Alright, let’s keep this snappy. You guys need gift ideas, and we’ve got a book for every possible need.* So welcome to the patented Ultimate Wakefield Press Christmas Gift Guide.**
For adventure-packed holiday reading, try the Steve West thrillers, centring around an ex-AFL star geologist with a heart of gold. Start with Prohibited Zone, set around the Woomera Detention Centre, then move on Ecstasy Lake, which is about a literal goldmine in the middle of the desert.
For fiction fans, Cassie Flanagan Willanski’s Here Where We Live has been making waves online and is a big awards contender. Every single reader has loved this short story collection. Or go for our Miles Franklin longlisted bestseller The Hands, by Stephen Orr. This story of a family surviving on a drought-stricken cattle farm is beautiful, heart-breaking, but not without hope.
For art lovers, The Art of Science is proving to be a winner over the holiday season. Showcasing the art (and history) of Nicolas Baudin’s expedition to Australia at beginning of the 19th century, these illustrations will make you see familiar animals with entirely new eyes. Or there’s always Dogs in Australian Art. Got a relative who loves dogs or Aussie art? Present: sorted.
For the foodie in your life, and especially the locavores, you have to have a look at Helen Bennetts’s newly released Willunga Almonds, which recounts the history of this humble nut in Australia alongside mouthwatering but easy recipes. Or there’s the CWA’s Calendar of Cakes, which will see you covered for cake recipes throughout 2017.
For the biography buff, you can’t go past Red Professor, the biography of Fred Rose. Shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Awards, and the catalyst of a lot of ‘were they/weren’t they’ conversations about possible Communist Party members in Australia, the press are saying that this one’s set to be a classic. Or pick up a copy of An Unsentimental Bloke, the National Biography Award-winning account of the life of the great writer C.J. Dennis.
For gardeners, Trevor Nottle’s Endless Pleasure is the ultimate compendium of garden collectables, showcasing weird and wonderful types of secateurs, hoes, spades – even tyre swans and man traps. Or get back to basics with Lolo Houbein’s One Magic Square. No one else has managed to make it so easy for so many people to grow their own food.
There are so so many more possibilities, and for the actual Ultimate Wakefield Press Gift Guide you should go to our website. Still, if you can’t find what you’re looking for here, send us a line with your beloved’s Christmas gift requirements, and we’ll send you some suggestions.
Just another Christmas service from the Wakefield team!
* Not actually every possible need. Just some needs. Or maybe needs that you didn’t realise you had. Look, I’m trying to get at the fact that we don’t have highly specialised books about, say, how to fly helicopters. You should probably get training for that though, really.
** Not actually patented. Ain’t no one got the money for that.
