Arts, Language & Literature
The Bookshop
Andrew Pettegree
A magisterial history of bookshops and booksellers by the author of The Library and The Book at war
Exposed
Caroline Vout
A Spectator and Sunday Times Book of the Year, Exposed is the story of the Greek and Roman body – in all its (surprisingly human) glory
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
Rogues, Widows and Orphans
Rebecca Lee
An entertaining romp through bookish mishaps, exposing all the weird, wow! and wtf? moments that the literary world has to offer
The Prosperous Heart
Julia Cameron
From the internationally bestselling Queen of Creativity: guidance on building a life of spiritual wealth and abundance
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
The Book at War
Andrew Pettegree
Propaganda, pulp fiction, spies and censorship: the fascinating and action-packed story of books in wartime
Art & Fear
David Bayles
The bestselling cult classic and vital guide to creativity – now in paperback
The Secret Life of John le Carré
Adam Sisman
The extraordinary secret life of a great novelist, which his biographer could not publish while le Carré was alive
Living the Artist's Way
Julia Cameron
The essential Artist's Way programme on guiding ourselves back to creativity