Books of the month: From It’s a Wonderful Life by Michael Newton to The Small States Club by Armen Sarkissian

Martin Chilton reviews the biggest new books for December

The works of Chaucer, non-fiction about American warfare, gulags, small states and a prison memoir are among December’s books (The Independent)

“Today’s Christmas cake is itself a kind of ghost of Christmas past, a shrunken imitation of the behemoths of olden times,” writes Andrew Baker, publishing editor of the Telegraph, in his chapter on the festive food staple and its strange, riotous past as the so-called “Twelfth Cake”. The background, with a recipe to boot, appears in the Yuletide section of Baker’s entertaining, highly convivial Cake: A Slice of British Life (Mudlark), which also includes a chapter on birthday cakes and the origins of Colin the Caterpillar. Yum.

Cookery books make for wonderful presents and my pick from an impressive 2023 includes Julius Roberts’s The Farm Table (Ebury Press), a heartwarming collection of recipes based on food grown at his small farm. Another highly personal, wonderful publication is the new edition of Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook (Bloomsbury). Two European-centred recipe books I relished were Helena and Vikki Moursellas’s exuberant Peinao: A Greek Feast for All (Smith Street Books), and Manon Lagreve’s elegant debut book Et Voila!: A Simple French Baking Love Story (OH Editions).

Another knockout is Imad Alarnab’s Imad’s Syrian Kitchen: A Love Letter from Damascus to London (HQ). For home-cooked curries, I would recommend Chetna Makan’s Chetna’s Indian Feasts: Everyday Meals & Easy Entertaining (Hamlyn) and Maunika Gowardhan’s Tandoori Home Cooking (Hardie Grant Books), while two excellent all-round books are Ravneet Gill’s Baking for Pleasure: Comforting Recipes to Bring You Joy (Pavilion) and Sabrina Ghayour’s Flavour (Aster). For a complete vegetarian focus, I would suggest Mildred’s Easy Vegan (Hamlyn) and for a go-to, easy-to-follow guide (especially for a non-cook like me), there are many manageable, highly tasty meals in Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers (BBC Books).