A feminist polemic that looks at women's resistance to male domination, both historically and now, and the consequences of independence, education, knowledge and power.
The role of our emotions in the light of recent research in multiple fields - psychology, neuroscience, biology. Mlodinow is a hugely popular science writer, and has written books with Steph... read more
Jansson's temptation on a winter day, skate with samphire and gooseberries on a summer's one... A few well-considered, simple but richly pleasing recipes for each season. Brown butter, gremo... read more
Everyday at least for that great patroness... loved not least because she paid her bills on time. This illustrated chronology of the porcelain, its commissioning and use, is a magnificent bo... read more
What distinguished 'art' from 'Art' ? Types of display, collecting, certain kinds of knowledge becoming matters of profession, etc. A specialised and fascinating study that puts the subject ... read more
Shows glass alongside paintings by the many American artists who found inspiration in Venice, and who carried aspects of the manufacture of Italian glass deep into American culture.
This recent, fascinating Yale study of the 'lithic imagination' is already out of print in hardback but the paperback is a fine subsitute, and just as well illustrated.
Howard (1907-1987) served as an intelligence officer in WW2 throughout the Italian campaign. He married Lelia Caetani of Ninfa, where Bassani wrote a large part of The Garden of the Finzi Co... read more
Gleaming with finds from recent excavations, this accompanies the Fitzwilliam's splendid exhibition of artefacts of the Saka people - ornate metalwork of people and animals, real and imagina... read more
This two-volume masterpiece by the author of The Master and His Emissary is a long conversation between neuropsychology and philosophy, science and poetry, the two sides of our brains. Truly... 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
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 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