The 10 Best Coffee Table books for Christmas.

Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces, Dominic Bradbury, Phaidon, £100

This suitably monumental book is a hymn to a moment in architecture when the shock of the new was seen incontrovertibly as a good thing. The buildings celebrated here have a shiny confidence and a real swagger to them that hasn’t dated since they were built in the middle of the last century. Every image in this handsome book also feels like it could be a still from a Hitchcock movie. I keep looking to see if I can spot James Stewart or Kim Novak in amongst the concrete and glass.

ART
How Banksy Saved Art History, Kelly Grovier, Thames & Hudson, £25

“Banksy doesn’t borrow from art history. He shoves it up against a wall and mugs it.” Author Kelly Grovier sets out the parameters of his monograph on the guerilla artist in the first couple of lines of his book. But this is a serious critical take on the artist’s guerilla approach to art and art history. It just turns out that Grovier has the same iconoclastic approach to the history of art as Banksy him (or her) self. And the copious illustrations will make you chuckle. Buy it for anyone who didn’t go to see the Banksy exhibition in Glasgow last year. Or did, for that matter.

CULTURE

The 1980s: Image of a Decade, Henry Carroll, Thames & Hudson, £45

From music and fashion to furniture, and from New York graffiti to Glasgow street kids, Henry Carroll’s survey of the decade that gave us hip-hop, big shoulder pads, the Sony Walkman and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is a supersaturated assault on the retina. Carroll has huge fun mixing and matching images. The result is nostalgia with sharp teeth. But just remember, “we didn’t start the fire …”

(Image: British Vogue)

FASHION

British Vogue: The Biography of an Icon, Julie Summers, W&N, £30

Summers spent three years reading every issue of British Vogue from its birth in 1916 (as the Battle of the Somme raged across the Channel) to the post-Covid world we now inhabit and her history constantly sets the fashion bubble Vogue operates in against the world outside. (“The spring issues of 1941 were full of hat matters,” she writes while also reminding us that the magazine was being put together while the Germans were bombing London.)

And so everyone from the Beatles to Bowie to the National Coal Board and Thatcher make an appearance, all the way through to Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg. Germaine Greer turns up test-driving a Porsche 924S at one point. The result is very moreish.

FOOD

Crunch: An Ode to Crisps, Natalie Whittle, Faber, £18.99

There are any number of beautifully illustrated cookery books by TV chefs and restaurateurs on the shelves of bookshops this season covering every possible global cuisine. But, let’s face it, at Christmas most of us will be stuffing our faces with Pringles from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day. So maybe Glasgow-based writer Natalie Whittle’s cultural and social history of the humble crisp would make a more obvious literary accompaniment in the circumstances. Charting the rise and rise of our favourite snack, Crunch is a crisply written (ahem) survey of changing tastes over the last 150 years. Best read with a pack of Tayto Crisps to hand (the Northern Irish variety to be clear). 

(Image: Raising Hare)

NATURE

Raising Hare, Chloe Dalton, Canongate, £16.99

Chloe Dalton’s account of caring for an abandoned hare is a vital and vivid example of contemporary nature writing, with an eye for detail and an attention to the quandaries that arise when in close contact to a wild animal. But it also has the feel of a fable too, one that combines nature and nurture if you will. One for those long, empty afternoons between Christmas and New Year; it will have you walking out into the world with fresh eyes.

Chasing Fog, Laura Pashby, Simon & Schuster, £18.99

“I want to share the wonder and the soothing balm of fog,” author Laura Pashby suggests at the beginning of this investigation into that most murky yet evanescent of weather conditions. Pashby’s journey takes in Scottish haars and Sherlock Holmes, Dartmoor and Dracula and she proves a wonderful, clear-sighted guide. That said, this is a book to get lost in. Which seems very appropriate given the subject matter. 

PETS

Craxton’s Cats, Thames & Hudson, £14.99

Nothing wrong with dogs, but I live in a cat household. Actually, there’s only the one cat at the moment and he doesn't have much time for books. But he might sit down beside me as I leaf through the pages of this handsome gather-up of the feline drawings and paintings of the artist and inveterate cat lover John Craxton. Even in static images, Craxton’s cats seem full of life. Certainly more than my cat who’s currently dozing in the corner of the room.

SPORT
Cup Tied: Scenes and Stories from the 150th Scottish Cup, Daniel Gray & Alan McCredie, BackPage Press & Nutmeg, £24.99

Throughout the 2023-2024 season, writer Daniel Gray and photographer Alan McCredie  travelled around Scotland to tell the story of the Scottish Cup on its 150th anniversary for Nutmeg magazine. It all culminated at Hampden where, as seems to be the case these days, Celtic won. But this book isn’t about the final result. It’s about the journey to get there. In short, this is a love letter to Scottish football. With added pictures. And such great pictures too. 

TRAVEL

Writer’s Journeys That Shaped Our World: In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats, Travis Elborough, White Lion, £14.99

Now out in paperback, this handsomely illustrated book full of maps and photographs follows in the footsteps of 35 writers who went out to explore the world. And so we journey with Lewis Carroll to Russia and F Scott Fitzgerald to the Riviera. Jane Austen, meanwhile, goes to Worthing. Ah well.