Check out these cool Christmas gifts from your local indie bookshop

Bookshops are great places, where you can lose yourself for hours and discover wonderful gifts, be it a glossy picture book, poetry anthology, chefs latest recipes, biography or autobiography, fact or fiction... N2 asked Emma Milne-White from our local indie, Hungerford Bookshop, for some Christmas ideas and of course she came up with the goods

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn (Fig Tree, £14.99)

This book starts out reading like a very English classic such as I Capture the Castle or Cold Comfort Farm. Set in a large country house called Chilcombe on the coast of Dorset we follow three children and their parents. Every summer they perform a show in the grounds of the house, but as the Second World War starts their lives take very different paths. The characters absolutely stay with you – in this way it’s perfect for those looking for a book similar to Still Life by Sarah Winman. I was immersed from the very start and didn’t want it to end. An amazing debut – we can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

Wild Light: A Printmaker’s Day and Night by Angela Harding (Sphere, £25)

You might be familiar with Angela Harding’s work without knowing it. Her designs appear on many book jackets (such as The Salt Path by Raynor Winn) and in recent years on stationery and jigsaws too. Last year her book A Year Unfolding which depicted nature through the seasons was hugely popular. Now admirers can buy her latest book filled with stunning illustrations. Wild Light looks at how the light changes the world around us, and how that changes us in its turn. Perfect for both art addicts and nature lovers.

Tools: A Visual History by Dominic Chinea (Dorling Kindersley, £20)

This is my father’s Christmas present sorted! The Repair Shop’s Dominic Chinea shares his knowledge and enthusiasm for the history and practical uses of tools. This book is a beautifully-illustrated celebration of 140 essential tools, their history, their unique appeal and how they are used by creative people to make just about anything. From the workhorses designed to fuel the industrial revolution to the specialist tools that allow highly-skilled artisans to produce ornate creations, this book shines a light on the most interesting tools found in the workshop of an expert craftsman.

Persiana Everyday by Sabrina Ghayour (Octopus, £26)

There are few people who manage to create such exuberantly flavoured dishes with so little fuss. Thank goodness for Sabrina. Her mouth-watering middle-eastern dishes will brighten-up the coldest day. This long-awaited follow-up to Persiana includes no-cook, quick-prep, quick-cook and one-pot dishes. Look no further for generous, inviting and delicious recipes to cook again and again for family and friends.

Jim’s Spectacular Christmas by Emma Thompson & Axel Scheffler (Puffin, £14.99)

A true tale about Jim the dog who lived in the V&A with his owner Sir Henry Cole, and the making and sending of the first Christmas card. Emma Thompson magically sprinkles some storytelling magic into the history to create a fantastically warm and heartfelt Christmas romp, brilliantly illustrated by bestselling illustrator, Axel Scheffler. Great for five- to 10-year-olds.

Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How they Shaped the World by Otto English (Wellbeck, £9.99)

A great stocking-filler for history buffs. English looks at how so much of what we take to be historical fact is, in fact, fiction. From the myths of WW2 to the adventures of Columbus, and from the self-serving legends of ‘great men’ to the origins of curry – fake history is everywhere and used ever more to impact our modern world. English tears apart the lies propagated by politicians and think tanks, the grand narratives spun by populists and the media, and the tales you were told in childhood. Fake History exposes everything you weren’t told in school and why you weren’t taught it.

A Nature Poem for Every Winter Evening edited by Jane McMorland Hunter (Batsford £14.99)

A wonderful bedside companion for a frosty winter’s evening, with poems to immerse yourself in the season. From William Shakespeare to John Keats to Katherine Mansfield, the finest poets that ever put pen to paper describe this beautiful and sometimes challenging season. With one entry for every day through winter, from 1st December until 28th or 29th February, this is the ideal book to take you through the darker months and find joy and comfort in nature.

Where’s Ma’am by Quick the Queen’s Corgi (Bedford Square, £9.99)

Inspired by the 1910 bestseller Where’s Master? (written after the death of Edward VII from the point-of-view of his dog, Caesar) this charming ‘sequel’ is penned by the author’s great-great-grand-nephew. Muick is the Queen’s loyal corgi. Loving, attentive, but with an occasional tendency to nip ankles. But Muick can’t find his Queen. Funny, touching and hopeful, Where’s Ma’am is the story of the loss of a friendship like no other and the brave journey back to love and happiness. Illustrated throughout with black and white line drawings, meet the wonderful friends that help a small dog to overcome his biggest challenge.

Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Holder & Stoughton, £25)

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was ‘just’ an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t? As Lucy Worsley says: ‘She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern.’ She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why – despite all the evidence to the contrary – did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley’s biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (Cornerstone, £22)

The bestselling West Berkshire novelist, hailed as ’the master of the intelligent thriller’, always tops the charts with each new book, but his latest, set in 1660 after the Restoration of the monarchy, when two of Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers fled to America to escape execution, has been widely called ‘his best since Fatherland’. Harris is in a class of his own when it comes to combining history with a riveting plot-line. The paperback isn’t out until summer so put it on your Christmas list!