From Berlin to Moscow, Seoul to Hiroshima, the Philippines to Israel, Lithuania to Washington, the Bomber Command Memorial in London, the Shrine to the Fallen, Bologna, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Ball in China, Auschwitz in Poland, Mussolini's tomb, Hitler's bunker, a statue of Stalin, Coventry Cathedral and the Cross of Nail, the book is a bold new account of the way the world reacted in the wake of the Second World War. Monuments were built to tell a story, but what story? The cataclysm of global conflict was experienced very differently across the world, and the monuments reflect this. Bestselling historian Keith Lowe takes us on a global tour. He asks why is Russia still erecting victory monuments at a dizzying rate for a war some 70 years over. Why, despite loathing his legacy, does the town of Mussolini's final resting place still honour his tomb like a shrine? Why does a bronze statue in South Korea of a young girl with a bird on her shoulder cause such outrage in neighbouring Japan? How did a local controversy over a monument in New Jersey escalate into a full-blown international incident between Poland and the USA? Offering a practical history and a perspective-changing case for the power of our symbols, each monument here represents heroes or monsters, victims or moments of apocalypse and none of them are really about the past at all. With useful maps and descriptions not only of figurative statues and abstract sculptures but also shrines, tombs, ruins, murals, parks and architectural features with a concentration on World War Two monuments simply because of their quality. 346pp, illus.

My Granny is a great traveller. When she was younger she travelled all over the world. To China, Russia, Egypt and Peru. She crossed rivers and mountain ranges, explored jungles and towering cities. Now her legs won't carry her much further than the door, but she still travels...and sometimes she takes me with her. Together they travel to Delhi, the capital of India with the Hindu god Ganesha which has the heads of an elephant. Tricycle taxis called rickshaws roam the streets. We've been to Rome where Ancient Romans came to the Colosseum to watch Gladiators fight. Italy is the home of ice cream and spaghetti. And Jerusalem...this city is 3,000 years old! We've been to London where 18 kings and queens are buried in Westminster Abbey and New York where the streets in the centre of the city are all in straight lines. The grown-ups say Granny is confused and doesn't know where she is. But I think she knows exactly where she is. It just isn't where the grown-ups are. We've sailed the Great Lakes and hiked the Himalayas. We've snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef and dined at the Eiffel Tower. Granny can't remember yesterday but she knows all about the world. A sensitive introduction to old age confusion and dementia through a loving and imaginative relation between Granny and her grandchild and their colourful journeys. Gentle and positive. A big picture book all in colour.

A beautiful overview of fascinating paintings of the classical world and holy land by a beloved American artist. Frederic Church (1826-1900), was of the Hudson River School who journeyed around the globe to find fresh inspiration for his highly detailed compositions. Among his lesser known masterpieces are his paintings of the Middle East, Italy and Greece produced in the late 1860s to the late 1870s, which explore themes of human history and achievement. Taking a closer look at this geographical and thematic shift the book brings together paintings of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem and the surrounding region. The essays concentrate on a set of six major paintings of architectural and archaeological marvels, one also spotlighting Olana, Church's home in New York State, which reflects the influence of Middle Eastern design. The big swirling brush strokes in the foreground depicting the windmill and grasslands at the foot of the hilly climb to the Parthenon, the red flecks in the foreground denoting colourful flowers, a tall sweeping upright Cypress trees, the overall effect is of heat and scale. We set sail with Church on a steamship bound for Alexandria in Egypt from New York in November 1867 via Beirut. The Arch of Titus, Evening on the Sea, Ruins of St, George Church Lydda, Parade Entering the City of Jaffa, A Distant View of Damascus in Syria, Mount Lebanon (in brush and oil on cardboard), olive trees in Athens, rooftops at sunset from the Pincio in Rome, there are also depictions of his landscapes of American creeks and mother and child from The Deluge, and astonishing waterfalls. But it is the pictures of the Holy Land which could rival those of David Roberts which are new to our eyes here on the editorial team at Bibliophile. We pass with him through Bethlehem, Hebron, the great Petra, Beersheba and Gaza before reaching Jaffa. The landscapes are extraordinary whether depicted in charcoal, pencil, oil or graphite. The depictions of the Bedouin people in their colourful dress are particularly arresting. The oil on canvas of The Parthenon catalogue reference 47 and page 141 is almost photographic in its detail and quality. Colour illustrations throughout, a Yale University Press publication, 28 x 26.6cm, softback.
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The award winning travel writer Sue Dobson is never happier than when out exploring "must-see" churches and cathedrals. St Paul's, St Stephen's in Vienna, Washington National Cathedral, Church of Christ Canterbury, Lincoln and Durham Cathedrals, York Minster, Ely, Peterborough, King's College Chapel Cambridge are some of the dozen British entries. In Europe we visit Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, St Vitus Catheral Prague, and go to Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, the Pantheon Rome, the Cathedral of Mon Reale in Sicily and two Basilicas in Italy, to Malta, Norway, Romania, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, Africa and North and South America to see the masterpieces that crown their cities' skylines. For each there is a three or four page summary with history, paintings, and frescos, architecture and icons, and a good quality black and white photo. 248pp plus eight pages of lined notepaper for your own jottings. Paperback.

Originally published in 1930 and aided ably by Lynd Ward's powerfully resonant wood engravings, this facsimile reprint is published under the Armchair Traveller Series. Rich in vivid detail, travel writing is almost as good as the journey itself. Stops include Tahiti, Martinique, Siam, Ceylon and the New Hebrides as well as the West Indies. Some of the book?s best passages are observations on 'The Englishmen in the Tropics' and Alec Waugh's refusal or inability to assimilate to those countries. Colourful descriptions of French colonial life and customs from the origins of Angostura Bitters to the scenic beauty of Jamaica, to the liaisons between white men and native women, further fill out the itinerary. The book is an evocative record of the places portrayed and an impression of the early 1900s attitudes and language. 'Four hundred miles away across the windward passage, Nugent, in the yellow-coloured residence in Spanish Town, addressed Dessalines, whom he described to Hobart as the brigand chief, as 'Your Excellency' and in the weary well-bred indifference of official English explained the terms on which Jamaica would be ready to trade with Haiti...' History, fine writing and exquisite woodcut illustrations depicting the styles and attitudes, people and nature. 304pp, paperback.

Luxury railway travel exerts a glamour associated with the Orient Express, the Golden Arrow, the Blue Train, and the Flying Scotsman, all of them created by 19th century entrepreneurs who saw their chance to profit from an elite network of luxury travel to equally luxurious destinations. With the development of lavish civic amenities in fashionable resorts, by 1914 there were few major British cities without an upmarket railway hotel. The high point of luxury travel was the Edwardian era, with affluent middle class passengers taking the train to healthy spas, race meetings and stately homes, but there was a resurgence during the wars and then a renewal in the post-war period. This beautifully produced book focuses particularly on the UK, where in the 1870s the Midland Railway's Pullman carriages set a standard of luxury that included the elegance of uniformed attendants and a gourmet experience in the dining cars. Buffet cars were introduced by Pullman as early as 1883, and by the 1890s sleeping cars had been established running off a corridor with berths sleeping crosswise to the direction of travel, an American style quickly adopted in the UK. An LNER poster from 1924 headlined "August the 12th" advertises the sleepers from King's Cross to Inverness for the start of the grouse season, always big business for Anglo-Scottish companies, with a large number of American visitors also on board. The author devotes a whole chapter to the "Three routes to Scotland". The East Coast train from King's Cross, called the Scotch Express and then the Flying Scotsman, had 24 carriages and by 1932 included a cocktail bar and hairdressing salon. The west coast route was built in stages, finally heading to Carlisle along the Lune valley via Shap, hauled by the Stanier-designed Royal Scot. Finally the central route was constructed via Settle and Carlisle, a latecomer but nowadays the most iconic of them all. 366pp, numerous colour reproductions of archive posters.
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Aboriginal art from the 1950s, the collection showcases much of an impressive holding of around 230 works collected by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. On the small island of Yurriwi, more commonly known as Milingimbi off the coast of Arnhem Land, gathered in groups in the deep shade of the tamarind trees along the beach, artists of varying ages and experiences worked alongside one another to create exquisite bark with jewel-like surfaces that capture the complexities of land, seas, sky and cultural inheritance in one seemingly abstracted image. Beautifully painted in brilliant local pigments, the generally diminutive scale of these works belies the complexities they capture. There are also paper bark figures bound in handmade string and boldly painted for example of a sea canoe, a decorative string made with human hair, feathers and inner-bark fibre, woven baskets made of pandanus leaf, sculptures, pipes, spearheads, spear-throwers, and paintings depicting an emu nest and eggs, long-necked tortoises, snakes, crayfish, dogs and other animals, waterlilies and spirits, fish and stingrays. Finely carved wooden objects are adorned with intricate designs and delicate feather forms, the origin of which lay in ceremony, the creative endeavours of these men have many functions and represented their cultural identity. There are particular moments in the history of art when exceptional things happen, and thankfully developed in close collaboration with the community, this rare exhibition catalogue reproduces archive photographs in black and white from the 40s to the 1960s of the community at work plus full page colour images of a great number of the museum's collection. 146 page large softback.
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Exquisitely designed and produced by the Parisian publisher Flammarion, the cloth binding is embossed with hieroglyphics in this landscape format tome full of beautiful watercolours. As the day breaks spilling warm, honeyed light over Cairo, Florine Asch sets out with her sketchpad, pencils and paintbrushes. In her journey through this ancient and mysterious land she encounters the sandstone hills of Abu Simbel, the Pyramids of Giza, the baroque elegance of Cairo's grand interiors, a spring in the middle of the desert, sailing boats seen from the terrace of the Old Cataract, Wady Kardassy Temple at Nubia, the Isle of Carr Ibrim, makes a rendition of David Roberts' two painters, the Temple at Edfu, a turquoise earthenware sphinx, a shepherd boy, terraces and hotels, shops and people all beautifully drawn by her hand. From the tranquillity of a felucca floating down the Nile to the bustle of the spice stalls in the market, here is life in the city and the beauty of the desert all come to life under her brush. With handwritten captions throughout and short text, quotations and full page watercolours. 11" x 8½", gorgeous illustrations.

With beautifully designed flexicover and colour coordinated pages in red, orange, pale green and lilac, the book contains over 1,000 buildings including more than 50 additional projects, each accompanied with a single colour image, description, addresses, websites, phone numbers, whether exterior and or interior can be viewed, abbreviations whether they are commercial buildings, cultural, educational, government, public, recreation, religious, residential, sports, tourism or transportation buildings. Organised geographically by Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, there are hundreds of locator maps and one to three entries per page in this condensed travel edition contained in the 'Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture'. We can see into places now out of bounds like the Russian Federation Copper House built by Sergey Skuratob Architects, a brightly green six story apartment block in the metal framework or Atrium Architects' Boarding School in Moscow with its portico-like structure on inclined columns supporting a cascade of inner staircases defining the lobby. A fantastic way to appreciate what we see when we are travelling. Remainder mark. 472pp, colour.
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This book's stunning photos are presented in four sections, each of which challenges the viewer to a greater awareness of human diversity and resilience. "Frontiers" represents the isolated, remote and wild places "where people and nature co-exist and collide"; "Conflict" explores areas scarred by war; "Heritage" discovers how different cultures and ancient ways of life continue in spite of modernity; and "Community" seeks to understand how society is bonded together and humanity thrives. The author sees his photography, collected round the world over a period of ten years, as part of a wider method of storytelling, unfiltered and sometimes deliberately chaotic. Many of the images were captured at high altitudes, in inaccessible valleys, in jungles, deserts and war zones. Fisherwomen with baskets in Botswana seek to feed their families in precarious conditions, sharing the landscape with herds of elephants, while a beautiful sunset in Sudan captures a moment of serenity for the Mundari people who escaped with their cattle to the Sudd swamps on the Nile to get away from the war. High in the Pamir mountains of Afghanistan, a group of women and girls, frontier nomads in the Wakhan Corridor, are pictured milking their yaks. "Conflict" includes the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Palestinian Protesters burning tyres on the West Bank, and on a different continent a patrol of heavily armed rangers in the Congo, with the task of protecting some of the world's last mountain gorillas and forest elephants against the poachers who do not hesitate to kill humans as well as wildlife. "Heritage" features the Golden Temple of Amritsar by night and an atmospheric night-time street scene in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, home to ancient temples and ornate doorways. Illustrating "Community", a group of San children in Botswana are pictured with a large egg they have foraged, representing an almost extinguished hunter-gatherer way of life on the edge of the Kalahari desert. Walking the length of the Nile, the author finds the Nubians among the most hospitable people in the world. 224pp, colour photos on every double spread.