The archaeologist author together with Christiane Eluère takes us back beyond the borders of history. Achilles, Odysseus and other heroes of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey fought with shields and swords of bronze. What was the world like in those mythic days when the rival Greek cities of Troy and Mycenae battled for supremacy, and far to the West unknown engineers raised the megaliths of Stonehenge? We read about Achilles, armed for battle raging at the Trojans. 'First he placed along his legs the fair greaves linked with silver fastenings to hold the greaves at the ankles. Afterward he girt about his chest the corselet, and across his shoulders slung the sword with the nails of silver, a bronze sword, and caught up in the great shield, huge and heavy nets, and from it the light glimmered far, as far from the Moon... Next he pulled out from its standing place the spear of his father...' But what do we know of even earlier times when the settled peoples of Europe first replaced their crude stone tools with those made of refined metal, and crafted ornaments of beaten copper and gold? Chapters cover The Metallurgical Centres like the Gold of Varna in Bulgaria with 2,200 ornaments dating from as early as the 5th millennium, The Chalcolithic Period in the Iberian Peninsula which was the result of Eastern influences. Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) appeared between 3000 and 1500BC in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Northern Europe. Pictured are remains and art in Crete, vessels, arms and armour, cultural centres, mother goddesses and horned figures, chariots, wheels and birds depicted in small Sardinian bronzes; the Mycenaean religion, funeral rites and an appendix on documents, with illustrations including the remarkable remains of Otzi, the ancient man, as preserved today. 160pp, paperback packed with colour illus. and glossy pages in this Thames & Hudson publication.

From the creators of Oi Frog!, here is a book with a lift up surprise. According to Frog, cats sit on gnats, dogs sit on logs, armadillos sit on pillows and chicks sit on bricks! But Cat doesn't like sitting on gnats. They keep biting his bottom. Will Frog or Dog help? What else could Cat possibly sit on? Super rhyming fun for ages 3-6, all children love animals and here are sharks, ponies, crows, flamingos, hogs and more in a super rhyming story. Life the flap and find the answer Cat is looking for. Another hilarious book from this very popular series with big powerful colour illus.

In the Retro Games series with Victorian looking striped packaging, the box set contains two full sets of playing cards and a set of five dice and a fantastic 64 page colour instruction paperback to learn all the rules of favourites like Pontoon, Stud, Whiskey and Draw Poker, Old Maid, Knaves, Knock-out Whist, Honest John, Fan-Tan and English Hazard among them. Full instructions, number of players, equipment, aim and rules.

A large quality softback packed with modern colour illustrations for all who find sketching fun and therapeutic. There are 250 prompts and ideas to get you started and stretch your design muscles from 5-10 minute exercises to open-ended in-depth creative explorations. Molly provides details on how to build an art kit and encourages risk taking and experimentation beyond the pages of the book as you discover your own drawing style. Create your own hand-lettered alphabet, draw the view from one of the windows in your house, draw in a café or take a quick pencil sketch from a park. Learn about colour palettes on the colour wheels shown and drawing figures using trapezoids and rectangles to get the shape and there's plenty of space to fill in outfits and faces on people where the drawings are started in the book. Draw people enjoying a party which is decorated and ready in the living room with lounge and even a pinãta, add plants to a garden, finish the kitchen design, add sea life to the ocean or fill in a landscape with houses, people, cars, trees, flowers etc. Add lettering and decoration to the cake outlines provided, tourists to the beach scene, wings to a butterfly, patterns to bedding; discover drawing with both hands, colouring in, designs for fancy dinner plates or patterned chairs. One of the hilarious opening exercises is to add cute doodles to the eight different styles of underwear! For drawing with paintbrushes, pens, coloured pencils, pencils, gel pens and the uses of scrap paper and sketchbooks. 352 thick quality pages and plenty of blank for your own creativity, all in colour. Heavyweight softback.

Fluid, fast and expressive life drawings start here with a wonderful comprehensive course based on classic principles. Here are essential techniques for drawing gesture, figures, clothing, expression, body language and to render fleeting gestures from memory and capturing expressions simply and quickly. Along the way develop a more spontaneous approach for successfully working from life as you learn skills about construction, hands and expressions, use photographs to draw an eye, nose or mouth and mould the features into expressions, interlock folds of clothing, pipe folds of clothing and practice spherical figures, cubic forms to settings and perspectives and the asymmetrical balance of light and dark called compressing the values. The world is constantly in motion - capture it. 128pp softback, illus. 21 x 27.4cm.

In a huge plume of smoke a black and red steam train numbered 761 powers towards the viewer pulling two blue carriages and several red carriages as it emerges between trees from under a bridge on a sunny day. The finished puzzle size is 51 x 69cm in this most traditional image we think will appeal to many of our Bibliophile customers. 1000 piece quality jigsaw puzzle, boxed.

The bestselling military historian thrillingly tells the stories of seven dramatic World War Two escapes executed by members of the British Special Air Service (SAS). No food, water and out of ammo. Hunted and on the run with the dreaded certainty of discovery looming between recapture and safe haven. Would you give up? From the earliest years of the War to its explosive closing stages, readers are plunged into the dark heart of Mussolini's Fascist Italy, held captive in a heavily fortified POW camp in Greece, and in the coastal fortress of Tobruk in Occupied Libya. Whether scaling the treacherous war-torn Vosges Mountains in France, or crossing 150 miles of sun-blasted Sahara Desert crawling with General Erwin Rommel's fearsome Afrika Korps, it took cunning, incredible courage and die-hard fearlessness to pull off these exhilarating escapes. 'Those men would go on to form the core of the SAS Nazi-hunting unit that would track down some of the most elusive war criminals.' Based on debriefings on letters, Lewis recounts the most terrifying and adrenalin-fuelled days and nights and the uncommon bravery of these heroes. 332pp, eight pages of photos. Please note contents are the same as SAS Great Escapes.

The aim of the book is to discover what light Hitler's associates were able to shed on the personality and modus operandi of the Führer, and to determine the extent to which they (and indeed Hitler himself) realised that their leader was insane. The aim is also to investigate the cause of his insanity and in this regard the testimony of the leading Nazis who were tried for war crimes at Nuremberg during 1945 and 1946, are of particular relevance. Norman explores what lay behind Hitler's irrational behaviour and decision-making processes and whether he had any insight into his mental disorder. From conversations between himself and his doctor Theodor Morell, the answer would appear to be 'yes'. Drawing on his medical background, Norman explores Hitler's childhood, his experiences of loss, and his meteoric rise to power. He attempts to determine to what extent Hitler's ailments both physical and mental ultimately contributed both to his decline and to his death. He covers such topics as Hitler's Secret Book, Alfred Rosenberg, Göring, Hess, Himmler, Goebbels, von Ribbentrop, Funk, Martin Bormann, Hans Frank and whether Hitler had a possible Jewish ancestor. Plus Albert Speer, Rommel, Hitler and his Voices, Eva Braun and many other players in the story. With a glossary of terms, 272pp, many photos.

BBC Radio Two's ultimate 60s music companion named after its famous radio show originally hosted by Brian Matthew and replaced by the irrepressibly cheerful Tony Blackburn in February 2017. Fantastic to dip into it covers Beatles covers, classical music themes, double A-sides, 100 instrumentals, Junior Choice, novelty and comical records by well known comedians and personalities which became monster hits, songs written for popular movies of the 60s, the mind-expanding psychedelic era and the grooviest decade, 50 of the most sought-after 45s on the planet, outstanding songs from a very personal selection of 60s albums such as The Walker Brothers' 1967 Everything Under the Sun, The Moody Blues 1968 Ride My See-saw, and Linda Ronstadt's 1969 move away from folk-rock to country-rock with Baby You've Been on my Mind. Plus 30 great dramatic ballads, the EPs, TV and radio themes, reggae, ska and bluebeat, 60 turntable hits which never managed to make it into the UK charts, new dance crazes and successful acts that have brothers or sisters in their original line up. Includes hard-to-find tracks alongside songs rarely heard since their initial Sixties release and hundreds of enthralling pop stories and behind-the-scenes info. 416 pages, paperback, illus.

The Lower Thames Estuary has many picturesque rivers that feed it and the author loves to stop awhile and ponder, drift into shallow anchorages for a night or two and investigate the local shores. 'Pleasant moments are spent pottering through the Saltings on miniature voyages of discovery in a little gunter-rigged tender... away from man's hard edges, terrain that was once dry land is luxuriant with salt tolerant plant life...' Pure salt water courses through Nick Ardley's veins. He was brought up on a Thames spritsail barge - the ones with the deep red sails which glide by still today. He sailed the high seas on ocean going ships and with his mate beside him, he has weaved his way through the Thames Estuary's tidal creeks and rivers for many years, mostly aboard his clinker sloop. The Estuary is an artery of modern commerce, but the remaining vestiges of past industry pepper its rivers and creeks. Flooded islands have become the domain of myriad birds, nesting on hummocks of saltings and feeding on mudflats. There are rotting wharves festooned with bladderwrack alive with life, the time-worn ribs of barges the perch for cormorants. Around all of that, man has created new uses for disused lime, cement and brick docks. Boatyards, marinas and waterside housing has emerged from the industrial ashes. Beneath his boat's swinging lamp, the author muses about old souls, shoal draft yachts with great enthusiasm for the environment in this little corner of England. 76 colour photos plus archive photos and maps. 191 page large softback.