Ruthlessly funny memoir of working front of house: the great deception of ease, of luxe, calme et volupte , of lamplight and conversation, while, behind the swing doors, rages a very differe... read more
Culinary archaeology following the trails of ancient maritime trade through Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and the Emirates. Transporting stuff.
The Gibson family of the Scilly Isles photographed shipwrecks for four generations in the C19th and C20th - an extraordinary archive that is now held at the National Maritime Museum in Green... read more
Gabriel Cromer (1873-1934) was a French photographer who assembled a remarkable collection that ranges from photography's beginnings to c.1890. This collection never found a permanent home o... read more
In 2015, as war raged in Syria, Lowe set off on an 11,000 kilometre journey through Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and finally to Iran. Full of humour, anecdote and the abun... read more
The range of Blackburn's books testifies to her profound curiosity about the world. This account of her journey (imaginative as well as physical) among the little-known South African people ... read more
Islands of banishment approached through three lives: New Caledonia in the South Pacific, where Louise Michel, grandmother of French anarchy and a leader in theParis Commune, was sent for s... read more
The author cut her gardener's teeth in the gardens at Helmingham Hall, where she moved on her marriage in 1975. She now has a successful garden design company, Chelsea Gold medals to her nam... read more
The astonishing diversity of flora on St Helena is man-made but unintended: East India Company ships offloaded cargoes of precious plants to recuperate there before being transported onward.
Subtitled 'Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries', this is an illustrated study of the rare, the wonderful, the bizarre and the delightfully batty... read more
Naturalistic, low-maintenance plantings for the sustainable garden; showcases forty gardens and the work of Dan Pearson, Piet Oudolf et alia. Copius illustrations.
Delicious, slim publication from the Garden Museum, for their spring exhibition: Costin's theatricality and de la Haye's academic role at the London College of Fashion cross-fertilise to pro... read more
De Waal is a (if not the) leading primatologist and ethologist whose research into cooperation, conflict,etc leads him to fascinating parallels between primate and human behaviour in aspects... read more
JLS's approach to sheep and shepherding is both practical and lyrical - he, the shepherd, sometimes lies down to sleep with his sheep. Interesting too are his ideas about what constitutes go... read more
Landscape preservation through the lives of Octavia Hill (London), Beatrix Potter (Lake District), Pauline Dower (Northumberland), and Sylvia Sayer (Dartmoor).
A celebration of Saint Laurent's life and work with contributions by many tastebuds - Hamish Bowles, Diane von Furstenberg, Umberto Pasti, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, et alia.