Christmas is showbiz time in publishing – but there's not much razzle dazzle around for this year's crop of celebrity memoirists, who range from comedians to actors and poets. To save you the bother, we enlist John Harris to read his way through eight of the most hyped titles and report back. We talk to ex-Python Terry Jones about dysfunctional technology and why he has chosen to publish his latest book – a collection of short stories called Evil Machines – with the new subscription publisher Unbound. Plus we look at some of the little gems that you might have missed – including a poetry anthology about laundry and the memoirs of a learned pig.
Reading list
Pyg by Russell Potter (Canongate)
Washing Lines selected by Janie Hextall and Barbara McNaught (Lautus Press)
Evil Machines by Terry Jones (Unbound)
Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother by Sue Johnston (Ebury)
