A gift for every interest — and every deadline: The best coffee-table books to give at Christmas
Amie Elizabeth White rounds up some of the best coffee-table books of 2025.
Coffee-table books — part pleasure, part performative — have so much to give. There is one for every hobby and interest, they tend to be very beautiful, they double as home decor and can normally be ordered for someone at the very last minute. The best bit? People rarely buy themselves weighty tomes, so you’ll come across as wonderfully thoughtful and generous. Here is my pick of the best 2025 releases.
London Chic (Assouline, £100)
Charles Finch and Mark Anthony Fox pull back the curtains on the capital’s characters, institutions and quirks, revealing the diverse metropolis at its very best.
The Frick Collection: The Historic Interiors (Rizzoli, £50)
A definitive room-by-room tour of The Frick Collection, on New York’s Fifth Avenue — published shortly after its multi-year renovation. More than 200 new photographs illustrate the space’s evolution from the private, pre-War residence of industrialist Henry Clay Frick to an internationally-lauded museum.
Wonderlands: British Garden Designers at Home by Clare Coulson with photographs by Eva Nemeth (Quadrille, £40)
Tom Stuart-Smith's garden in Hertfordshire, featuring water tanks from his 2006 Gold Medal winning garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Eva's photographs are completely dreamy and worth buying the book for alone. But Clare Coulson's interviews with the garden designers (many of them regulars on the garden pages of Country Life) reveal fascinating insights into the evolution of their own gardens that gives hope — and invaluable information — to us ordinary mortals. Deserves a place on every ottoman.
Cellarius Atlas (Taschen, £125)
Andreas Cellarius’s 17th-century masterpiece of 29 double-folio maps detailing the vast celestial systems of the world’s greatest thinkers has been revived and refreshed in a breathtaking volume filled with adorned skies and ornate borders.
Country Life’s Book of Dogs by Agnes Stamp (Rizzoli, £50)
A celebration of Britain’s favourite four-legged friends, through the lens of Country Life. Inside, Agnes Stamp profiles 70 breeds alongside contributions from Jilly Cooper and Trudie Styler.
From Louis to Vuitton (Assouline, £195)
A blockbuster chronicle of Louis Vuitton featuring more than 400 photographs. Starts with humble beginnings (founder Louis Vuitton left his village at just 14, walking 300 miles to Paris where he apprenticed with trunk maker Romain Maréchal) and continues to the luxury powerhouse it is today.
Courtship: For the Love of Tennis by Laura Bailey (Rizzoli, £50)
A photographic ode to the most beloved of racket sports. Laura’s essay illustrates her life on the court, and it features quotes and stories from heroes of the game.
Castle Howard: A grand tour of England’s finest country house by Dr Christopher Ridgway (£85)
There aren't many houses that can sustain a single and lavishly illustrated volume but Castle Howard shines with the attention.
Italian Palaces by Massimo Listri (Taschen, £175)
Extra-extra-large in size and extra-extra-excellent in content, this tome explores the magnificent palaces that dominate cityscapes across Italy. Massimo’s images capture not only the architectural grandeur of each palace, but the unique atmosphere created by the people that occupied them.
Pants World by Pants ($50)
There is something supremely joyful about the art of Pants that is equally difficult to describe. The drawings, Steadman-esque in their sharp ragged lines, depict scenes both banal and absurd, but genuinely hilarious. Who among us has not got riled up for spaghetti night? Nor had their works of grand creation drowned out by the hooves in our head.
