Inspiring Books This Festive Season
If you are looking for gift ideas, this delightful collection of books is packed with fascinating, creative and uplifting conversations and ideas for wonderful festive escapism.

Gardeners’ World: How I Garden: - Adam FrostGardeners’ World: How I Garden: – Adam Frost
Easy ideas & inspiration for making beautiful gardens anywhere

Description: In this practical and personal book, Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost takes you through his process for getting the most out of a garden space whatever its size, whether it’s a window box, a terrace with a few pots or a bigger space with dedicated veg plots and borders.

Enjoying your garden is about more than just what you grow; it’s also about why you grow it. As well as spending time outdoors, the meaning of a garden lies in what you bring inside, from vegetables and herbs to make a family meal to flowers and seedheads to decorate the house. Adam explores how his own garden has allowed him to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and create precious memories – whether it’s coming down in the morning and seeing that single flower in a vase or teaching your kids how to make the runner bean chutney that reminds you of your nan. Adam’s inspiring book will guide you through all you need to make your garden thrive, and to use it to develop your own traditions and meaningful moments.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/gardeners-world-how-i-garden/adam-frost/9781785947582

Review
One of the things that we love when Adam is presenting on BBC Gardeners’ World, or sharing his input from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is his natural and engaging style and this approach absolutely shines through in this wonderful book. This book contains so much useful information but is written in such a way you feel like you are having a conversation with Adam as he shares his personal experiences.

The title reflects the content, from sharing his personal journey, where to grow, how to choose plants, how to get the most out of a garden, growing in pots and containers, how to grow fruit and veg, cut flowers, and practical advice about growing, harvesting and preserving and so much more!

The photography is beautiful and there are very useful plans showing how to build items for your garden as well as delicious recipes for using garden produce. We absolutely loved it. Highly Recommended!

Calling the Shots: My Autobiography - Sue BarkerCalling the Shots: My Autobiography – Sue Barker


Description: Rewind to 1971, and Sue Barker’s coach is sending his 15-year-old tennis protege to a junior championship in France, alone, with a one-way ticket, telling her she’d have to win the money to pay for her return fare. Sue hides in the grounds of the hosting tennis club overnight, to avoid paying for a hotel. The next day, she walks onto court and smashes it. Five years later, and she’s Britain’s No 1.
The same combination of grit, grace and talent took her to the top of live Sports TV. And now, after four decades on camera encouraging other legends to share their stories, she is telling her own.

Going all in for her once-only autobiography, Sue takes us inside the showbizzy world of 70s and early 80s tennis, dating the stars, hitting the headlines. She reveals the battles she fought for hard-won success in two careers, gives us a ringside seat on the nation’s biggest sporting dramas, and a fascinating insider’s understanding of competitors under pressure.

This is the remarkable life story of a tennis champion, an award-winning broadcaster who has brought sporting history into our living rooms for decades, and a trail-blazing woman who has always called the shots.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/calling-the-shots/sue-barker/9781529149036

Review
This is a perfect gift for lovers of tennis and those who have watched Sue Barker grow throughout her sporting and broadcasting career. This is a very personal and honest account of her journey from her school days to her recent reporting from Wimbledon. She tells her story with humour and charm as shares her hopes and dreams, the conversations she had with people she met along the way,

A wonderful insight into the life of one of the nation’s favourite people! Highly Recommended!

Wine Uncorked: My guide to the world of wine - Fred SirieixWine Uncorked: My guide to the world of wine – Fred Sirieix

Description: How to select wine for its taste, not its packaging or its price.


Knowing the difference between all those bottles on the supermarket shelves will double the pleasure you get from a glass of wine and, with Fred Sirieix as your guide, you’ll discover how to get the flavour you want. 

In Wine Uncorked, Fred decants a career’s worth of expertise, revealing how everything from percentage to vintage impacts what ends up in your glass, how to decipher a label and the optimum temperatures for serving. He then takes you on a tour of the regions, showing you how the landscape and climate work their magic on the wine produced around the world, highlighting key producers to suit all budgets along the way.

If you have ever said, ‘I wish I knew more about wine,’ this is the book for you.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/wine-uncorked/fred-sirieix/9781529149555

Review
This is a very accessible book, as summed up by Fred, ’Though I love wine, there is a snobbery around it that I can’t stand, and there are myths and rules that can seem impossible to navigate. So let me give you the knowledge and information that you need to help you identify what you are looking for in your glass of wine. Sante!’

In the first part of the book Fred shares information about the basics, how wine is made, how to read a wine label, how to buy, store and serve wine, plus a very helpful guide to tasting wine, (and make it look like you know what you are doing!)
It also includes tasting notes, pairing wine with food and much more!
In the second part he takes you on a comprehensive journey around the world exploring different winemaking regions and what they specialise in, so you can start gaining a better understanding of how landscape, climate, tradition and grape varietal all play an important part in what you drink.

An absolutely delightful conversation with someone who really knows about wine! Highly Recommended!

Rooms of Wonder: Step Inside this Magical Colouring Book - Johanna BasfordRooms of Wonder: Step Inside this Magical Colouring Book – Johanna Basford

Description: Through her bestselling colouring books and distinctive illustrations, Johanna Bamford’s beautiful forests, ocean depths, and hidden magical kingdoms have enchanted millions of people around the world. In this newest work, Basford takes her audience indoors, inviting them to explore the wonders of the worlds within.  

Hidden within every illustration in Rooms of Wonder is a secret key and a locked door. Find the key, unlock the door and continue to the next room. Discover a busy craft studio, a wizard’s workshop, a mouth-watering ice cream parlour and an opulent banquet hall. With hidden treasures, curious spaces and a few enchanted interiors, all you need to do is unlock the first door and begin your magical journey.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/rooms-of-wonder/johanna-basford/9781529148305

Review

There is so much to enjoy in this magical book, as usual with Johanna’s books the detail is exquisite, there are instructions at the front about how to get the best results, and there is a lot of variety throughout the book catering for the different ways that people like to use her colouring books. We also love the way that there is complete freedom in how people colour in the book, allowing their own choice of colours and also that they can share their creations with others.
A perfect gift for all lovers of colouring books! Highly Recommended!