Your brothers are arguing about politics. Mum is losing her mind over the turkey, and your sister, who has decided to promote herself beyond mere vegetarianism and become a vegan, is lamenting the death of the bird like it was once a fond friend. Dad is nowhere to be found, and, frankly, it’s time to follow suit and exit with what remains of your sanity. So slip on your slippers, don your robe, and pick yourself one of those silly hats with the little ball on top. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably find yourself muttering under your breath and wishing you were the spoilt eight year old again, but that you somehow had retained the knowledge that adulthood really isn’t all it’s made out to be. You leaf through the bookshelves, remembering what it was like to be small and to listen to your Dad reading The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, or to watch The Snowman and be unaware that the feeling of total peace in those moments would never be that simple or maybe even attainable again. Every Christmas we return to our homes and tables, for better or for worse, different people.
Merry Christmas one and all!
We hope you’re currently lying on the sofa in a roast-induced stupor, slathered in gravy and wine, perhaps with a crumpled paper hat atop your head, maybe with a shiny new Kindle in one hand. If so, you might be interested to know we have four of our most-loved titles on offer as a festive treat. Today, for only 99p each, we have witty new fiction from Jonas Jonasson, monumental history from Max Hastings and a humourous classic from Lynne Truss, while tomorrow we have inspiration for the new year from Matthew Syed.
See below for more on each title. Happy reading! Read more…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day… Read more…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day… Read more…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day…
After a fantastic year of publishing that has seen 4th Estate books win awards and gain presidential approval, we asked our team members (along with those of our sister imprints William Collins and The Friday Project) to tell us about the best books they read in 2014.
Here are their choices:
