It is 1921 in Berlin. Luise Schilling lives here in her father's deeply conservative household and longs to tear down the past and build a new future and through much hard work finally realises her dream, being accepted at Weimar's Bauhaus School to study architecture. But upon arriving, rather than the cutting-edge avant-garde school of design she was expecting, she encounters a fractured social world of mystics and formalists, communists and fascists and the line between the rigid past and hopeful future turns out to be a great deal more blurred that she had thought. In her search for community she gets involved with a cult-like spiritualist group, falling in love Jakob, an elusive art student. Luise's great ambitions have little to do with paying homage to great men, but being surrounded by luminaries like Gropius, Kandinsky and Klee with their attendant egos and sycophants, this is not always easy. As her peers retreat into a world of self-regard and jargon, Berlin begins to erupt into street violence and civil unrest and Luise has to decide where she stands: technology or art? Romanticism or avant-garde? Populism or the youth movement? In her search she encounters themes, ideas and utopian visions that still ring true today, a culture war that is still familiar. Not just a beautifully rendered novel, Enzensberger's book is also a history of the Bauhaus, the seminal German Arts and Crafts school founded by Walter Gropius which, though only operational from 1919 to 1933, is considered by many to be the most revolutionary artistic movement of the 20th century. It was shut down by Hitler who considered it a hotbed for fanatical communist ideology, but its traditions endured, particularly in the US, where many of its members fled after its forced closure. 236pp.

Tiny and compact introduction to the rightly popular important paintings of Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez, a native of Seville, 1599-1660. The earliest of his surviving works entitled Three Musicians (pages 8-9), is a genre piece, depicting a trio of musicians, a young boy to the left gazing at the viewer, a monkey on his shoulder, a guitar player and a violinist, singing happily with bread and wine on the table before them. How the light catches the furrowed forehead of an elderly bearded man shrouded in a cape carrying a case, his fingers worn, his hair long, his eyes a little troubled, this is how portraiture by Velázquez captures the spirit of the sitter, be they royalty, dwarfs, Jesus Christ on the cross, the nobility, battle scenes, beggars and tiny children or of course his most famous piece Las Meninas, the resting dog in the foreground, Velázquez himself at the back to the left painting the portrait. Biographical timeline, 140pp approximately 100 colour images. 10.5cm x 14cm.

Probably designed for children aged nine and up, all ages will appreciate the striking graphic stamps from printmaker Tom Frost in his beautiful and illuminating journey through the world of endangered animals. Jenkins is a conservation biologist who has worked for WWF and the UN and here he celebrates the mighty Asian elephant to the tiny rosalia longicorn beetle, the red-crowned crane, the polar bear, Grévy's zebra, the variable harlequin frog, indri, numbat, black rhinoceros, Tapanuli orangutan, the Amsterdam albatross, the blue whale, Iberian lynx, Galapagos giant tortoise, golden lion tamarin, largetooth sawfish, African wild dog, Sunda pangolin, Korean club tail dragonfly and okapi among them. For each, for example the okapi, the outlined and coloured graphic art of the animal looking at the viewer is framed by First Class Post, the country of origin such as Congo or Republic of Korea, and in the top corners local currency for example 800 franc as if it were an actual postage stamp with serrated edges. Opposite each huge full page colour artwork is a whole piece on the endangered animal together with a locator map, its class, family, IUCN status, numbers if known and where it is found. 30 endangered animals calling for help like never before, each is exquisitely illustrated as a stamp of the country where it lives. Take an armchair trip around the world and find out all about these beautiful creatures and how we can save them from extinction. 64pp, 25.8cm x 33.6cm.

Ruben said 'My talent is such that no undertaking, however vast in size? has ever surpassed my courage.' The name of the great 17th century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens reminds us of the importance of his contribution to the development of European culture, and his contemporaries praised him as the 'Apelles of our day'. With a short biographical text, the body of this compact small softback are over 100 full page colour images of whole portraits and masterpieces in detail such as The Crown of Thorns (Ecce Homo), Venus and Adonis, Christ with the Adulterous Woman, Venus at a Mirror, Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt, Nature Adorning the Three Graces, The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, Virgin with a Periwinkle, Lion Hunt, The Birth of the Dauphin, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, Arrival of Prince Ferdinand (detail), Minerva Protects Pax from Mars and dozens more, each with their year of painting and where they are to be found in museums worldwide in the index. 140pp, paperback.

'There is something in painting which cannot be explained, and that something is essential.' - Renoir (1841-1919). Born in Limoges, Pierre-Auguste Renoir learned to paint porcelain as a young apprentice in 1854 and by the 1870s he had moved to Montmartre, possibly the happiest time in his creative biography where he found his plein-air subjects, his models and even his new family. He sold his first painting at the unsuccessful sale that he, Monet, Sisley and Berthe Morisot organised in the Hotel Drouot in 1875. Some of his finest paintings were of the little, neglected garden by the studio that he rented. At the Impressionist Exhibition of the 1870s Renoir mainly presented portraits and once married depicted his wife in such paintings as The Luncheon of the Boating Party in a fanciful, fashionable hat holding a Pekinese in her hands. Here are his many nudes, dancing figures, Parisian life, Les Parapluis, Girl with Cat, couples, horse riders, Odalisque and harem figures in all their sensual beauty, female dancers, reclining nudes, bathers and washerwomen. Pocket sized softback, approximately 100 full page colour plates, index and biographical text. 140pp.

With their perfect soft skin, huge shiny eyes often staring directly at the camera, sweet smiles, chubby cheeks and limbs, here are babies in all manner of poses like lying across a teddy, licking a spoon, in soapy suds in a bath, a little girl in a purple ballerina outfit sticking her finger up her nose, others swaddled in blankets, posed on beautiful bedding or couches or pillows, holding a flower or surrounded by petals. There are sweet quotes from authors like Deepak Chopra: 'It is the nature of babies to be in bliss.' There is a rockabye baby lullaby, bath time swimming lessons, toy time and splish splash, interesting facts about twins, a list of famous fairy tales, a short poem from William Blake, and even specific instruction for how to swaddle a baby correctly and put on a real towelling nappy. Several of these exquisitely cute photographs are in gatefold pages, and all the other approximate 100 examples are full page, close up and colour. The babies range in age from Belle of two weeks to Finn who is 364 days old. A little in the style of Anne Geddes but less kitsch and more natural, there are a few brown babies included and of course all have cute tootsies and squidgy fingers and you just want to pick them up and hug them. An affectionate miscellany by acclaimed photographer Rachael Hale, it is the ultimate gift for new parents, grandparents and those who adore babies. 160pp, 23 x 26.8cm.
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Extremely beautiful silhouette artworks decorate the landscape pages of this compilation of one-of-a-kind buildings - fortresses, palaces, sacred sites, monuments, skyscrapers and cultural hotspots. We travel to the cultural capitals of Paris, Mexico City, Berlin, Beijing, Delhi, Istanbul, Washington DC, Budapest and Rome. To seaside cities like Miami and Helsinki, fortress cities like Marrakech and Prague, Carcassonne and Jaipur, sacred cities like Jerusalem, Lhasa, and Cusco, skyscraper cities and visionary cities like Brasilia, Dubai, Barcelona, Timbuctu and Eutopia. Experts on architecture, design and travel, this journey through 50 skylines of the world's greatest cities is illustrated by Jenny Seddon in beautiful and atmospheric illustrations. There are quotes, short histories capturing the spirit of the places, its past and location. There are double page skyline maps, representations of famous and iconic buildings drawn at the same height and each captioned, quotes and bold headers for the buildings mentioned in the text. Includes maps, colour, a beautiful design and layout, 216pp.
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Each of the ten pictures presented chronologically have been chosen for the light that they cast on a period of profound change which starts as English painting takes leave of the Rococo and ends in the beginning of modern art. They are William Hogarth's Portrait of Bishop Benjamin Hoadly with whom he shared a distinctly positive, rather pugnacious temperament; Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy with its vigorous brushwork that builds the firmly modelled figure and the cool blue of the costume given vitality by being placed against the stormy sky. Third is Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mrs Siddons as The Tragic Muse, the figure in costume with two shadowy attendants, she sitting on a thronelike chair in deep contemplation with a great pendent cluster of pearls adorning the front of her dress and heavy, sweeping draperies. Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie studied in detail again with close ups as per the other subjects. The fifth choice is Thomas Rowlandson's Mrs Siddons Rehearsing, a pen and watercolour created within a year or two of Reynolds' great portrait. She is shown being coached by her father Roger Kemble, while another actor declaims in front of a mirror in the background. The drawing is an amusing antidote. William Blake's Satan, Sin and Death comes from Paradise Lost as Satan, on his way to undertake the temptation of Adam and Eve, is stopped by Death at the gate of Hell and engaged in combat. Richard Wilson's River Scene with Bathers captures a warm summer evening. Gainsborough's The Cottage Door has the theme of a peasant family standing by the door of a country cottage, a scene the artist returned to again and again. John Constable's View on the Stour near Dedham represents a stretch of country for which the artist had deep affection. The final and tenth example is J. M. W. Turner's Grand Canal, Venice, in which the buildings appear relatively much higher and the Rialto much smaller in the background on the canal. Other examples are given throughout the text of the changing nature of each artist's work. 136pp in softback 18 x 25.5cm.
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A collaboration between ten authors, the book is sub-titled 'How the Modern World Was Changed by Technology'. It is a refreshing new 'take' on the history of technology and some of the most important aspects of modern development to culture and the many challenges they present to the modern world. We look at primitive ploughing, water wheels, windmills, lighthouses and space shuttles, the development in feeding people and agriculture, milling, the Industrial Revolution and power for industry and society, buildings and civil engineering, a brief history of shipping, the steam revolution on land and sea, a brief history of aeronautics, modern communications, technology and medicine, warfare and technological prospects into the future. It is an account of the tremendous transformative effect on human societies in the last two million years, particularly the last three centuries, the period of 'High Technology'. Humankind has acquired huge powers in the period since 1700. Man has tamed animals to help them in their hunting, improved crude stone implements to create well-shaped tools and weapons, devised intricate techniques of linguistic communication and discovered how to make and control fire. Stonehenge was built in stages over many years, but it was certainly in construction and use around 2000BC. Its stones were fixed in place by mortise and tenon joints, representing a dramatic advance in stone working techniques and marks a new phase of Median Technology in Western Europe. Superbly well illustrated in colour and black and white, 229 large glossy pages, diagrams.

Sub-titled 'The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak', Jonathan Cott first interviewed the artist in 1976 for Rolling Stone following the publication of the trilogy that began with 'Where the Wild Things Are', 'In the Night Kitchen' and 'Outside Over There'. Over the course of a revelatory conversation about his life, work, and the fantasies and obsessions that drove Sendak's creative process, they focussed on the many themes and images that would appear in the new book five years later. Widely considered to be one of the most important children's book artists of the 20th century, this very pictorial large hardback reproduces in colour dozens of illustrations plus archive photos and images from books, book jackets and pen and ink drawings. Sendak illustrated more than 100 children's books that have sold more than 30 million copies in his native USA alone. Among the earliest and most enduring of these are 'A Hole Is to Dig' for which Sendak provided mercurial pen-and-ink drawings of a gaggle of feisty, rollicking city kids, and the equally beloved Little Bear series with understated, cross-hatched Victorian drawings memorably incarnating three generations of a snug and kind-hearted ursine family. He created his own indelible children's literature immortals, among them the incorrigibly wilful Pierre from the Nutshell Library whose automatic 'I don't care!' response to every parental request is a mantra that will forever resound when encountering the terrible twos, terrifying threes and fearsome fours. Then there was the irrepressible little boy named Mickey from 'In the Night Kitchen' who floats out of his bed and out of his pyjamas and then freefalls, completely naked, into a surrealistic underworld kitchen where a trio of grinning Oliver Hardy look-a-like bakers proceed to mix him into batter and try to turn him into a delicious Mickey-Cake. And there is the rebellious wolf-suited Max who threatens to eat up his mum. 'Outside Over There' sees a 16 year old girl entering another worldly maze in order to rescue her young brother from the clutches of a goblin king. Biographical details and psychological analysis, art history and reflections of the playwright Tony Kushner illuminate the complex nature of this creative genius. 242 large pages, colour illus. Remainder mark.
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