Welcome to Leeds; a great northern powerhouse of a city that has reinvented itself from an industrial centre of wool, textiles and coal to one of the country’s biggest financial and commercial cities outside of London. Leeds is famous for its beautiful Victorian arcades, its magnificent architectural landmarks, its eclectic mix of shops and bars and its sporting venues. But scrape its bare bones and you will find it is a city rich in history, heritage and culture with a plethora of hidden places and talents.
Can you really sit in Her Majesty’s seat, catch a Dutch water taxi, go otter spotting in the centre of town or get married on a tiny island in the city?
Leeds offers so much to locals and visitors alike and you can discover the answers to these questions and much, much more in this guide to 111 places in the great city of Leeds.
Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends is the first book to document the extraordinary activity at the LYC Museum & Art Gallery in Banks, Cumbria between 1972 and 1983. The LYC was the singleminded effort of the artist Li Yuan-chia, who moved to the rural North of England by way of London, Bologna, Taipei and Guangxi, China. At the LYC, Li organised exhibitions, published books, exhibited archealogical artefacts, arranged workshops and welcomed an array of visitors from local and international artists and art workers to nearby residents and travellers, many of whom became friends. In this book, which accompanies an exhibition of the same name at Kettle’s Yard, the curators Hammad Nasar, Amy Tobin and Sarah Victoria Turner, establish Li’s work at the LYC as a form of worldmaking, connecting his cosmic conceptual art practice, to his interest in participation and friendship as well as his engagement with nature and the landscape. Nasar, Tobin and Turner’s account is accompanied by nine short texts – by Elizabeth Fisher, Ysanne Holt, Annie Jael Kwan, Lesley Ma, Gustavo Grandal Montero, Luke Roberts, Nick Sawyer & Harriet Aspin, Nicola Simpson and Diana Yeh – that trace the diverse threads and ramifications of Li’s practice historically and in the present. Richly illustrated, Making New Worlds offers a provocative new way of thinking the history of British art in the 20th century.
This book is the catalogue of the collection of Western tapestries of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels. The collection includes 163 tapestries, dating from the end of the 14th century. Most are fabrics in Holland but also in France, Germany, Italy and England. This collection is one of the most prestigious in Europe. The Flemish Tapestry is unanimously recognised as a summit of universal art and its finest productions were disseminated throughout the world. Written by internationally renowned experts, Guy Delmarcel, (°1941, professor at the University of Louvain) and Ingrid De Meûter (°1955, head of the tapestries collection at the MRAH in Brussels), this book is the reference work that specialists lacked – curators of museums, art galleries and collectors – while offering the general public a spectacular vision by the number (350 illustrations) and the quality of the reproductions of sets or details.
For many flower lovers, the orchid is the epitome of luxury, grace and beauty. In the new book in the Floramour series Floramour: Orchids, author Anja Klaffenbach pays tribute to this queen of the flower world. She not only illuminates the filigree flower wonder with spectacular photographs and sketches, but also presents exciting background information, packed into and entertaining texts.
Orchid breeding has a long tradition and by now more than 28,000 species and more than 100,000 hybrids and varieties are known. And perhaps the diversity of these ornamental plants can also be explained from a historical perspective. In this colourful coffee-table book, Klaffenbach explores this question and paints a portrait of the orchid through the ages. The aesthetics of the flower were already highly valued in ancient China. It served as a symbol of purity and luxury. In Japan, it was the distinguishing mark of the noble warrior caste of the samurai and was found on the clothing and weapons of the fighters. In Hinduism, the lovely orchid is a representative of wealth and prosperity and a coveted offering at numerous religious festivals.
Europe has also become addicted to the tropical beauty. In Victorian England, there was a veritable run on the colourful flower. The flower was regarded as an unmistakable testimony to exquisite taste and classical elegance. The plants quickly advanced to become a high-class gift that expressed the high esteem of the bearer in perfect form.
Even today, the orchid enjoys a large fan community. For them, the coffee table book Floramour: Orchids is the perfect inspiring read to learn even more about their own favourite flower.
Text in English and German.
What does your body know? With this question the artist Yvonne Buchheim invited people into her studio for portraits attempting to capture body knowledge. What she did not know was the story that her own body would tell.
In this art book, Buchheim shares her story of healing from cancer. Her artworks are poetic reiterations between visual and written language, revealing the many effects that serious illness can have on the body and mind. The artwork is complemented by two essays that explore fragility and resilience in surviving illness. Kopfüberleben (Life Turned Upside Down) presents us with creative forms of storytelling that use drawing, photography, and stop-motion filmmaking not as documents but as a narrative of self-discovery.
Text in English and German.
Artists and designers have recorded places, people, and life in drawings and sketchbooks for centuries. Over the past 50 years, Laurie Olin, one of America’s most distinguished landscape architects, has recorded aspects of life and the environment in Italy: its cities and countryside, streets and cafes, ancient ruins, art, architecture, people, villas, and gardens — civic and domestic, humble to grand, things of interested to his designer’s eye— taking the time to see carefully. Rome in its seasons, agriculture in Umbria and Tuscany, trees, food, and fountains, all are noted over the years in watercolour or pen and ink. Originally made in the personal pleasure of merely being there as well as self-education, this selection from many sketchbooks and drawings is accompanied with introductory notes and remarks for different regions including Rome, Turin, Venice, Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, Campania, and Sicily.
October 21, 1982. Three singers stand on the steps of the High Court with large cheques and broken dreams. The women are Annie (Annabel Leventon, the book’s author), GB (Gaye Brown), and Di-Di (Diane Langton). Their dream was of a British three-woman rock band, unique and different from anything that had gone before. They called themselves Rock Bottom. They were raunchy, rude and hilarious – the contemporary media described them as ‘a cross between the female Rolling Stones and the female Marx Brothers’ – and they nearly made it.
Until Thames Television stole everything and made a major award-winning series called Rock Follies, about them, based on them, but without them. It made stars of the three lookalikes playing them. And they lost everything.
A common enough tale of showbiz betrayal. Except that they fought back. At the offset of the Court trial, the Head of Drama at Thames TV sarcastically quipped, ‘three little actresses against the might of EMI?’ Forget it, the three ladies were told. Move on. They didn’t. They took the case to the High Court and won. Breach of Confidence is now on the Statute Books and it has become one of the defining cases in Intellectual Property.
The Real Rock Follies is a real-life story of youthful trust betrayed, dreams of stardom dashed and cruel lessons learnt. The three girls, then in their late twenties, learned too late that in the harsh showbiz world you can hardly trust anyone, not even your friends. However, despite everything, they got the last laugh. Their promising career couldn’t be returned to them but they enjoyed the huge satisfaction (both emotional and financial) that the ruling confirmed that the creative concept behind Rock Follies was fully theirs.
Although Muzharul Islam (1923–2012) is already regarded as an important pioneer of tropical Modernity, his work is hardly known internationally outside the context of its development in today’s Bangladesh. This first internationally published monograph presents Islam’s career, approach and a series of exceptional buildings and projects to a wider audience.
Many themes that shape current global architectural debate are already addressed in the groundbreaking ideas and buildings of Muzharul Islam: climate-sensitive architecture, overcoming colonial mindsets, social engagement and self-sufficiency are aspects that Islam unceasingly investigated from the beginning of his career in the early 1950s.
His ideas are no less relevant today than those of Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi and Charles Correa, translating the often abstract conceptual construct of Modern building into a sensorial, approachable and contextual architecture that naturally integrates its users’ way of life.
Islam, who studied in the USA and England in the 1950s and 1960s, called for Modern architecture that was compatible with the local climate and culture, without lapsing into provincialism or unthinking internationalism. In keeping with his ideal of intercultural dialogue, he managed to attract international protagonists such as his teacher Paul Rudolph, his fellow student Stanley Tigerman and ultimately Louis I. Kahn to carry out important building tasks in his homeland.
Numerous contemporary photographs, plans and reproductions of Islam’s masterful original drawings take the readership on a voyage of discovery. Essays by former companions and the editors present multifaceted perspectives on Islam’s work, placing him within a historical context and current global interconnections.
Each tarot card is an invitation to explore a new world, and perspective. In this deck the reader not only explores 78 RiderWaite-Smith tarot cards, but also the evocative landscapes they each inhabit. Dream and fantasy surround every Arcanum with more parallels to our everyday life than we can imagine. The RWS deck is complemented by a comprehensive manual providing guidance for tarot readers, old and new, as well as instructions for how to read the Tarot Landscapes.
Beyoncé is a force of nature. Her iconic songs, viral dance moves and daring acts of defiance are always delivered in sensational style. In the words of fashion legend Thierry Mugler, she represents ‘the duality between being a woman and a warrior’. Strutting and sashaying in Valentino leopard-print catsuits and her signature thigh-high boots, Queen B is more than just a glamour puss extraordinaire. She’s a leader and an inspiration. Messages of self-empowerment and inner strength define her wardrobe as much as they electrify her songs. Her fashion connoisseurship has led to partnerships with numerous big names. Versace, Bottega, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton are just a few of the brands saluted in her 2022 Renaissance album, and Anna Wintour even handed Bey creative control of the September 2018 issue of American Vogue. Perfect for fans and fashionistas, Beyoncé and the Clothes She Wears charts her sartorial journey, from Destiny’s Child to the present day, in glorious visual detail.
Honjok is the revolutionary philosophy that teaches us to appreciate our moments of solitude and help us transform our self-isolation into a new lifestyle. This book describes Honjok in all of its facets, among which honbap – eating alone, honsul – drinking alone and honnol – playing and spending time alone. The book is structured in short chapters where text, graphics and illustrations work as complementary narrative elements. Each chapter, identifiable by a specific colour, is self-contained and requires no cross-referencing. Readers are free to approach the book in whichever order they prefer with illustrations and infographics that allow them to interact with the book.
Mixing Roman and medieval roots, Chichester sits at the heart of a storied landscape where South Down hills dotted with idyllic hamlets ripple back from a shoreline mixing wild dune-backed beaches with old-school seaside resorts. Reminders of smuggling and war add spice.
But a thrilling thread of modernity runs through this slice of West Sussex too. Chichester’s modernist Festival Theatre provided the foundation for London’s National Theatre, while masterpieces of contemporary architecture that draw admirers from around the world include Sea Lane House in East Preston and The White Tower in Bognor Regis.
Evocative ancient memorials abound. Chichester is blessed with the only English cathedral visible from the sea, while England’s largest castle rises above the ravishing – and cosmopolitan – riverside town of Arundel. Ancient yew trees mark the burial spots of Viking warriors in an idyllic Downland spot. And it’s a land vibrant with creative imprints: poets, painters, composers, from Blake and Keats to Joyce and Chagall.
This guidebook takes you exploring Chichester and its surroundings to find incomparable natural beauty, hidden secrets, astonishing history, art of all kinds, and much more.
A Year in the Vineyard is a tribute to the cycle of the vine. From winter pruning to vine leaves capturing the energy of the late autumn sun, the narrative is spun through vignettes about activities in vineyards around the globe, accompanied by photographs and background paintings. The book honours seasonal rhythms and rituals without glossing over potential risks, such as hail piercing acres of nascent chardonnay in Champagne or wildfires in the Napa Valley. The hope is that each spread captures a gesture, a step in a dance with the natural world, thus providing an experiential understanding of the axiom ‘wine is made in the vineyard’ and of the notion that fine wines are achieved in tandem with nature, not through triumph over the elements. It also shows wine growers as operating on the front line of the climate crisis, posing questions and offering potential remedies in response to the earth’s changing ecology.
Often referred to as Canada’s ‘Evergreen Playground’ Vancouver is a unique and breathtakingly beautiful city nestled between the ocean, mountains and forests. Its pristine fresh surroundings and mild laid back climate has always attracted artists, writers, thinkers and tinkers, and dreamers of every variety; over time they have left their indelible creative mark on this relatively young city. The outcome is a treasure trove of hidden sculptures, secret tree forts, quirky coffee shops, undiscovered galleries, eclectic stores, totem poles and bike lanes that wind around floatplanes and houseboats. From the glistening new glass and chrome towers of Downtown, to the worn cobblestone streets of Gastown, and the red pagodas of Chinatown, each neighbourhood in the city contributes to a rich cultural mosaic. Diversity is not only celebrated in Vancouver, but it’s as widespread as the city’s frequent rain showers. Just as the seawall, which winds its way around Vancouver’s iconic Stanley Park presents a new and fresh attraction around every corner, 111 Places Vancouver puts you on a path to discover new insights and perspectives on Canada’s beloved west coast gem.
Stephen Ellcock’s Book of Textiles is a unique collaboration between bestselling author Stephen Ellcock and textile expert Karun Thakar. Together, they share an inspiring vision of the world through the medium of textiles, leading the reader on a journey into the splendours of nature and the infinite complexities of the human condition.
A social-media sensation, Ellcock is widely known for his online curation of artworks, while Thakar owns one of the world’s most important and varied textile collections. Through a spellbinding selection of more than 200 of the most significant, extraordinary and distinctive pieces in Thakar’s collection, these pages cover everything from fashion, costume and adornment to pattern and design, rituals and magic, pure abstraction and the sublime.
Combining Ellcock’s singular vision with Thakar’s expert eye, Stephen Ellcock’s Book of Textiles is a ground-breaking compendium of wonders and a must-read for anybody with an interest in art and visual culture, as well as textile devotees, experts and enthusiasts.
Back in their ’90s heyday, the Spice Girls were unstoppable. Their individual style choices and Britpop-tastic attitude aimed a defiant kick at the cultural status quo, defining a new era of British creativity and challenging the male-dominated music industry to change. With their unapologetic energy and knockout charisma, they launched a global pop-culture tidal wave, while their rallying cry of ‘Girl Power!’ changed the face of feminism almost overnight.
Featuring insights from bestselling author Terry Newman, Spice Girls and the Clothes They Wear celebrates their iconic outfits from the early days to their grown-up designer wardrobes. From Scary Spice’s animal prints to the story of Ginger Spice’s repurposed Union Jack tea towel, their bold looks once epitomised Y2K fashion and continue to occupy a special place in our hearts. Amid rumours of a massive reunion for the upcoming 30th anniversary of their formation, this latest addition to a popular celebrity series is perfect for fashionistas and Spice Girls fans, young and old.
In 1872 the most famous cultural critic in Britain moved into a dilapidated cottage in the heart of England’s Lake District and swapped his pen for a billhook. John Ruskin’s arrival in a landscape already steeped in agricultural history began an evolution that led to the extraordinary gardens at Brantwood today.
Ruskin’s own gardens reflected his empathy with plants and the natural world, as well as his interests in Dante’s poetry and Renaissance painting. His Moorland Garden is one of the very first wilderness gardens, and his Zig-zaggy a surprising allegory of redemption.
Ruskin’s cousin and carer, Joan Severn, created some of the earliest gardens in the naturalistic style of William Robinson.
These fascinating and beautiful gardens were neglected for decades after Severn’s death but have been brought back to life by Sally Beamish.
In this beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide, eminent plant scientist, botanist and horticulturist David Ingram traces the history of the gardens.
This book presents the richness, diversity and strength of the work of the most famous street art artist in the world… and yet nobody knows his identity. We are invited to follow the evolution of the artist from England to the United States, France, Israel and the Ukraine, and through more than a hundred emblematic works, all explained. This is the original Catalog Raisonné of the Banksy Museum, in which all these works are reproduced in their urban contexts, allowing the general public to discover them in a realistic way and to grasp their strength, including those that have been stolen or defaced and no longer exist.
The monumental 17th century Solebay Tapestry series captures the first major naval battle of the third Anglo-Dutch war (1672-1674), which took place off the coast of England. Of the 12 tapestries created after drawings by the artist Willem van de Velde the Elder (who witnessed the battle firsthand), two are in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. The first tapestry shows the burning of the flagship of the English fleet, the Royal James. The other depicts the two war fleets as they line up in a long line, ready to continue the battle the next morning. This is the first book in a series that highlights the objects in the National Maritime Museum of the Netherlands.
The Bayeux Tapestry is impressive in its initial richness and, almost a thousand years after it was made, miraculously preserved. Entirely needle-embroidered in coloured woolen threads, it recounts the conquest of the Kingdom of England by Duke William of Normandy. The universal significance of this secular masterpiece from the eleventh century has earned it a place on UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” register. This beautiful book unfolds the whole work with accompanying detailed commentaries. It provides an update on current research, bringing together two erudite points of view from both sides of the Channel.
Once brewed throughout Asia, sake has come to be inextricably linked with Japanese culture, tradition and society. In Sake and the Wines of Japan, Anthony Rose argues that, after decades in the doldrums, sake is well on its way to becoming the next big thing. Neither a wine nor a spirit, sake’s purity, centuries-old brewing methods and umami taste have gained it fans among the sort of younger drinkers who sparked the revolution in craft beers and artisan spirits. A return to quality, plus the modern outlook of today’s generation of sake makers is opening up sake, particularly premium sake, to the world. Exports have increased and sake breweries, some artisan, some offshoots of big Japanese names, have sprung up in destinations as far flung as Oregon and Australia, not forgetting England.
To demonstrate how deeply woven into Japanese society this drink is, Rose first takes us through the history of sake production, from offerings to the gods made from rice chewed by priestesses, to the heyday of sake, when master craftsmen – tōjis – were instrumental in a brewery’s success or failure, to sake’s new wave, epitomized by Berlin techno DJ Richie Hawtin, founder of ENTER.Sake. Rose then details sake types, demystifies polishing ratios, explores the issues around ageing sake and discusses how best to enjoy sake. The four basic ingredients – rice, kōji (rice mould), yeast and water – are introduced ahead of a thorough explanation of the brewing process. Rose profiles a personal selection of sake producers and ends the sake section with a chapter on sake producers outside Japan.
Japan’s wine industry is small and young but improving rapidly; here some of the best exponents are profiled alongside a history of wine production in Japan and details of grape varieties used. Sake and the wines of Japan ends with a guide to Japan, making it an essential tool for all those seeking a way into this enigmatic and enticing culture.
Great Britain is a premium wine-producing region, with around 650 vineyards in England and Wales covering some 2,750 hectares and producing sparkling and still wines. English and Welsh wines have won many prestigious awards recently and Stephen Skelton is the leading authority on the wines of the UK.
The Wines of Great Britain is a comprehensive survey of the history of UK wines, as well as of the current state of the wine industry and its future prospects. After a short introduction showing where UK wine is in 2019 and where it might go in the future Skelton considers the history of winemaking in the UK from King Alfred in the fifth century, through the medieval period to recent developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Wines of Great Britain then takes us on a tour of contemporary viticulture and winemaking, examining trends in plantings and vineyard layout, varieties, rootstocks and clones, vineyard sizes, modern wineries and styles of wine. Skelton considers regional identities as well as the branding of UK sparkling wines and their market position.
A substantial part of this important book is the 21 detailed biographies of the most important, exciting and innovative producers and the wines they create. Wine businesses profiled in detail include Breaky Bottom, Chapel Down, Nyetimber, Oxney Organic Estate, Sixteen Ridges Vineyard and Yorkshire Heart Vineyard. Shorter entries on other significant or up and coming producers also feature.
Sparkling wine has delighted humanity for nearly 500 years. It has become essential at celebratory meals, a toast to new marriages, new babies, new jobs, and is even used to launch ships, but there’s more to it than the fizzy and festive. In Fizz!, Anthony Rose takes an in-depth look at sparkling wines around the world, exploring how and where they are made, and why they are such a joy to drink.
The first part of Fizz! delves into the history of sparkling wine, including early accidents and experiments in sparkling winemaking, its nineteenth-century surge in popularity (and associated debauchery) and the breakthroughs in vineyard and cellar that ensured Champagne’s place among the great wines of the world. Rose then goes on to detail fizz-making techniques, from the traditional method to pet nat, and explores the terroirs and grapes suited to producing the wines, from the Champagne trio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier to the native varieties producing compelling effervescence worldwide.
Following a look at the science behind the bubbles, Rose begins his global quest in search of sparkling wines. Travelling Europe, from Portugal to Moldova, he samples Cava from Spain, proves there’s more to France than Champagne, finds out why southern England makes some of the world’s best bubbles, discovers Sekt secrets of the Germans and explores Italy beyond the Prosecco that began the new fashion for fizz. Journeying further afield, Rose recommends the best fizz from California, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, tastes some of South Africa’s Cap Classique and even finds sparklers of note in Japan and China.
This comprehensive celebration of sparkling wine is rounded off with thorough appendices, making it essential reading for wine lovers and students of wine.
“I have never read a text which goes even half as far as this one in expressing the particular poignancy which lay at the heart of the impressionist movement. I say this as an art critic. As a novelist I would simply like to pay my tribute to the mastery of language, portraiture and storytelling which Figes has now at her command.” – John Berger
“A small masterpiece” – Susan Hill
“A luminous prose poem” – Joyce Carol Oates
This shimmering novel is an extraordinary portrait of a day in the life of an artist at work and at home. In prose as luminous as the colours Monet is using to portray his garden, Eva Figes guides us from dawn (‘midnight blueblack growing grey and misty’) through midday (‘the sun was high now… shrinking what little shadow remained, fading colours, the pink rambler roses on the fence by the railway track looked almost white’) to evening (‘the tide of shadows rising as the sunset glow faded outside.’) Monet’s wife, grieving for a lost daughter; a living daughter, fretting that she will not be able to marry the man she loves; their friend the abbé, eating and drinking with them; two children playing, closest to Monet in the freshness and certainty of their vision; all experiencing in different ways the richness of the light that Monet works unceasingly to pin down in his last, great paintings.