Christopher Hitchens at his very best. Set consists of Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man and A Hitch In Time: Writings from the London Review of Books. Buy all three and save even more. Paperbacks.

This C. S. Lewis classic is based on lectures he gave in 1944 and has remained a benchmark of literary criticism ever since. Excluding drama, the collection of essays is a study of the literature that flourished in the age of Shakespeare. Lewis divides the century into three periods: "Late Medieval", "Drab" and "Golden". There is insight into Spenser, Shakespeare, Tyndale, John Knox, Dr Johnson, Richard Hooker, Hugh Latimer, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Cranmer and many more. The writing of the early 16th century is characterised by a regularity which Lewis judges to be uninspired, with the exception of Wyatt and the Prayer Book. In Scotland, poets such as Dunbar and Lyndsay, the last of the Scottish medieval poets, had more impact, and in England the satirist Skelton revolutionised verse with his "Skeltonic" metre which Lewis notes gives the effect of being the voice of the people. The mid-century is too earnest, but then in the late 16th century comes a burst of fantasy, conceit, paradox, colour and incantation: "Youth returns." Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare and Hooker represent what is almost a new culture. Magic and witchcraft survived from the 15th century, and appear in the works of Pico, Ficino and England's own Dr Dee, leading proponents of the Neo-Platonism which is the dominant philosophy of the time. Lewis dismisses the idea that the astronomy of Galileo or New World geography was the inspiration for a new literary impetus. In Lewis's judgment Humanism and Puritanism both supplied a richer source of inspiration, with Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity defending reason as God-given. Lewis quotes Shakespeare's rejection of the saving power of "merit" in Love's Labour's Lost: "My beauty will be saved by merit! O heresy!". The Puritan-Catholic contest between faith and works became a stock gag in commercial theatre. In the mid-century the English Bible and Book of Common Prayer are a lasting literary achievement, reflecting diverse streams of influence mainly but not exclusively Protestant. Sidney's Arcadia is a work of distillation, saying what a whole generation wanted to say, while Spenser's Faerie Queene draws on masque, pageants, tapestry, carvings, tournaments and the whole panoply of the court. Shakespeare's sonnets are the heart of the Golden Age, and for Lewis they tell a story of a young man's passion both for another man and also for a fickle woman. 744pp, chronology.

Helene Guerber was an acclaimed expert on mythology in the Edwardian era, and her book on Norse Myths is a classic. Many of the Old Norse poets were natives of Iceland, where the priest Saemund created the collection known as the Elder Edda which ranks alongside the Sagas as one of the great works of early literature. Northern mythology celebrates the fight against darkness, for instance the abyss called Ginnunga-gap or the misty space known as Nifl-heim. Midgard, earth, was placed at the centre of this space, with the dwarves Nordri, Sudri, Austri and Westri at its four corners. Odin, the father of gods and men, had three palaces, of which the most famous is Valhalla, hall of the slain where, as in Wagner's Ring Cycle, the Valkyrs conduct the dead heroes. Frigga and Tannhauser are also names we find in Wagner, and the Volsungasaga includes the stories of Sigurd and Sigmund, but the myth also has other significant characters such as the White Lady Bertha. Odin is at constant war with the dwarfs, who manufactured a magic inspirational fluid from the blood of Kvasir, prompting Odin to don his hat and cloak to go out into the world in search. Stealing the mead from Gunlod by seducing her, he appropriated poetic inspiration for the gods, letting a few stray drops fall on humans. He frequently visited the Norns for their prophecies. Odin and Frigga gave birth to twins, Hodur god of darkness and Balder the Beautiful, who was not long for the world when Hodur enlisted Loki's help to slay him. The story represents the alternation of day and night, and Balder worship was long associated with midsummer. 301pp, paperback, line drawings.

A tale of vengeance and superstition set against the Salem witchcraft tragedy of 1692. Rejected by the beautiful Mary, the Salem Belle, the bitter Trellison accuses her of witchcraft, mistakenly thinking himself motivated by religious faith. Mary is quickly tried and convicted, and her brother James and her fiancé Walter must try to rescue the persecuted woman. Published eight years before The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne transformed three scenes from Wheelwright's novel for his own and in doing so covertly elaborated his lifelong theme - original sin and the possibility of redemption. Scholar Richard Kopley has recovered The Salem Belle for 21st century literary study and introduces and annotates the novel providing relevant historical details and analysis of the novel's place in American literary history. 224pp.

'The Poetry, Letters and Art of The Great Master' here is a beautifully designed book with dozens of sketches, architectural drawings, facsimiles of poems and letters and finished works of art in glowing colour, a rare and revealing picture of Michelangelo, one of the towering figures of the Renaissance. Best known as a sculptor, painter and architect of exceptional genius, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, David sculpture, and the dome of St Peter's Basilica are among the most celebrated artistic achievements of all time. He is also considered one of the greatest poets and writers of the 16th century, and his life is documented in revealing letters to family and friends. He also filled hundreds of sheets of paper with exquisite drawings, many of which form the basis for masterpieces. Many of those sketches of the human form served as studies for the ceiling. One of his sonnets describes how he stood up with his head tilted back to paint the ceiling, not lying on scaffolding as often thought. Along with these more technical insights, his letters also reveal aspects of his character which could be by turns proud, cranky, paranoid, and incisively wise, as well as his deep affection for the two great loves of his life. Nearly 500 letters written by him exist and a fair selection are reproduced here including correspondence with his friend and fellow artist Sebastiano del Piombo, Giorgio Vasari, not to mention popes, dukes, and Francis I, the King of France and letters about financial transactions or shipments, or advice about marriage. Above all he was an artist who drew and drew and drew on the backs of receipts, poems, letters he had received and drafts of his own letters. Curmudgeonly, yet Michelangelo did have a sense of humour as clearly on display in his satirical letter date December 1525 about a colossal statue of Pope Clement VII. Michelangelo lived to be 89 years old and lived through a century of upheaval in politics, religion, society and art, yet his letters rarely discuss his theories about his art but he often expresses his ideas about the making of sculpture. With beautiful quotations and many fine illustrations throughout 384 nicely designed pages with curved corners. Organised chronologically and selected by Carolyn Vaughan, former editor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Softback.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic representation of the impoverished and politically powerless underclass of British society in Edwardian England, ruthlessly exploited by the institutionalized corruption of their employers and the civic and religious authorities. Epic in scale, the novel charts the ruinous effects of the laissez-faire mercantilist ethics on the men, women, and children of the working classes, and through its emblematic characters, argues for a socialist politics as the only hope for a civilized and humane life for all. It is a timeless work whose political message is as relevant today as it was in Tressell’s time. For this it has long been honoured by the Trade Union movement and thinkers across the political spectrum. With a Foreword by Tony Benn. Wordsworth paperback. 619pp.

Sub-titled 'Forty Years of Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother', carefully edited and put into their historical context by David Lough. The early letters sent home from boarding school constantly ask his parents for more money and foreshadow Churchill's later financial recklessnesses. His mother Jennie Lady Randolph Churchill corresponded with her young son age six, and in 1921 the year of her death, mother and son were still prolific letter writers. Over those 40 years, Churchill's life saw army service in India, escape from a Boer POW camp, his swift ascent from Conservative MP for Oldham to Liberal First Lord of the Admiralty, resignation in the wake of the debacle of Gallipoli, and eventual return to the Cabinet in 1917. His mother's life by contrast is an extravagant and indolent life of the monied classes touring the houses of aristocratic friends and taking advantage of their hospitality. Her second marriage flounders and she becomes a lonely figure. As Winston joins Asquith's Cabinet and meets his wife-to-be Clementine, Jennie is getting divorced and making faltering attempts to embark on a literary career. Winston's letters back from India, Egypt and the First World War trenches demonstrates his disregard for personal safety. The letters reflect Churchill's emotional, intellectual and political development as confided to his mother as his mentor and charts a mother-son relationship characterised at the outset by young Winston's dependence on Jennie, which is dramatically reversed as her life crumbles towards its end. Brimming with gossip, name-dropping and chutzpah, and populated by a cast of the great and good of late Victorian and Edwardian England, there are very illuminating introductions to each exchange. A beautifully designed and illustrated tome of 610pp with satin pagemarker.

A big, beautiful heavyweight tome with jungle green foil embossed leathering on a cutaway bright white decorated cover and with metallic green page edges and satin green pagemarker, here is the complete Jungle Book featuring all your favourite characters from Mowgli to Baloo and including both The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. Mowgli's Country As Seen by Chil the Kite, How to Say the Names in this Book, A Glossary, The Cat Who Walked by Himself, Pussy Can Sit By the Fire and Sing, If - the Story of the Complete Jungle Book and Publisher's Note, all included in this beautiful volume. It is exquisitely illustrated by Stuart Tresilian who was commissioned by the publishers Macmillan during the 1930s and whose sharp line drawings we all remember from our first copies. Tiger! Tiger!, Rikki-Tikki Tavi, Kaa's Hunting, and Mowgli's Brothers, here is the youth, beauty and culture of many Indian villages, their people, manners and customs. From the 1902 Macmillan edition of Just So Stories is The Cat Who Walked by Himself and of course If - is Kipling's most famous poem, 470 very large quality pages including rare material from Macmillan's historical archive around the publication of the stories and Kipling's home and study in rare photographs and original jacket designs and cover art. Beautiful big green edged pages, exquisite colour artworks and woodcut illustrations, foreword by Katherine Rundell.
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A parody of the popular seafaring narrative of his time, Jonathan Swift's masterpiece was written 'to vex the world rather than divert it.' Lemuel Gulliver, English surgeon turned ship captain, embarks on four fantastic voyages, each a clash with strange beings and cultures, from the eccentric to the odious. Island by island he meets the savage but tiny Lilliputians, the hideous Yahoos, a stable of talking horses, a race of decrepit immortals, and the ghosts of Julius Caesar and Homer. This very much abridged introduction is for little tots ages 5-8, and much of the enjoyment is from the full page beautiful colour artwork which is especially attractive even to adult collectors of children's books. Slim softback, 48pp.

Limited edition and individually numbered, our review copy was a relatively low number of 3,352 of 10,000 print run of this tremendously heavyweight luxury tome with silhouette cutaway jacket, heavy plastic book protector, autumn green leaf coloured-edged pages, chocolate coloured satin bookmark and a hefty weight and size of 16.5 x 24cm. Very collectable, the contents are among the Bard's finest works: The Taming of the Shrew, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, or, What You Will and all of the Sonnets. This fine exclusive edition features a dark brown laser-cut jacket with an autumn woodland design and the word 'Shakespeare', the lovers and an onlooker, windows and a balcony, a moon and a sun and flowers and leaves. Also includes a dedication page, a matching bookmark inside the back jacket and the text is very clear on bright white paper stock with quotes on green pages in a handwritten text. 640 pages, please bag your copy at this price.