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Have you heard of 'Jolabokaflod'? This is an Icelandic tradition, roughly translating as 'Christmas Book Flood', and sounds heavenly to us! During the Second World War Iceland didn't suffer rationing on paper, and this, together with Iceland's long literary history, meant that books became a particularly popular present at Christmas while other gifts were scarce. Beginning in 1944 the Icelandic publishing trade issue a catalogue of newly published books which is distributed to all Icelandic households. This has come to signal the start of the festive season which culminates on Christmas Eve, the biggest gift-giving day of the year. Purchases...

At Willoughby HQ we've been busy this month preparing orders for Christmas, so we've found ourselves really looking forward to the escape of opening a good book in the evenings. When I get the chance to sit and read I love thinking of all our subscribers also reading their new books. Maybe here and there we've sent one of those life-changingly great books? Here's hoping! Here's what we've been reading recently.

Asking book lovers to choose their favourite book is never going to get you a simple answer! Most of us read widely and have lots of favourites, and the Willoughby team is no exception. However, the book of the year question comes round as predictably as Spoitfy Wrapped, and as much as we hate answering what our favourites were we're always keen to hear everyone else's, and look forward to the round ups in the Sunday papers. Here are just a few of the titles we've particularly enjoyed from 2022. What were your reading highlights?

Gift giving for the book lover in your life can be challenging, but we’re here to take the stress out of it for you. I’m sure you’ve spent time browsing the bestseller tables of your local bookstore only to feel more overwhelmed than ever, More tempting titles are published at this time of year than any other, but the gems sometimes go unnoticed between the celebrity memoirs with huge marketing budgets. It's also very easy to have your head turned by a particularly lovely cover (or is that just me?) and end up buying 'gifts' for yourself, not those on...