A delightful extended riff on books and reading from a man with various pseudonyms (Jennie Walker, Jack Robinson...). Its subtitle is 'A book about books, mostly. And bonfires, cliches, dyst... read more
A first collection by an Afghan poet, born in Kabul in 1990 and now a don at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Highly literate yet drawing on the story-telling traditions of her youth, Fayyaz tells of ... read more
The Cleverley family is graced with fame and fortune, but disaster in their media world is just a tweet away... This satire on social media and today's culture wars will make you ROFL. A li... read more
A New York housewife believes that the grotesque protagonist of her husband's novel is based on her. The ensuing paranoic spiral is gripping enough to satisfy any Hitchcock fan...
Amongst the plethora of recent books on the threats facing liberal democracy, this one stands out for the author's talent for making complex subjects comprehensible. He sees the danger comin... read more
A survey of this pioneering and serene colourist (1885-1965), who eschewed '-isms' and quietly got on with his work - much of it plein air. Early impressionistic impastos quickly give way to... read more
This electric new translation of Kleist's novella of 1810 reminds us why it was so admired by writers such as Rilke and Kafka. MH brilliantly renders the austere yet wild narrative about a C... read more
Long has spent a large part of his 50-year career hiking across various mountain ranges, valleys and deserts. This book is a chronology of his trips and a testament to his eye for finding co... read more
Celebrated particularly for its classical statues (qv the excellent recent The Torlonia Marbles), this Roman villa was the C18th creation of Cardinal Albani. It was preserved with its collec... read more
A gorgeous book, drawing from the V&As enormous collections. It contains over 500 pages of lavish illustrations, each chapter focusing on a different technique - weaving, knitting, dying... read more
This marvellous memoir of her youth in Tottenham ends when her theatrical career takes off: forthright, transparent, dry, funny - there is nothing remotely precious about Dame Eileen's accou... read more
It's the shortest, coldest day of the year and Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant in a small Irish town, busies himself with the last few deliveries. An elegant and carefully distilled... read more
Thomas Robins the Elder (1716-1770) recorded the country estates of the Georgian gentry - their orchards, Rococo gardens and potagers - like no other, with both topographical accuracy and de... read more
The product of many years' research, this is an amazing book that reconstructs the eleven 'Strand Palaces' which both gave rise to the distinctly English style that emerged in country houses... read more
A deeply affecting memoir of coming of age in Albania - the last outpost of Stalinism in Europe. Tracing the transition in 1990 from repression, food shortages and political executions to po... read more
Garner’s tenth novel is a slim, strange and wonderful creature: mercurial, funny, frightening, enigmatic. It weaves autobiographical threads with folklore, symbol and archaeology – and w... read more
Blackwell is a remarkable artist who creates astonishing tableaux made of cut-out paper; many of her subjects are taken from fairy tales and she often works with the pages of old books. This... read more
The Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins descends on seventeen-century Essex, where he finds himself oddly fascinated by a 'peculiar' young woman. A historical novel with real bite, which rec... read more
The first translation by a woman, using Arabic and French sources, with detailed notes and commentary. Beautifully illustrated with Arab and Persian works of art as well as many drawn from p... read more
A lovely hardback reissue of Mabey's book about beech trees, prompted by the great storm of 1987 when so many blew down. It's a wonderful stroll through the history of Fagus sylvatica, inclu... read more
Corberó (1935-2017) was a Catalan sculptor known for his monumental works for public spaces. For nearly fifty years he also constructed an extraordinary modernist labyrinth of buildings on ... read more
Jansen's unusual genius makes one think of Quixote and Leonardo: his huge kinetic sculptures that roam the flat beaches of Holland are extraordinary, wondrous beasts - winged, multi-limbed, ... read more