The extraordinary picture story by Paolo Di Paolo, which documents and narrates Italians on vacation during Summer 1959, from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic Sea; from Ventimiglia to Trieste (from the western to the eastern border). In 1959 Paolo Di Paolo is a 34-year-old photographer collaborating with the cultural weekly magazine Il Mondo directed by Mario Pannunzio, and the widely distributed magazine Tempo. Pier Paolo Pasolini is a promising 37-year-old writer who had published The Best of Youth, The Street Kids and A Violent Life. He is not yet a film director. In Italy, the “economic miracle” has just begun. The newspapers tend to offer to Italian families a microcosm of mythical characters as a diversion to the dullness and fear of war, emigration, and poverty. Arturo Tofanelli, editor in chief of the monthly Successo and the weekly Tempo, entrusts the two young men, Di Paolo and Pasolini, who did not know each other, to do a report on the Italian Summer Holidays that will be published by Successo magazine in three issues (July, August and September 1959). The writer and the photographer set off from Ventimiglia together, with the plan of travelling through the coasts of Italy to the south and climbing up to Trieste. But they have different visions. “Pasolini was looking for a lost world of literary ghosts, an Italy that no longer existed,” recalls Di Paolo. “I was looking for an Italy that was looking to the future. I conceived the title The Long Road of Sand meaning the strenuous road traveled by Italians to reach well-being and holidays after the War.” A complex, delicate partnership is born between Pasolini and Di Paolo, they will travel together only the first stage of this journey, but this experience would later be consolidated in mutual respect and trust.
Text in English, German and Italian.
“A total delight, a brilliant vignette of 17th-century Rome, the Baroque and the Catholic church – warts and all – rolled into an erudite narrative…. with an ease of writing that is rare in art history.” – Simon Jenkins
By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome, celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi (the head of the world) had lost its pre-eminent place in Europe. Then a new Pope, Alexander VII, fired with religious zeal, political guile and a mania for building, determined to restore the prestige of his church by making Rome the must-visit destination for Europe’s intellectual, political and cultural elite. To help him do so, he enlisted the talents of Gianlorenzo Bernini, already celebrated as the most important living artist: no mean feat in the age of Rubens, Rembrandt and Velazquez.
Together, Alexander VII and Bernini made the greatest artistic double act in history, inventing the concept of soft power and the bucket list destination. Bernini and Alexander’s creation of Baroque Rome as a city more beautiful and grander than since the days of the Emperor Augustus continues to delight and attract.
“The magnificent photos invite you to enjoy the luxurious ambience, the views and the very special flair and to let the constant rattling of the train wheels carry you to distant lands.” — Lovely Books
“Hopefully history’s extravagant chariots serve as inspiration for the trains of the future. Newly published book Luxury Trains is full of elegant examples of how to travel in real style.” — Hoom Magazine
“Transports you back ot the golden age of travel, with pictures of 25 of the most elegant trains in the world.” — Good Housekeeping UK
Luxury trains have always fascinated and excited our imaginations. A great source of style, romance and exoticism, they have long held starring roles in literature and in Hollywood movies. This wonderful book evokes long-lost days of travel, where trains marked international railway history, from the Orient Express to the Train Bleu. Today, train companies around the world are creating new palaces on rails and these pages offer a journey into that extravagant and luxurious world.
Whether comfortably seated in the restaurant car of the Venice Simplon – Orient-Express as you glide past the Venetian Lagoon, travelling through the Highlands of Scotland on the famed Royal Scotsman, or admiring the ancient splendours of Machu Picchu at the Hiram Bingham bar aboard the Andean Explorer, this book traverses the globe in celebration of these wonderful locomotives. A superb gift for the travel enthusiast and anyone interested in the decadent features of these trains.
Houses that Sugar Built – An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes explores the largely unknown architectural legacy to be found in the ancestral houses of Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Pampanga – the three main sugar-producing provinces of the Philippines. These grand residences have yet to receive international exposure.
Nonetheless, they are important in two ways. Firstly, although easily classifiable in terms of architectural style, upon experiencing the buildings themselves there are almost always layers of additional influence. Secondly, this assured blending of styles reveals what we might call a ‘Critical Ambition’ – a desire on the part of the patrons who commissioned these residences to participate in an international architectural culture. Their relatively overlooked location did not stop the sugar barons responsible for these houses from undertaking a 20th-century form of the Grand Tour of European capitals, returning with a desire to bring the latest trends from Paris or Vienna to the provincial Philippines, or from partaking of the latest streamlined Moderne style from the US.
Beautifully photographed with over 200 pages of interiors that have rarely been seen by the public, Houses that Sugar Built- An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes is layered with intimate stories and individual house texts that transport us back to a time when these residences were in their heyday.
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.
The stunning photographs in this book are not only an anthropological study on the types of work done all over the world and the different societies which undertake them, but are also a real look at work that is still carried out by manual labour, usually away from the Western World. This fascinating collection reveals the intricacies of these jobs and the people who perform them, looking in detail at farmers, tailors, mechanics and a huge number of other industries where the physical work of men and women create communities who pride themselves on ingenuity and creativity. People at Work is a captivating look at the socioeconomic development of different communities around the world and how they are fundamentally shaped by the type of work they perform. The evolution of technology in the modern age has meant that most job titles have become ambiguous and the notion of work in the traditional sense has been lost to a certain extent. This beautiful volume looks at the hands-on approach to work in an innovative way.
This small format book is full of dragons large and small, cunning and cranky, fun and playful, but always magical! Are you sure you’re ready to tackle incredible adventures with — or sometimes against — them? After having easily assembled the pieces included in the book, grab some dice and challenge your friends to an extraordinary game. Test your skills at games like The Labyrinth, Save the Knight, and Lava River. There are eight in all. Ages: 6 plus.
Many initiatives to support women were begun in the late 1800s, but the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is one of the few that remain. This initiative was born from the desire of three women – Princess Helena, Lady Victoria Welby and Lady Marian Alford – to popularise the lost art of ornamental needlework and place it on a par with other decorative arts, such as painting and sculpture. Their other, yet no less important goal was to provide employment for women compelled to earn their own livelihood. Though women are no longer so limited in occupational options, the RSN has been keeping traditional embroidery techniques alive for a century and a half.
An Unbroken Thread tells the story from the RSN’s founding in 1872 to the current day. It highlights key people, royal and other special commissions, the changing fortunes of the school as fashions changed and the approach to teaching hand embroidery, as well as bringing attention to the role and position of the RSN historically and today, associating with everyone from society ladies and theatre impresarios in the late 19th century to working with fashion designers Patrick Grant, Nicholas Oakwell and Alexander McQueen, and architects in the 21st century.
First published to coincide with the RSN’s 150th anniversary, this revised edition details the most recent projects worked by the RSN, showcasing their skilful work on regalia for the coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla – The King’s Robe of State, The Queen’s Robe of Estate, The Anointing Screen, The Stole Royal and Girdle, The Chairs of Estate and The Chairs of State.
There’s one topic that passionately unites people around the globe: football! No other sport is as accessible and can be realised with so few resources. No matter where you go, someone is surely playing football, and joining in is almost always allowed. It’s no wonder that countless fan themes revolve around this topic, and they all find their place in the new coffee table book by Peter Feierabend and Bernd Pohlenz, Football – The Ultimate Book.
With meticulous comprehensiveness, the two authors in this entertaining illustrated book orbit football and all the societal expressions of the world’s most popular grassroots sport. They showcase legends on the field, highlights from the best games in sports history, and the greatest football players, both men and women. The book also provides an overview of the various football associations and clubs, the World Cup, continental championships, and of course, presents the most beautiful goals.
In addition to the records of the sport itself, there’s also a keen interest in the lifestyle associated with it. Because football is big business. Fan merchandise, ticket sales, and advertising revenue bring millions into the clubs’ coffers every year. And the players themselves are a business and are scrutinised in this book. They are brand ambassadors, coveted models, and their hairstyles, tattoos, and fashion choices consistently make headlines.
Lastly, the two authors don’t miss documenting the gossip side of football. So, in this book, you’ll find funny anecdotes about lost balls and broken goals alongside spectacular accidents, scandals, and even a dedicated chapter about the beautiful player’s wives, which is an essential part of this magnificent photo book.
For all football enthusiasts, Football – The Ultimate Book is a perfect gift, where even the biggest football fan will surely discover something new.
Text in English and German.
Antoine Leperlier (b. 1953) is a trained visual artist and painter. He has been working as a freelance glass artist since the 1980s, developing his own glass technique based on casting and the lost-wax technique to create large-format translucent and painterly blocks.
In this survey of work spanning more than 40 years, skulls float, snakes are frozen alive, and what looks like abstract watercolours are preserved forever. Time stands still, the universe speaks. His works explore transience and memory, past and future; he stops time, makes moments eternal. Enamel and ceramic inclusions, bubbles, colours, and engravings create colourful, expressive worlds reminiscent of organic forms floating in outer space. This endeavour to capture dynamic images in material form is an approach unique in contemporary glass art.
Text in English and French.
The history of wine production in Greece dates back more than four millennia, yet for many consumers and aficionados Greek wine is still synonymous with the retsina they drank in tavernas as tourists. Here, Master of Wine Konstantinos Lazarakis argues that to dismiss Greek wine in this way today is to miss out on an array of varied and vibrant wines – even retsina, in the hands of boutique producers, has become a drink worthy of a second chance.
From the foothills of Mount Olympus to the plain of Thessaly in Central Greece and scattered across the vast number of islands, each of Greece’s vineyards has its own challenges, history and varieties. Yet terroir, in Greece, goes far beyond soil-types and weather conditions – it emanates from the culture of the country and the spirit of a people whose ancestors even had a god for wine.
The wines of Greece begins with a summary of Greece’s wine history, geography and grape varieties. The many responses of vine growers and winemakers to the land have created a host of different wines – sweet wines from Samos, the famed Malvasia from the Peloponnese and new, surprising wines from oenological innovators throughout the country. It is to the work of these winemakers that the bulk of the book is dedicated; Lazarakis has tirelessly explored Greece’s 700 wineries and here focuses on some of the most inventive producers and interesting wines available.
Greek wine is on the brink of a new era; anybody curious to rediscover a lost gem of winemaking will have their enthusiasm charged by this lovingly written book.
Georgia has for the last 25 years been resurrecting its unique winemaking tradition and rediscovering the distinctiveness of its native varieties. A handful of producers in 1997 has now exploded to more than 1,300. Wine is arguably more important to Georgia than to any other country and its people firmly believe their country to be the birthplace of wine. Yet Georgian wines are still largely unknown in the West.
Lisa Granik, who began visiting Georgia 30 years ago, starts The Wines of Georgia with a brisk tour through the history of the country and analysis of its complex geology, before moving on to consider Georgian wine culture. She explains not only winemaking methods and viticulture but also the centrality of wine to Georgian culture. Georgia can claim more than 400 native Vitis vinifera varieties; here Granik profiles the most commonly planted grapes, as well as the many ‘lost’ varieties being revived. The second half of the book details each of the major regions. Of Georgia’s 20 PDOs, 15 are in the east, in Kakheti. With a history of wine education dating back 900 years, this prolific winemaking region is home to the qvevri, the conical clay vessel that for many represents Georgian winemaking. Stretching west, the regions become more sparsely populated; some places are still pioneer wine territory, with more amateur and self-taught winemakers. Granik provides details on the most significant producers, along with tips on sites of interest and places to eat and stay, for those visiting the country. This definitive book on Georgian wine is an essential text for anybody studying or making wine today.
When a city is pursuing high-speed development and putting massive infrastructure into construction and operation to enable rapid economic growth and efficient urban operation, it will see, quite possibly, increasingly scarce land and resources. And much of its space for people and life lost to economic development, and worse still, the degradation of the environment and the loss of nature… This disequilibrium has set us thinking: what is exactly the purpose of development? Or is it a choice that’s simply not worth making?
This book includes the research and design project “Shenzhen 2030: Balance is More” by Doreen Heng Liu with NODE Architecture & Urbanism at an invitation to Audi Urban Future Award 2012, as well as interviews and articles by experts and scholars in the field of architecture and urbanism. This project, which takes transportation infrastructures as the object of research and design, attempts to reinterpret, deconstruct and reconstruct Shenzhen’s highly efficient urban roads through an interdisciplinary approach. By establishing new supporting systems and reorganising urban mobility, it tries to leave more possibilities of “leisure” for people and life within limited space and redefine a new balance between economy, society, and environment – a balance that sustains and brings more.
Text in English and Chinese.
First Painter to the king in 1736 for only a few months before his tragic death, François Le Moyne had a career as short as it was prolific. Teacher of Charles-Joseph Natoire and François Boucher, and contemporary of Antoine Watteau and Jean-François de Troy, he reached the height of his glory with his Apotheosis of Hercules painted between 1732 and 1736 on the immense ceiling of the Salon d’Hercule, located between La Chapelle Royale and the royal apartments of the Château de Versailles. After so many years spent in oblivion, Le Moyne is finally recognised today as one of the major artists of the 18th century, exerting a seminal influence on the following generations.
Nearly 40 years after his first monograph devoted to the painter, Professor Jean-Luc Bordeaux proposes a renewed survey of the oeuvre of François Le Moyne (1688–1737). Bordeaux analyses Le Moyne’s contributions to the French rococo as well as lesser-known aspects of his artistic production and career. With almost 140 paintings and 250 drawings, this new catalogue raisonné is an extended edition of the one published in 1984, with significant additions. It also includes an appendix of around 20 pages that describes a considerable amount of works by Le Moyne, now lost but attributed to him by famous collectors of the time and 18th century experts such as Gersaint, Mariette, Paillet and Remy.
“You can be as smart as Einstein, but if you fail to direct your attention to what is important, then what good is that high IQ? People who are focused are more alert, experience less stress, and worry less. Unfortunately, focus has become a rare commodity: our attention span has dramatically decreased over the past decades.” – Elke Geraerts
How many times have you been distracted today from what you actually wanted to do? We live in a world of constant connectivity, where distraction lurks around every corner. Our endless to-do lists and packed schedules are a merciless reflection of what’s going on in our minds: we are constantly in overdrive, and our focus is completely lost. No wonder stress and burnout rates are at an all-time high. Despite the fact that we now know more than ever what we need to remain resilient and healthy, our overstimulated brain seems unable to handle all that knowledge, let alone put it into practice. Ten years after her bestseller Better Minds, Elke Geraerts presents a book tailored to a generation without attention. She combines powerful insights with practical tools that can be implemented immediately. Her goal? Sharpening our focus again. Not only by making us work more efficiently and attentively but also – and especially – by teaching us to deliberately unfocus. Are you ready for a mental revolution?
When Kurt Cobain died at his Seattle home on April 8, 1994 at the age of 27, music lost the idol of an entire generation. Ernesto Assante, renowned music journalist, guides the reader through the personal story of an artist and the discovery of an entire musical genre that symbolises an era. A story of pain, passion, and music. A fascinating and mysterious personal adventure. The story of a troubled boy who became a rock star and that of a band that gave sound to the last great rock season of the 20th century: Nirvana.
David Hoffman’s bold, humane photography records a lost era, speaking vividly to our own times. Living in Whitechapel through the seventies and eighties, David documented homelessness, racism and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vital photographic testimony of resilience.
In this hauntingly beautiful volume, artist John A. Rice re-envisions Dickens’s seemingly familiar Christmas classic as a true Victorian ghost story.
The Victorians knew that the end of the year is a precipice, a time of change and transition. They captured the essence of this season — the yearning for what is lost, the fear of the unknown, but also the hope for what is to come — in the fantastical storytelling tradition known as the “midwinter’s tale.” And of all such tales, the most famous is A Christmas Carol.
In his new illustrated edition of A Christmas Carol, John A. Rice draws on the influence of Victorian Spiritualism and fin de siècle Symbolism to emphasise the deeper symbolism and spirituality of Dickens’s novella. Through five absorbing full-page illustrations and a number of enchanting vignettes — married to an elegant typographic design — Rice reveals Scrooge’s encounters with the spirits as a soul’s journey from darkness to light. This is a fresh presentation of a seemingly familiar classic, one that will inspire contemporary audiences to heed the lessons of the ghosts — just as Dickens intended — and be kind to each other this holiday season and all throughout the year.
A magnificently illustrated oversize book that uses art to illuminate the lives of medieval women, from peasants to queens.
Medieval women ruled over kingdoms, abbeys, and households; produced stunning works of art and craft; and did the hard work that kept ordinary families fed and clothed. In medieval written accounts, however, women’s contributions were often diminished or completely ignored. Yet art tells a different story: women appear everywhere, from manuscript miniatures to statues in cathedrals. In this book, historian Gemma Hollman uncovers the captivating story of medieval European women through the art of their time.
Hollman traces the lives of women across society, with chapters dedicated to nuns like Hildegarde of Bingen, abbess, mystic, and polymath; courtiers like Christine de Pizan, author of pioneering works on women’s role in society; warriors like Joan of Arc; and the everyday women whose names are lost to history. She illustrates her text with some 150 varied works of medieval art, revealing what they tell us about the real lives of medieval women, and about medieval attitudes toward women — which were exemplified at once by Eve, the symbol of moral fallibility, and by the Virgin Mary, the paragon of virtue.
With its eye-opening new perspective on the lives of medieval women and how they were portrayed, this book will be a treasure for anyone interested in the Middle Ages or women’s history.
An artist defies the Cultural Revolution to learn the secrets of Chinese painting
Was it really reasonable to drop everything overnight and go off alone into the depths of Communist China in search of the forgotten secrets of ancient Chinese art? Fabienne Verdier never stopped to ask herself: in the early 1980s, the brilliant young Beaux-Arts student was virtually possessed by the desire to learn the art of painting and calligraphy that had been devastated by the Cultural Revolution.
And when, a foreigner lost in the province of Sichuan, she found herself in an art school run by the Party, she was determined to come to terms with the situation: the language and the mistrust of the Chinese, the unbearable lack of privacy, the poverty and filth all around, disease and the inquisitorial administrative system. Blocking the West totally out of her mind, she became the pupil of great, though despised and marginalised, artists, who introduced her to the secrets and techniques of an age-old art form.
This unique experience amounted to a true adventure story, spawning a fascinating body of work that combines east Asian inspiration with contemporary art, as illustrated in her extraordinary art book L’unique trait de pinceau (Albin Michel). The present book, autobiographical travel journal, is an enlarged English edition of the original published by Albin Michel: several colour photographs have been added to the already richly illustrated volume, together with a full index and glossary.
German artist Lother Götz (b. 1963 in Gunzburg, Germany) completed an MA at the Royal College of Art in 1998, after studying in Germany at Aachen, Düsseldorf and Wuppertal. He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, with solo shows at galleries such as Gasworks (London), the Chisenhale (London), Mappin Art Gallery (Sheffield), Museum Goch (Germany), David Risley Gallery (Copenhagen) and the Petra Rinck Gallery (Dusseldorf), and has been included in group exhibitions in Amsterdam, Dublin, Hamburg, Hanover, Salamanca, Wilhelmshaven and Wuppertal.
Perhaps best known for his large-scale wall paintings and installations, Götz’s drawings lie at the centre of his practice.
Brought together in dense compositions on painted card and board, Götz’s thin pencil lines explore the impact of using varying colours and intensities on the work’s surface. Referencing and expanding upon the abstract language of Suprematism and the Bauhaus, the colours appear to oscillate in front of the viewer to immerse them in the surrounding space.
Alongside over 40 colour illustrations, an essay by Charles Darwent explores the range of influences on Götz’s recent body of work.
To commemorate the publication, Götz created a limited-edition lithograph, Correction (2015), in collaboration with Hole Editions. Each edition is hand-finished by the artist and contained within a custom-made slipcase.
In recent years, photographer Bieke Depoorter developed an overriding interest in astronomy. She sought out amateur stargazers, visited state-of-the-art observatories and researched the history of the field. Gradually, it became clear that her interest in astronomy was linked to lost memories from her past. After all, the night sky is a kind of shared memory; the light of celestial bodies takes hundreds, thousands or millions of (light) years to reach our eyes on earth. In Carte Mémoire, photographer Bieke Depoorter explores the power and fragility of memory, the human desire for objectivity and the elusive nature of ‘truth’. She does this by interweaving photographs of amateur and professional stargazers, diary-inspired texts and fragments of astronomical history, in which often-forgotten female astronomers play a role.