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With clues such as a 'gentle giant with a heart-shaped nose' for a gorilla to a 'priceless living world of art' for a ploughshare tortoise, each page in this cleverly designed volume offers a clue to the identity of the endangered species hiding beneath it. Age 6+ Slightly off-mint.

There are only 35 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), but while limited in numbers, they include works of extraordinary quality, including best-loved masterpieces such as The Milkmaid, The Little Street and Girl with a Pearl Earring. In this large format book, Arthur Wheelock, an authority on northern Baroque art, provides an informative introduction and detailed commentary on all 35 paintings, each with a full-page reproduction and many of them accompanied by related works.

‘Not a creature was stirring, except for a mouse!’ When St Nick comes to visit, Daniel Kirk’s much-loved Library Mouse can’t help but take a peak at him and narrate this classic poem, lightly adapted to suit today’s children. Age 5+

As fashion director at Vogue, Tonne Goodman shaped how women dress and strengthened the link between style and celebrity. In this largely photographic volume she recalls working with some of the world’s most renowned photographers, models, celebrities and designers, and offers an insight into her personal life. Examples of her reportage, editorial and advertising work are included, with reproductions of the magazine covers she helped create for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.

Over the course of his life Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) painted more than a hundred self-portraits ranging from the good-looking young man sporting a military gorget in 1629, through sketches, paintings and appearances in larger subjects – including a single eye in The Night Watch – up to the old artist, portrayed twice in the months before his death. With reproductions of nearly all the self-portraits and commentary by the art historian Pascal Bonafoux, this volume records Rembrandt’s ‘incomparable undertaking’.

Paris-Orly’s history starts in 1910, when the empty land was used as an amateur flying field, before being requisitioned for the war effort. This fully illustrated celebration recounts its early military role, the birth of the trade and commercial hub it became, the development of the infrastructure, and the growth of the city of Orly around the aviation business.

This science fiction and fantasy anthology explores a host of forgotten, unfinished or little-known works, from early examples of the genre such as Jules Verne’s unpublished (until 1994) novel Paris in the 20th Century to George Lucas’s pre-Star Wars film THX 1138 and Andrew MacLean’s 1990s TV series Space Island One. Over 70 essays and 150 illustrations explore works covering film, literature, art, music, fashion, architecture and pop culture.

Little Hamadryas baboon Leyla is craving a break from the everyday hubbub of troop life. One day, she sneaks away and meets a laconic lizard, who introduces her to the joys of doing nothing. Age 4+

Presented as a thoughtful conversation between a boy and his grandfather, this story focuses on how The Golden Rule (treating others as you would like to be treated) is at the centre of many world religions. The gentle illustrations enhance the message of empathy and understanding. Age 4+

It’s Christmas Eve and the mice at the North Pole are busy decorating. First come ornaments and candy canes, then hot chocolate, a map and even some fuzzy dice as they prepare a special surprise for Santa. Age 2+

The Rolling Stones were named after a Muddy Waters song, Oasis after a leisure centre in Swindon, the Boomtown Rats after Woody Guthrie's childhood gang and the Beach Boys were chistened by their record company, without their knowledge. This compendium tells the sometimes convoluted tales behind the naming of the music business's most famous artists.

Introducing collective nouns such as a ‘cloud of bats’ and a ‘dazzle of zebras’, this colourful board book is populated by animals who, at first glance, appear to be alone. However, hiding under the fold-outs are other members of their nurturing family groups. Age 3+

A flock of birds spot a comfortable-looking tree and decide to land on its branches. This colourful book introduces little readers to the concepts of balance, size and weight, and encourages them to think logically. Age 3+

The result of a seven-year project to document the horse in places as far-flung as Iceland and the deserts of Utah, Equus is a remarkable gallery of over 135 photographs showing the variety of equine physique and breeds as diverse as zebra, donkeys and Thoroughbreds. From a tracking vehicle, Flach captured the image of an Arabian at full gallop, on the Mongolian steppes he photographed wild Przewalzski horses, and other techniques used range from studio close-ups to x-ray and, remarkably, underwater photography.

Stylish films noirs such as The Maltese Falcon influenced American television to create similarly dark and unsettling dramas. This well illustrated volume explores the genre through classic series from the 1950s to 1970s such as Dragnet and The Twilight Zone.

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, filtering and re-colouring frames, to create the crisp detailed images in this portfolio. The chapters cover the Sun and each planet of the Solar System, 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.

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.

felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

Throughout history, monarchs 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 explains 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. Slightly off-mint. 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.

All 65 drawings in Van Gogh’s rediscovered sketchbook, created in an account ledger in Provence between 1888 and 1890, are reproduced here in facsimile and accompanied by detailed analyses, photographs and pictorial references. Using reed pens cut by his own hand, Van Gogh sketched the people and places in and around Arles, producing landscapes, still lifes and portraits that offer unprecedented insight into his final works, including The Night Café and The Yellow House.

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 M*A*S*H 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.