Just as the music industry places its bets on Q4 every year, so does the book trade. On so-called “Super Thursday” earlier this month more than 500 titles were published for the gifting season.

Music publishing – books, not songwriting catalogues – is a significant sub-genre: rock, pop and grime life stories are all in the running to emerge as this year’s bestseller.

Q4 hopefuls include Bruce Dickinson (see p24), Robbie Williams, Goldie, Chris Difford, Jimmy Webb, Loudon Wainwright III, ...