Non Fiction Books
Profile Books Ltd Judgement at Work
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.79
Profile Ninettes War
Book Synopsis'Chillingly relevant' DAILY MAIL'A deeply researched and evocative true story' ANNE SEBBA'Jay has a gift for forging a moving narrative from an impressive array of sources' JEWISH CHRONICLENinette Dreyfus was a cosseted scion of one of France's most prominent Jewish families - a cousin to Albert Einstein and family friend to Colette. But when the Second World War broke out and the Germans occupied Paris, the fall was dramatic. Realising that her fate would be transformed, the teenager soon found herself fleeing the capital for the South, only to then fall prey to the Vichy regime. In fear for her life at the hands of the Nazis and their French collaborators, she became somebody else.Woven together from Ninette's own diaries and interviews with author John Jay before she died, NINETTE'S WAR traces the frailty of national and personal unity through the eyes of a young woman, in compelling and unforgettable detail.
£17.00
Reaktion Books Five Evil Women
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.00
Pitch Publishing Ltd Racing Post 100 Winners
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd Transit Maps of the World
Book SynopsisTransit Maps of the World is the first, comprehensive collection of every rapid-transit system on earth. Using glorious, colourful graphics, Mark Ovenden traces the history of urban transport systems, including rare and historic maps, diagrams, and photographs. Transit Maps could not be more relevant to our modern existence. It uncovers the way many of us are able live and work day to day. It is an inspiring compendium for graphic designers and transport enthusiasts alike.Trade ReviewA beautifully illustrated study of the plans that help passengers navigate the world's metropolitan railway systems * The Times *The sort of book you couldn't imagine you needed until you got it and now you can't imagine how you could do without it . . . It's fantastic! -- Robert Elms * BBC London *Ovenden does what no other design history book has ever done. Transit Maps of the World is a must-have * The New York Times Book Review *Delightful * Guardian *An object lesson in information design * *Wallpaper *A vibrant tip of the hat to the world's urban train systems * National Geographic Intelligent Traveller *
£21.25
Pitch Publishing Ltd Sixty Years of Hurt
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£13.49
Canongate Books The Writing Life
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£9.49
W. W. Norton & Company The Book A CovertoCover Exploration of the Most
Book Synopsis
£18.99
Not Stated William Nicholson
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£31.50
Logaston Press The Folklore of Worcestershire
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£15.36
Aurora Metro Publications In the Scene
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.24
Taschen GmbH David Bowie. The Man Who Fell to Earth. 40th Ed.
Book SynopsisFirst advertised as a mind-stretching experience, Nicolas Roeg's 1976 The Man Who Fell to Earth stunned the cinema world. A tour-de-force of science fiction as art form, the movie brought not only hallucinatory visuals and a haunting exploration of contemporary alienation, but also glam-rock legend David Bowie in his lead role debut as paranoid alien Newton. Based on Walter Tevis's 1963 sci-fi fable of the same title, The Man Who Fell to Earth follows alien Newton from his arrival on earth in search of water; his transition to wealthy entrepreneur, leveraging the advanced technologies of his native planet; his sexual awakening with the young Mary-Lou; and then the discovery of his alien identity, his imprisonment, abandonment, and descent into alcoholism. Throughout, Roeg coaxed a beguiling performance from his cast, presenting not only Bowie in ethereal space-traveler glory, but also pitch-perfect sup
£22.50
Crumps Barn Studio Dream Logic
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd New Penguin Parallel Texts. Short Stories in
Book SynopsisThis new volume of eight short stories offers students of German at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature in the original, with the aid of parallel translations.The majority of these stories have been written in the past decade, and reflect a rich diversity of styles and themes. Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language.Table of ContentsShort Stories in GermanIntroductionThe Listener, or a Description of a Route with a Hidden MotiveSiegfried Lenz (b. 1926)Waiting for the Guests Dieter Wellershoff (b. 1925)Eating Mussels (Excerpt) Birgit Vanderbeke (b. 1956)The Good Old Days Gabriele Wohmann (b. 1932)Lascia Judith Hermann (b. 1970)Chicago/Shanty Town Georg Klein (b. 1953)Grandfather and the Decision-makers Christoph Hein (b. 1944)The Suspect Jurek Becker (b. 1937)Notes on German TextAcknowledgments
£10.44
The Wessex Astrologer The Astrologers Universe
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£16.65
Mirror Books Hunting Shadows
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£9.49
Oxford University Press Selected Letters
Book SynopsisCharlotte Brontë's letters are our most direct source of information about the Brontës and the life of the novelist. Vivid and passionate, they describe her inmost feelings as well as the world around her in Haworth, Belgium, and London. They offer insights into her novels and the development of her literary style.Trade ReviewTo read these wonderful letters is to feel an almost spooky contact with their extraordinary author. * Val Hennesy, Dail Mail *A further dose of Bronte brilliance from Charlotte, whose lively letters are packed with astute observation. * Val Hennesy, Daily Mail *
£9.49
White Star Publishers Beautiful Islands
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£22.49
Parousia Media Pty Ltd Champions of the Rosary
Book Synopsis
£22.91
Victionary Palette Playbook Nostalgic
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£35.38
Callisto Coloring with Coco Sisterhood in Solidarity
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd Logic
Book SynopsisIf a man supports Arsenal one day and Spurs the next then he is fickle but not necessarily illogical. From this starting point, and assuming no previous knowledge of logic, Wilfrid Hodges takes the reader through the whole gamut of logical expressions in a simple and lively way. Readers who are more mathematically adventurous will find optional sections introducing rather more challenging material. ''A lively and stimulating book'' PhilosophyTrade Review'A lively and stimulating book' PhilosophyTable of ContentsPart 1 Consistency: consistent sets of beliefs. Part 2 Expressing beliefs in sentences: beliefs and words; declarative sentences; ambiguity. Part 3 When is a sentence true?: truth and references; borderline cases and bizarre situations; misleading statements; possible situations and meanings. Part 4 Testing for consistency and validity: consistent sets of short sentences; the tableau technique; arguments. Part 5 How are complex sentences built up?: phrase-classes; phrase-markers; scope; context-free grammars. Part 6 Logical analysis: sentence-functors and truth-functors; some basic truth-functors; special problems with "->" and ""; analyis of complex sentences. Part 7 Sentence tableaux: sentence tableaux; interpretations. Part 8 Propositional calculus: a formal language; truth-tables; properties of semantic entailment; formal tableaux. Part 9 Designators and identity: designators and predicates; purely referential occurrences; two policies on reference; identity. Part 10 Relations: satisfaction; binary relations; "same", "at least" and "more"; equivalence relations. Part 11 Quantifiers: quantification; "all" and "some"; quantifier rules. Part 12 Predicate logic: logical scope; analyses using identity; predicate interpretations; predicate tableaux; formalization again. Part 13 Horizons of logic: likelihood; intension; semantics.
£10.44
Berrett-Koehler Publishers YOUth
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.85
Bloomsbury USA Soviet Tanks at Stalingrad 194243
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers Lost Realms
Book Synopsis''A beautiful, beautiful book . . . archaeology is changing so much about the way we view the so-called Dark Ages [Williams] is just brilliant at bringing them to light'' Rory Stewart on The Rest is PoliticsFrom the bestselling author of Viking Britain, a new epic history of our forgotten past.This is the world of Arthur and Urien; of the Picts and Britons and Saxon migration; of magic and war, myth and miracle.In Lost Realms Thomas Williams uncovers the forgotten origins and untimely demise of Britain's ancient kingdoms: lands that hover in the twilight between history and fable, whose stories hum with gods and miracles, with giants and battles and ruin. Why did some realms like Wessex, Northumbria and Gwynedd prosper while others fell? And how did their communities adapt to the catastrophic changes of their age? Drawing on Britain ' s ancient landscape and bringing together new archaeological revelations with the few precious fragments of surviving written sources, Williams spectaTrade Review PRAISE FOR LOST REALMS ‘Sceptical, scrupulous, written with wit and flair’Financial Times ‘This brilliant history of Dark Age Britain mixes serious scholarship with nods to pop culture, from Tolkien to The Wicker Man… Lost Realms is a joy to read’The Telegraph, FIVE STAR REVIEW ‘Williams makes a compelling guide as he steers us through the darkness’ Spectator ‘Williams has a fine command of the literary, administrative, religious and archaeological sources of early medieval Britain. He is a diligent scholar and a likeable writer’ Sunday Times ‘Thomas Williams is an exceptionally vivid and exciting writer, and his wonderfully evocative recreations are just what the generally impoverished and bewildering evidence for early medieval Britain requires. He is also however a meticulous, honest and fair-minded scholar, and his careful analysis of that evidence, material and textual, always establishes its limitations as well as its potential. His consideration of the losers of Anglo-Saxon state building provides a genuinely original and illuminating perspective on how England came to be’Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch 'Thomas Williams has blended a potent brew of mythic and material fragments to raise forgotten kings & queens (and their stories) from the grave. An historian not afraid of the dark and with eyes adapted to it – what he sees is assessed sagely and described beautifully'Christopher Hadley, author of Hollow Places
£10.44
Bloomsbury USA Kokoda 194243
£15.29
Flame Tree Publishing Snowy Santa Claus advent calendar (with stickers)
Book SynopsisThe Art of Fine Gifts: This is a beautifully traditional advent calendar with an intricately illustrated sticker behind each window. Father Christmas heralds his arrival with a blow of his trumpet as he prepares to deliver his sack of presents.
£8.11
No Starch Press,US The Book of PF 4th Edition
£40.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Power of Geographical Enquiry
Book SynopsisThe practical guide to building an engaging, evidence-led geography curriculum through the power of enquiry.The Power of Geographical Enquiry is an accessible guide to transforming your geography curriculum through the enquiry approach, using investigation to engage students and bring geography to life from Year 7 to A Level. In addition to being a key skill of the discipline, the enquiry approach is aligned with scientific research on how we learn, equipping you to create the most effective lessons and boost learning outcomes. In this accessible guide, geography expert David Rogers breaks down exactly how to harness the power of enquiry in your classroom, including:- tried-and-tested strategies and guidance for building an engaging, evidence-led geography curriculum throughout the secondary years- the science of how we learn and how this links to the enquiry approach- sequences of lessons and tools that can be embedded across the curriculum, along with real-life examples, practical strategies and top tips- guidance on planning entire units of work, including the compulsory elements at GCSE and A Level, and for progression between levels. This book empowers teachers to use the enquiry approach for any topic or theme in geography. Inspire your students to plan investigations, problem-solve and tackle real-world issues through the enquiry approach, providing rich learning experiences while maintaining the awe and wonder that makes the subject so enjoyable. In addition, the book illustrates how the enquiry approach can help schools decolonise the curriculum and ensure that a diverse range of peoples, places and perspectives are covered.
£19.00
Tarquin Publications The Fifty-nine Icosahedra
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Phaidon Press Ltd Vitamin P4
£39.96
Harvest House Publishers,U.S. The Power of a Praying Wife Book of Prayers
Book SynopsisInsightful, honest, and life-changing prayers from The Power of a Praying Wife are the perfect starting point in asking for God's purposes and plans to come about abundantly in your husband's life. This little book will help you unlock the enormous power of prayer in your marriage.
£6.25
Blue Angel Gallery Oracle of the Vampire Fae
£19.78
Gallimard Letranger
Book Synopsis
£10.34
Tuttle Publishing Ultra Long Flight Paper Airplanes
£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Color of Water
Book SynopsisThis is James McBride's tribute to his remarkable, eccentric, determined mother, and an eloquent exploration of what family and the colour of your skin really meansTrade ReviewA triumph * New York Times Book Review *A startling, tender-hearted tribute to a woman for whom the expression tough love might have been invented * The Times *As lively as a novel, a well-written, thoughtful contribution to the literature on race * Washington Post *Inspiring * Glamour *Vibrant * Boston Globe *What is stunning here is the grace and compassion with which a young writer captures how shadows, once thrown, are cast across many generations, while celebrating at the same time a real melting-pot of cultures * Financial Times *A wonderfully evocative, moving book ... beautifully flowing prose, interlaced with compassion and humour * Literary Review *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Infinite Monkey Cage How to Build a Universe
Book SynopsisThe Infinite Monkey Cage, the legendary BBC Radio 4 programme, brings you this irreverent celebration of scientific marvels. Join us on a hectic leap through the grand and bizarre ideas conjured up by human imagination, from dark matter to consciousness via neutrinos and earthworms.Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince muse on multifaceted subjects involved in building a universe, with pearls of wisdom from leading scientists and comedians peppered throughout.Covering billions of concepts and conundrums, they tackle everything from the Big Bang to parallel universes, fierce creatures to extraterrestrial life, brain science to artificial intelligence. How to Build a Universe is an illuminating and inspirational celebration of science sometimes silly, sometimes astounding and very occasionally facetious.Trade ReviewPraise for the BBC Radio 4 programme The Infinite Monkey Cage: ‘A witty and irreverent look at the world according to science’ Independent Praise for Professor Brian Cox: ‘Cox’s romantic, lyrical approach to astrophysics all adds up to an experience that feels less like homework and more like having a story told to you. A really good story, too.’ Guardian ‘He bridges the gap between our childish sense of wonder and a rather more professional grasp of the scale of things.’ Independent ‘Engaging, ambitious and creative.’ Guardian ‘Professor Cox shows us the cosmos as we have never seen it before – a place full of the most bizarre and powerful natural phenomena.’ Sunday Express
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd Unseen Academicals
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSatirical, historical, fantastical and irresistible. * Daily Mail *
£13.49
Faber & Faber Having and Being Had
Book Synopsis''A major achievement.'' CLAUDIA RANKINE''Endlessly absorbing.'' SINÉAD GLEESON ''A probing tour of capitalism and class.'' MAGGIE NELSON''Exhilarating.'' JENNY OFFILLA personal reckoning with the intricacies of money, class and capitalism from the New York Times bestselling author. Having just purchased her first home, Eula Biss embarks on a roguish and risky self-audit of the value system she has bought into. The result is Having and Being Had: a radical interrogation of work, leisure and capitalism. Playfully ranging from IKEA to Beyoncé to Pokémon, across bars and laundromats and universities, she asks, of both herself and her class, In what have we invested? ''As a writer Eula Biss has two great gifts. The first is her ability to reveal to the reader what has, all along, been hidden in plain sight . . . Her other talent is for laying bare our submerged fears . . .
£10.44
Profile Books Ltd The Book of Human Emotions: An Encyclopedia of
Book SynopsisIs your heart fluttering in anticipation? Is your stomach tight with nerves? Are you falling in love? Feeling a bit miffed? Are you curious (perhaps about this book)? Do you have the heebie-jeebies? Are you antsy with iktsuarpok? Or giddy with dépaysement? The Book of Human Emotions is a gleeful, thoughtful collection of 156 feelings, both rare and familiar. Each has its own story, and reveals the strange forces which shape our rich and varied internal worlds. In reading it, you'll discover feelings you never knew you had (like basorexia, the sudden urge to kiss someone), uncover the secret histories of boredom and confidence, and gain unexpected insights into why we feel the way we do. Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection. Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, funding over 14,000 researchers and projects in more than 70 countries. wellcomecollection.orgTrade Review[Watt Smith] treats each emotion with the expertise of a wine taster, showing how it is formed from a mixture of many other emotions -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *So riveting are these miniature essays exploring 156 emotions that if anyone interrupts your reading, you'll probably feel irritated ... Educative, entertaining. * Observer *Delightful * Prima *A brilliant book -- Róisín Ingle * Irish Times *Witty, informative, undogmatic and thought-provoking, this wonderful book should convince us that emotions are never just neural events. -- Jane O'Grady * Times Higher Education *
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay Named a Best Book of 2018 by TIME, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Wired, Esquire, Buzzfeed, Paste, Bitch, Bustle, The Chicago Review of Books and iBooks As a novelist, Alexander Chee has been described as ‘masterful’ by Roxane Gay, ‘incendiary’ by the New York Times, and ‘brilliant’ by the Washington Post. With How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, his first collection of nonfiction, he secures his place as one of the finest essayists of his generation. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is the author’s exploration of the entangling of life, literature and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these interconnected essays he constructs a self, growing from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckoning with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and America’s history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing – Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley – the writing of his first novel, Edinburgh, and the election of Donald Trump. By turns commanding, heartbreaking and wry, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel asks questions about how we create ourselves in life and in art, and how to fight when our dearest truths are under attack.Trade ReviewAlexander Chee sifted through tales from his past to present golden insights into the way art can shape a life ... a singular and sincere writer of both fiction and nonfiction * TIME 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2018 *Alexander Chee is one of the best living writers of today. If he’s not already a household name, he needs to be ... Powerful, powerful essays with powerful, powerful words * Buzzfeed's Isaac Fitzgerald, on NBC’s Today *Chee’s insights about writing, love and activism are hard-won, honest and incredibly wise * Curtis Sittenfeld, Guardian Summer Reads *Urgent and insightful * Viet Thanh Nguyen, Guardian Summer Reads *Pulses with urgency ... Chee has written a moving and personal tribute to impermanence, a wise and transgressive meditation on a life lived both because of and in spite of America, a place where, he writes, “you are allowed to speak the truth as long as nothing changes” * New York Times Book Review *These essays feel like a life’s wisdom – its hurts, joys and redemptions – salvaged from a great fire ... This book makes me feel possible * Ocean Vuong *Two-thirds of the way through Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, I abandoned my sharpened reviewer’s pencil in favour of luxuriating in the words. Chee’s writing has a mesmerizing quality; his sentences are rife with profound truths ... Chee is a very special artist; his writing is lyrical and accessible, whimsical and sad, often all at the same time * NPR *Heartfelt, writerly essays ... powerful -- Alex Preston * Spectator *As profound as they are beautiful, Chee's essays impart wisdom from a life fully lived, and speak to what it means to be a writer and reader in contemporary times * Buzzfeed *It’s so good that I could fill my word count just with quotations ... Every essay, no matter the subject, exhibits warmth, rigour, tact ... The mask conceals and it reveals; writing transfigures and it uncovers. That’s the gift that writing has given Chee, and it’s the gift that his wonderful new collection gives its readers * Boston Globe *A knowing and luminous self-portrait * O, the Oprah Magazine *There is indeed an art to the personal essay, and he is a master artist * Esquire *Unique and powerful, insistently itself * R.O. Kwon, Electric Literature *[A] trailblazing collection * Washington Post *Profound and resonant ... A nimble study in radical self-invention ... The revelations that follow crackle with the same glowing, essential truths * Wired *Rarely does a book of essays come along so affecting, so brave and bluntly honest, and so raw and poetic. I quit underlining my favourite aphoristic lines by the time I reached that third essay: it was useless to try to pick individual diamonds from a whole pile of them * Interview Magazine *I'm astonished by the wisdom of these essays, and how beautiful they are. A riveting account of activism and artistry, as well as a profound exploration of the intersections of identities and experiences that build up this novelist's composite eye. Alexander Chee is brilliant and brave in equal measure, and has written an essential book about how to survive as an artist in America today * Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You *How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is a rare hybrid of a book: an act of poetry, a gift of entertainment, and a primer for life. Alexander Chee is one of our most important writers and we should listen to every damn thing he has to say * Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up *Alexander Chee asks one of the great coming of age questions here: Isn’t beauty strong? His welter of answers yields a really moving (and sometimes devastating) writing memoir of being young, of being someone and not entirely knowing it yet – all the while being so poetically receptive to the fragrant and devastating strains of beauty and beauty’s harsh wisdom that wind up moving and shaping a life. It's a strangely romantic and practical book. It holds a skull lightly * Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls *An absolute gift of a book for writers everywhere. Every single essay is a pearl * Chicago Review of Books *
£11.69
Profile Books Ltd Great State: China and the World
Book SynopsisChina is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, it has maintained them for the eight centuries since. Even the European colonial powers at the height of their power could not move past coastal enclaves. Thus, China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. But, despite the desires of some of the most powerful people in the Great State through the ages, China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders from the steppe and the challenges posed by foreign traders and imperialists. Indeed, its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese. Timothy Brook examines China's relationship with the world from the Yuan through to the present by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met and meets the world. Bureaucrats, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, invaders, migrant workers, traitors, and visionaries: this is a history of China as no one has told it before.Trade ReviewImpressive ... [Timothy Brook] at his best * TLS *Excellent ... The power of this book lies partly in the fact that Brook does not overstate his case. While he does not seek to claim that China's current actions are prefigured by the past, an attentive reader cannot fail to notice extraordinary parallels -- James Kynge * Financial Times *Timothy Brook's Great State puts forward an elegant and compelling argument for why we should look at the cosmopolitan part of the Chinese mind-set as well * Literary Review *Some of Mr. Brook's subjects are ethnically Chinese, but many are not - Mongols and Manchus figure prominently, as do Tibetans, Englishmen, Portuguese, Koreans and a host of others ... [It is] a wondrous range * Wall Street Journal *What a pleasure to read a significant, original book that covers millennia of Chinese history in an informal, often chatty, but always learned style * Times Higher Education *[A] vigorous account ... Scattered across the maps and paintings that Brook invokes, his thirteen encounters take in pirates, merchants, soldiers, traders, explorers, emperors and spiritual leaders - characters in China's complex trade, military, spiritual and political relationships down the centuries. Brook unravels the threads of these relationships across a canvas of war, friendship, savage struggles for power, lethal epidemic disease, triumph and calamity. It is a dizzying and exhilarating journey ... Great State offers some compelling lessons for today, and for all our futures -- Isabel Hilton * New Statesman *A fresh look at China's engagement with the outside world over centuries ... With useful maps and stories within stories, this is an ingenious look at an often misunderstood country * Kirkus Reviews *Praise for Vermeer's Hat: Spell-binding ... as a guide to the world behind the pictures Vermeer's Hat is mind-expanding * Sunday Times *A brilliant attempt to make us understand the reach and breadth of the first global age * Guardian *Brook takes you into the paintings in a way that can be spookily intimate * Evening Standard *An erudite, surprising book that finds traces of swashbuckling where you'd least expect * Daily Telegraph *Truly mesmerising. In this accessible but authoritative study, he... shows better than anyone I've read so far, the truly subversive power of detail * Independent *Praise for Mr Selden's Map of China: The great charm of this book lies not only in its illustrative, erudite detail but in the serendipity that regularly seizes Brook and adds spice to a spellbinding story * Times *The quest is fascinating and picaresque, a sort of cartographical Tristram Shandy with a sure-handed narrator steering us from Ming dynasty China to pre-Civil War Oxford to the Spice Islands of South-East Asia * Sunday Telegraph *
£11.69
Merrell Publishers Ltd Cult Perfumes: The World's Most Exclusive
Book SynopsisEven in times of economic hardship, perfume is an affordable luxury, recognized for its ability to make us not only smell good but also feel great. No woman's dressing table or bathroom cabinet is complete without at least one bottle. Cult Perfumes is the first book to explore the most exclusive boutique perfumeries producing some of the world's most captivating scents. Tessa Williams documents more than 25 perfumeries and brands, ranging from the pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, established by Dominican friars in 1221, and the classic English company Floris, founded in 1730, to the new eponymous range created by the famed fragrance expert Roja Dove. Williams goes behind the scenes at each perfumery to interview the perfumers and explore the evolution of the company, the ethos behind the brand, and its signature scents. With a concise illustrated introduction to the history of perfume-making and features on iconic perfumes, future cult classics and the so-called 'noses' who keep the brands attuned to today's popular scents, Cult Perfumes will be as alluring to lovers and collectors of perfume as the fragrances it presents.Trade Review'The richly scented world of the artisan parfumier is lavishly illustrated in Tessa Williams' elegant tribute to modern and traditional fragrances' - SAGA MAGAZINE 'Cult Perfumes is an extraordinarily engaging treat about an aspect of fashion sensed but not seen - The presentation of subjects and subject matter in the book is first rate, complete with glossary and photographs of superb quality - If you have a highly trained olfactory sense, you best rush out and buy this book and enjoy. For the rest of us [it] is a delightfully intriguing story for both reference and enjoyment.' - NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS 'With stories behind the most exquisite scents from around the world and a full glossary of the unique terms used to describe the senses and smells - it's an interesting read and a very glamourous book to own - it really does show a fashion enthusiast the integrity in the beauty world and the skill of perfumeries.' - FASHION WEEKLY
£25.46
Search Press Ltd Ready to Paint: Watercolour Flowers
Book SynopsisKeen to paint, but your drawing skills let you down? This book provides pull-out tracings for five beautiful floral paintings, along with full step-by-step instructions for how to bring them to life with watercolour paint. A clear guide on how to transfer the tracings to your watercolour paper is included, along with a helpful section on what materials to use. Ready to Paint: Watercolour Flowers makes painting flowers simple and accessible, and offers guidance on how you can develop your new painting skills.Trade ReviewJune 08 People often want to take up painting when they retire and have more time. Others start sooner, once their kids are grown and in school. The drawing part of painting can be hard for beginners – enough of an obstacle so they give up or never get past painting by numbers. My friends who paint have always had a natural ability. They drew as children. I don’t have that at all. Now two new books promise to make watercolor painting easier for beginners by following what I call an old-but-new approach. The “Ready to Paint” series from Search Press in England is designed so that novice painters can pick up a brush and create appealing paintings with easy-to-follow tracings. The tracings can be reused. The idea is that you gain confidence as your hand-eye coordination is trained, by following the tracings, while you have some pleasing results to motivate you to keep trying. “Watercolour Flowers” by Wendy Tait has nine reusable tracings to pull out. “Watercolour Landscapes” by Terry Harrison has six reusable tracings to pull out. Both are to be published in June. The artists explain how to compose a painting with simple instructions and tips. Both Tait and Harrison are authors as well as artists. * A Good Age *Table of Contents All of the paintings in the book are provided as tracings in the centre pages for you to pull out and use to learn how to paint beautiful pictures with Wendy Tait. Go straight into painting: no need to draw! Five easy to follow demonstrations Step-by-step photographs and clear instructions Nine reusable tracings to pull out
£8.54
Octopus Publishing Group RHS Allotment Handbook Planner
Book SynopsisWritten by the Royal Horticultural Society''s foremost fruit and veg experts, RHS Allotment Handbook & Planner provides the lifestyle-changing advice that gardeners need for growing a year-round supply of healthy, edible crops for their garden. With RHS tried-and-tested varieties, this book covers what to grow, how and where to grow it. Exploring best practice growing advice, allotment life and its numerous benefits, this book also includes a month-by-month calendar of tasks to guide gardeners through the year.
£17.09
Simon & Schuster Ltd How to be a Bad Botanist
Book SynopsisCan you tell a tomato from a grape? A patch of grass from a Christmas tree? Then congratulations – you’re a botanist. Self-confessed bad birdwatcher Simon Barnes thought he knew nothing about plants. He didn't have anything against them: trees are interesting because birds perch in them; plants are useful because they create habitats, and all birds live in habitats. But while admiring the tenacity of some yellow horned poppies thriving on a shingle beach – a place where it seemed no plant had a hope of surviving – he was struck by a simple yet profound truth. It all begins with plants. In this charming and inspiring book, Barnes takes us on a fascinating journey, from the simple genius of photosynthesis to the complex and bizarre ways that plants reproduce. We consider plants as varied as cabbages and conifers, familiar wildflowers and enigmatic orchids, nefarious parasites and plants that carry deadly poisons – helping us
£15.29
Insight Editions Inner World Memory Journal Reflect Record
Book SynopsisRecord three years’ worth of memories with this beautiful deluxe one-line-a-day memory journal. Use this stunning memory book to record three years of your meaningful moments or thoughts most worth remembering. Each page includes a daily entry for a single thought or highlight over three successive years. At the end of three years, you’ll have a condensed, comparative record of memories to reflect on. JOURNALING MADE EASY: Make journaling a consistent part of your routine with this simple journal designed to encourage you to write just one line a day. Whether you choose to write each morning, afternoon, or evening, take a brief moment of reflection to jot down a special detail from each day. TIME CAPSULE: Let this journal serve as your own personal time capsule as you continue with the journal and accumulate three years'' worth of daily memories to look back on. DELUXE DESIGN: With a high-quality hardcover case,
£14.39
Granta Books The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1: 1915-19
Book SynopsisWith an introduction by Virginia Nicholson Saturday 2 February 1918. The first walk we've had for ever so long. Damp, mild vaporous day. Funeral bells tolling as we went out, & marriage as we came in. The streets lined with people waiting their meat. Aeroplanes droning invisible. Our usual evening, alone happily, knee deep in papers. This diary begins in January 1915. Virginia Woolf was about to publish her first novel, The Voyage Out. By the end of 1919 she had published many essays and reviews, as well as a second novel, Night and Day. Her diary was the counterpoint to that public writing: here she could record details of daily life, think about friends and reading, writing and her state of mind. This diary offers a unique insight into the life and mind of one of Britain's most influential writers, and the circle she was part of which came to be known as Bloomsbury. This new Granta edition includes Woolf's 'Asheham Diary' for the first time.
£24.00
