When the young lawyer Daniel Pitt is called from his chambers in Lincoln's Inn to identify a body, he fears that the murder victim will be his friend Kitteredge. But it turns out to be senior lawyer Jonah Drake, who for some reason had borrowed Kitteredge's distinctive coat. Drake was savagely knifed in an alley in London's disreputable Mile End, and Pitt and Kitteredge need to know why. Moneylenders, brothels, opium dens? The reputation of the chambers is at stake, and the head Marcus fford Croft is visibly uneasy. Drake was a cultured man in comfortable circumstances, dealing exclusively in cases of embezzlement, but looking at his financial records Daniel has a feeling there is something wrong. Money is being moved too often with no apparent reason. His search takes him to two possible sources, Drake's client Peterson who was lucky to escape with his life when Drake defended him for murder, and also to the shady world of the shipping tycoon Erasmus Faber. The more Daniel delves, the worse it looks for Marcus, and to complicate matters Daniel is in love with Marcus's daughter. A gripping detective novel in the authentically realised setting of Victorian London. 293pp.

Myrmecologist Edward Wilson, who has won two Pulitzer prizes for his scientific writing, has created an absorbing account of his lifelong interest in ants, partly in the hope of encouraging aspiring scientists to specialise in the insect world, where most of the 15,000 ant species discovered so far still await further study. Ants organise themselves into societies of a complexity that rivals that of humans, though the details are very different, for instance all the ants that are active in the social life of colonies are females. Adult male ants do no work and their only function is insemination. Ants are the most warlike of animals and many eat their dead and injured in battle. When forming an army they start with the oldest, sending their old ladies into the front line and continuing down the age hierarchy. The author started studying insects as a boy when he was given a microscope for Christmas, and when a horde of ants marched three or four abreast into his backyard he decided ants were to be his life's work. A different mode of hunting is the swarm-raiding tactic of the species Eciton burchelli, in which tightly packed ants fan out. When they encounter a crevice, the leaders link jaws and legs to form a bridge. Dolichoderus imitator, by comparison, is an unaggressive, timid ant which the author encountered in the Amazon, and they ran away so quickly that it was difficult to get a specimen. Social insects communicate by taste and smell, or in scientific terms by pheromones, chemical substances passed back and forth by individuals. Ants are the virtuosos of chemical communication, and you can test this by putting a drop of sugar near a nest and then watching the result. Together with other entomologists the author has developed a system which allows him to interpret the meaning of some of these pheromones. 230pp, black and white illustrations.

Even non-dancers can enjoy dramatic views of ballerinas on a gaslit stage in 19th century Paris. This keepsake box holds four cards each of four different images: the cover image, Green Dancer, is a pastel and gouache on paper, c. 1880, in the Museum Thyssen-Boremisza, Madrid. From the Musee d'Orsay, there are End of an Arabesque, an oil and pastel on canvas from 1877, and The Star, pastel on paper, c. 1876. The "en pointe" dancer from The Rehearsal is a pastel and oil from a private collection. A sturdy decorative box holds cards and envelopes neatly, and when the cards have been sent, it's great for storing all sorts of little things - from extra buttons to pearls. 16 notecards and 17 coloured envelopes. Each box has informative liner notes about the images on the cards, which include many fine art and museum images. The sturdy box measures 5 x 6 x 1¼", has a hinged lid with a magnetic closure.

Laughing, crying, yellow smiley face with sunglasses, poo, red car, monkeys, dancing girls, skull, cake with candles, people of all ages love emoji. This officially-licensed kit includes a 56-page book and 50 little magnets of the most widely used and popular emoji so you can create fun messages on the fridge or any magnetic surface or for cake decorating! Boxed, 7.62 x 5.08 x 8.26cm.

The London Porcelain Tray from Galison features a charming illustration of London's landmarks, the Shard, the Eye, St Paul's, Nelson's Column, a red London bus, Union Jack flag and Underground signs in colour on detailed line art background. This tray is a perfect spot to leave keys, jewellery and other trinkets. 6.5 x 5", gold trimmed, gift boxed.

Black and white and red lips all over design, this luxurious address book has Lulu's trademark red edges to the book block, a ribbon marker and 4 die-cut bold design geometric pockets interspersed throughout to hold essentials such as business cards, tickets or receipts. Generous space for three entries per page - name, address, email, home, mobile, work, @Connect (Instagram etc) Striped pagemarker, lips page decoration at header. 10.8 x 15.24cm, 128 pages.

Captain James T. Kirk, Mr Spock, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise are among the images. Send a unique note or greeting to friends, family and fellow Trekkies with this set of pop-up notecards featuring five iconic scenes from Star Trek history. The set includes 10 notecards, each featuring a fun pop-up scene, blank space for your own personalized message and a short description on the back of the card. Includes 2 cards each of 5 designs and10 blank envelopes. Colour printed box.

The magical combination of Dahl and illustrator Blake makes this a winning combination. Inside this big picture book is a bonus envelope packed with Dahl-inspired booklets, games and activity sheets to encourage budding storytellers. Read Mrs Twit's recipe for Bird Pie, become a giant expert with The BFG's Spotter's Guide, and discover Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket. Indulge your love of Roald Dahl's magical, madcap worlds by diving into your favourite stories, retold through letters, photographs, magic books, recipes and newspaper clippings and what inspired Dahl to write his stories. 'In an early first draft, the BFG was described as wearing black trousers tucked into black boots. However, Roald realised that this wasn't the right look, and he sent a pair of his own Norwegian-style sandals to Quentin Blake as inspiration for alternative footwear. The rest is history!' And pictured is a photograph of said footwear, Blake's illustrations, snippets and clippings and photographs and drawings and a whole scrapbook of fantastical foxy features. 80 very large pages, colour. 28.7 x 22.2cm, ages 6-8 years or avid collectors of children's books.

'If you're lucky enough to go to Fontevrault Abbey near Chinon in France, you can pay your respects to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who died in 1204. There is a splendid carving which shows her reading even though she is dead, while her husband King Henry II appears to be lying beside her wondering if he locked the front door.' Here are many amuse-bouches for the mind, a whole year's worth of entertainment to dip into, with quotes from famous authors and a miscellany of history and information beginning with New Year celebrations in Babylon 2300BC, the Chinese New Year, and the poem of the month January by Edith Nesbit. There are resolutions, Dr Elizabeth Blackwell becoming Britain's first woman doctor and Maria Montessori opening her first school. On 5th February 1848 Belle Starr, the notorious American outlaw known as the Bandit Queen, was born. No one was ever charged with her murder. Dandara was an Afro-Brazilian warrior who committed suicide on 6th February 1694. The entries can be a few pages long to a few lines long covering April Fools, fishy festivals, the rules of mullet tossing, revolutionary women, a quick Caesar trivia quiz, National Aviation Day 19th August, the suffragists and politicians. Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for the President of the United States, was born on 23rd September 1838 and the Chinese revolutionary and feminist writer Qiu Jin was born on 8th November 1875. 4th December is the International Day of Banks and the cosmetics empire businesswoman Elizabeth Arden was born on 31st December 1881. Why the Almanac has 2021 on the front you should ask the publisher, because this fun slightly feminist compendium can be dipped into over and over as we enjoy our lovely friend Sandys gentle humour, excellent research and QI facts. 360pp, line art.

Historian Lucy Worsley visits Jane Austen's childhood home, her schools, holiday destinations and houses both grand and small of the relations upon which she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister toward the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House, and a small, rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a 'life without incident'. In this new biography, it is the story of Jane's life which shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the rooms, spaces and possessions that mattered to her, and the way in which the home is used in her novels to mean a place of both pleasure and a prison. It gives a flavour of the accepted rules and customs of the period and familiar locations such as Bath. There are fascinating snippets of detail like how Jane and her sister wore pattens to protect their shoes from the mud, how Jane received £10 (the equivalent of £900 today) for her first published novel and how her father actively encouraged her writing, bought her a writing desk, created a room in which she could write and approached publishers on her behalf. With all of the television historian's enthusiastic interjections, and two sections of colour plates. 387pp, paperback.