City Christmas Gift Guide 2018

Christmas is around the corner and if the space under your tree is still looking bare don’t panic!

City staff, students and graduates have been working harder than Santa’s Elves and their books, products and inventions could be the perfect last minute gifts to go in your stocking.

Social Beverages

If you know someone who is taking on Dry January then Social Beverages could be the perfect thing to start 2019.

Shinyoung Lyu, (MA Culture, Policy and Management, 2012), has created a wide range of alcohol free and low calorie drinks using kombucha — fermented black or green tea.

With wild recipes and bespoke services available, Social Beverages offers an alternative to alcohol this Christmas.

Real Talk Games

If one of your friends converses more with an Alexa than you, then make sure you check out Real Talk Games.

Cambria Bailey-Jones, (MA, Broadcast Journalism, 2017), has created interactive audio games for screenless devices. Each game is based on a real life scenario — the first being Dispatcher, where the player is put in the shoes of an emergency medical dispatcher and tasked with making the hard calls on who actually needs an ambulance.

Kugali

If you’re buying for someone who knows their Spider-Mans from their Ant-Mans then look no further than, Kugali.

Fikayo Adeola’s, (MA Creative Writing, Film and Theatre, 2015), has worked with a new generation of storytellers to create two comics per month which bring extraordinary African tales to life through print, animation, art and augmented reality.

Sunmo Foods

Current student, Victoria Omobuwajo, (BSc Accounting and Finance), and her plantain chilli chips are there to spice up your Christmas.

Coming in four flavours; lightly salted, chilli, cinnamon and sweet, Sunmo Foods could be the perfect alternative to those lingering Bountys in your Celebrations tin.

If it is books you’re after then City still has you covered

The Book of M

If your friends and family are sci-fi star gazers then do take a look at Writers’ Workshop alumni, Peng Shepherd’s debut novel The Book of M.

Set in a nightmarish world where an epidemic starts with the disappearance of one’s shadow and ends with complete memory loss, The Book of M could be the perfect book to get lost in this Christmas.

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

If you’re shopping for a historian, then be sure to check out The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Novel Writing and Longer Works, and Writers’ Workshop alumni, Imogen Hermes Gowar.

The title which has been shortlisted for a host of prizes this year tells the tale of John Hancock, a common merchant who is spun out of his ordinary Georgian existence, after one of his captains has seemingly sold his ship for a mermaid.

Keep an eye out on the big screen too as the title has recently sold film rights to Golden Globe winning producer Playground.

What’s your competitive advantage?

If you know anyone in the world of business looking to take a step forward in their career then this could be the best buy you make this Christmas.

Hot of the press, Honorary Visiting Fellow, Dr Paul Raspin’s new book, ‘What’s Your Competitive Advantage?’ will show readers and their businesses how to gain competitive advantage in ways that create and capture more value.

You can also hear from the author himself at the official book launch will be on 16 January 2019 at Cass Business School.

Sweet Fruit, Sour Land

Female friendship is at the heart of Rebecca Ley’s, (MA Creative Writing, 2015), debut novel Sweet Fruit, Sour Land.

Set in dystopian London, The Guardian Not the Booker Prize winner, couples humanity in a broken civilisation with two characters, Mathilde and Jasminder trying to discover where illicit food is coming from and where women disappear to.

Mother

Novel Studio alumna, Hannah Begbie’s debut romance novel, Mother could be a great gift for anyone looking for love this Christmas.

The story follows a frightened mother and an upbeat father, who both have children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. After meeting at a charity event their troubling situation pushes them into an intense affair which jeopardies everything — even the health of their children.

Following a four way auction, Clerkenwell Films has also secured TV rights for the novel.