Slightly off-mint.

Billy Connelly recounts with customary humour and humble insight his ten-week journey through the North West Passage, which included piloting an aeroplane over Iceberg Valley, trekking through mountains and an ancient riverbed, and encounters with ordinary people, who introduced him to traditions such as hunting and eating raw meat. The text is illustrated throughout with colour photographs, and includes background and historical information.

Giles Coren’s anecdotes about his dining experiences, from childhood to professional restaurant critic, are interspersed with practical tips such as how to choose wisely from the menu, especially at a sushi restaurant, and how to complain effectively.

Aimed at adults, these hardback gift titles showcase the wit and wisdom of AA Milne through the observations of his best-loved creations, complemented by EH Shepherd’s original illustrations. Each book offers carefully selected quotations that highlight the most distinctive traits of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood – from Pooh’s endearing greed to Eeyore’s stoic misery. The four titles included in this set are: Deep Thoughts and Ponderings for the Wise (Read more...)Little Somethings and Smackerels for Food Lovers (Read more...)Doubt and Disquiet for Worriers (Read more...)Gloom and Doom for Pessimists (Read more...)

These extracts remind us that while Piglet may enjoy crunching on a haycorn and Eeyore is partial to a freshly picked thistle, Pooh is primarily defined by his insatiable appetite.

Deep thinker Eeyore’s glass is always half empty. Lightened by his friend’s (mostly thankless) attempts to cheer him up, this is a selection of his most melancholy remarks. Off-mint.

We all have moments when we catastrophise, but this soothing collection of quotations by and about Piglet, a Very Small Animal, are sure to reassure even the most cautious of us.

A Bear of Very Little Brain he may be, but Pooh has a knack for making surprisingly astute observations on a variety of subjects which often leave his more erudite friends lost for words. Slightly off-mint.

Mme Marie Williams, the wife of an American dentist, lived in the apartment directly above Marcel Proust’s in 102 Boulevard Haussmann and, despite their proximity, Proust and Mme Williams wrote to one another. Proust’s were often about the noise, yet always exquisitely expressed and often accompanied by flowers; the 23 letters are presented here with a foreword by Jean-Yves Tadié. Translated, with an afterword, by Lydia Davis.

Scientists have little idea what dark energy and dark matter are and these mysterious substances make up the vast majority of the universe. With the help of cartoons and infographics, this discussion of the many problems vexing cosmologists describes complex conundrums, such as why the universe has a speed limit or properties of the universe that the big bang theory cannot account for, in a lucid and entertaining way. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

‘History is like a maze’, write the authors as they embark on this journey through 30 topics, inspired by their podcast series that promotes non-linear historical thinking. They reveal how our everyday world connects with the past in surprising, thought-provoking ways, including the use of paper clips as an anti-Nazi symbol, cats’ significance for the French Revolution and the links between letters, marriage, the Royal Navy and eggs.

Peter Bowler’s 'superior person' has command of words such as egregious, quotidian and uxorious, and 'we yield to him in debate, not because his arguments are more cogent, but because they are less intelligible'. This A–Z of 500 words could set the reader on the road to superiority. The definitions are accompanied by the all-important notes on usage, lest one lose lexical credibility.

Beginning with flatpack ‘Instructions for Assembling Your Pocket Playhouse’, Michael Frayn’s miniature sketches relish the absurdities of modern life. Here we find a telephone prayer answering service (‘Your prayer has been placed in a queue’); flirting academics in the Working Group on Gender Stereotyping in Indefinite Pronouns; and the nail-biting national semi-finals of the UK TV Watching Championship. Slightly off-mint.

‘For all those friends and readers who wanted to know what happened next...’ Hilary Spiers continues the adventures of the widowed sisters as they decide to widen their horizons beyond the village and travel to Italy, where a romantic opportunity arises for Hester.

This alphabetical guide to the quirkier aspects of French life and culture ranges from absinthe to Zinedine Zidane, via cheese, garlic, sex and, of course, wine. It includes recipes (‘take a dozen frogs’ legs…’), illustrations and curious facts rarely mentioned in regular guidebooks. Who knew, for example, that the French are addicted to McDonald’s, that the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape has banned UFOs from landing, or that kangaroos roam the forests around Paris?

Specialist language is an intrinsic part of all sport, whether it is understanding an idiosyncratic scoring system or being able to correctly apply the terms peculiar to the technique or equipment of a game. Illustrated with more than 60 cartoons, this humorous look at the eccentricities of 50 popular sports explains how they are played and provides a lexicon of the terminology of each.

This reprint of an Edwardian guide to health and vitality provides advice on the importance of mental as well as physical rest and describes simple, low-impact bending and stretching exercises.

Jeremy Vine succeeded Jimmy Young as presenter of Radio 2's phone-in show in 2003 and since then has taken over 25,000 calls – including the joyous, the furious and the occasional joker. As well as his radio show, Vine is a familiar face on television, and his book describes working on everything from general election coverage to Strictly Come Dancing, but his emphasis is on his listeners ‘and all the surprises they spring’. Slightly off-mint.