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Behind the strange ingredients and instructions in old cookbooks lies another world, where foods we take for granted were unknown, preparation was laborious, and dining reflected social attitudes far removed from those of today. This magnificent volume draws on the records of National Trust houses to show how dining habits evolved from the cavernous kitchens of medieval manors to the technology of Victorian houses. Lavishly illustrated with period images, each chapter includes historical recipes with modern adaptations.

Elsa Schiaparelli famously said, ‘What Hollywood designs today, you will be wearing tomorrow,’ and it’s been true since film and fashion were first united at a party in 1911. Richly illustrated with photographs from both worlds, this guide divides 45 movies into seven genres: from crime – featuring film noir and Lauren Bacall; to musicals – including Top Hat and West Side Story; and art house – from directors such as Jean Luc-Godard and Wim Wenders.

With tales both tragic (the 2,500 deaths from crinoline fires in 1864) and amusing (the horse that ate the stuffing from a race-goer’s bustle), Bowman takes readers on a lively journey from Roman times through to 1940s Britain, examining some of the more unusual trends that have been deemed fashionable at one time or another. From the style that was invented to mask disease, to a 1920s hairdo that ended relationships, there’s more to fashion that first meets the eye.

In her prologue to this much-acclaimed study, Dressler writes of Eigg, ‘From the fierce struggles in clan times to the bleak period of famine and emigration, through to the modern-day fight to maintain a viable crofting community, the island has always been a microcosm of Highland history’. Drawing on oral history, legend and song, and written sources, Dressler’s book covers the story of the island from the coming of the Celts to life on Eigg since the 1997 community buy-out.

Felicity Green was fashion editor of the Daily Mirror throughout the 1960s and, as well as blazing a trail for women in journalism, revolutionized newspaper coverage of fashion through the introduction of celebrity and glamour. Reproducing some of the best pages from the newspaper, featuring leading models, designers and celebrities of the day, she reflects on the rapidly changing scene of the 1960s, when sexy and playful fashions scandalized, entertained and excited the nation.

Exorcism, the casting out of demons, or ‘deliverance ministry’ (the modern Church of England’s preferred term) is widespread today, with every diocese having a designated member of clergy to advise on the casting out of demons. Francis Young provides a full history of exorcism and its rituals in the Church of England, discusses the Church’s approach to demonology, and reveals how present-day exorcism in Anglicanism is an unlikely anomaly.

Award-winning Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley suggests that we are largely unaware of the obesity epidemic happening around us, and that we should take issue with food and drink manufacturers, fast-food chains, our attitude to obesity and the diet industry itself. Boseley presents some frightening facts and statistics, but also proposes solutions; they involve the whole community, and a huge change in attitude.

Nowadays, with the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, it is hard to recapture the sense of wonder felt by explorers when they first encountered animals and plants, people and customs, stranger than anything they could imagine. Generously illustrated with contemporary prints and woodcuts, this captivating book draws on accounts from Roman times to the 19th century to convey the amazement felt by Europeans when they first saw giraffes and bananas, Mongolian yurts and the statues of Easter Island.

DA Hamer’s study in the history of Victorian reform agitations looks at extra-parliamentary reform and particularly the deployment of mobilized ‘persuasion’ directed at candidates and political parties.

Philosopher or poseur, aristocrat or democrat, austere classicist or flamboyant eccentric? More than 200 years after Beau Brummell dazzled London with his elegance, the dandy remains an enigma. This entertaining, richly anecdotal history charts the evolution of dandyism from London to Paris, St Petersburg to Hollywood. Along the way, we meet a long line of men – Byron, Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Noël Coward among them – who dedicated their lives to making a stand against drab conformity.

In her foreword, Harper’s editor-in-chief, Glenda Bailey, writes, ‘You can become a good model with a perfect body, but to become a great model you need a unique face’. With over 200 photographs by some of the greatest fashion photographers, this volume presents the stories of 28 women whose faces, poise and ability to switch personas made them the most sought-after models of the last 60 years, from Dovima and Suzy Parker in the 1950s to Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss in the 2010s.

The first volume of philosopher Michel Serres’ Foundations Trilogy comprises a ‘continuous and free reading’ of the Roman historian Livy’s account of the origins of Rome. As Serres identifies the ancient author’s key themes – violence, murder, sacrifice, hospitality – he considers what the foundation of Rome reveals about the beginnings of society, knowledge and culture. Originally published in French in 1983, the book now appears in a new English translation by Randolph Burks.

Fashion changed slowly in the centuries before the modern era and resulted in some odd and impractical styles, such as the long, pointed men’s shoes of the 15th century or the 19th century’s bustles and crinolines. This children’s history of costume tells the story of fashion from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to the modern era through a series of 325 colour illustrations. Age 8+

Paris is a legend among cities, with a mystique all its own. This superbly presented collection of more than 400 historic photographs and posters from the Mary Evans Picture Library charts the life of the city and its people through the 19th and 20th centuries. These richly evocative images show Paris in two world wars, and celebrate its street life and nightlife, its world-famous fashion, and its artists and writers from Matisse and Picasso to Camus and Colette.

In short essays, each of these volumes focuses on the 50 essential writers, movements, works or themes in disciplines ranging from ancient history to modern media studies.

Written by noted experts, these lucid, alphabetically organized handbooks define and discuss the central concepts, thinkers and debates in a broad range of academic disciplines.

As fashion history is now taught, a divide has developed between collections of dress in museums and academics who approach fashion via theories about the body, feminism, gender and postmodernism. A classic text in its field, this book re-examines the evolution of fashion and how it has been defined and studied since the late 17th century, and looks in detail at the assembling and use of collections of fashion and textiles.

Archaeological discoveries about prehistoric cooking techniques have revealed much about native British cuisine, the foodstuffs that were available and how people lived in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Reconstructing and re-enacting prehistoric ways of cooking food and the practice of the earliest farmers, Paul Elliott reveals not only the ingenuity of their cooking methods – including baking meat underground, brewing mead and boiling water with hot stones – but also a completely different approach to food.

A teacher of child development and cognitive neuroscience, with a particular interest in dyslexia, Maryanne Wolf invites us to ponder what we do when we read. Beginning with the early history of writing systems and how human beings learned to read, she examines the 'natural history' of ever more sophisticated ways of reading that developed over time, and discusses the science of what happens when the brain cannot learn to read.

Emma Kay examines cooking, dining and eating during a seminal era of British culinary history, when new and exotic foodstuffs such as coffee, sugar and curry powder began to arrive in England.

Part of the Introductions to Chinese Culture series, this book provides a fascinating insight into the ancient culture of Chinese tea; the trade, tradition, literature, philosophy and ceremony associated with tea in China; and its popularization around the world. Like all the books in the series, it is written by a noted expert in the field, well illustrated with colour reproductions and photographs and offers an ideal introductory survey for both students and general readers.

The introduction of rationing in January 1940 ensured that food became a central concern for the British during the Second World War. Here, Richard Farmer investigates the cinema in wartime Britain and demonstrates the cultural impact that rationing had on both government propaganda and commercial feature films. Analysing films, radio programmes and the Ministry of Food's Food Flash films, he proposes that their images of the common diet helped construct and contest a community of 'food companions'.

Among the royals of Europe there have always been fashionistas: long before Christian Louboutin, Louis XIV created a trend with red-soled shoes, Queen Victoria started the fashion for white wedding dresses, and the elegant style of Grace Kelly has been copied the world over. With over 200 photographs of aristocratic fashion leaders, Royal Style celebrates regal fashion, from the Middle Ages to the newest icons such as the couture-loving Kate Middleton and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece.

Iconic costumes from the golden era of Hollywood are indelibly associated with particular stars and films. With over 150 photographs, and featuring screen stars such as Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, this book explores how cinema's most glamorous costumes were created and how you can get the look today. Focusing on 34 classic films, including Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Bonnie and Clyde, the book also tells the stories of the designers, including some who became stars themselves.

This volume brings together Beales's essays, articles and lectures on 18th century Europe and, in particular, his research on Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor 1765-1790 and ruler of the Austrian Monarchy 1780-1790, and his 'revolution from above'. The book covers an area as wide as Joseph's rule and reforming influence, from the Austrian Netherlands in the West to Galicia and Transylvania in the East, and explores his ideas, aims and achievements through topics ranging from enlightened despotism to Mozart, and from the suppression of the Jesuits to Maria Theresa.

Sean Scalmer shows how Gandhi's non-violent protests were widely discussed in the USA and UK and examines 'transnational Gandhism' and its role in inspiring civil rights and anti-nuclear protesters in the 1960s.

This didactic work by Abbo of Fleury (c.945–1004) is a philosophical Commentary on the mathematical tables produced by Victorius of Aquitaine (fl.457) to facilitate calculations using Roman numerals and fractions. Latin texts of both Victorius and Abbo. No jacket.

No jacket.