8 brilliant books for Christmas

Jenni Murray – The voice of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour

The book I want for Christmas

The Sellout by Paul Beatty, £12.10 (incl p&p)

The Man Booker Prize winner was described in one review as “the most lacerating American satire in years”. But it is also apparently a really funny novel and I could do with a laugh!

The books I’ll be giving

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (£13.50, incl p&p)

This is a beautifully written historical novel set in the fictional Essex village of Aldwinter in the late 19th century. It’s a tender love story, and tackles themes that are as relevant now as then: poor housing, domestic violence, the gulf between social classes. The historical detail is phenomenal – it’s simply wonderful.

Girls and Sex by Peggy Orenstein (£8.80, plus £1.50 p&p)

This is a must-read for any parent of daughters. Orenstein is an American journalist who interviewed 70 young women aged between 15 and 20, and it’s distressing in its descriptions of how damaged they are by their ignorance of their right to sexual pleasure.

Order Jenni Murray’s A History of Britain in 21 Women for £14.85, incl p&p

Chris Packham – Autumnwatch presenter

The books I want for Christmas

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, £20.30 (inc p&p)

All I want to read at Christmas is something to trip me up, to make me think – something that I won’t stop telling people about for months. I like to be startled or stabbed emotionally so I’m hoping this will do all that. Harari wrote the excellent Sapiens, which I couldn’t stop thinking about for ages.

Night of Fire by Colin Thubron (£14.85, incl p&p) .

Thubron is one of my favourite authors, he is a travel writer by reputation but also writes novels – 1989’s Falling was one of my favourites – so I’m keen to see if his sense of terrible romance still burns.

The book I’ll be giving

Industrial Scars by J Henry Fair (£23.80, incl p&p)

I’ll be giving this out to challenge people. It’s a collection of extraordinary and very beautiful photographs of environmental destruction, taken by an American activist. It’s the most interesting and unsettling book of the year, and is a necessary antidote to the typical natural photography book.

Order Chris Packham’s Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir for £17, incl p&p

Helen Skelton – broadcaster

The book I want for Christmas

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (£6.99, plus £1.50 p&p)

I’ll always be happy to receive any book by Roald Dahl. His stories are so classic and really funny. Yes, lots of them are aimed at kids, but I love that adults can read him too. All Dahl’s work has a bit of darkness in it – that’s what makes him so intriguing.

The books I’ll be giving

Wonder by RJ Palacio (£7.50, plus £1.50 p&p)

I’ve just finished reading this. It’s the story of a ten-year-old boy with a facial deformity who starts at a new school, and is told through the perspectives of different

characters. It’s brilliant – one minute I was roaring with laughter and the next I was crying. I read it on a plane, and felt compelled to turn to the man next to me and tell him to buy it.

Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher (£7.50, plus £1.50 p&p)

I recently enjoyed this romantic novel about a celebrity who sweeps a young woman off her feet. I didn’t think those kind of books were for me, but once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Kirsty Lang – Presenter of Radio 4’s front row

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)

This 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.

Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson (£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.

Order Tony Robinson’s No Cunning Plan for £16.90, incl p&p

Susie Dent – Countdown’s lexicographer

The books I want for Christmas

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (£13.50, incl p&p)

This 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.