Essays on cultural and artistic exchange in the age of imperialism as European powers vied for domination of the oceanic routes between Asia and the Americas. Illustrated.
A fascinating exploration of the use of wood in human history: half a million years of tools, devices, construction, art and architecture, from wedges, planes, screws and pulleys to stave ch... read more
Bazaars in Tabriz, laxatives in Venice, sheep growing on trees and other marvels: an intrepid journey into the medieval mind and its furnishings, based on travellers accounts from Iceland to... read more
If Mrs T is what she eats, who is Mrs T? A long journey to understand how food is connected to place and national identity, how tradition and innovation create culture. Warm, knowledgeable a... read more
Although never the language of a state or ethnic group, Syriac remains widely used across the globe and is regarded as the third language of Christianity. It even reached China, thanks to th... read more
An engaging and idiosyncratic writer uses the machinations of the 1907 Peking-Paris car race as mirror to the geopolitical and technological changes which - not even a decade later - pitched... read more
Biotechnology is becoming big business, the stuff of both dreams and nightmares. Cobb is an eminently reasonable guide to this strange new world: gene-editing, cloning, GMOs, ethics, etc.
Compiled from Dervla's books and journalism: fifty years of travelling in Spain, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, the Andes, Africa, Palestine, the Balkans, Jamaica... She never went by car and w... read more
A deeply personal social history. From ancient Greece to 70s' New York, from Diogenes to her father, Eberstadt explores how people have used their bodies to challenge the world around them.
Many readers will remember Daniel Yergin's brilliant history of oil Prize, but that was 30 years ago and things look pretty different now. Here is the backdrop to Marriott & Macalister's sup... read more
Encompasses natural events and their consequences on a vast scale, showing how these have shaped human responses, trade, empires... Particularly trenchant as we try to understand climate cha... read more
We're very keen on this illustrated book on a few of the world's most interesting bookshops because it features Sandoe's, with some attempt by JdeF to describe what is distinctive about us.
Unusual and interesting plants photographed and described in their natural habitats, often in very remote places - anyone remember the heady uplands of tulip and meadows of fritillary in Gar... read more
Cauliflower in almond and saffron masala, paneer and apricot koftas; small plates, large plates, breads, relishes...The first of a a new series from Bloomsbury, catching the wave of vegetari... read more
The open-source investigative journalism and fact-checking network that works with an independent international collective of researchers, who recently reported on the Navalny poisoning, inc... read more
Quick and easy, bang it into the oven... Iyer is beloved by younger, less confident cooks, and does what she does very well. This is her third roasting tin installment.
Great cities around the world as they once were, and now - C9th BC Thebes in Egypt compared with modern Luxor, Constantinople and Istanbul, London at the time of the Great Fire and since, et... read more
A surprising story of obsession, necessity, invention and adventure. One could really turn the title around for ice has preserved human history as few other mediums have.
After comparing the great emperors of antiquity, Lieven turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors. Imperial in ambition and achievement.
An ambitious book that traces the collapse of empires and their ramifications in contemporary Eurasian geopolitics - in particular Iran, China, Turkey and Russia.
Over 40 years and many travels, the distinguished photographer has taken many pictures of children. A selection of them is gathered here for the first time.
Draws on his own family's experience of emigrating from India to Britain and America to show how the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by its fear of immigrants.
The history of the world through the lens of the family, from a group walking along a beach 950,000 years ago to Caesars, Medicis, Bonapartes, Krupps, Assads, etc.