Definitely my Dad, without question. He’s never loved a present I’ve bought him. One year I thought I’d hit the nail on the head by giving him a framed photo of myself (which, looking back sounds incredibly narcissistic, but after four years of unsuccessful Marks and Spencer jumpers I was getting desperate) which I thought would be great for his new office. He put it straight in his room behind another photo. This year I’m going to buy him a snickers.
If you are male and too old for Star Wars Lego then I will spend fraught weeks scouring the internet for brilliant, witty gift ideas, before eventually giving up and buying you socks. Again.
Any male person. What do you get men? What does anyone ever get men? They always buy what they need the moment they need it, rather than waiting for Christmas. And, if you click the ‘presents for him’ box on an online store for ideas, all you get is silver whiskey flasks or cufflinks. I know no man who wouldn’t think I was literally insane if I gifted him a hip flask and some cufflinks. He’d be like, “what sort of crazy James Bond life do you think I live?!”
My dad. He has everything he wants and hates ‘clutter’ which means ‘everything’. We get around him by buying him restaurant vouchers for him and my stepmother.
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Coconut Lindt Lindors, amazing roast potatoes and a glass of sherry. Maybe not all at the same time. Then again, now that I’ve written it down it’s starting to sound rather delicious.
Roast parsnips, for sure. I love them crispy brown on the outside and soft in the middle, and I don’t know why but they taste better at Christmas than any other day of the year.
My friends and I always have a girls’ night in on Christmas Eve, where we eat one baked Camembert each. Then we feel so ill afterwards that we can’t sleep when we get home, and spend actual Christmas day sleep-deprived, sweaty, groaning and messaging one another: “We’ve got to stop doing this each year. One cheese between three is enough.” But it’s sort of an unbreakable ritual now.
Nigella’s Christmas book introduced me to an Italian liqueur called Tuaca, which she winningly describes as panettone in a glass. A splash of this mixed with Prosecco is the perfect accompaniment to Christmas brunch: it’s like the beverage equivalent of ‘Good King Wenceslas’
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Black Friday has been and gone, and we’re in full swing curating our Christmas list. In this latest blog post, authors Erin Kelly, Holly Bourne, Jill Mansell and Beth Good tell us what book is top of their list!
I can’t resist a cookbook and I’ve heard great things about The Big Green Roasting Tin.
I collect English language editions of To Kill A Mockingbird so I keep waiting for the day I’m gifted a hardback first edition. They’re only about seven grand and I reckon I totally deserve it.
The New York Times Book of the Dead, please. There’s nothing I love more than a good obituary and this is a selection of the very best. Over the years I’ve probably stolen more tiny character ideas from obituaries than from any other source. (Sorry if that’s a bit weird and unfestive. I’m a big fan of wandering around cemeteries reading the stories on gravestones too!) Happy Christmas!
Past Tense, Lee Child’s latest thriller featuring Jack Reacher, easily one of the sexiest fictional heroes around. Of course, Jack would never get tied down, so I can read and daydream without worrying about the reality!