Here’s the problem: you don’t want to spend an inordinate amount of money, but you need a gift that seems thoughtful, looks stylish and will surprise and delight the recipient. A tough call in this day and age…Unless you have my famous Books n Chocs guide to hand! Every year I bring the only gift guide you really need: it gives one single excellent idea but it is an idea that is chic, infinitely customisable, quick to wrap, a joy to receive and easy on the finances. So feel free to sit back and relax in the knowledge that I have your trickiest gifts covered – the friend with impeccable taste, the artsy cousin, the book snob, the sister who hates bath stuff and the well-travelled neighbour who loves a new read – if ever you struggle to think of a present then this is your answer. The execution is less simple, because for this to work you have to remember that the key words in the previous sentence are brilliant and gorgeous. This is not a slab of Dairy Milk sort of affair! We’re trying to make the whole little bundle look like something you’d pick out at Liberty, except it costs a fraction of the price! It’s not easy making books and chocolates look like an artisan offering but it’s manageable with a lot of time and effort. Hurrah for you that I’ve done all the work, then, and all you need do is stop scrolling on the picture you like the look of and order the goods. And yes the chocolates are mostly quite posh. This is because the posh ones have good, fancy wrappers but also because we’re trying to make the entire parcel into something that’s delectable and special and the artisan chocolatiers take everything to a whole new chocolate level. If you need to keep costs down a bit more then Tony Chocolonely bar wrappers come in lots of colours and are very graphic and fun – they’re my number one option all round, really, when it comes to finding an affordable crowdpleaser. You need to pick the accompanying book wisely, though – it needs to have a cover that is suitably graphic and fun and bold. If it’s not then the second best option is Waitrose No1 chocolate, which has very plain, sophisticated packaging with just one accent colour. Lots of options, again, and it’s all quite understated and grown-up. Now the chances are that this email will cut off and you’ll have to click to read the rest of it online: apologies, this cannot be helped. It’s because there are so many photos! If you don’t see what you’re looking for on this post, then do take a look at previous years because there are some absolute corkers when it comes to book-and-choc pairings: Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2024Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2023Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2022Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2021Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2020Books & Chocs: The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift 2019This year I’ve also slipped in something a bit different: I couldn’t resist having a go at pairing some of the books with the beautiful handmade soaps from Soap Poetry. It ties in well because the soaps are book-themed and look like old Penguin Classics – it makes for a very sweet little parcel. All tied up with string and brown paper. I’m starting with the books I’ve read and loved, ending with the ones that are still on my reading pile because I overestimated how many I’d get through! There’s just a short summary beneath each book-and-choc pairing and then links to buy online/get more info should you need them – all should be available in your local independent book shops. Persuasion, Jane Austin, paired with delicious Audrey’s Nougatine Milk Chocolate. The book is a classic, obviously, but the special cover makes it something to be treasured. You can get Austin’s novels in loads of beautiful clothbound editions, they make great presents. Buy Persuasion Buy Audrey’s ChocolateOne of my favourite books of the year, The Safekeep by Yale van der Wouden has an almighty twist that makes you want to delete the first part of the novel from your mind and immediately read it all over again. Sad, intense, brilliant. Paired with the finest Rococo bar. Buy The Safekeep Buy Rococo Salted Caramel BarI’ve just finished Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout and it’s a definite recommend from me. Optimistic, thought-provoking but generally non-traumatic, which makes it a good bet for most book-lovers wanting a cosy winter read. Paired with a Soap Poetry soap, because why not? They look great together and boy does the parcel smell good!Buy Tell Me Everything Buy Soap PoetryAnother “book of the year” (how many am I allowed?); Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson. This rip-roaring semi-farce is set in the 30s and follows an anonymous author who writes about her village, getting herself into all sorts of moral tangles. I thoroughly enjoyed it, absolutely SPIFFING! Published by Persephone Books in Bath, who bring forgotten fiction back to new audiences. Buy Miss Buncle’s Book, DE StevensonBuy Rococo Salted Caramel BarI thought that Sleep (Honor Jones) was truly excellent. It’s not the easiest read, there’s a lot about childhood events and how they can impact your entire life (yay) but I found it unputdownable and loved the narrative voice. This book and choc pairing is a good one if you’re trying to keep costs down – the paperback was £8 (at time of writing) and the chocolate was £3.50. Buy Sleep Buy Milk Chocolate with Feuilletine Sea Salt, WaitroseI feel as though I’ve said a lot about Sandwich, written by Catherine Newman, but I’ll say it again: this book really resonated with me and it’s another (yet another!) book of the year. It’s about motherhood and it is ridiculously funny but also, in parts, incredibly sad. What isn’t sad is the way I managed to find a box of fudge with the exact colours of the book cover. Get me. I’m very proud of this pairing. Buy Sandwich Buy Lemon Meringue FudgeSmall Pleasures should actually be called Massive Pleasures because it’s a truly amazing book, but I don’t think that has the same ring to it and would also change the vibe. Massive Pleasures sounds borderline Anne Summers. But this is Clare Chambers, not Anne Summers! It’s the most heart-wrenching story about slow, ordinary love, the sort that happens all the time but mostly goes unrecorded. This is special. Even more so now that I’ve paired it with a chocolate that has almost the exact colours AND AN ORANGE ON IT! I swear I went above and beyond with my pairings this year… Buy Small Pleasures Buy Ocelot Blood Orange BarI read this to make myself feel cool and relevant and it worked. It’s about a group of friends who meet for a midsummer break at a lakehouse, and in that short amount of time we learn all about their different relationships and desires and it’s quite an intense little tangled web of sexy-life-frenzy. I read this on a sunlounger in two hits and felt ten years younger at the end.Buy Waist Deep Buy Tony’s Chocolonely Oh, this is a bit of a surefire winner if you don’t know exactly what someone might like: You are Here by David Nicholls is the cosy feel-good read that suits Christmas gifting down to the ground. Think romcom storyline but with exceptional dialogue and humour. I couldn’t wait to pick it up again every evening. Buy You are HereBuy Ocelot Violet MilkI’ve talked about Flesh, by David Szalay, a lot recently. It won the Booker Prize and for good reason; it’s sparsely written and the main character barely says anything but somehow the story is totally engaging and you can’t stop following his journey. It’s a really interesting style, I felt as though I was almost reading a film script, with my brain being forced to invent all of the setting and action. A thoughtful gift for avid readers, especially people who love to read widely and yearn for something a bit different. I’ve paired this with Up Up Chocolate – as yet untested, but it won’t take me long to get to it. Buy FleshBuy Up Chocolate Sweet Orange Bar We’re onto the books that are still on my book pile – I can’t wait to get started on all of these. The first is Love Forms by Claire Adam, longlisted for the Booker Prize this year. Great cover, snapped up from the shelves because I read this in the blurb: “Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout”. I mean. Buy Love FormsBuy Soap PoetryOK, confession: I have started Dream Count but I had to abandon at circa page 150-ish because although the writing was devastatingly good (it’s Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, so of course it was), it was very dense and slow-moving and I kept feeling impatient. Perhaps because I could feel the book pile looming and I knew how many books I needed to get through! This is one for the two week holiday where you can languish in the sentences undisturbed, I think. The reviews are outstanding, so I shall be returning to it asap for another attempt. If you want a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that you will absolutely tear through then buy Americanah immediately. Buy Dream Count Buy Chococo Heavenly HoneycombeSeascraper by Benjamin Wood: another one from the Booker Prize list and I have heard magical things about it. That it is timeless and haunting and poetic – and I do love a book that uses the sea not just as a setting but as the force and drive to the whole story. I don’t actually like being in the sea at all, it freaks me out, but I’ll happily read about life next to it. Or on it. I can’t believe I didn’t pair this book with a sea salt chocolate – missed a trick there, didn’t I? What a berk. Buy SeascraperBuy Chococo Heavenly HoneycombeIt has taken me about thirty hours to prep, shoot and write this post (and make the Youtube video), so please do hit the heart button and share the post around on here and wherever you like to share things – the more people see it, the merrier!The wrapping paper I chose this year, by the way, is the floral wrap from Kraft. You can find it online here. Isn’t it pretty?
