Glitz, glamour gorgeous paintings: Find the perfect present with the best picture books of 2025

1 Got You Baby: Cher’s Celebration Annie Zaleski Running Press £25, 224pp

This rivals volume 2 of Cher’s own Memoir, just with more pictures and fewer words. Cher is a phenomenon known as much for her longevity as for her performance skills, but this book is essentially an illustrated history of her many incarnations as Sonny’s wife, an old-school lightweight entertainer, a power balladeer with a voice like a foghorn, and Meryl Streep’s mother in Mamma Mia 2. ‘Given her powerful voice, it’s not easy for Cher to fit in,’ writes Zaleski. Did you know he sang backup on the Righteous Brothers’ song You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’? I didn’t, and this book is so full of fascinating information that it’s also filled with thousands of photos of her in thousands of different wigs. The wig is amazing!

2 Cartier Edited by Helen Molesworth and Rachel Garrahan V&A £35, 256pp

Few jewelers are as famous as Cartier, and in this book you’ll see why. All the signature designs are here: Tank watch, Love bracelet, Trinity ring, and some photos of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who are loyal customers. ‘The jeweler of kings and the king of goldsmiths,’ said the Duke, obviously retching for something free. The book also examines the company’s “embrace of progress and modernity”: we see Tyler The Creator’s eight Cartier watches, all depicting different times. There’s even a tiara that the current Princess of Wales wore on her wedding day, which you can’t say no to.

3 Modern Tree Houses Florian Siebeck Taschen £50, 376 per person

Like many books here, this one does what it says on the tin. This lavish book depicts all kinds of modern treehouses, from the jumbled and homemade to the architectural and eye-poppingly expensive. Siebeck reveals that Emperor Caligula had a banquet hall made of wood built, and in the 19th century, the suburbs of Paris boasted Les Guingettes de Robinson, where customers ate between branches. Many modern treehouses are amazing and permanent structures. Some are described as ‘interactive educational experiences’ aimed at bringing young visitors closer to the forest. Some are actually holiday homes that can probably be rented for a small fortune. It’s probably cheaper to buy this book.

4 Valentino Matt Tyrnauer and Suzy Menkes Edited by Armando Chitolina Taschen £100, 576pp

Here’s one of Taschen’s tremendous books on fashion giant Valentino Garavani.

She dominated haute couture for half a century, designing dresses for Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, and although she retired in 2007, her brand continues to grow.

This book has been meticulously researched and the photos of sweet models wearing amazing dresses take your breath away.

Valentino himself is pictured in a dapper suit, camping out like a row of tents, and with more hair than Marge Simpson. In an interview, he reveals that he went skiing with Roger Moore and “almost got sick when I looked at the Gauguin painting.” Even though it’s priced at £100, this book is incredible value for bemused fashionistas.

5 The Dog Book of Country Life Agnes Stamp Rizzoli £50, 348 per person

If my mother were alive, she would happily give years of her life to have this book.

It’s exactly what you think: lots of dog photos, a few country houses, and photos of the dog-crazy aristos who live in those houses.

Some of these dogs are working dogs, while others are purely decorative. F. Scott Fitzgerald was right: The very rich are different from you and me, and, above all, they have much nicer dogs. There are no mutts here, just purebred superdogs frolicking on the grass or on the stairs wide enough to accommodate a small army.

It’s actually a beautiful book: charmingly written, gorgeously photographed, and a delight for all seasons.

6 Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland Royal Horticultural Society Dorling Kindersley £25, 256pp

This is garden porn, pure and simple, with 100 of the most beautiful gardens on the islands illustrated for your pleasure and enlightenment.

Most of the gardens are formal and beautifully designed, but there are private gardens here too, one or two of which adopt more random or chaotic methods of planting, which pleases me greatly. But as the uncredited author of it all claims, ‘this treasure trove of gorgeous gardens will inspire endless days spent outdoors’, and the text includes both postcodes and opening times.

There are also many good ideas for those of us who cultivate our humbler lands…

8 Jean-Paul Gaultier: Podium Laird Borrelli – Persson Thames and Hudson £60, 632 per person

Another huge book – industrial hydraulic equipment will come in handy when trying to lift it, and a forklift will certainly help – and this one is about fashion enfant terrible Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Gaultier is now 73 years old and retired, but this magnificent book takes us through his distinguished career in an illustrated way.

Skirts for men, Madonna’s tapered bras, trans models: it’s all here, with countless photos of gorgeous dresses and often ridiculous hairstyles. These are not exactly clothes that are meant to be worn, but rather clothes that are meant to be seen and marveled at. Bring back Eurotrash!

9 A Decade of Remembering Wildlife Wildlife Photographers United Wildlife Remembrance £59.50, 200 people

This magnificent volume is the tenth book in the Remembering the Wilderness series. Founded in 2015 by British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett, the series has two aims: One is to raise awareness of the plight of each species, and the other is to use the profits from sales to support organizations trying to protect them. This book contains some of the best images in the collection, as well as numerous photographs of pangolins, one of the least-known mammals on Earth and yet the most trafficked: more than a million have been taken from the wild in the last decade. (They are poached for their scales and meat.) The photos, all donated by top photographers, are spectacular as always.

A Decade of Remembering Wildlife currently available From the Mail Bookstore

11 Great Art Explained James Payne Thames and Hudson £30, 320 per person

This impressive work is based on a series of YouTube tutorials. James Payne is not a professional art historian, but a very knowledgeable amateur on a mission to explain great works of art in their social, political and aesthetic contexts with lots of good stories. I didn’t know, for example, that when Monet and Pissarro visited London, their main attraction was Turner’s huge, almost abstract canvases in the National Gallery. So Turner was not only Britain’s greatest Romantic painter, he was also the father of impressionism. But critics had reservations. The Morning Chronicle called his Rain, Steam and Speed ​​’probably the wildest and most magnificent of all these extraordinary compositions’; While this may seem like a compliment now, it wasn’t in 1844.