Top 9 best books to buy for Christmas ranked – full list including Boris Johnson’s memoir

Looking for the this holiday season?

Books offer a timeless and thoughtful option that suits every taste and occasion.

Whether it’s an inspiring , a captivating memoir, or a beautifully illustrated coffee table book, the gift of reading can spark creativity, widen the horizons and offer lasting memories.

From historical epics to incisive memoirs and thrilling fiction, here are our top picks for books to gift this Christmas.

A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown (Fourth Estate, £25)

The veteran satirist follows bestselling books on The Beatles and Princess Margaret with this gloriously entertaining tome on everything you never knew you never knew about the late , and why you wanted to after all.

Writing in the Daily Express, Christopher Wilson described Brown as “a royal nut and obsessive collector of lesser-known gems about the woman who still casts a long shadow over our nation, two years after her death.

“Brown paints Elizabeth’s astonishing life in a very different way to conventional writers – and we get much closer to learning what she was REALLY like”. You don’t have to be a fan of the to love this book.

Street-Level Superstar: A Year with Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson (Nine Eight Books, £22)

Perhaps the greatest pop star who never made it, Lawrence (Hayward) from Felt, Denim and other nearly-great bands, remains a gloriously eccentric English oddball.

Journalist Will Hodgkinson’ account of a year in his company is hilariously funny and deeply poignant simultaneously. Addiction, self-sabotage and homelessness. But also the joy of music and creativity. Perhaps the most surprising read of the year.

Paris ‘44: The Shame and the Glory by Patrick Bishop (Viking, £25)

Veteran foreign correspondent turned bestselling historian, Bishop’s latest book brilliantly examines the liberation of the City of Light after four hard years of Nazi occupation.

Told through the eyes of everyone involved (with cameos from Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and J D Salinger among others), Paris ‘44 captures the heady days of freedom, and the undercurrent of vengeance that surged through the streets of Paris in the wake of the German withdrawal.

One of the best non-fiction books of the year.

Wild: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux (Faber, £30)

As well as a blockbuster new biography of the French artist, the first in years, Prideaux’s book is a work of historical detective and forensic reexamining of his reputation, dispelling as it does several unpleasant myths about Gauguin; namely that he was a predatory sex-tourist who spread venereal disease among young Tahitian women.

In fact, as the extraordinary discovery of several of his teeth, subsequently DNA-tested, proves there was no sign he has ever been treated for syphilis with any contemporary treatments. Not just a cracking story but an entire reappraisal.

Unleashed by (Harper Collins, £30)

The highly anticipated memoir, Unleashed captured ‘s trademark humour, wit, and larger-than-life personality as he recounted his turbulent political career, from to the pandemic.

While undeniably entertaining and self-assured, the book provides an uneven blend of candour and self-justification, leaving readers both charmed and questioning its historical perspective. For fans of Johnson’s rhetorical style, this is a lively, if polarising, addition to the political memoir canon.

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin (Orion, £25)

The 25th outing for John Rebus sees the now retired veteran detective banged up in HMP Edinburgh, his appeal against his conviction for attempted murder stalled, and killing time by investigating the suspicious death of a fellow inmate.

Surrounded by men he has put away, there’s nowhere more dangerous for an ex-cop than prison. Some 37 years after his first appearance in Knots and Crosses, Rankin’s Rebus remains one of the best-drawn and most exciting characters in crime fiction.

The Peacock and the Sparrow by IS Berry (No Exit Press, £9.99)

Ex-CIA insider IS Berry’s debut novel, set during a floundering agent’s whirlwind last mission to Bahrain, marks another triumph in the recent revival of the spy novel (see also Mick Herron, David McCloskey and Charles Cumming).

A gripping take on modern espionage. No wonder it won the prestigious Edgar Award 2024 for the year’s best first novel and a host of other gongs. Berry is a writer to watch.

Death At The Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, £22)

The return of Atkinson’s private eye Jackson Brodie, played on screen by Jason Isaacs, was a cause for celebration among fans. And Death At the Sign of the Rook – 20 years after his debut in Case Histories was described by Stephen King as “not just the best novel I read this year, but the best mystery of the decade” – was as brilliant as ever.

Atkinson writes beautifully, her plots are deliciously complex and filled with the most marvellous coincidences or, as Brodie describes them, “explanations waiting to happen”. Her take on a country house murder has everything down to its snooty dowager chatelaine, Lady Milton. A must-read.

The Waiting by Michael Connelly (Orion, £22)

Another writer who, like Sir Ian Rankin, just keeps getting better, Michael Connelly (a die-hard baseball fan) once again takes the ball and knocks it out of the park. His latest novel stars Renee Ballard and his veteran detective Harry Bosch, with some help from Harry’s cop daughter Maddie, solving one of LA’s most notorious murders: the Black Dahlia case.

We described The Waiting as “Another gloriously compelling read, the work of a master storyteller whose creativity and workrate are unrivalled in modern crime fiction”. Amazon Prime’s Bosch may be ending after a record 10 series, but look out for a new Ballard drama coming to the same streaming service next year.

• To order any of these books, visit or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25