A fairly academic collection of essays about the uncanny in gardens - ghosts, fairy sightings, nasty things in orchards if not woodsheds... who knew that 'ecogothic studies' is a Thing? M R ... read more
Humane and witty ruminations on science, history, philosophy and politics by the bestselling physicist: Dante's universe, Nabokov's butterflies, Einstein's errors, etc.
A biographical account of Eliot's troubled first wife, presented alongside her writings. Married to T.S. Eliot in 1915, their marriage lasted until about 1933. Her circle included Ottoline M... read more
Bloom's last work, completed weeks before his death when he felt 'edged by nothingness' and consoled himself with readings from Montaigne, Blake, Dante, Shakespeare et al. Missed from our Xm... read more
In the C13th, the largest library in Europe contained fewer than 2000 books. Baghdad alone contained five libraries with between 200,000 and a million books.
For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor. Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Eliot and Gorey, Smart and now Gray consider the cat, and her relationship to those useful human... read more
A sumptuous volume on the so-called father of English geology, replete with Smith's own remarkable hand-coloured maps, stratigraphies, Sowerby's fossil illustrations, and photographs. Very l... read more
A selection of Milne's essays from 1910-1952: lively, entertaining glimpses into a lost world of errant hats, dodgy plumbing, cheap cigars, loony maids, pacifism, etc.
For old rockers and die-hards who simply refuse to gather moss... and, no doubt, for hipsters: an illustrated history of contemporary culture, through the prism of Rolling Stone magazine's c... read more
Women and goddesses of Greek mythology are held up to close scrutiny by the sharp-eyed Haynes, who looks at both their origins and at their subsequent recastings. Lively and intelligent, fr... read more
Thirteen essays by the Northcliffe Professor of English at UCL. An entertaining guide that looks at Dickens's choice of names, use of outrageous coincidence, and why he works best when read ... read more
A lovely clothbound thing from Slightly Foxed, whose taste is unerring. Hudson has been compiling these for forty years, and worked with John Murray on the latter's own famously delicious co... read more
SP's robust defence of the nymphs of her native county includes a Protestant martyr and an abolitionist. Further afield, the author of 'The Essex Serpent' sees Kim Kardashian et al as exempl... read more
Greek and Roman patrons, robber-baron philanthropists, welfare socialists, celebrity activists...: motives and results are explored through historical analysis and numerous interviews.
An anthology of essays about reading, by outstanding writers: as well as Macfarlane and Boyd, there are pieces by Chigozie Obioma, Max Porter, Madeleine Thien, Candice Clarty-Williams, Phili... read more
Published to coincide with Edmund de Waal's installation about exile, displacement, libraries and voice that recently opened at the British Museum. The exhibition has migrated from Venice to... read more
A long look at the magazine, founded in 1867, and its editors, stylists and photographers and contributors: as well as Dior and Schiaparelli, McQueen and Tom Ford, there's Diana Vreeland, Je... read more