What We’re Reading: Winter 2025 Edition

Helena Davidson 

This year I have absolutely loved Sarah Hall’s phenomenal new novel, Helm. It’s a beautiful, sweeping story of the history of the Helm wind that runs through the Eden Valley in Cumbria, and the lives Helm has touched during its lifetime. I’ll be gifting this to family members because I think it’ll surprise them how much they enjoy it! 

I would love to receive Ella Risbridger’s In Love with Love for Christmas, as I missed her event with The Bound in November and love how passionately she talks about books (Her episodes of the Sentimental Garbage podcast are my favourites). I would also love to receive Hark by Alice Vincent – her writing is so beautiful and lyrical. I think both of these will be great to cosy up with and get lost in. I’ve got so many books to read over the holidays, and I’m desperate to get stuck in to Blank Canvas by Grace Murray, about the repercussions of a lie getting out of control, Workhorse by Caroline Palmer, set in the New York fashion world in the early 2000s, and Love Machines by James Muldoon, a book about parasocial relationships with AI chatbots – not Christmassy at all but so fascinating! 

Carys Vickers 

If the Hunger Games fan in your life somehow hasn’t yet picked up a copy of Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, please get it for them for Christmas. I tore through this book as soon as it came out – iconic, devastating (I think I cried three times, and I don’t often cry at books), and as always, speaks exposingly to the state of the world today. It acts as a perfect bridge between the original trilogy and the first prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, building up the richness of the world and making you see familiar characters and events in a completely new light. 

Another book I will be gifting this year (and then promptly borrowing so I can read it too) is Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy, the follow up to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. It promises to be a hug in a book – good old heartwarming stuff for when you need a boost and a reminder that things will be ok. 

Fran Harvey 

My mum is always after books that are warm, truthful and human – previous successes have been Still Life by Sarah Winman, Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession, and The Offing by Ben Myers. This year’s attempt to meet her high standards will be The Parallel Path by Jenn Ashworth, which, though non-fiction, has that same vein of connection and observation through it. 

Other books that I want to give, but haven’t yet decided the right recipients for, include The Safekeep by Yaek van der Wouden (I also need my own copy, hint hint); Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito and – only for the emotionally resilient – pretty much anything by Willy Vlautin, but especially Don’t Skip Out On Me and The Horse.

I’m hoping someone will give me The Wolf of Whindale by Northumbrian writer Jacob Kerr. His first book, The Green Man of Eshwood Hall, was a gorgeously written slice of folk horror, and I’ve been looking forward to his follow-up ever since. I’d also like the anthology Unquiet Guests, edited by Dan Coxon, which has an incredible line-up of writers of unsettling stories and feeds into my current obsession with haunted houses. 

Rebecca Wilkie 

This year I’m looking forward to gifting Nicola Upson’s latest crime novella The Christmas Clue, set in 1943 and based on the real life creators of Cluedo. I adore Nicola Upson’s character-driven storytelling and attention to historical detail – she’s especially good at Christmas settings. My Mum and I eagerly await each new book from her.

I’m hoping to receive Zadie Smith’s new essay collection Dead and Alive this Christmas. I’m always interested in her perspective, and this new collection covers subjects ranging from Stormzy to Hilary Mantel. I’ve dropped a number of heavy hints (and here’s another one!) for Ella Risbridger’s In Love With Love, a celebration of romantic fiction from Jane Austen to Jilly Cooper. Ella’s writing is always warm and thoughtful and brilliantly balances the high/low in a way I absolutely appreciate.  

There are many books due out next year that I’m excited to dive into over the holidays: John Lanchester’s forthcoming novel, Look What You Made Me Do, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark by James Bailey and of course, Maggie O’Farrell’s much anticipated Land. 

Anna Disley 

On my Christmas list this year is How to End a Story: The Collected Diaries by Helen Garner. I do love reading diaries, perhaps because of their unguardedness, and I’m looking forward to this one by the brilliant Australian novelist which won the Baillie Gifford prize this year. I have also asked for Empire of the Elite: Inside Conde Naste, the Media Dynasty that Reshaped the World by Michael M Grynbaum, salacious stories about the monsters of the fashion world that will see me through Christmas! Brilliant novelists’ new ones, Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers and The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine, are also on my list. And the book I will give this year is the beautiful and devastating The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden, with its flawless prose and clever plotting you will want to read on and on. 

Sarah France

A book I’d gift this Christmas is Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror, edited by Hollie Starling. It’s a brilliant collection of eery and uncanny stories exploring folklore, horror, and class: highlights for me were “Perpetual Stew” and “Yellowbelly”.

Books I loved this year included Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King which is out Jan 2026. This was a beautifully written exploration of history and our relationship to it: the novel starts by following a curator hired to stage a historic palace, then sinks into the story of one of the palace’s forgotten and reluctant kings. Other favourite reads this year included Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, a stunning exploration of land, connection, colonialism and capitalism, and Ben Pester’s unsettling work-based horror The Expansion Project (good for fans of Severance).

Over the holidays I’ll be reading Benjamin Myers’ Jesus Christ Kinski, along with a re-read of A Christmas Carol (likely paired with a mandatory festive rewatch of The Muppets Christmas Carol).

Tess Denman-Cleaver

The best recommendation I had this year, which I will be passing on as a gift for friends and family this Christmas, was Mother Naked by Glen James Brown. I love artworks and books that start in the nooks and crannies of archives, and Mother Naked takes inspiration from a single payment entered into Durham’s Cathedral rolls to tell a raucous, formally ambitious tale of class, religion, art, and ale set in the North East during the Black Death.

I’m excited to read The Tower by Thea Lenarduzzi over the holidays. Another book that examines a peculiar Northern history, crossing fiction, memoir, fairy tale and folklore, and set in Yorkshire. The Tower attempts to piece together the story of a woman named Annie, purportedly confined to an octagonal tower on a hill, and reflects on why we don’t always tell the story we set out to tell.

Will Mackie

Living through this weird and polarised time in history, I find I need books more than ever. When I read Han Kang, I’m struck afresh by the limitedness of my own corner of existence and transported by the joy of reading. We Do Not Part, translated by e yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, is a novel about friendship, devastating loss, and the centrality of remembrance. It’s vividly dreamlike – nightmarish at times – with a compelling and enigmatic central character. Through her dedication to her friend Inseon, the vulnerable and brave Kyungha finds herself on Jeju Island, located to the south of the Korean Peninsula. Here she revisits the dark and traumatic legacy of the Jeju massacre. There is a sheer beauty in Han’s writing and a clarity of prose that I find breathtaking.

This year I also loved Tessa Hadley’s novella The Party, focused on Moira and Evelyn, two young sisters in post-war Bristol who are desperately looking for excitement and discovery. It’s a gorgeous and often funny read, which captures perfectly the intoxicating cocktail of adventure and danger, as well as vividly recalling the past. It’s amazing how much wit and insight Tessa Hadley packs into a little over 100 pages and this is an ideal gift for anyone looking for a substantial but short read.