The best last-minute stocking fillers (From The Northern Echo)

The best last-minute stocking fillers

10:50am Saturday 19th December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Weatherman by John Kettley (Great Northern Books, £16.99)

BBC meteorologist John Kettley became a household name in the Eighties and Nineties. His new book is an autobiography of his early life and career interspersed with dramatic accounts of key weather disasters – such as the incredible winter of 1962- 63 and the Great Storm of 1987 – and Kettley’s personal encounters with famous people such as Tony Blair, Tim Henman, Dickie Bird and Angela Rippon.

He also discusses his life outside of weather and his hobbies, which include football, cricket and horse racing.

Travels With a Typewriter: A Reporter at Large, by Michael Frayn (Faber & Faber, £15.99)

A HUGELY entertaining collection of Michael Frayn’s travel writing from the Sixties and Seventies, including pieces on Germany, Cuba, Israel, Japan and Russia.

Dear Me, edited by Joseph Galliano (Simon & Schuster, £12.99)

THIS delightful stocking-filler sees a bunch of celebrities including Alan Carr, Emma Thompson and James Nesbitt writing letters to their 16- year-old selves. Musical star John Barrowman advises his teenage persona to switch off Dynasty, Jenni Eclair tells her 16-year-old self to stop sunbathing because it won’t work and that fake tan will get better, and Will Young tells his younger alter ego to believe in his singing and performing. It’s light and enlightening at the same time.

Limited edition 1955 Guinness Book Of Records (Guinness, £25)

ANYONE into collectibles will love this exact replica of the very first Guinness Book Of Records of 1955, in a limited (only 5,000 have been printed) and individually-numbered facsimile edition available exclusively for purchase at the company’s website (guinnessworldrecords.com).

In 1955, the most expensive bottle of wine in the world was £8 (now it’s almost £32,000), the most expensive hotel room cost £16 8s per night (now it’s nearly £23,000). How the world has changed.

And Another Thing ...: Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Eion Colfer (Michael Joseph, £18.99)

THE best-selling Artemis Fowl author has finished the sixth book in Douglas Adams’ so-called Hitchhiker Trilogy, 30 years after the cult comic book series was first published.

Colfer has brought back many of the main characters from the brink, including everyman Arthur Dent and his friend and saviour Ford Prefect, Zaphod and Trillian travelling to a colony of rich refugees from earth at the same time as the Vogons are attempting to destroy it.

Jamie’s America, by Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph, £26)

AN obvious choice for Oliver fans who want to sample some of the tastes America has to offer other than fast food. The book is divided into categories – New York, Louisiana, Arizona, Los Angeles, Georgia and the Wild West – and features interesting twists on American staples including burgers, deep pan pizza, southern style pork ribs and jambalaya. Junk food it isn’t.

Turbulence by Giles Foden (Faber & Faber, £16.99)

THE prize-winning author of The Last King Of Scotland delivers a gripping blend of fact and fiction in a novel about the D-Day landings.