From where I sit writing Postscript entries, I look out on an old Devon hedgerow and an ancient stone wall; John Wright's Natural History has rendered them both very much more interesting. The book covers the origins and history of such boundaries; the present condition of hedgerows and the need to preserve them; the amazing array of fauna and flora they support; and other ways of making boundaries, from movable hazel hurdles to dry stone walls (mine, I've learned, is the 'random rubble' type).

Devised by Mensa, the high IQ society, this set contains the boards and pieces for chess and solitaire, tangram, pentominoes, the matchstick game and jailbreak, as well as a 72-page book of brain benders, cryptic crosswords and rules for the games. This diverse collection of over 100 puzzles and games will exercise your brain for weeks, but you don’t need a massive IQ: we are assured that logical thinking and persistence will prevail. Boxed set.

Helen Macdonald was devastated by her father’s sudden death. Already an experienced falconer, she set herself an awesome challenge to confront her grief: to rear and train a goshawk, a member of the species she had thought of as ‘things of death and difficulty: spooky, pale-eyed psychopaths that lived and killed in woodland thickets’. This award-winning book records how, with TH White’s The Goshawk as her guide, she dealt with bereavement by adopting Mabel and living alongside ‘the hawk’s wild mind’. American-cut pages.

What garden evokes manual pallor? Where does the gold fin not wink? Who or what is pit-pit? Since 1904, pupils of King William's College on the Isle of Man have been sent home for the Christmas holidays with a fiendish quiz. Its popularity led to its publication first in The Times and, from 1951, in the Guardian. This book presents 30 sets of 180 questions dating from the 1920s to 1980s (pre-Google!).

Designer John Willis Griffiths’s conclusion that a sailing ship built for speed required ‘a sharp flared hollow and concave bow’ and a stern designed for ‘minimal drag’, revolutionized shipping well into the 20th century. This erudite history of the clipper, the fastest of all merchant sailing ships, considers different designs, including Yankee, Australian and tea clippers, as well as their cargoes and trade routes, with a focus on the treacherous seas around Cape Horn.

When Clive of India and his tiny detachment of army officers and mercenaries defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies in a mango grove near Plassey, he secured all of Bengal and, eventually, the whole of India for the East India Company. Drawing on an extraordinary collection of private papers, this study of the battle and the 13 months of campaigns leading up to it commemorates the men on both sides who fought and died in the conflict.

A technical rundown of Rocket forms only a part of this guide to the groundbreaking locomotive, presented in the Haynes workshop manual format. Further sections include the story of the Rainhill Trials and how the engine became the foundation of locomotive design thereafter, first-hand accounts of what it was like to operate and travel with Rocket, and an analysis of a series of working replicas that have been built since the 1880s, and what can be learned from them.

After Michael Robinson’s succinct, illustrated essay tracing the progress of the Impressionist movement from Édouard Manet’s Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862) to Monet’s Waterlilies (1903), this volume from the Masterpieces of Art series presents 88 full-page reproductions of some of the greatest Impressionist works. In three sections – paintings of modern life, landscape and domesticity – the selection includes Renoir’s The Theatre Box (1874), Degas’ L’Absinthe, and The Sea at L’Estaque (1878) by Cézanne.

Before being let loose in a Supermarine Spitfire, fighter pilots would have to familiarize themselves with the 'Pilot's Notes' which comprehensively detailed the aircraft's equipment, controls and operation. These instructions are reproduced in this book together with examples of log books, combat reports and other contemporary training booklets advising on such skills as identifying enemy aircraft, estimating range and combat flying.

The youngest ever Director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark inspired a generation to appreciate the beauty of art and architecture through his groundbreaking TV series Civilisation. Yet his urbane, erudite public image concealed a troubled private life. Nominated Book of the Year by the Sunday Times, the Spectator, the Economist and the New York Times, this biography perceptively analyses the emotional and intellectual contradictions of a complex and charismatic figure.

This blend of history, nature writing and memoir examines how people have responded to the land from the 18th century to the present day, including the Romantic poets’ fascination with the Lake District, and the more practical considerations of the agricultural improvers. Anna Pavord celebrates the beauty of the British landscape, considers how it has affected and inspired its inhabitants, and explores the ways in which a sense of place can help to define cultural identity.

Why are some pubs called ‘The Seven Stars’? Hugh Kolb has analysed the surviving pubs and their history and the symbolism of Seven Stars over the past 3,000 years to find the answer. In chapters illustrated with photographs of the pubs, Kolb pursues topics as diverse as the origins of hostelries, the immaculate conception, the solar system and the Anglo-Saxons, and concludes that the Seven Stars are the Pleiades – the ancient Greek Dionysians’ celestial bunch of grapes.

Rising in a remote corner of Tibet, the Yellow River (Huang He) flows 3,395 miles through arid desert, the steppes of Inner Mongolia and the Lijiaxia gorges and past monasteries, dams, cities and industrial regions before reaching the gulf of Bo Hai. The Italian journalist and photographer Aldo Pavan followed the river from source to sea, ‘getting under the skin of China’, and in over 200 photographs he portrays one river and a tremendous variety of landscape, peoples and cultures.

Victorian newspaper reports, Old Bailey transcripts and coroners’ inquests offer a catalogue of grisly and often bizarre crimes: husbands murdering their wives, suicidal lovers, and mistresses taking revenge on their rivals in love. Drawing on these archival records, this book identifies three main types of offence: crimes of passion; theatrical crimes such as the fatal stabbing of the actor William Terriss at the door of the Adelphi; and unsolved mysteries.

From the 12th century onwards, Newgate Prison played a key role in the development of the British penal system, housing well-known prisoners from Captain Kidd to Ben Jonson and Daniel Defoe, as well as murderers, rapists and arsonists. Illustrated with historic prints and portraits, this book explores its traditions and lexicon of slang, and offers accounts of executions, the pillory and famous escapes.

Legend has it that without its ravens the Tower of London would crumble into dust and the kingdom would fall, so there are always at least six ravens living at the Tower. Another resident, Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, is the Ravenmaster, responsible for the birds’ safety and welfare. Chris’s love for his charges is obvious from his light-hearted account of their work together and his character sketches of the seven ravens: Munin, Merlina, Erin, Rocky, Jubilee II, Gripp II and Harris.

Klop ('Bedbug') Ustinov (1892–1962) was an MI5 secret agent tasked, not with killing, but with bemusing and beguiling his enemies into revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. Through the Russian revolution, two World Wars and the Cold War, Klop bluffed and tricked his way into the confidence of everyone from Soviet commissars to a Gestapo Gruppenführer. Journalist Peter Day tells the epic tale of an agent whose missions remained obscured by his socializing and womanizing.

The Easter Rising in April 1916 saw civilian deaths, the destruction of a large part of Dublin and the true beginning of Irish independence. Coogan's account of this turning-point in Irish history introduces the major players and the ideas that drove them, and vividly describes the events which they set in train. He also examines how the British government's mishandling of the aftermath had the effect of galvanizing popular support for the rebels.

In 1939 Polish Army lieutenant Slavomir Rawicz was sentenced to 25 years forced labour in a Siberian prison camp. In this controversial story of endurance, Rawicz describes his imprisonment and alleged escape to India across the Himalayas and Gobi Desert.

How much do you know about Bible stories? With more than 5,000 questions and facts, this book will challenge you whatever your level of scripture knowledge. ‘In which town was Jesus born?’ is easy enough; but who was Solomon’s mother and how many wings does a seraph have? The 15-question quizzes are organized under headings including War and Peace, Family Ties and Apocalypse Now.

Before dying without a male heir in 1135, Henry I named his daughter Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor, as his successor. Upon Henry’s death, his nephew Stephen seized the throne, igniting an 18-year civil war. Combining eyewitness accounts with modern analysis, this history describes the period that became known as the Anarchy, in which there were battles across the country, large areas became ungovernable, and those who experienced it declared that ‘Christ and his saints slept’.

Described by the Financial Times as ‘an excellent antidote to prejudice’, this concise account of Muslim history emphasizes the importance of rethinking the Western mistrust of Islam which dates back to the time of the Crusades. As well as challenging stereotypes and highlighting how the faith has inspired scholars, mystics and poets, it reveals how Islam’s ‘sacralization of history’ means that the religion, its past history and current events are woven together especially closely.

Hobbies and professions all have their unique and colourful jargon, which is often completely baffling to outsiders. But now Countdown’s resident word expert has decoded these mysterious idioms by interviewing hundreds of members of Britain’s ‘tribes’, from twitchers to spies. Here she presents the idiosyncratic vocabulary that she has learned, so that you too can discover why bin collectors love a ‘Tiffany’, what a publisher means by ‘deckle’ and how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up.

The entrepreneurial spirit has often thrived during times of war, and the makeshift photography studios that sprung up in attic rooms, chemists’ shops, cabins and tents in the military encampments of 1861 America did a roaring trade. The result was an unparalleled photographic record of the American Civil War, capturing not only portraits of loved ones, politicians and generals, but battlefields, ordnance and the devastation of conflict, pictured here in this erudite illustrated study of Civil War photography. Slightly off-mint.

In 1817, when John Corry was writing his history, Macclesfield was the third most important town in Cheshire; it had been notable for its manufactures of silk and mohair buttons, but in the mid-18th century a number of silk mills were built, followed by cotton mills which brought prosperity and, in Corry’s opinion, a ‘deterioration of morals’. His history of the town is followed by short accounts of Congleton, Knutsford, Stockport, Buxton and Leek. Facsimile reprint. No jacket.

In this funny, acutely observed and engaging social history, Brian Viner celebrates the British holidaymaker at home and abroad. A surprising recent phenomenon is the increase in holidays in Britain, while the holiday abroad appears to be in decline. From holiday flings to hen nights, and from the 'full English' to the long-haul gap year, the minutiae of British holiday-making is examined here in all its glory. Slightly off-mint.

A former Professor of Russian History at Oxford University and the author of several important works on Soviet history, Robert Service has been described by a fellow biographer of Stalin, Simon Sebag Montefiore, as ‘the founding maestro of Stalinist history’. This trilogy comprises a single-volume life of Lenin (2000), the critically acclaimed biography of Stalin (2004) and a genuinely revelatory study of Trotsky (2009). The three titles included in this set are: Trotsky (Read more...) Lenin (Read more...) Stalin (Read more...)

In 1621 the near-bankrupt Virginia Company of London made a profit by shipping across the Atlantic 56 young women who had been hand-picked as brides for the planters of its new colony. Using archival sources including the company’s own records, Potter gives voice to these women, asking why they agreed to make the dangerous journey, how they adapted to their new lives, how they chose their husbands and what happened to them in the end.

Zircon crystals found in Western Australia have been dated to 4.4 billion years ago, the oldest things found so far on Earth and remnants of the original formation of the planet. This highly illustrated manual explains the processes that have shaped our world from the Big Bang to the evolution of life-supporting conditions and the physics of our current environment. Hundreds of diagrams, illustrations and infographics explain the natural forces at work.

With characteristic urbanity and wit, lifelong Francophile John Julius Norwich recounts two millennia of French history, from Vercingetorix’s last stand against Caesar, via the folies de grandeur of Louis XIV and Napoleon, to the end of the Second World War. He explores the contradictions of a nation torn between autocracy and egalitarianism with insight and sympathy, while enlivening the narrative with personal anecdotes.

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...)

A bestseller and former BBC Countryfile Book of the Year, this is the ultimate guide to what the land, the sun, moon and stars, plants and animals, sky and clouds can reveal – when you know what to look for. Drawing on two decades of outdoor experience, Tristan Gooley explains how to focus our powers of deduction and prediction on the natural world and provides over 850 clues and signs to get us started.

Everything in the universe is made up of just 118 chemical elements. This illustrated companion outlines the nature and properties of each of these basic building blocks of matter, as well as anecdotes about some of the most notable scientists involved in their discovery. Age 9+

This encouraging guide includes many tips for budding artists, such as how to look properly, simplify what you see but include key features, get the basic shapes correct, and understand how shading can transform your drawing. There are sections on depicting landscapes, animals, people and cartoons, and each is accompanied by step-by-step illustrations showing how to build up your drawings and create texture, while assignments enable you to measure your progress.

This irreverent guide takes a peek at a perennially fascinating subject. A romp through the biological mechanics and history of human intercourse is spiced up with intimate true stories, public scandals, censorship, sex toys, fetishes, and a concise glossary of filthy language. Eclectic, entertaining and original, it reveals everything you always wanted to know about sex – and quite a few things you probably didn’t. Sexually explicit.

London has fascinated painters for centuries, and central to that appeal has been the Thames. The 158 paintings in this book follow the river from Whistler’s Chelsea in the west to Turner’s Greenwich in the east, accompanied by an introductory text for each area and extensive captions giving historical context. Along the way are Monet’s Houses of Parliament, Lowry’s Piccadilly Circus, and St Paul’s, depicted both in 18th-century splendour by Canaletto and amid the ruins of the Blitz by David Bomberg.

‘A remarkable and successful king of the Anglo-Saxons’, but overshadowed by the illustrious reputation of his father, Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder reigned between 899 and 924 and was pivotal in the transformation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a recognizable, unified English nation state which his son Æthelstan developed further. Drawing on tenth-century sources, Michael John Key gives an assessment of the reign and, as far as possible, an account of Edward’s early life and kingship in Anglo-Saxon Wessex.

When Russia erupted in revolution, some members of the imperial family managed to flee abroad, but for the tsar, the tsarina and their children, months of imprisonment ended in brutal death. Why, when they were so closely related to all the ruling houses of Europe, were they not helped to escape? This searching history examines the responses of their royal cousins in Britain, Germany, Norway and Denmark, and asks whether enough was done to save the Romanovs.

The book that sparked the award-winning TV series details Jennifer Worth’s very real experiences as a young midwife based in a convent amid the chaos of post-war London Docklands. Her true-life stories show how tough conditions were in the East End, especially for women, who often lived in slum accommodation – grateful if they had a cold-water tap – with ten or more children to look after.

Mark Linley reveals secrets of his craft and provides tips and assignments as he guides readers to produce drawings that really are funny. From doodling to focusing on facial features, he explains how to caricature friends and famous people. First published in 1999.

With characters from across the social strata, from high-born ladies to farmers' daughters, archaeologist Allason-Jones recreates the lives, habits and thoughts of women in Britain during Roman occupation through the story of Senovara, the wife of a former legionary. The detailed narrative reveals the nature of their home lives, health, religion, dress and jewellery and this revised edition includes fresh insights provided by the latest archaeological discoveries, including burials, tombstones and curse tablets.

This children's reference book presents colourful and attractive maps of the world alongside information about the culture and history of countries and regions. The pages include fact boxes, statistics and photographs of notable sites, buildings, natural wonders, local people and wildlife. There are also games and quizzes to play, a section on flags of the world, and links to further content online. Age 7+

Beginning with horse-drawn carriages and progressing to buses, trains and the Underground, this 1,000-piece jigsaw shows how transport has changed. It includes a frameable print of the image, which was created in 1928 by artist Richard T. Cooper.

Challenging the view of plants as passive vegetation, Mabey approaches them as ’authors of their own lives’ and explores our relationship with them, from prehistoric cave painting, through cultivation and exploration to the ‘astonishing revelations of 19th-century botany’. Among the intriguing plants whose lives he discusses are the baobab tree; ginseng, the panacea; the carnivorous tipitiwitchet; an Amazonian giant water lily whose leaves were the model for the Crystal Palace; and the intelligence of mimosa.

The suffragists of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) - as distinct from the suffragettes - did not disband in 1917 when the vote was given to some women. Although franchise had been their primary goal, they had other aims for women. This book looks at the lives of eight suffragists and how they continued the struggle for equality in various fields, among them Eleanor Lodge in higher education, Ellen Wilkinson in Socialist politics and Dr Isabel Emslie Hutton in medicine.

Inspired by the earlier book of the same title by the American author Bill Adler, the gardening expert Anne Wareham shares her own practical tips on how to outsmart garden pests large and small as well as offering advice on dealing with the horticultural challenges posed by weeds and the weather.

In 1893 the aristocratic Alfred Monson was charged with the murder of Cecil Hambrough, a young army officer, on the Ardlamont estate in Scotland. The case captivated popular imagination, but few realized that the two expert witnesses, Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn, had been solving crimes together for 20 years. This book charts their adventures – exploits which inspired Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes – and probes the mystery that would challenge even their genius for detection.

Donald S Murray tells the stories of the Nissen hut that was transformed into a chapel, with relief carvings, intricate ironwork, murals and a magnificent altarpiece, and of the Italian prisoners of war on Orkney who created it during the Second World War. Slightly off-mint.

'All the key facts without the flab', this book covers almost 2,000 years of British history in around 150 articles, each no longer than 250 words. The result is a concise and accurate introduction to and overview of our history. As well as the articles – from 'The Roman Invasion' (43 CE) to 'The Founding of the United Nations' (1945) – there is a timeline, a list of monarchs, suggestions for further reading and an index.

Peter Rex presents ‘an alternative view’ of Edward the Confessor’s life, character and achievements, drawing on the wealth of research into his reign since Frank Barlow’s major biography of the king appeared in 1979. Discounting the traditional emphasis on the influence of Earl Godwine, Rex examines Edward’s achievements in foreign policy and statecraft, looking in particular at his contribution to advancing the administration of the Old English state; and in a final chapter, he discusses the cult of the Confessor’s sanctity.

Combining technology developed by the German Aerospace Center with the experiences of great mountaineers, this volume profiles 13 mountains, including the ‘eight-thousanders’ Everest, K2, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and the ‘killer mountain’ Nanga Parbat. The chapter for each peak comprises photographs, a history of early ascents, geographical information and a mountaineer’s personal account of their climb: in effect, a history of mountaineering, accompanied by 3D maps created from high-resolution satellite data and ‘virtual’ images of some of Earth’s most challenging terrain.

Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story, turns his attention to Wallis Simpson, the twice-married divorcée who claimed the heart of Edward VIII, causing his abdication. Drawing on interviews, secret letters, diaries and previously unseen primary sources, Morton charts Wallis’s life, from falling in love with a female teacher as a teenager to ignoring the cries of her husband as he lay dying. While Morton makes plain Wallis’s disdain for the duke, it seems his devotion to her never wavered.

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) was one of the 20th century's greatest writers, the poet of The Hawk in the Rain, Lupercal and Crow, but also a children's storyteller, translator, critic, letter writer and the husband of Sylvia Plath. In this biography, Bates draws on the complete archive of writings that Hughes left for posterity, exploring the mental landscape it reveals to give the full story of the poet's life as it was lived, remembered and shaped in his art.

‘I used to think it was a narrow road/ From here to the underworld/ But it’s as broad as the sun’. Reflecting on mortality and her own journey, this was the final book by the poet and novelist Helen Dunmore (1952–2017). It was Costa Book of the Year, 2017.

The ‘frontier’ between Scotland and the English invaders of medieval times, the principal battlefield of the Wars of Independence, and a region rife with ferocious family feuds, Dumfriesshire had a long and often violent history until the Act of Union in 1707, which brought not only peace, but land improvement, agricultural development and industrialization. Andrew McCulloch, a native of south-west Scotland, presents a comprehensive history of the region, from the Stone Age to devolution and the 2016 Independence referendum.

Alexander McCall Smith’s anthology of Scottish poems is arranged in eight parts, on themes including love and marriage, islands, and war, conflict and loss, with poets spanning the centuries, from William Dunbar in the 15th, to Hugh MacDiarmid and Kathleen Raine in the 20th.

Born in 1917, Dame Vera Lynn was 92 when she realized that her great age gave a better perspective (she wrote her first autobiography in her fifties) and she had to 'get everything down on paper in a final account'. Here then is the life of 'an ordinary girl from an ordinary family with a voice that you could recognize' – but also an embodiment of British spirit during the Second World War.

Growing up in a humble shack in America’s poorest state, Elvis Presley dreamed that success would free him from poverty. So how did he become dependent on bank loans even after achieving huge worldwide fame, and why did he despise his own movies and songs, even fearing that he would be forgotten after his death? This biography focuses on identifying the origins of the contradictions and frailties that lay behind Elvis’s charming, confident onstage persona. Slightly off-mint.

Telling ‘the story of Winston Churchill’s appointment with destiny’, the historian Ashley Jackson begins at his place of birth: Blenheim Palace, with its legacy of military and political greatness that was to profoundly influence Churchill’s life. From ambitious, headstrong subaltern to the nation’s war leader, and into the post-war years, Jackson presents a focused, even-handed portrait of Churchill as soldier, politician and statesman, and as a journalist, Nobel Prize-winning author, husband and father.

'When Edward Bear said that he would like an exciting name all to himself, Christopher Robin said at once, without stopping to think, that he was Winnie-the-Pooh. And he was.' This slipcased set contains the four children's classics by AA Milne, all with their original line drawings by EH Shepard: Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six.

This introduction to British history begins with the geographical description of the island itself which, Roy Strong believes, has shaped the nation, its people and its politics. Invasions, migrations, civil wars, and two world wars have all been influenced by Britain’s uneasy relationship with mainland Europe, while a desire for self-sufficiency produced the empire and the Industrial Revolution. This new edition has been extended to cover the years from 1996 to the 2016 EU referendum.

Against a backdrop of shattered monuments, neglected villas and ghostly backstreets, a daydreaming boy seeks refuge from family discord in the imagination. In this highly original memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk interweaves his own life, and the lives of his glamorous, unhappy parents, with that of his home city. The result is a blend of family reminiscence, history, philosophy, literature, art criticism and urban myth. This edition contains a new introduction and more than 200 additional photographs.

It was as a poet that Samuel Beckett launched himself in the little reviews of 1930s Paris, and as a poet that he ended his career. This volume is the most complete edition to date of his poetry and verse translations, and the first critical edition. The contents establish a definitive text and canon for the poetry, including previously unpublished material, with extensive commentary and notes placing each poem in context and identifying resonances across Beckett's work as a whole.

Illustrated with over 200 reproductions, this study examines the life and career of Thomas Bush Hardy (1842-97), one of the most successful and prolific marine watercolourists of the 19th century.

In a career spanning almost seven decades, Sophia Loren has achieved recognition as one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of all time. Part one of this photographic tribute traces her life from childhood poverty in wartime Pozzouli, near Naples, to Academy Award-winner, singer and UN Goodwill Ambassador. In part two, her films are each introduced with a concise text and illustrated with film stills, posters and rarely seen photographs. Felt tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Guy Burgess, who passed classified material to Moscow in such quantities that much was never translated, remains the most enigmatic and least studied of the ‘Cambridge Spies’. This first full-scale biography is based on recently released secret files and on interviews with more than 100 people who knew Burgess personally. It offers new insights into his chaotic private life, his Foreign Office work and the fabled charm that won him personal access to Winston Churchill.

An ‘outbreak of talent’ was how Paul Nash described the group of students he taught at the Royal College of Art in 1924–5. Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman and Enid Marx formed the core of a network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Nash. This group biography explores their lives and relationships from the 1920s to Ravilious’s death in 1942 and, with reproductions of over 200 examples, it examines their painting, illustration and a variety of work in commercial design.

The British offensive at Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was launched at 3.30am on 31 July 1917. Led by Sir Douglas Haig, this ‘big push’ was to achieve a breakthrough, but it became a four-month-long stalemate of constant shelling, torrential rain, mud and filth. Parker chronicles the operation, describes the conditions on the battlefield and the increasingly industrialized warfare of tanks, gas and mines that added to the carnage; and he questions the necessity of the sacrifice.

The six daughters of the eccentric Lord Redesdale and his wife Sydney have inspired many books, but this group biography is widely considered to be the finest. It skilfully weaves together the dramatic, often outrageous lives of the sisters: the novelist Nancy; Diana, who married Oswald Mosley; Decca, the communist; the lesbian horsewoman Pamela; the socialite Deborah; and Unity, the doomed admirer of Adolf Hitler.

This collection of over 50 recipes focuses on one-pot soups, casseroles, stir-frys and risottos, with some calling for a separate pan for accompaniments. Each entry has been contributed by a bestselling WI writer and chosen for its simplicity, with ingredients and equipment kept to a minimum. Slow-cooked options, including Beef in Guinness Cobbler, and Bean and Vegetable Hotpot, feature alongside quick, family-friendly dishes such as Chinese-style Chicken.

Aimed at young children, the independent magazine Okido was started to encourage an interest in science and creativity. This innovative Okido game set contains six board games that are simple and fun to play but also designed to help children with first maths, coordination and matching and sorting skills. The set contains a spinner and counters and the games include Space Race and The Rumble-fart Game. Age 4+

How do you say 'a bunch of muppets' in French? Is 'faire la bombe' as explosive as it sounds? With over 700 everyday expressions and their idiomatic English equivalents, this book offers an entertaining way to improve your language skills while discovering the origins of both languages' most curious phrases. You'll also learn when to beware of literal translation – and which phrases might land you in trouble.

Following her bestselling I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Ana Sampson’s second anthology of half-remembered poems includes ‘unforgivable omissions’ pointed out by readers of the earlier book, along with some of Sampson’s own favourites, arranged by themes including the natural world, childhood, battle and talking to gods. The book ends with biographical notes on the 80 poets represented and an index of titles, first lines and the famous bits.

Described by the Guardian as 'irresistible small books for very young children... The words are just as much fun as the pictures', Shirley Hughes's Nursery Collection introduces the alphabet, numbers and first concepts – of shapes and sizes, opposites, noises and colours – in everyday toddler activities with Katie, her little brother Olly and their mum and dad. The six books are ABC, 123, All Shapes and Sizes, Opposites, Noisy and Colours. Age 3+

The five teenagers in Anthony Horowitz's series of adventure novels discover that they are ancient magical gatekeepers, reincarnated and equipped with special powers to renew their age-old battle with the mysterious Chaos and the evil Old Ones. Involving occult practices and time travel, and played out across dimensions and around the world, the five-volume saga is an epic struggle between good and evil. Age 12+

This illustrated collection contains a whole menagerie of animal hats to choose from, and each project is clearly laid out with an easy-to-follow pattern and concise instructions. The designs supplied can be easily adapted to create a unique hat for children or adults with the help of the techniques section at the back of the book.

Three children, Joe, Beth and Frannie, and their cousin Rick, live in a cottage deep in the country, near the Enchanted Wood where the Faraway Tree grows. High in the tree live the children’s friends Silky the fairy, Moon-Face and Saucepan Man, and at the top there is always a new magical land to explore. First published in 1943, this famous adventure story has new, colourful illustrations by Mark Beech and large print for young readers. Age 5+

These ten fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, some familiar and others less well-known, are read by the finalists of the Naxos Audio Books/The Times Voice of the Year competition, with each story accompanied by classical music and sound effects.

Jenny Agutter reads this abridgement of Jane Austen’s ingenious tale of the five Bennet girls, single men in possession of good fortunes and misunderstandings all round.

Ten years before the phasing out of steam on British railways in 1968, BR’s fleet numbered over 16,000 locomotives; some were as much as 80 years old when decommissioned and some almost new. Thanks to the preservation movement, there are now operational examples of about 150 different classes, but a large number are extinct. This comprehensive illustrated reference book provides detailed information about these lost engines, representing almost 350 classes and over 10,000 machines.

The first part of this fully illustrated introduction to all aspects of drawing explains the materials and equipment required and explores a variety of techniques via guided exercises. Part two contains over 25 step-by-step projects commissioned from leading artists and a series of ‘quick sketch’ tutorials which demonstrate how to approach these subjects in less than 30 minutes.

This practical manual for beginners uses twelve ‘workshops’ to introduce basic quilting techniques, with a project to build confidence and reinforce each skill, from oven gloves and box pouches to fruit-shaped pin cushions and place mats. The step-by-step instructions are accompanied by clear illustrations and photographs, and there are many useful tips on fabrics, equipment, stitching and binding, as well as templates, a glossary, and a list of useful suppliers.

Our language is full of well-worn phrases from much-loved poems, but how often can we recall the rest of the poem, or the first line, or even the poet's name? This anthology presents the complete poems that gave us such immortal lines as 'Water, water everywhere/Nor any drop to drink', 'not waving but drowning' and 'They also serve who only stand and waite'. The poems are arranged chronologically, from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy, and indexed by title and the famous bits.

Beginning with the Vindolanda tablets, written by occupying Romans around 90 CE, this treasury tells the story of Britain through 50 of its most important documents. As well as milestones in political and military history, such as Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech, the book covers the arts, literature, science and industry, with entries such as Stephenson’s steam-engine patent and Mary Quant’s miniskirt design. Accompanying the illustrated accounts of each document, the book includes ten facsimiles in ‘memorabilia’ envelopes. Slipcased.

From early photographs in Sweden, to her last formal portrait, taken by Lord Snowden in 1982, this volume follows the life and career of Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) in over 350 photographs. Accompanied by an interview with John Kobal and texts by Robert Capa, John Updike, Martha Gellhorn and others, the photographs show Bergman on and off set in all her major films, with family and friends, and in her final role, as Golda Meir in A Woman Called Golda (1982). Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Siegfried Sassoon decrying ‘political errors and insincerities’ in 1917; leg-theory in cricket; John Betjeman speaking up for threatened churches; the eccentricities of quartermasters’ vocabulary and syntax; and Theresa May on the first ascent of the Matterhorn... Covering a vast range of topics with erudition, opinion and a very British wit, this anthology of over 300 letters demonstrates why The Times letters page is renowned as a forum of debate, whether the topic be the future of education or dyed kippers.

Arranged by region from North West to South West, this selection of over 1,300 photographs from the Historic England collection presents a visual narrative of the built environment and people's lives within it, from the age of horse-drawn trams to that of trolley buses. Introduced and captioned by Philip Davies, the images show a vast range of English life in town and country – from the commercial grandeur of Liverpool's 'Three Graces' to a blacksmith at work in a Cornish village.

When the USSR seized control of eastern Germany, Nina Willner’s mother escaped to the West, while her family remained in the East. Here Nina tells the story of how, as the Berlin Wall came down 40 years later, she rediscovered her lost family.

'Cooking your own preserves, salting and curing your own meats, and bottling your own cordials to stock your larder shelves is well within the reach of even the beginner in the kitchen.' With novices in mind, Thane Prince describes the techniques and provides the recipes to recover lost skills such as rendering and pickling. As well as recipes for bread, cakes and biscuits, jams, chutney and condiments, cordials and liqueurs, she offers valuable advice on stocking a larder and storing foodstuffs.

Hugh Trenchard (1872–1956) had an unpromising start in life, failing the Army and Navy entrance exams, but found his métier when he joined the fledgling Royal Flying Corps in 1912. Nicknamed 'Boom' for his stentorian voice, he was obstinate and tactless, yet inspired unflagging loyalty in his men. And, as this fascinating biography makes clear, it was these very qualities that enabled him to create the Royal Air Force in the face of entrenched opposition from the older services.

Despite tacks and broken glass spread on the road, fans attempting to impede competitors, and cyclists drafting behind cars, the inaugural Tour de France was won in 1903 by Maurice Garin, with his and the race's success helping to establish the popularity of the sport. This illustrated history of road cycling tells the story through key personalities, from the early two-wheel pioneers to legends such as Merckx and Hinault and the stars of today.

Almina Wombwell married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1895. She brought with her a large dowry, as the daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rothschild. This is the story of her life at Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed, and especially the ways in which the First World War affected the fates of the family and staff alike. The author, the current countess, draws on the extensive family archive to write this engaging and personal history.

Commissario Guido Brunetti takes a break from the Venice Questura after mishandling an interrogation; but his solitary retreat on Sant’Erasmo in the laguna is disrupted after the caretaker of his island villa goes missing: Brunetti is compelled to investigate. Off-mint.

'The Hare and the Tortoise', 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' and 'The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs'… The popular children’s author and illustrator, Val Biro retells these and 13 more of the best-loved tales from Aesop in simple language for younger children, and with bold, colourful paintings full of amusing detail and expression.

The youngest surviving daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, Mary Tudor was married to the French king Louis XII, 34 years her senior, when she was just 18. Using state papers and letters by Mary and others, this biography tells how, when she found herself a widow just three months later, the intelligent, strong-willed young woman shaped her own destiny, married for love, and defied her overbearing brother, Henry VIII.

In the early 1950s, after growing up in Battersea, dancing with the Italia Conti school on the West End stages of wartime London and performing through summer seasons in Blackpool and winter seasons in pantomime, Irene Holland won a coveted place in the Tiller Girls troupe at the London Palladium. Her very engaging memoir describes her passion for dancing and the thrill of achieving her ambition.