buying gifts is such a difficult thing….

what to buy each year becomes a dilemma – here is my list of what usually works for most of the family.

curzon cinema vouchers or membership to local cinema, could be any of the lovely independents that are around , 2. tate, v & a membership or any gallery subscription – older kids seem to have preferred the Barbican, which also gives you discounted access to the gallery and cinema, 3. ticket or gift voucher to the theatre, maybe somewhere unusual like Wiltons or Sam Wanamaker theatre, 4. daunts book voucher or again any local bookshop, 5. anything from aesop, 6. anything from the wonderful art shop cornelissen 7. food gifts from la fromagerie ,Lina stores or my favourite Italo in Bonnington Square , 8. jewellery from Tidy Street, Peppi Taylor or sweet pea,, 9. ceramics from ceramics 274, at the moment, I love Japanese bowls from Sway gallery 10. candles from cire trudon or Tom Dixon’s fab new shop 11. a treatment from the Cow Shed, my husband got me a voucher last year for my birthday and the pedicure was pretty amazing. 12. of course there is a night’s stay in a hotel somewhere in the countryside, and there are so many lovely hotels to stay in and one extra – a course in ceramics, a language, drawing or just about anything – there are so many courses on offer at city lit and the neighbouring adult colleges.

Robert and Alfie’s favourite shop for classic men’s clothes with style, visit J.Simons shop on chiltern street – it brings together a handpicked selection of American, Continental and British brands, classic loafers, harrington jackets, jeans and even includes a few vintage pieces – perfect if you want to find your male partner or friend a gift. i love the pendleton shirts! you go in there wishing that they did the same things in womens sizes.

struggling to find presents for men, go along to the aesop shop in soho – their products are all plant based, high quality and specially made to benefit the skin and absolutely smell beautiful. last year i bought a foaming shaving balm for my husband with a steel dish for him to whip up the foam with his brush – he is very old fashioned and still likes to wet shave. a lot of men hate bits and pieces, collective memoirs, so finding something to buy them can become a bit of a challenge. a guess this means that you have a limited list; here are a few places that i know robert will always be pleased to receive from -any products from kiehls, scarves and silk handkerchieves from peckham rye, vintage books and out of print books from the numerous antiquarian book shops on cecil court, poetry books from daunts, I still think that they have the best choice of books, and the re issues of classics such as Agatha Christie and Dickens are so beautifully presented that they can be the start of a collection, travel notebooks from smythsons – you can even have your own initials embossed on the beautiful leather covers, margaret howell for vases and accessories , rapha for absolutely anything cycling, brooks for classic cycling bags,chapmans for classic bags.

alfie has now gone from the great basic uniqulo boxers to the supremely quality cotton boxers from sunspel – their cotton is just lovely.