The tidings from America this Christmas offer little in the way of comfort or joy. After a slew of redundancies at the beginning of this month, this week saw a round of cuts at publishing giant Random House, and 64 jobs going at Macmillan's literary arm, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, news that would have been barely imaginable a year ago.

Here in the UK, as yet there have been no dramatic cuts at publishers, but that's not to say the books industry has emerged unscathed. Last week Waterstone's reported poor results, while the collapse of Woolworths' distribution arm EUK could apparently cost the trade as much as £25m.

The one bright spark, if you can call it that, has been the continued strong performance of celebrity memoirs this Christmas. Despite comments from the HMV Group chief executive, Simon Fox, that Waterstone's has seen a big slowdown in the market, the top 20 celeb hardbacks are up an astonishing 47.1% on last year, with five books passing 200,000 sales - Paul O'Grady, Dawn French, Michael Parkinson, Julie Walters and Katie Price. (Jonathan Ross is conspicuous by his absence from this hit parade.) As Mark Lawson points out, the majority of the celebrity memoirists doing well this Christmas have waited until they have a story to tell, have written the books themselves, and can lay claim to genuine talent and fame. Despite the slashed down prices at which they're selling, perhaps it'll be the celebrities who save this Christmas.

For the last few years, each Christmas has seen a quirky title emerge to unexpectedly take the bestseller charts by storm, from Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves, to Does Anything Eat Wasps? and last year's I Before E (Except After C). So far nothing has emerged from the morass of cookery tomes and annuals in the charts this year. But with sales down year-on-year, perhaps there's still time for a surprise.