The Guardian Year '98, edited by John Ezard (Fourth Estate, £12.99 in UK)

Fifteen quid - which it will be, more or less, by the time it gets into Irish bookshops - may seem like a lot to fork out for a rerun of newspaper articles you may have read already, but when the articles in question are as consistently entertaining, provocative and plain darned good as these, it's worth every penny. Whether the target is William Hague's baseball cap, the Teletubbies' Christmas song ("a sugary jingle lisped by four mutant psychedelic gonks") or Canary Wharf Tower, the shots arrive - smack - exactly where it hurts each time. There are disturbing pieces by people whose voices are normally silenced in polite society - convicted prisoners, victims of bullying - a thoughtful selection of obituaries and some priceless gems from the paper's recently-introduced "Corrections and Clarifications" column. For a pocket-sized piece of comfort and joy this Christmas, this book will be hard to beat.