Increasingly sophisticated imaging equipment and probes sent to the outermost reaches of the solar system have amassed a wealth of visual information since the beginning of the space age. Michael Benson has selected the best, often assembling raw black-and-white frames and stitching together multiple views, filtering and re-colouring, to create the crisp detailed images in this portfolio. The chapters cover the Sun and each of the Solar System's planets in turn, from Earth and its Moon to Uranus and Neptune.

With this remarkable compilation of photographs, artworks and quotations, Lisa Vreeland has created a vivid and multi-layered portrait of Cecil Beaton (1904–1980), drawing together the many strands of his personality and his art. The book is arranged in nine chapters, each one devoted to a facet of Beaton’s life or career: his special friendships, scrapbooks, the designs for dance, fashion photography, his work in New York and in Hollywood, and his portraits of artists, literary stars and fellow photographers.

With entries covering nearly 300 examples of deception, delusion and fakery, this eclectic compendium for the age of Truthiness offers playful analysis of the many contexts in which beliefs and perceptions can be manipulated. These range from politics to video games and from the inscrutable paradoxes of ancient Greek philosophy to the Hitler Diaries, internet hoaxes and our puzzling enthusiasm for tribute bands.

David Hockney’s own experience and insights inform this discussion of the nature of art and artistic representations. Crossing media from old master paintings to photography, film and television, this highly illustrated volume is presented as a conversation between Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford. They consider topics such as truth, naturalism and deception and, continuing the theme of Hockney’s book Secret Knowledge, the role of mirrors, reflections and lenses in creating images.

Off-mint.

Selected by creator Stephen Hillenburg and aimed at first-generation fans, this collection of stories from the SpongeBob Comics features a hardcover slipcase, illustrations by noted artists including Tony Millionaire and Al Jaffee and a bonus facsimile reprint of the inaugural issue. Age 6+

The Barnyard Band is getting ready to play. All the animals have their instruments, except Cow. A funny and colourful picture book with a sing-song, rhyming text and a catchy chorus. Age 2+

Sharing many similarities with the 'slow food' and 'slow living' movements, this thoughtful exploration encourages knitters to step back, pare down, and celebrate the craftsmanship of their work. Covering themes such as sourcing yarn, working environmentally, and experimenting with new techniques, the book offers patterns for a knitted wardrobe including a cowl, wrap cardigan, cabled pullover, and hat and glove set.

Kaffe Fassett uses flowers as his source of inspiration in this design guide, which is illustrated with full-colour photography throughout. In Part One, he explains how he creates the vibrant textiles, paintings and floral displays for which he is renowned. Part Two presents quilt and needlepoint projects arranged by colour palette, Part Three offers the instructions and templates required to make the pieces featured.

Published to coincide with the first retrospective of the 'enfant terrible' of design Jean Paul Gaultier, this monograph sheds light on his life in fashion over the last 35 years. It includes more than 500 full-colour photographs of artists, movie stars and musicians wearing his eclectic clothing, interviews with Gaultier and his associates, and essays by leading fashion writers, including the editor of Vogue International Suzy Menkes.

Although women started to enter employment en masse in the early 20th century, it was not until the 1970s that they began to exercise a modicum of autonomy over what they wore at work. Accompanied by introductory essays by fashion journalist Vanessa Friedman and New York Times. bestselling author Roxane Gay, the 240 photographs in this volume depict the changes in women’s clothing in the workplace over the last hundred years.

Published to accompany a 2013 exhibition at the Museum of Illustrators in New York, this catalogue celebrates the 60-year career of the children's book artist Maurice Sendak (1928–2012). It comprises more than 200 images, including sketches, photographs, ephemera and rare and unpublished artwork from Where the Wild Things Are, and 12 essays from noted scholars and historians such as Iona Opie and Steven Heller.

George Steinmetz was in the Central Sahara using a motorized paraglider to take photographs when he made a slow, angled descent towards a rare sight of two camel caravans passing one another. The result – ‘a macro overview and at the same time a more human, three-dimensional sense of place’ – set Steinmetz off on a 15-year mission, paragliding over deserts across the world. In this magnificent book he tells the stories of his travels and shares images that show the variety and strangeness of Earth’s wildernesses.

felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

Throughout history, monarchs around the world have created magnificent gardens both for relaxation and to advertise their wealth and power. Illustrated with 150 colour photographs, this book explores 20 of the finest, including Louis XIV’s Versailles, Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci, the royal palaces of Fez and Edo Castle in Tokyo. Each entry charts the history of the garden, profiles its creators, describes its style, planning and principles, and includes interviews with the present owners.

Using scanning electron microscopes, award-winning photojournalist Lennart Nilsson presents images of human development from conception to adulthood. His groundbreaking photographs capture with extraordinary detail the organs, hair and muscles that make up the body, as well as the bacteria and viruses that threaten life, including HIV and SARS. Likened to Leonardo da Vinci, his work combines technical skill with artistic flair to picture the intricate details of life. Slightly off-mint.

This illustrated companion to fairy folklore explores Asian and African spirits as well as the more familiar British and European sprites. Paintings by artists including Turner and Blake are supported by original fantasy art and among the enclosed memorabilia are a booklet of charms and potions and a 19th-century fold-out map of Fairyland. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

This photographic history of the Dassault Aviation company, famous for the Mirage, records the evolution of the family-owned French aircraft manufacturer founded by Marcel Dassault in 1929. Dassault began designing in 1916, creating his innovative Éclair propeller for the French military. A century later, his legacy includes the Mirage and Rafale fighter jets, the Neuron drone and the Falcon 7X business jet, presented here along with many Dassault prototypes, demonstrators and production aircraft, both civil and military, created over 100 years of manufacturing.

Ancient Greek sculptors established the foundation of a new art form in which human bodies were realistically and dynamically portrayed. This book brings together more than 60 examples now in museums around the world; they range from early kouros statues (c.600 BCE) to a Roman-period portrait bust, and from delicate grave-markers to the friezes of Athens’ Acropolis and the great altar of Pergamon. Each item is discussed in the accompanying text and illustrated in multiple photographs that highlight significant details.

Jenny Linford asked 70 chefs to choose their favourite cookbook. The result is an international, illustrated survey of contemporary chefs and culinary literature ranging from a medieval Spanish book on food and drink to Sat Bains’s Too Many Chiefs Only One Indian (2012). The second section describes classic and influential works such as Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire and Marco Pierre White’s White Heat; and the book ends with directories of general, speciality, historical and world cookbooks.

The Barnyard Band is getting ready to play. All the animals have their instruments, except Cow. A funny and colourful picture book with a sing-song, rhyming text and a catchy chorus. Age 2+

When Barbra Streisand began to make her mark on Broadway in the early 1960s, her unusual and striking looks were as notable as her singing and acting. Beginning with studio portraits made when she was only 18, this portfolio collects some of the finest images of the star throughout her career, including stills from iconic stage and film productions and commissioned portraits by leading photographers including Bob Willoughby, Cecil Beaton and Philippe Halsman.

In 1939, at the age of 17, Jerry Robinson was taken on by cartoonist Bob Kane to work on his new creation, Batman, and over the next few years helped create the superhero's sidekick, Robin, and his chief antagonist, the Joker. This illustrated biography charts the career of the influential artist from comic books, satirical cartoons and newspaper comic strips to his later work as a curator of comic book art and campaigner for artist's rights.

Earth is a desert planet. Nearly half its land area is either cold or hot desert, but these areas are rarely seen by residents of the outside world. Documentary photographer Michael Martin has ridden his motorbike across the Sahara and Atacama deserts, and traversed the ice-fields of Greenland and Spitsbergen by dog sledge. This volume charts his travels through more than 400 photographs, gripping reportage, scientifically exact maps and environmental analysis from contributing experts.

Views from space can provide telling information about the Earth’s ecosystems and their health. Forest fires in Siberia, ice cracks in Antarctica and smog in Beijing are all visible from on high and are among the beautiful – and disconcerting – satellite images that fill this book. Images are grouped by topic, including deforestation, farming, pollution and urbanization, and discussed by environmental experts who also allude to the fascinating ways in which satellite imagery can be used to protect the planet.

Robert Altman's breakthrough film as a director was MASH in 1970 and he went on to establish a reputation as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers, receiving further acclaim for The Player and Short Cuts in the 1990s after a period of relative inactivity. This celebration of his career includes a foreword by Martin Scorsese, interviews and reviews, stills and production shots as well as writings and memorabilia from Altman's own archive.

Enjoying the conceit that canine pals or partners might go into a photo booth to have their mug shots taken, this amusingly styled set provides twelve different photostrips of dogs posing for the camera, with notecards on which to mount them and write a message or greeting, and matching envelopes.

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.

Every day Mrs Crow laid an egg, and every afternoon, while she was out shopping, it disappeared, so that after tea she had to lay another one. Then one day she came home earlier than usual and found an old rattlesnake swallowing her egg. She wanted Mr Crow to kill the snake - but Old Man Owl had a plan. Aldous Huxley wrote this tart tale for his niece, Olivia in 1944. Age 4+

Before giant robots, space ships, and masked super heroes filled the pages of Japanese comic books--known as manga--such characters were regularly seen on the streets of Japan in kamishibai stories. Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater tells the history of this fascinating and nearly vanished Japanese art form that paved the way for modern-day comic books, and is the missing link in the development of modern manga.

The tropical rainforests are the lifeblood of the planet, regulating the climate, producing oxygen and providing a home to over half of the world's known species. This large-format photographic portfolio celebrates the wonders of this unique environment in images ranging from close-up studies of plants and insects to portraits of mammals and aerial views. Many photographers are represented, while the text explores the rainforests' astounding biodiversity and emphasizes why they must be preserved.

In this madcap race through Paris, an unlucky family tries to make it to the airport through a chain of catastrophe. With no taxis to be found, a crashed pink limousine, an escaped elephant and a diversion down a sewer, will they catch their plane in time? The brightly coloured illustrations and outlandish events are sure to appeal to crazy kids everywhere. Age 3+