Slightly off-mint

With the emphasis on hosting relaxed gatherings that make guests feel important, this guide to party planning demonstrates how to create stylish décor for a range of occasions – with minimal fuss or expense. From choosing a colour scheme for a summer birthday to dressing a table for an elegant dinner party, it shows how to customize basic items to suit different themes and suggests food and music that will complement the event.

Slightly off-mint.

Slightly off-mint.

Alison Walker, the Food & Drink Editor at Country Living magazine, explains everything the aspiring country cook needs to know about artisanal food preparation and production in the home kitchen. Each of the chapters, which cover baking, cheese making, preserving, bottling, curing and potting, begins with an introduction to the traditional methods, equipment and ingredients required, followed by a selection of recipes that test the processes learnt. Step-by-step colour photographs illustrate some of the trickier tasks.

This compendium by award-winning beer writer Pete Brown includes sections on pub types, pub history and pub names, plus descriptions of the author’s favourite 300 UK hostelries, arranged geographically and illustrated with contemporary photographs. With snippets of local folklore and descriptions of notable landlords and regulars, this is a personal exploration of a cultural institution that has been a cornerstone of British social life for centuries.

Seeds are packed with nutrients, and add flavour and crunch to breakfast cereals, salads, meat, fish and vegetables. Amazing Edible Seeds explains the benefits to the digestion and the immune system of some 20 seeds, from caraway to vanilla. It gives advice on sowing and growing, soaking and sprouting, and offers more than 50 recipes including Buckwheat-Stuffed Mediterranean Vegetables and Szechuan Bang Bang Chicken.

The authors, both drinks journalists with years of imbibing experience, advise us to ‘Drink Less. Drink Better’. In lavishly illustrated chapters on beer and cider, wine, each of the spirits, aperitifs and digestifs, they offer recommendations of their chosen few, along with the history and culture of each type of drink, its legends, ‘heroes’ (Humphrey Bogart and gin, Vincent van Gogh and absinthe) and movie stardom (Whisky Galore, The Big Lebowski), and recipes for its finest cocktails.

Matt Chapple, one-time winner of The Great British Sewing Bee, shares his skills, outlining the essential toolkit for marking, cutting, stitching and making patterns. Starting by customizing and decorating existing garments with patches, pockets and darts, the reader can then attempt seven projects from scratch, from a bow tie to a summer dress. There are tips for maintaining clothes and all instructions are clearly explained and well illustrated.

In the gap between the antique and the new, there is retro. Done well, the style works with architecture of every period. Using photographs from the exclusive Côté Maison magazines, this book explains how to achieve the perfect retro interior. It explores different interpretations of the look, from Rustic Reclamation to Structural Industrial, and how to combine the different elements – furniture, mirrors, lighting and textiles – in a striking and unusual yet sympathetic manner.

Currently there is a movement away from bland flatpack furniture in favour of 20th-century design classics that combine traditional craftsmanship with modern style. Well-illustrated in colour throughout, this collector’s guide explores the key movements, from art deco through mid-century modern and pop art to postmodernism, and explains how to select vintage pieces and integrate them stylishly into a modern home. Includes a directory of designers and manufacturers, and suppliers.

Turkey’s Aegean coast boasts a vibrant cuisine based on fresh local produce, aromatic herbs, succulent meat and poultry and, above all, abundant seafood. Part travelogue, part guide to the best local markets, Aegean Flavours offers more than 100 recipes from light breakfast dishes such as Jasmine Flower Fruit Salad through hearty mains like Slow Roasted Oxtail to delicious desserts including Hazelnut Cake with Warm Chocolate Sauce.