can even support local bookshops and authors in the process (the links shared here are from bookshop.org, where possible.) It’s an absolute win-win.
Here are my recommendations, divided into sections, inspired by my awesome fellow debut authors:
Books for book club members
Obviously, I’m going to recommend my own book, aren’t I?
Patience, my debut, was named the Booksellers’ Association Book of Month for August, its month of release, which was a huge honour. It was also a LoveReading debut of the month and has a five star average on Amazon. It’s out in paperback next July, on the same day my second book, Grace, is released.
Other good options in this category:
The lovely This Shining Life by Harriet Kline.
Songs for your mother by Gordon Macmillan
The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby
Books for crime lovers
Know someone who loves crime? Why not buy one of Marion Todd’s excellent, Scotland-based Detective Clare Mackay novels. See Them Run is the first, and Next In Line is the latest. Or sticking with the Scottish theme, how about Emma Christie’s Silent Daughter, which was shortlisted for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021? Or if you know someone who likes gritty crime, Trevor Wood’s Man on the Street, winner of the CWA John Creaser Dagger and the Specsavers debut crime novel award, may well fit the bill. Or are you a Christie fan? Then try Victoria Dowd’s Body on the Island.
Books for lovers of historical fiction
If you know someone who likes reading historical fiction, treat them to a novel by Louise Fein. Her debut, People Like Us, was Shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize and the RNA Historical Romantic Novel Award 2021. Her second, The Hidden Child, focuses on the eugenics movement in the 1920s, and is an excellent read.
Other good options in this category:
The Wolf Den, by Elodie Harper.
Leonora Nattress, Black Drop
Annie Garthwaite’s Cecily
AJ West’s The Spirit Engineer
Books for thriller lovers
Goodness, I have loads to recommend. In no particular order:
All in her head Nikki Smith
The Prank by LV Matthews
Sleepless Louise Mumford
Call me Mummy Tina Baker
My Perfect Sister by Penny Batchelor
Top drawer sagas
Sagas are perfect for chilly winter’s nights, and three women I’m honoured to call my friends have written some corkers. So, how about:
The Steel Girls by Michelle Rawlins
The Post Office Girls by Poppy Cooper
The Royal Stationmaster’s Daughters by Ellee Seymour
Feel-good fiction
Want to laugh, cry and feel all the feels? Then how about:
We Are Animals by Tim Ewins, The Paris Connection by Lorraine Brown or Everything Is Fine by Gillian Harvey?
Children’s and Middle Grade
Why not buy the child in your life a copy of Eve Ainsworth’s Kicking Off (perfect for a football fan)
or Hannah Gold, The Last Bear (excellent for the environmentally-conscious?)
Both authors have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and rightly so.
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Victoria Scott 