ben's summer gift bag 2025
grab something for the sunny weather ahead
It is getting hot!
I spent my Saturday sweating buckets in the sun’s baleful glare at the Premiership Rugby final. The south stand was so hot I had to abscond to the cool concrete shadiness of the stadium’s underbelly to let myself dry out. Things were that serious and this week, the temperature is going to keep on coming.
Some of you enjoyed my Christmas carousel of stuff-to-buy and asked for quarterly versions. While I’ve mostly failed to deliver on that, here’s a summer edition.
These are the books and other goods that I have—or wish I had—to take on the incoming warmer weather.
📚 Books
One of my favourite reads of the year so far, A Month in the Country relates a melancholic English summer, with our narrator dispatched to a countryside church on a restoration mission. Elegaic and wonderful.
This the year I finally read Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, beginning with My Brilliant Friend – four volumes of female friendship set in post-war Naples. I’ve had a long-held ambition to read these on holiday in Italy and I’m finally going to manage it.
The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite book and it’s actually a great read for summer (I have fond memories of a reread in the Atlas mountains). It begins in sun-drenched Marseilles and its twisty turny epic tale of revenge makes for great poolside company.
If you want some high-grade fluff, reading Emily Henry’s witty, self-aware romcom Book Lovers will make you popular on TikTok.
Murder makes for fun summer reading and Lucy Foley is my favourite modern purveyor of the stuff. The Guest List turns a glamorous, island wedding into a locked room mystery.
In a similarly murderous vein, My Sister the Serial Killer made for a funny, nasty little summer read by the pool in Lebanon a year or two ago.
For something a bit historical and very entertaining, Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault makes Alexander the Great… great again?
Maybe I’ll belatedly get around to Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare which I’ve been excited to read since seeing her speak just before Christmas. It’s a true story of her raising a day old baby hare and apparently it’s lovely.
👕 Linen Shirts
French brand Hartford make my favourite shirts – lovely fabric and just billowy enough.
For a midrange purchase, Massimo Dutti do a good job, although they’re cut a little slim for me.
If you’re budgeting, Uniqlo do a solid job in a range of colours.
👟 Shoes
I’m a white plimsoll loyalist (check Muji out), but I’m always on the lookout for flexible, warm weather footwear options. Last year my New Look sandals were my favourite but they didn’t last long and the declining acceptability of Toms is a bigger problem than anyone anticipated. I’ve replaced my old sandals with some Suicoke’s but smarter suggestions below please.
☄️ Waboba Ball
If you’re going anywhere near a swimming pool, get a Waboba and find a friend. Your life will never be the same again.
🩳 Do-It-All Shorts
My namesake Outlier make amazing clothes that last a lifetime and while I already have a couple of pairs of their New Ways Shorts, suitable for everything from summer outings to surfing, now I’d like some of their Injex Littlebigs (in Gothic).
🧴 Deodorant
I've been thinking about going aluminium-free for a while and dancer-developed AKT is meant to be really good – expensive but fresh and long-lasting without the bad stuff present in many other products.
🩲 Swimming Shorts
My old reliable pair finally gave up. I picked up a lilac pair of Adidas shorts as a quick fix and they’re doing the job. In more sporty stuff, Nike makes solid, unfussy shorts in a range of colours and if you want actual boardshorts, needessentials is a one-stop shop. For something more refined and beach-to-bar ready, Orlebar Brown is what I’m aiming at but until I find the right ones, I can carry on with my Outliers.
🌞 Suncream
When I played rugby in Sydney, our physio kept a giant pump of SPF 50 on the sideline which I didn’t use enough More fool me. I’m happy to p20 with its long-lasting protection (let it sink in) but I’d also like to try Vacation, from the creators of summer radio station Poolsuite FM. They have loads of fun stuff including a whip-like can of suncream.
🧢 Hat
My head is too round, monkey-shaped if I’m honest, for most hats. But a couple of years back I got a Barbour sunhat as a gift and it’s proven genuinely useful. Garden, beach, Maldives — in and out of the water it works and I don’t worry too much about what happens to it.
🏁 Wrap It Up
That’s it. Summer always vanishes faster than you'd like so any opportunity you get, grab a book and something breezy and get outside.
(There are a few affiliate links scattered throughout so I’ll receive a small commission if you decide to buy stuff but rest assured, I’ve loved all this stuff.)