Instead of a Christmas card – irresistible festive titles guaranteed to delight

Published on Friday 2 October 2020

In a year when nothing is as it should be, much-loved traditions such as those associated with Christmas seem doubly important. Our Christmas titles this year are as beautiful as ever (each with an irresistible cover created by a leading UK artist) but focus even more keenly on the idea of poetry as a precious gift to be shared with loved ones.

By Bus to Christmas is a single-author anthology by the Irish poet Tony Curtis. The poems are written with families (and particularly children) in mind; the title poem is a modern nursery rhyme about a journey to Christmas on a bus with snowballs for wheels and stars for windows. The poems sparkle with dreams, memories and surprises, creating a magical world.

Christmas Presents: Ten Poems to Give and Receive is a selection of new poems specially commissioned from leading contemporary poets. This year’s poets range from John McCullough to Pey Oh and from Andre Bagoo to Suzannah V Evans. There are poems about a baby shower for the new-born Christ-child, an ailing family cat who recovers just in time to run rings around the Christmas tree and memories of Christmas in the Caribbean.