Gift Guide: Essays and Memoirs of 2020

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that 2020 has been tough on everyone. And with the holidays just around the corner, we’re hoping to make the added stress of choosing that perfect gift for a special someone a little bit easier with a series of gift guides.

Here at the Portobello Bookshop we love a good collection of essays and a memoir or three so here are our favourites from 2020. The beauty of the genre is that it can encompass all kinds of topics within a paragraph or two and that's demonstrated by the variety of our list.

Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror is a thought-provoking collection of essays that's been well-received by Zadie Smith amongst other critics, covering wide-ranging topics like pop culture, social media, religion, drugs and feminism. Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing collects the acclaimed writer and critic's profiles, essays and articles on the topic of what art can do for the world.