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
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
DA's 'Diary of a Young Naturalist' won last year's Wainright Prize; he is extraordinarily young too - now just 17. Here he invites young readers on a practical exploration of the world aroun... read more
Her first book in a decade sees the wonderful SG moving to southern Italy, using food as a route to understanding the culture, history and geography of the region.
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
Raven is an American biologist whose cherished solitude in a remote part of Montana is interrupted by a fox, who begins visiting her daily. As an academic, any sense of a meaningful rela... read more
An instructive look at 12 statues: why they were put up, the stories they were supposed to tell, why those stories were challenged; and why the statues were pulled down.