What to buy your daughter's new boyfriend, when all you know is his job title

And 14 more festive conundrums answered

Join us this week

• Backstory is open every day until Christmas, including Mondays just for December. We’re open 10am-6pm every day (and til 9pm Thursdays and Fridays)

• Pop in to see Denise and Rory tomorrow — they’ll be delighted to give you their recommendations and perhaps a little Christmas cheer

Coming up at Backstory

• Christmas shopping nights — with live music, drinks & mince pies

  Thursdays 14th & 21st December, join us from 6pm. No booking needed.

• MATT: The Best of Matt 2023 — one ticket left!

  Wednesday 6th December, 7.30pm

  The award-winning cartoonist for the Telegraph discusses drawing the world's ups and downs which he always does with a gentle humour, never malice.

• Paul Caruana Galizia — A Death in Malta

  Monday 18th December, 7.30pm

  The very inspiring investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia joins us to discuss A Death in Malta, his book about the assassination of his mother Daphne, a campaigning journalist in their native Malta. It’s an astonishing story about one family’s quest for the truth, and about the fight against corruption in a modern European country.

• Ed Conway — Material World

  Wednesday 10th January, 7.30pm

  Sky News’s Economics Editor takes us from our seats in Balham on a world tour as he uncovers the hidden stories behind the most important raw materials shaping our lives. 

• John Crace — Depraved New World

  Wednesday 17th January, 7.30pm

  Join Guardian parliamentary sketch-writer John Crace as he skewers the great and the not-so-good from a mad few years at Westminster. 

• Porn: An Oral History — Polly Barton in conversation with Jessica Andrews

  Wednesday 24th January, 7.30pm

  In the irresistibly-titled Porn: An Oral History, Polly Barton set out to bust myths by asking her friends about their use and abuse of porn. She joins Backstory favourite Jessica Andrews, author of Milk Teeth, in conversation. 

• Coming up at the Non-Fiction Book Club: Bianca Bosker (Cork Dork)

• Coming up at the Fiction Book Club: Andrew O’Hagan (Mayflies)

Download our Christmas gift guide

THANKS SO MUCH for all your nominations for indie gift shoutouts. I’m pulling them together into a bumper edition of the newsletter I’ll send round next weekend.

In the meantime, my lovely colleague Megan Steller has taken it upon herself to solve the most fiendish of festive conundrums: what books to buy the perennially hard-to-buy-for. Even better, her answers are all available to buy at Backstory or on our website, with free UK delivery.

I’ll leave you in her capable hands. Take it away, Megan:

The Backstory Hard-To-Buy-For Holiday Gift Guide

AH, THE HOLIDAY SEASON. As Ram Dass once said, “If you think you are enlightened, go home for Thanksgiving.” Replace Thanksgiving with any holiday and the vibes are the same: stressful, overwhelming, and you might, by the end of it all, have slammed the same number of doors you slammed when you dyed your hair age 13 and ran into the wrath of a mother scorned.

It is upon us once again, that anticipated (read: dreaded) time of year of mince pies and pine trees and trying to remember which of your distant cousins you might run into and will therefore need to have bought a gift for. Older sisters are stressed, uncles are drunk, and you're run ragged with arms full of bags and thoughts of January.

G’day to buy books Megan is ready with suggestions

To make your life slightly easier, we've put together a guide for the potentially tricky customers begging for a spot under your Christmas tree: the new friend, the teacher, the sibling whose taste seems to change every time you see them. Good luck this season, friends. See you at Backstory. 

For the person that’s had the worst year of all time and is done living life like it’s a country music song: 

+ Ella Risbridger's Midnight Chicken 

+ Barbara Trapido's Brother of the More Famous Jack 

For the parent-to-be who is panicking about the next chapter, but is still being pretty chill at the catch-up: 

+ Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch 

For your friend who loves tiny spoons and ‘just-because’ cards, and who you know will definitely ask for “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, PLEASE” but be deflated when you show up empty-handed: 

+ Clare Keegan’s So Late in the Day 

+ Hoxton Mini Press’s Opinionated Guide to London Pubs 

For the design snob that is very intimidating to buy for, and who you want to show off your cool taste to, in a very “what, this old thing?” kind of way: 

+ Jeremy Deller’s Art is Magic 

+ Kelly Grovier's The Art of Colour

For the in-law who you never see, and who you usually buy a nice bottle of wine or a box of fancy chocolates because you don't want to offend them but you also don't know them that well:

+ Kate Young's The Little Library Parties 

+ Dog Hearted: Essays on our Fierce and Familiar Companions, edited by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Jessica J Lee

For the person in your life who has just had their birthday, or is about to have their birthday, so you can't really splash out on a second gift right now, but you have to give them something: 

+ Hollie McNish’s Slug

+ Katherine May’s Wintering 

For the person in your life who is single, who has created a bloody great life, and who you want to remind that you don’t need anyone in your flat to warrant cracking out the good crockery. Accompany with a disco ball: 

+ Amy Key’s Arrangements in Blue

+ Eleanor Steafel’s The Art of Friday Night Dinner

For your daughter’s new boyfriend, who seems like a nice chap, and you better get him something, and you’d like it to seem thoughtful and insightful despite the fact you’ve met him approximately 6 times and all you know is his job title: 

+ Lunch with the FT

+ Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2024

For your Mum, or a motherly female figure in your life, who has gotten a teeny bit earthy as she’s gotten older, and who may be trying a lifestyle shift (read: veganism): 

+ Alice Vincent’s Why Women Grow

+ Saghar Setareh’s Pomegranates and Artichokes 

For the person you really really like but don’t want to be weird about it: 

+ Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water 

+ Ella Risbridger’s Set Me On Fire: A Poem for Every Feeling

For the person who is hosting you for Christmas this year, whether it’s someone you know well or someone completely new to you. This season, don’t take the saying “never show up empty-handed” to mean alcohol. Always have a book: 

+ William Sieghart’s The Poetry Pharmacy 

+ Stanley Tucci’s The Tucci Table 

For your sister, who will definitely fight with everyone about gender politics around the table, despite how many times you kick her under the table. Onya, sister. Keep fighting the good fight: 

+ Samantha Irby’s Quietly Hostile

+ bell hooks’s All About Love 

For your son, who is taller than you and doing a PhD in history, and you’ve told yourself you won't buy him any more socks because he’s not a centipede, he doesn’t need that many pairs of socks: 

+ Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life: The Illustrated Edition

+ Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland 

For your dad, who is into standing outside on the patio looking out into the garden and making plans for “one day” that neither you nor your siblings think will eventuate any time soon. Sometimes dads need a little push:

+ Monty Don’s The Gardening Book

+ Julius Roberts’s The Farm Table

For yourself, because you’ve finally done all your shopping and you deserve it. Seriously. Treat yourself, pal. ‘Tis the season: 

+ Murdle at the Backstory bar with a Winter Spritz and a mince pie. Go on. 

Megan