shop local – The Extra Mile

Posted on 27/11/202527/11/2025 by The Extra Mile

Black Friday? No, Rainbow Friday! It’s discount o’clock…

Black Friday book deals with a colourful edge...

Black Friday just sounds so glum and ominous, doesn’t it? So we’ve pepped things up a bit on the colour scale to bring you Rainbow Friday: an excuse to give you some fab discounts on our three foodie guidebooks to Britain.

Great book gifts for foodies

This Rainbow Friday 🌈 (brighter, friendlier, and entirely free of people wrestling over discounted air fryers), use one of these two discount codes to help take the edge off your gift spending this week, and put the £5 or £10 saved towards another present.

Here’s the deal:

✨ Spend £30 on our books → get £5 off with code blackbooks5
✨ Spend £40 → get £10 off with code blackbooks10

Our books make cracking presents for anyone who:

✔ cares about good food, and where it comes from
✔ refuses to eat beige pastries in roadside services
✔ loves turning every road trip into a mini food adventure.

Pick your flavour:

The Extra Mile Guide – delicious alternatives to motorway services
The Coastal Café Guide
The Farm Shop Guide

Each of the codes is valid until the end of November 2025. Cannot be used in conjunction with other offers or discount codes.

Browse our food and travel guidebooks online

Visit Extra Mile Books’ online bookshop for more info on all three titles. And excitingly – if you like this kind of thing – we have a new title coming in spring 2026, called The Sauna Guide to the South West. Watch this space!

Posted on 19/11/202519/11/2025 by The Extra Mile

Christmas gifts for wild swimmers

Two women wild swimmers wearing Findra merino wool (c) Findra

Christmas gift ideas for wild swimmers

Wild swimming is more than a sport. It’s a ritual, a place of restoration, and a reminder of the wildness and simplicity that nourishes us. As more and more people are taking the plunge (sorry), more and more wonderful gift ideas arise to treat them with. If there’s a cold-water dipper in your life, here are some gift ideas that will fill their soul with warmth after a chilly dunking.

Ultimate Wild Swimmers Gift Box

A beautifully curated set from MindFill featuring Swim Wild by Jack Hudson, a wild-swimming log, some cocoa to warm your cockles, a protein flapjack, and more. A wonderful gift for both new and seasoned open-water swimmers, this one is designed to appeal to all corners nurturing mind, body, and spirit. Retails at around £36 (at time of going live on this blog…).

Shop the Wild Swimmers Ultimate Gift Box here.

Wild Swimmers Gift Box (the standard option)

Not as ultimate as the Ultimate Swimmers Gift Box above (we think if people are worth buying this present for, they’re probably worth the extra few quid) this is a slightly smaller but equally thoughtful version of the above. It contains a swimming journal, a muscle balm for recovery, and a ginger kombucha for some post-swim refreshment. Retails at around £29.

Shop the Wild Swimmers Gift Box here.

Finisterre towelling changing robe

The perfect way to dry off in privacy. Cornish B-Corp company, Finisterre (whose foundation we support in our Coastal Café Guide), offers a towelling robe that, like everything they touch, do, or create, will be of excellent quality. Retails at around £60.

Browse colours at Finisterre.

Onneke Wild Swimming Logbook

Another logbook option, this one is slightly more rugged, with space for notes, doodles, and even route sketches. Ideal for swimmers who treat their wild adventures like mini-odysseys and want to remember every element. Retails at around £9.

Shop Onneke Wild Swimming Logbook

Merino wool layers and accessories

Merino wool is brilliant for wild swimming because it somehow manages to warm you even when you or it is wet. Aren’t those sheep clever? When dry, it wicks moisture away from the skin so you don’t get that clammy feeling, it’s naturally temperature regulating and it’s not itchy. Findra make lots of items to delight a dipper. We love their buffs, beanies, and cosy base layers. Cost varies per item. Image below (c) Findra.

Discover Findra’s Merino range.

The Coastal Café Guide

The Coastal Café Guide is a great book for people who love racing to the coast for their wild swims and sea dips. Packed with over 120 coastal and sea-view cafés, it’s the wild-swimming-adjacent gift that every water-baby needs to help round off their freezing cold day in style (in a lovely, cosy, independent café cradling a coffee). Every purchase supports Surfers Against Sewage and shines a light on 11 brilliant marine and coastal charities.

If you love good food, independent businesses and exploring the British coast, this is the guidebook made for you.Retails at around £17.99 (when bought direct to support the publisher which is, ooh, us!). It’s cheaper on Amazon but you won’t feel as fuzzy.

Shop The Coastal Café Guide and our other books.

Mooonbag changing mat and bag

This is the original multi–functional bag for easy changing out of wet and into dry clothes (or the other way around if you’re a glutton for punishment). Open the bag, remove your wet or muddy clothes, then pull the drawstring to create a bag. A genius way to keep your feet dry and gravel and sand-free after a wild swim. Retails from around £25+.

Browse Moonbags here.

The Wild Swimming Guide

The unparalleled bible of 1,000 hidden dips in the rivers, lakes, and waterfalls of Scotland, England and Wales. Available now from Wild Things Publishing, who also have over 50 other titles and counting. Retails at £19.99 (buying direct to support the publisher).

Shop Wild Guide Books here.

Choosing the perfect gift for a wild swimmer

Wild swimmers don’t need much – just water, courage and a towel – but the right gift can make their cold-water routine even better. Whether it’s kit to warm them up, gear to keep them organised, or books that inspire new adventures, this round-up is full of ideas that support every kind of dipper. Pick something that helps them stay safe, stay warm, or simply enjoy the ritual a little more.

Posted on 18/11/202518/11/2025 by The Extra Mile

Festive Cookbooks for 2025

Four Fabulous Christmas Cookbooks for 2025

From Rick Stein’s nostalgic seaside suppers to the Hairy Bikers’ big-hearted cheer, 2025’s new festive cookbooks offer something for everyone. From make-ahead sanity, to culinary adventure and a splash of wicked mischief, these four new releases will see you through the season well fed and well read.

Image above (c) Rick Stein

How to Survive Christmas, by Jilly Cooper

The world’s a little less jolly sans Jilly, but her irreverent charm lives on in this cheeky festive guide. Dispensing her trademark wicked wisdom, Jilly shares how we can all survive that most treacherous of seasons with style (and with the inevitably generous glugs of sherry). Less cookbook, more social satire, it’s a fizzing antidote to yuletide perfectionism. And by following her advice and keeping the spirit of Jilly alive, what a way to toast a wonderful woman whom the world sadly lost this October.

How to Survive Christmas, by Jilly Cooper

Rick Stein’s Christmas, by Rick Stein

Rick opens the door to a Christmas full of warmth, comfort, and quietly impressive food. Across 100 recipes, from classic goose to the bright, far-flung flavours of his travels, Rick balances nostalgia with a spirit of adventure. Always elegant, never fussy, his is exactly the sort of Christmas we’d all like to be invited to. If you’re looking for a book gift for a foodie who knows how to live and wants their Christmas feasting to reflect that, this is just the ticket.

Rick Stein’s Christmas, by Rick Stein

The Hairy Bikers’ 12 Days of Christmas, by Si King and Dave Myer

Ever-jovial Si (with the memory of dearly departed Dave never far from his or our minds) serves up The Hairy Bikers’ trademark mix of humour and hearty fare here in a new festive cookbook for 2025. Feel the warmth of foolproof classics, and look out for the clever twists and unmistakable charm that made the pair such national treasures. We particularly like the perfect cheeseboard (just saying). If you need to rush out for any last-minute ingredients, our own Farm Shop Guide might help you find the best local farmers and butchers to truly do these recipes justice. A fab gift for foodies this Christmas.

The Hairy Bikers’ 12 Days of Christmas, by Si King and Dave Myer

The Batch Lady Saves Christmas, by Suzanne Mulholland

If December sends you spinning, Suzanne Mulholland’s calm and practical approach to ‘batching’ (that’s batch cooking to you and I)is a gift in itself to making Christmas feel achievable. With over 100 make-ahead recipes, some that also magically freeze, you’ll love this book’s savvy advice on budgets, leftovers, and stress-free entertaining. There’s even a chapter on air-fryer dishes and one-pot wonders for those who really are short on time, space, and energy but still want to get a delicious job done. The perfect gift for the busy foodie in your life.

The Batch Lady Saves Christmas, by Suzanne Mulholland

Festive book gifts for foodies this Christmas

Whichever book finds its way into your kitchen (or your loved ones’ stockings), may it bring a little calm to the chaos and a lot of cheer to the table this year. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what Christmas meals are really about: good food, good company… and perhaps a little glass of something sparkling to keep the Christmassy cogs turning.

For other book inspiration for the food lovers in your life this Christmas, visit our own online bookshop. Our titles include The Extra Mile Guide (Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services); The Coastal Café Guide; and The Farm Shop Guide. Happy shopping, cooking, and book-buying!