Five books to get you through the holiday season.

Forget the parties, the presents and the endless office get-togethers. Winter, at base, is the season to sack it all off and stay in with a good book. Christmas is always proceeded by a glut of great non-fiction titles, and the pick of this year’s new releases ranges from fearless journalism and footballing philosophy to a drum’n’bass memoir and a landmark homage to style culture. Whether you’re after an armchair adventure, a superior stocking filler, or a casual fireside flick through the annals of cool, here are five reasons to eschew the extraneous festivities, draw up a footstall, and read.

In May 1980, a new magazine exploded onto the newsstands. Founded by NME editor and Smash Hits creator Mr Nick Logan, The Face invented style journalism and changed pop culture. It also captured an era before culture was atomised by digital media – when fashion, music and serious social politics hung out. Mr Paul Gorman’s much-anticipated history of the mag’s 24-year tenure features more than 400 images, celebrating the typographic experiments of Mr Neville Brody and dramatic photography of Mr Nick Knight. The Face is rumoured for a relaunch in 2018.

The Bay of Bothnia is a frozen sea that lies between Sweden and Finland, just short of the Arctic circle. It’s low on traditional points of interest, but high on unearthly atmosphere, as bestselling travel writer Mr Horatio Clare discovers when he joins the crew of a Finnish icebreaker. His voyage through snow and silence is punctuated only by the occasional “turgid” frankfurter and exchange with a taciturn Finn, giving him time to reflect powerfully on geopolitics, global warming, and the complex beauty of ice.

The godfather of drum’n’bass never hid his demons. Goldie’s music has a murky, menacing beauty, while his latterday reality TV appearances have mined the bad-boy persona. But this, in all its hard-edged but characteristically oddball glory, is his first memoir. It moves from a childhood in care, and survival of long-term sexual abuse, to his coming of age in the Birmingham graffiti scene and founding of legendary label Metalheadz – plus the time the jungle pioneer was nearly eaten by a boa constrictor.

The Moleskine notebook is an accessory more associated with poetic types than footballers. But Mr Eric Cantona was always a brooding, philosophical presence, both off the pitch and on it. Recently, the former Manchester United great, who once baffled a line of sports journalists with that quote about seagulls, trawlers and sardines, has taken to recording his thoughts in a series of diaries. This reproduction of his notebooks shares Mr Cantona’s talent for wordplay and faux-naive drawings (avec plentiful phalluses).

When AA Gill died last December, just weeks after announcing he had cancer in the course of a restaurant review, he left behind a dazzling body of journalism ranging from his famous food and TV reviews to travel pieces and even war reportage. The most prized columnist and critic of his age never penned a word: Mr Gill had a severe form of dyslexia, and instead dictated all his articles over the phone. This is writing so devilishly funny and bracingly honest it demands to be shared aloud.