'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.

Volume one for beginners to intermediate level designed to give a sense of achievement and most importantly enjoyment. There are eight stories in a variety of exciting genres from science fiction and crime to history and thriller introducing a wide range of new vocabulary including the thousand most frequent words in Italian. It will all help you progress confidently. There are authentic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and approve your speaking ability and accessible grammar so that you learn new structures naturally in these carefully curated stories. There is a glossary for bolded words in each text, a bilingual word list, full plot summary and comprehension questions after each chapter. There are tips on how to read effectively and a six-step reading process encouraging us to look at the illustration and read the chapter title and think about what the story might be about without stopping to look up all the words but simply following the plot on your first read through before going back and studying the story and language in more depth. 'Take time to focus on all that you have understood and congratulate yourself.' The first two short stories are titled La Pizza Pazza and La Creatura. 208pp, illustrated paperback in the Teach Yourself popular series.

Take a minute to answer these questions - what's the average number of sexual partners? What proportion of your country are immigrants? What does it cost to raise a child? Do you think teenage girls are getting pregnant at an alarming rate or that a large percentage of the prison population are immigrants? This brilliant investigation by the Head of Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute analyses the role of social media and fact-checking in this post-truth age. In the final chapter he gives a list of ten useful things we can do to manage ourselves. Brexit and Donald Trump, Facebook, Google, climate change, educational levels, political misdirection and disengagement, wishful and wrongful thinking, filtering our worlds, he looks at worldwide worry and how we should manage our misperceptions. With useful statistics and questions and answers, graphs and pie charts, in these days when we probably no longer trust the clergy, then journalists and least of all politicians, can we trust our own education and perception? Much food for thought. 304pp in paperback.

Rattle of Bones, The Horror from the Mound, Skull-Face, Graveyard Rats, Wolfshead, The Thing on the Roof, Sea Curse, The Cairn of the Headland, The Fearsome Touch of Death and Dig Me No Grave are among the 17 Gothic short stories in this collection. Ranging from horror to supernatural terrors and chilling tales of insanity and death, these stories reveal the extraordinary talent and range of one of short fiction's most accomplished writers. Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was one of the founders of the sword and sorcery genre and an influential figure in fantasy fiction. He created a range of iconic characters including Conan the Barbarian, the sombre Solomon Kane and the loveable sailor Steve Costigan, yet he was an accomplished horror writer and close confidante of H. P. Lovecraft and his stories have enthralled and chilled readers for generations. Much of his childhood was spent travelling through the small towns of Texas and absorbing the culture of a growing society. Here is a disconcerting werewolf tale, the Wild West to Medieval France and to the fantastical setting of Hyperborea and other fantasy landscapes. 382pp in new full price paperback.

A wordsearch with plant families, crossword, word grid, space to draw your own tree shapes, dot-to-dot, Sudoku, mazes, and dozens of fantastic crosswords and wordsearches on such topics as leaf shapes, great gardens, sunflowers, famous botanists, fantastic forests and more. With solutions to all 136 puzzles and activities all inspired by the horticultural, scientific and conservation work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 256 page illustrated paperback. New full price publication.

Born in April 1840, Emile Zola was a political journalist and outspoken critic of Emperor Napoleon III. A prolific author of famous works of history, Nana (1880) was the ninth novel in a series which follows a girl from the streets of Paris as she begins her meteoric rise to stardom. Using her sexuality as a weapon, she brings ruin to many of the men who pursue her in a stunning portrait of the decadence and corruption of late 19th century France. Extremely controversial at the time, Nana was nonetheless a great commercial success. Zola died in September 1902 from carbon monoxide poisoning. 428pp in new full price paperback.

The fun way to learn European Spanish (Castilian) with vocabulary building puzzles and fun wordsearches filled with Spanish trivia such as puzzles about Spanish poets, language, cinema and things to do and see in Madrid. Build up vocabulary and phrases alongside English translations with useful topics such as greetings, numbers and telling the time. Also fun as a refresher course and with pretty decorations on the very large softback pages relating to the topics like air travel, shopping, money and banking, at the museum, the rivers of Spain, around the home, countries, pets, popular culture, the body, food, illnesses and personality traits among the many topics. 128 very large page new softback, line art and solutions to all 104 wordsearches which are printed nice and large across the top half of each page. Full price.

33 short stories by Lafcadio Hearn, born 1850 in Levkás, Greece, who moved to Ireland when he was only two years old. In 1869, he emigrated to the US and his stories found appeal in national magazines like Harper's Weekly. Accepting a commission to visit Japan as a correspondent, he married a Japanese woman and became an ardent supporter of traditional Japanese practices, learning the language and adopting traditional dress and preserving the legends and stories of ancient Japan from the onslaught of modernisation and economic progress. He recorded the folklore of the local population in the form of short stories written in English and these are some of his most powerful works, bringing to life the magic and mystery of the East. This anthology includes a selection of his Japanese ghost stories including such favourites as Ingwa-Banashi, The Corpse-Rider, The Mirror Maiden, A Passional Karma, The Goblin-Spider, Of a Promise Broken, and Jikininki among them. The ghoulish beings range from spectral brides to vengeful phantoms and unruly goblins as Hearn creates a series of unforgettable tales and forgotten worlds. 191pp in new full price paperback.

A unique tribute from David Bowie's official photographer and creative partner, Mick Rock, compiled in 2015, with Bowie's blessing. In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowie's Stardust alter ego: a glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of '70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the world's biggest stars. A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singer's inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer's photographer and videographer. This collection brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. With a 5-phase lenticular cover of different headshots, it celebrates Bowie's fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten. 23.8 x 33.3cm, 300 pages. Text in English, French and German. New from Taschen. The cover features a tipped-in A4 size five colour image that actually moves when tilted of Ziggy and faces of David Bowie. Could be removed from the front cover of the hardback book.