Arts, Language & Literature
Discover The Artist’s Way by the Queen of Creativity Julia Cameron alongside acclaimed translator Emily Wilson’s Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea. From deep dives into the English language to the history of Black British music, our Arts, Language and Literature books are ideal for readers interested in cultural history, etymology and creative writing.
Finding Aladdin
Matthew Teller
A captivating tale of literary deduction, uncovering the legendary storyteller behind the Arabian Nights
Blasting Through Blocks
Julia Cameron
From the multimillion-selling author of THE ARTIST’S WAY, a week-by-week approach to uncovering and overcoming the creative blocks that get in our way
Take Note
Andrew Hill
The lively and illuminating story of a vital tool that has powered the working world
The Wordspotter's Guide
Olivia Swarthout
An illuminating excavation of our linguistic origins from ancient times to the present day – the perfect Christmas gift for your favourite word nerd
Phrased and Confused
Eli Burnstein
Following Dictionary of Fine Distinctions, a stocking filler and witty guide to humanity's most iconic – and misunderstood – quotes
The Bookshop
Andrew Pettegree
A magisterial history of bookshops and booksellers by the author of The Library and The Book at war
Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea
Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson reflects on the power of language to evolve our understanding of the past
Escaping Babylon
Jesse Bernard
How thirty years of Black music reshaped Britain, from 1989 to the present
Hoax
Madeleine Pelling
The History Hit presenter's spellbinding history unpicks the stories of three incredible eighteenth-century hoaxes
The Prosperous Heart
Julia Cameron
From the internationally bestselling Queen of Creativity: guidance on building a life of spiritual wealth and abundance
Hard Streets
Jacqueline Riding
Welcome to the hard streets: working-class London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from the author of Hogarth and Peterloo
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Betty Edwards
Think you can't draw? You absolutely can. Buy a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (in print since 1979 for good reas…
Dictionary of Fine Distinctions
Eli Burnstein
A charmingly illustrated and witty stocking filler for language lovers
Embers of the Hands
Eleanor Barraclough
A "brilliantly written, brilliantly conceived" (Tom Holland) history of the Viking Age, told through the everyday objects of ordinary people
All That Glitters
Orlando Whitfield
Welcome to the contemporary art world: a ruthless and glamorous arena, where the rewards are limitless – if you can pay the price.
Writing on the Wall
Madeleine Pelling
Hear the voices of the eighteenth century: an eye-opening new history of Britain's most tumultuous period, told through its graffiti
Interwar
Gavin Stamp
An authoritative survey of British buildings between the wars by the late Gavin Stamp – one of Britain's best-known architecture critics
Metamorphoses
Karolina Watroba
An original, inventive new biography of Franz Kafka – and his readers
The Artist's Way Toolkit
Julia Cameron
A powerful complement to the multimillion-copy-bestselling The Artist's Way, drawing on Julia Cameron's decades of distilled wisdom
The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary
Hana Videen
Welcome to the delightful and fascinating world of Old English animals