Here are our favourites for Christmas 2023.
The Unlikely Duke by Harry Beaufort
Bunter Beaufort of Badminton House isn’t most people’s idea of a septuagenarian duke. In his rollicking new memoir, he describes a one-night stand with Jerry Hall, a wild pool party with Prince Harry, a game of rounders with Elizabeth Hurley, raving in Ibiza, supporting Rod Stewart with his band The Listening Device and his dalliance with ‘rather more cocaine than ideal’. Your eyes will be on stalks. Buy it.
Marr’s Guitars by Johnny Marr
This one is niche; if you know, you know. Johnny Marr, once of The Smiths, is ‘the guitarist’s guitarist’. Wildly talented, he has performed with, written songs for or acted as a session musician with most of the biggest bands of the last 40 years. His new book traces his career through the guitars he’s played, which are expertly photographed by Pat Graham. Passion rings through every page. Buy it.
Endgame by Omid Scobie
Royal reporter Omid Scobie is back again with a new book about a how the British monarchy can survive following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Citing sources that include palace staff and friends of the family, Scobie ponders whether the House of Windsor still has what it takes – and ruffles feathers as he goes. Buy it.
Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Published last November, this excellent read is more poignant than ever in the aftermath of the tragic death of its author. Buy it.
Karma: My Autobiography by Boy George
Hot of the presses, this memoir is ‘loud, vainglorious and very funny’. A bit like Boy George, then? This is the Culture Club frontman’s third autobiography but he’s 62 now and it is arguably his most comfortable. Buy it.
Living The Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack
Mal Evans was invaluable to the Fab Four as their roadie, PA, sometime lyricist and regular fixer. He died too early in 1976 and his life has been shrouded in mystery since. Now the eminent Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack has woven it, with meticulous research, into an unputdownable narrative. Buy it.
Marina Abramovic: A Visual Biography
At £80, this one would make a whopper of a present for you or some other lucky recipient. The elegant book – which includes 700 photographs, brand-new interviews and plenty of personal bits and bobs – is a fascinating look at the life of Marina Abramovic, 76, ‘the grandmother of performance art’. Buy it.
By Becky Ladenburg
November 2023
