It’s the season for inconsequential books. You know the sort I mean – small books, intriguing books, books that can’t really fail to please and usually cost no more than a tenner. They’re for friends, for stockings, for light reading over Christmas, for a fallback present during what I hope is a round of visits for the 12 days. They’re short, so they don’t make demands on time, but enough to give pleasure during, say, a short train journey; some are small enough to fit in a pocket or bag. And if you’re giving someone money, I think it’s good to slip it into a book, so as to have something decent to open.

Careful who you give a pretty little book by Saki to: Christmas With Dull People (Daunt Books, £4.99; Tablet price £4.50) could be misinterpreted; a little Christmas sketch with a rider about formulaic thank you letters (if only!). Seasonal goodwill doesn’t make the author less sardonic. Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (Daunt Books, £4.99; Tablet price £4.50) might be a safer bet: it’s a Christmassy story about a man whose Christmas goose turns out to be more than he bargained for … oh bother, I’ve given the plot away. Anyway, a charming edition.

Actually, that Holmes adventure also features in a nice little seasonal anthology, A Vintage Christmas from, yes, Vintage (Classics) the publishers (£9.99; Tablet price £9), along with little stories, poems and essays from authors including E. Nesbit, Alice Munro and Raymond Carver. Yep, it has the necessary extract from A Christmas Carol.