18 brilliant books for Christmas – as recommended by your favourite presenters

The books I want for Christmas

Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig (£14.85, incl p&p)

I like to be given books that are beautiful objects in their own right. There are some lovely new editions of the classics and I would be delighted to receive this one by Stefan Zweig, published in 1939 and the Austrian writer’s only novel. Wes Anderson was heavily influenced by it when he made his film The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Provence to Pondicherry by Tessa Kiros (£20.30, incl p&p) is also a gorgeous-looking cookbook about the influence of French cuisine in far-flung places. I love cooking and lived in France for many years, plus I also travelled to Pondicherry in the south east of India as an 18-year-old on my gap year, so Kiros ticks a lot of boxes!

The Book I’ll be Giving

Motor Miles by John Burningham (£11.50, incl p&p)

This picture book – about the joy of a difficult dog when he gets given a car of his own – is a good present for young children, and shows that the 80-year-old children’s author is still on classic form.

Tony Robinson

Actor and TV Presenter

The books I want for Christmas

The Widow by Fiona Barton (£12.10, incl p&p)

A debut novel from a former British newspaper journalist, I’ve heard The Widow is as good as Gone Girl and The Girl on a Train, both of which I loved.

I’d also be very happy to receive Howard Jacobson’s Shylock Is My Name (£14.85, incl p&p). It takes Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and reimagines the story in the present day. I love Jacobson but one of the reasons this book really appeals to me is because it tackles the contemporary rise of anti-Semitism.

I don’t think any other author writes as well about the experience of Jewishness and he manages to be serious but with that laconic humour.

The Book I’ll be Giving

Lamentation by CJ Samson (£16.90, incl p&p)

Lawyer-turned-author CJ Samson mixes two of my favourite genres – thrillers and historical novels – and writes like the lovechild of Raymond Chandler and Hilary Mantel. 

Susie Dent

Countdown’s Lexicographer 

The books I want for Christmas

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (£13.50, incl p&p) is a book I’d like to tuck myself away for a day to read. It’s short in length but by all accounts big on ideas and power, and I’ve been hooked on Barnes’s writing since his 2005 novel, Arthur & George.

Second would be At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson (£8.00, plus £1.50 p&p). Bryson always manages to present important ideas and themes with a deft lightness of touch I can only aspire to.

The Book I’ll be Giving

The Lost Estate by Henri Alain-Fournier (£5.99, plus £1.50 p&p) is a book I’ve adored for decades; it depicts the twilight world between childhood and adolescence. I love passing the magic on.