After comparing the great emperors of antiquity, Lieven turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors. Imperial in ambition and achievement.
Riveting stories of projects that killed their architect, from a spire in C17th France to a theatre in 1920s' Washington. A marvellously Goreyesque subject.
Happy reminiscences, told in rhyme, by a grandfather to his children. Excellent illustrations, treasure maps, whales waving their tails, adventure, swash-and-buckle... Ages 3-6.
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
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.
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.
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
Turkel was born in a Chinese 're-education' camp, and finally got to the US where he trained as a lawyer, specialising in Uyghur activism. This is his account of China's horrendous oppressio... read more
A retired Vietnam veteran receives a package in the post that shows him that he has more to do before he is done with the past. A desert crossing blurs with his inner journey - a very fine n... 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
An original and entertaining book on the smoke and mirrors of the modern consumer's world - case studies that take apart our ideas of the real and the fake, of appearance and deception.
A young woman in Tokyo takes a few tentative steps outward after years of isolation. Kawakami's unsettling lyricism and candour about ordinary modern lives have made her one of Japan's most ... read more
The author's Jewish father reached England from Latvia in 1939, only to be shipped to Canada as an enemy alien; his parents were deported from Bavaria to the Riga Ghetto, where they died. In... read more
A Crimean War hero's divorce & remarriage causes two lines of descendants, who meet up again one summer in Devon in the 1970s. Ructions ensue. Shrewdly observed and compelling.