Authors reveal their festive wishlists

Children’s author and Oxford graduate Francesca Simon, author of Horrid Henry’s Christmas Lunch (Orion, £4.99), and Do You Speak English, Moon? (Orion, £6.99) “On my Christmas list (my husband has been notified!) are H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald [Jonathan Cape, £14.99]. I read medieval studies at university and have always been fascinated by hawks and falconry. I’ve read excerpts from this book and it sounds wild and strange and haunting.

“I would also like The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters [Virago, £13.99]. I love her novels, I’ve read them all, but I know from past experience that, once started, they are almost impossible to put down, so Christmas is a time when I can read undisturbed for a day or two.”

Bestselling novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz, author of Moriarty (Orion, £19.99), who visited Oxford’s Story Museum in October, said: “It’s time I read Don Quixote again, I was in my early 20s last time. It’s such an epic story; part-romance, part-Arthurian quest, and I remember being quite moved when I finished it back then. “It’s strange that most people only remember those windmills. Anyway, I’m told Edith Grossman’s translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel [Vintage, £10.99] is both witty and intelligent and it’s also the most recent, so I’d be very happy to find that in my stocking.

“For something lighter, I’ll go for Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes [Hodder & Stoughton, £20], a straightforward — which is to say, not paranormal — thriller, describing a duel between a 28-year-old man who deliberately kills a dozen people on a joyride, and a suicidal detective. It sounds interesting and I often wonder, how does King manage to write so many pages, so many books? Will he never stop?”

Bestselling thriller writer Sophie Hannah, author of The Monogram Murders: The New Hercule Poirot (HarperCollins, £18.99) and a former junior research fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, said: “This Christmas, I'm hibernating in rural Gloucestershire, where I plan to do very little apart from swim, walk the dog, and read.

“The books I’d ideally like to find in my Christmas stocking are: some Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn mysteries. I’ve never read Marsh’s Golden Age detective novels, and it’s about time I did Adultery by Paulo Coelho [Hutchinson, £14.99], his new novel, about a woman’s search for fulfilment, and The Devotion Of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino [Abacus, £7.99], because I’ve heard that it’s my very favourite thing: a crime novel with a supremely clever plot.”

Romantic fiction writer Cathy Kelly, author of It Started With Paris (Orion, £16.99), said: “I’m a huge fan of India Knight’s no-nonsense column in The Times and her marvellous take on life, the universe and shopping.

“I’d love to find her new book, In Your Prime [Fig Tree, £16.99], under the Christmas tree. I believe it covers ageing, shopping, parents, kids, the menopause, and what the effect is of looking at one’s naked self from a mirror on the floor.

“Not a happy sensation, it seems... it’s sure to be deliciously funny.

“I love crime novels, and, though I’ve read several of Iceland’s Yrsa Siguroardottir’s novels, I haven’t read The Silence Of The Sea [Hodder & Stoughton, £13.99] yet. “Our heroine, Thora Gudmundsdottir, is hired to find out what happened to the family who rented out the luxury yacht, which arrives in Reykjavik harbour with nobody on board. Sounds thrilling.”

Bestselling novelist and former stand-up comedian Jenny Colgan, author of The Christmas Surprise (Sphere, £12.99), said: “I want Science For Her by Megan Amram [Hardie Grant, £14.99], which looks both useful and very, very funny.

“Also, the new Stephen King, Revival [Hodder & Stoughton, £20], for that Boxing Day feeling when you can’t do anything but lie there like a sated anaconda and let the pages turn themselves (King is great for that) and The Ghost Of The Marie Celeste by Valerie Martin [Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £13.99], which looks very cold and chilly, I like a chilly book in the winter.”