C20th experimental and idealistic collectives, including Santiniketan in Delhi, England's Dartington, Germany's Bruderhof. Their leaders were charismatics too - Tagore, Gurdjieff, et al - ... read more
Patrick Leigh Fermor held that baroque architecture in Italy could never have existed without pasta in all its multitudinous and beguiling forms... Drawing on a decade and a half of living i... read more
Just 28 when he found Nineveh, Layard later witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade and reported on the Indian Mutiny: his life was action-packed. This new biog argues that he was deeply r... read more
His mistakes as well as his achievements, and a fascinating post- Brexit look at our history since WW2, in which our leaders still vye for Churchill's mythic mantle to legitimize their polit... read more
A cultural history through seven coloured lenses. Its broad frame of reference encompasses Shakespeare, Goldfinger (first name Auric), Goethe, Roman marbles, Bronze Age gold, Mayan jade... C... read more
From the author of the excellent 'The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are', an account of the dazzling city that was the hub of the known world in the C16th.
The distinguished archaeologist looks at 15 'scenes' in Britain over the last million years, to understand the changing daily routines of people and their impact on the landscape.
This remarkable volume was published by the Memorial Human Rights Centre, a Russian civil rights group . It tells the stories of 16 men - mostly members of the intelligentsia, and loyal Sovi... read more
Macartney's 1793 mission was a failure, but the Dutch were better informed. This new study argues that the Qing court was not arrogant and narrow-minded, as the English concluded, but was in... read more
Beautifully attuned to her subject, CA unravels Sebald's work from his life with subtlety and sympathy. She has previously written a marvellous biography of Primo Levi.
A mix of biographical sketches of twenty successful women artists, writers, designers, curators, chefs, jewelers and entrepreneurs, and gorgeous photography of their homes and work places. ... read more
By the author of 'The Moor's Last Stand', a biography of Boabdil, whose sigh, looking back at the beautiful Granada he had fled, still resonates. Illustrated.
A book of photographs by an Iranian-Australian photographer documenting the islands in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran, their eerie, wind-carved landscapes and their wind-haunted inhab... read more