The capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1900 Vienna consisted of some 15 nations and drew in many artists and intellectuals in a creative melting pot. In rapid succession Historicism, Art Nouveau and Expressionism developed as the dominant art styles and these emerged from typical Viennese themes. One of the first images in this sumptuous volume is of Gustav Klimt's Auditorium of the Opera House and Theatre followed by colour photographs of modern Viennese architecture, sepia postcards before this magnificent gallery of portraits by artists like Hans Makart of a beautiful female pianist and singer, a Caught Ball, idyllic family scenes with children, Leopold Carl Müller's Camel Market in Cairo, the sensuous Woman in Yellow by Max Kurzweil and his romantic A Walk in the Garden, the stunning gold iconography of Klimt, his Yearning for Happiness, poster art, Garden with Sunflowers, A Church in Cassone, his graphic Sitting Male nude and Two Girlfriends, self-portraits and nudes by Egon Schiele, nude male studies by Koloman Moser and much more architectural legacies photographed in colour, plus interiors and design, greetings cards, fashion and more. The turn of the 20th century was a fascinating period in Vienna, as Austria-Hungary's capital on the Danube became a leading centre of modernism, defined by styles of Art Nouveau, historicism and Expressionism, all with a touch of typical Viennese morbidity. Artists like Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann dreamed of forging a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total artistic expression, in which not just design, architecture and crafts were combined, but also art and life itself. In this sumptuously illustrated album, art historian Janina Nentwig explores such major movements in Vienna as the Vienna Secession, themes of sex and Eros and death in painting, the construction of the Ring Road, ornamentation and architecture, and objects of everyday beauty from the Wiener Werkstätte. Oozing with hundreds of colour photos. 320 pages, softback, 21 x 24cm.
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As the threats of AI loom large, we must all earn how to think alongside our silicon counterparts. Discover the unexpected advantage of the AI age. There is so much talk about the threat posed by intelligent machines that it might be tempting to surrender to our robot overlords right away, but Mubeen isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. As far as he is concerned, we have an edge over machines. Our own superpower is a remarkable system of thought developed over the centuries. Familiar to us all, but often badly taught and misrepresented in popular discourse, this system has a name - mathematics. Mathematicians have always seized upon the latest technologies to enhance their own thinking skills. Computers may reign supreme when it comes to totting up sums and spotting patterns, but Mubeen identifies seven areas of mathematical intelligence where humans can retain a crucial advantage. In exploring these areas, he opens up a fascinating world in which we can develop our uniquely human abilities. Topics covered are estimation where tribes only count to four, where babies outsmart computers and why we underestimate pandemics. He looks at the dogness of dogs, how mathematicians paint ideas, and the blind spots of computers; when stories fool us, why machines can't be trusted, and how to tell eternal truths; why spoilsports deserve more credit, how mathematics gets reinvented, and the truths computers will never discover; and why speed is overrated and the wisdom of 'sleeping on it'. Finally he looks at an unlikely mathematical duo, how ants get their intelligence, and the quest for a super-mathematician. 339pp, graphs and illus.

An ingenious pre-cut cardboard kit which creates a layered landscape and hand-drawn icons which makes traffic move and brings London to life. The London Eye, Nelson's Column, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Post Office Tower and Big Ben, the Bank of England and city skyscrapers, there are full instructions of which pieces to glue together and piece to the base top or on to the back of buses which should shake when turned! Also a crowd can move too and finally when your model is ready, turn the handle and watch the wheel of the ginormous blue London Eye rotate with a tube train below. A quality National Gallery product, large resealable wallet. Colour.

Sister of the former Prime Minister Boris, Rachel Johnson was appointed Editor of the oldest women's magazine in the world. 'All I knew about The Lady was what all middle-class mothers of a certain age and income bracket knew about The Lady. It was where you got your nanny from. End of.' Facing the challenge of a lifetime, Rachel tried to find out how to become an editor when she really never had edited before. How do you turn around a venerable title, full of gloomy articles on watery eyes and ads for walk-in baths into a totally cookin' property? And during the worst recession ever. And forget about doubling the circulation in a year. What on earth do you wear to work when you've spent the last 15 years sitting at home in sweatpants? As Rachel puts on her best Bree Van de Kamp silk blouse and penetrates the time-capsule six-storey cream and pink HQ in Covent Garden, with its Fred West basement, Ladies' Smoking Room, Anne Frank annexe and wall-safe filled with custard creams, she soon realises that if The Lady was ever to become more hip than hip replacement, it would need emergency surgery, fast. Here is Rachel's riotous and alarmingly frank account as she redesigns the magazine, persuades big names to write for peanuts, attempts to sell advertising space to bewildered executives and tackles her dreaded in-tray. Will she sink or survive? We think that she meant well but she really is an insufferable snob in the opinion of many readers. Read at your peril! 323pp. Illus.

Set in 1979 amidst the blizzards and power cuts and struggles for Scottish independence and political unrest of the day, Cambridge graduate from Fife Allie Burns is working as a journalist for the Glasgow Daily Clarion. She runs into colleague Danny Sullivan on the train and they team up in an investigation into an international tax fraud which gets them noticed. Together they expose the criminal underbelly of respectable Scotland but risk making powerful enemies, but Allie won't stop there. She discovers a home-grown terrorist threat and comes up with a plan to infiltrate the group and make her name. But she is a female journalist in a man's world and putting a foot wrong could be fatal. With all the dark atmosphere of a rather gloomy Glasgow riddled with alleys and where much drink is taken, McDermid herself was a newshound at the time and it shows. This is her best book in years. 418pp in glamorous hardback with fairly large print.

By the author of the bestselling Cromwell series and 'The Mirror and the Light', this suspenseful novel is a masterpiece of dark humour and even darker secrets and has now made it on to the Collins Modern Classics series. Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick Colette, passing on messages from beloved dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona hides a desperate woman. She knows the terrors the next life holds, but must conceal them from her wide-eyed clients. At the same time she is plagued by spirits from her own past who infiltrate her body and home, becoming stronger and nastier the more she resists. The novel was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. 451pp, paperback.

An adrenaline-filled, action-adventure in the Joe Mason series which has readers hooked. Can he uncover their deadly plot before time runs out? When Joe Mason agrees to transport a priceless gold basin to its new owner, the ex-MI5 operative arrives to find the recipient dead, brutally murdered in cold blood. To catch the killer, Mason must uncover the relic's secrets. But he's not the only one with an interest. The Guild of Night, a dangerous and vengeful cult, is determined to bring the Church to its knees, and the basin holds the power to do just that. In a frantic cat-and-mouse chase across the country, Mason battles to unravel the conspiracy before devastating power falls into the wrong hands. For the Guild of Night will protect itself at all costs, and its members have secrets they are willing to kill for. But in Mason have they met their match? 338pp, paperback.

Elly Griffith described this Good Housekeeping Book of the Year as 'spellbinding' and Marian Keyes as 'unusual, beautiful, feminist, gripping, deserves to win prizes. I loved it so much.' It is a brave and timely novel which will fuel the debate on women's rights to walk safely through our streets and is not just another crime fiction novel about a dead girl. When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice was looking for a fresh start. Now just one month later she is the city's latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim. Ruby Jones is also trying to start over. She travelled halfway round the world only to find herself lonelier than ever, until she finds Alice Lee's body by the Hudson River. From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life - and death, and Ruby, struggling to forget what she saw that morning finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves. With luminous prose, this is a brilliantly clever and original novel and a lyrical story of friendship from beyond the grave. 322pp, paperback with fairly large print.

Presented alongside the original text, and overseen by renowned medievalist James Simpson, Pearl is a spellbinding new translation of a classic medieval work. Remaining faithful to the intricate structure of the original, one of our most ingenious interpreters of Middle English Simon Armitage transforms this allegory of grief and consolation into a story that feels hauntingly immediate. Armitage, the acclaimed poet who brought Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to vivid life in "an energetic, free-flowing, high-spirited version" (New York Times Book Review), turns his attention to another beloved medieval English masterpiece believed to have been penned by the same author who wrote Sir Gawain and housed in the same original fourteenth-century manuscript. Pearl describes a heartbroken father mourning the loss of his beautiful and precious daughter "Perle." Returning to the garden where she first disappeared, he observes the verdant shades of late summer, a cruel reminder of the grief that shadows his every waking thought. Succumbing to the afternoon heat, and tormented by images of death and decay, he falls into a trancelike sleep and dreams of a radiant apparition that closely resembles his Pearl. Standing before him across an unfordable stretch of water, the maiden reassures her father that she has been granted a home in heaven alongside Christ. At first overjoyed, then incredulous at the maiden's exalted stature, the dreamer is ultimately convinced of her providence by a series of tense, sorrowful arguments as she, much like Dante's Beatrice, leads him through the throes of grief toward a vision of paradise and divine redemption. At the brief, teasing glimpse of the kingdom of heaven, the dreamer rushes forward to join the maiden, only to be struck awake, his dream shattered and his irreplaceable Pearl lost once more. A beautifully written story with an amazing ending. 153 pages.

Head of Design at online retailer Asos.com where she oversees the design of all branded footwear, bags, accessories, jewellery, swimwear and lingerie, Aisling McKeefry has worked with designers from Jasper Conran to retailers like Marks and Spencer and has designed over 3,000 shoes during her career. Her first-of-a-kind book provides a solid foundation for aspiring dressmakers and designers. Skills include thinking commercially, developing ideas, life drawing, working with modern fabrics, pattern cutting, pricing a garment and preparing your portfolio. Vera Wang once said, 'I go to the past for research. I need to know what came before so I can break the rules'. Working with cost restraints you must consider every design detail, know the basic production processes and costs, be clever about material choice and when developing your own collection identify your 'key items', the pieces for which you anticipate high demand. Fashion design is both a 2D and 3D craft, from designing and pattern cutting to garment construction and realisation. One day we may have our own 3D printers at home with our unique body measurements to make a new garment at the touch of a button! The book pays homage to tapestry, and brocade, there are line art drawings for trousers, shirts, jackets, skirts, coats and lingerie, footwear and bags and swimwear. There is a great deal on the correct fitting, the anatomy of the sewing machine, making alterations, right through to securing retailers and an insider's guide to shopping tips. 272 very large pages in softback, Glossary. Colour photos and line art throughout.
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