Christmas Gift Ideas - Books

As some of you will know I used to work in publishing and so I am very much a fan of giving and receiving books. Though this has got me into trouble - I am currently desperately finding places in my already-full house to put yet another bookshelf - its an addiction I just can't seem to give up. My Amazon wishlist has got to be one of their longest.

A good cookbook or coffee table book makes a great house gift if you are going to stay with unfamiliars this Christmas. There are some great kids books in there too.

Agatha Chrisie - of course I think my favourite author should be given to everyone. If you can track down the little hardbacks they look amazing on your shelves. My recommendations are - Mrs McGinty’s Dead, Five Little Pigs and Sleeping Murder. There is an absolutely stunning illustrated edition of Murder on the Orient Express: Illustrated Edition film tie-in that is beautiful to look at let alone read.

Confessions of an Agatha Christie addict

Few things give me as much pleasure as reading an Agatha Christie. In fact anything to do with her makes my heart sing. I can remember the first time I was aware of her. We were staying in a holiday cottage in Trevone, Cornwall and there was a bookshelf in the kitchen that was full of trashy, well-read, paperbacks. On of them was 4.50 From Paddington and I used to read the first couple of pages, with their description of a lady getting strangled, and quickly put it back into the shelf. I can still remember feeling the thrill and being desperate to read more but not quite being brave enough. The next year I read the whole book and I was hooked.

Christmas Gift Ideas for Grown-ups

In my notes I've called this 'Present's for Grown-ups' because it's so hard to divide everything into categories all the time and it's not like when you are Christmas shopping you go 'Oh well I'll just buy for the men I know today, women can be next week'. These can be actual presents, stocking fillers or presents for those tricky-to-buy-for friends of the family who may spend some of the festive time with you. Also some great suggestions for house gifts if you are going to stay with people and want to avoid the usual wine/chocolate/panetone.

Beeswax Wraps - I love these. I love them so much that they sent me some to say thank you for a review and I immediately went online and bought some for friends. If I could be bothered I'd find the timing that I Instagrammed my excitement at the post and then the receipt of my purchase. There's an hour in it max. Anyway, I love all of these and we use our Medium Kitchen Pack all the time and you can read my full review here. Any of these packs would make a really unusual house gift and I like Cheese pack but as a stocking filler the 1 Medium and 1 Small wraps would be great and men who have fires will love the Bee Bombs (a useful present that doesn't clutter up the house... who doesn't
want that?)