Design

From the world's first postage stamp, the 1840 Penny Black, to the First Class stamp 2012, Chris West's selection of 36 stamps – 'some beautiful, some quirky, some baffling, some stained with blood' – are the inspiration for his idiosyncratic and entertaining history of Britain. Among his collection are the 1881 Penny Lilac (33 billion printed); the first decimal set (1971); and a single foreign stamp telling a story of reparations and hyperinflation: a 1923 German 200 mark stamp, overprinted 2 million.

French artist Mirka Lugosi creates a surreal fetishist dreamworld in this collection of her paintings and drawings. The pocket-sized artist's book presents 50 icon-like, fantasy pictures of unsettling mysterious locations, erotic paraphernalia and women exposing themselves. The images are accompanied by poetic texts by Marie-Laure Dagoit. Sexually explicit.

Forming one of the earliest author and illustrator partnerships, Milne and Shepard worked closely together in the 1920s to create some of the world’s best-loved children’s characters. This illustrated volume reveals the depth of that partnership, and incorporates many of Shepard’s previously unpublished sketches, letters, photos and even a personal Christmas card. The real inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh is revealed to be Shepard’s son’s teddy bear, Growler, still owned by granddaughter Minette Shepard, who provides the introduction.