“If you really want to get under the skin of a city, the 500 Hidden Secrets series, which covers a number of cities from Chicago to Ghent, all written by people who know the cities inside out, is ideal. It’s an innovative and refreshing take on the traditional travel guide.”- The Independent

What are the 5 restaurants for new Flemish cooking? Where would you find the 5 best antique shops? Where can you find the most unexpected view of Ghent? Where are the cool coffee bars that play the best music? And if you wanted to find the most mysterious places in the Citadelpark, where are they? The 500 Hidden Secrets of Ghent is a wonderfully eclectic guide to this multifaceted city. An insider’s view of Ghent featuring little known facts and snippets of useful information, presenting the quirky and the off-beat, and sharing the whereabouts of some of the city’s wonderful hidden gems like the Hotel d’Hane-Steenhuyse and the Gruut City Brewery.

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Ghent offers a practical guide to Ghent’s finest places, and Derek Blyth covers all bases to ensure no visitor to the city is ever anything short of captivated. Packed with accessible, easy-to-read information summarised in handy lists, maps, itineraries, sections on food & drink, accommodation, green spaces, museums, galleries and shops; this guide is an essential resource for the inquisitive traveller.

Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of London, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Dublin, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Lisbon, and many more. Discover the series at the500hiddensecrets.com

“I had seen the photographs and the drawings of this great work. And yet, until about ten minutes ago I had no conception of its magnitude, its permanent beauty and its importance.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, upon first viewing Mount Rushmore, August 30, 1936. Now in paperback, The Carving of Mount Rushmore tells the complete story of the largest and certainly the most spectacular sculpture in existence. More than 60 black-and-white photographs offer unique views of this gargantuan effort, and author Rex Alan Smith-a man born and raised within sight of Rushmore-recounts with the sensitivity of a native son the ongoing struggles of sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his workers.

“The quality of the reprint is nearly perfect, with a good selection of papers for the three sequential parts of the book: the texts, the drawings, and the black-and-white photographs. Text and drawings are on matte heavyweight pages, while the photos are on glossy paper. The inks make everything read well; in particular, the drawing reproductions are exquisite.” — Archidose
Edwin Lutyens, one of the most famous architectural names of the 20th century, died in 1944. As a memorial, three large volumes of his drawings and photographs were commissioned from the thousands found in his office, and were published by Country Life. 

All three volumes will be republished in 2023. The first volume contains his own plans, elevations and copious details of the finest examples of his domestic buildings, on which his huge reputation principally rests. The book embodies the quintessence of the man and his work; the variety of style and design seen in the houses brings together in one volume the many strands of Lutyen’s fertile mind. Two further volumes will include his corporate and public buildings.

The genius of Lutyens is now universally recognised. In the work featured in this book, we can now see not just the professionalism of a great architect, but also the loving care with which he set down the most minute detail, with the result that this is one of the few books in existence that can be used to provide working drawings.

Tracing human interactions with the world’s most famous tropical timber species, The Social Life of Teak maps worlds revolving around teak forests, trees and wood.

What gives Tectona grandis such a powerful aura, stoking desires and capturing imaginations? How has teak shaped people’s lives, driving fortunes and impacting futures? What has happened to the teak forests and what is their destiny?

In this illustrated anthology of oral histories, people connected personally or professionally to teak speak of survival, change and learning, creativity and destruction, growth and demise. Woven together, these experiences bring to light the ways that teak has been sought, crafted, cultivated, traded and prized over time.

Animist beliefs, creative expression, scientific invention, economic viability, imperialist expansion, peak luxury, violent repression, ecological disaster and the regenerative power of nature all find a home in this global intergenerational tale.

Charting the domestication of wilderness and exposing the era of extinction of a feted natural resource, this book seeks to stimulate conversations about our role as nature’s most troublesome offspring.

Have you ever seen a place that leaves you breathless… and with a million questions?! Well, check these out! Fifty of the world’s most mysterious places – those made by man and those gifted by nature. Places that stimulate curiosity and everyone’s truly innate desire to learn and know more!

Locations included: Stonehenge (Great Britain); Loch Ness (Great Britain); Fingal’s Cave (Great Britain); San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (Spain); Quinta da Regaleira (Portugal); Alchemical Caves (Italy); Gardens of Bomarzo (Italy); Carnac Stones (France); Paris Catacombs (France); Devil’s Bridge (Germany); Black Forest (Germany); Crooked Forest (Poland); Hessdalen Lights and Aurora Borealis (Scandinavia); Hoia Baciu Forest (Romania);
Krudum Hill (Czech Republic); Buda Castle Labyrinth (Hungary); Dargavs (Russia); Mammoth Bone Buildings (Ukraine and Russia); Tunnel of Love (Ukraine); Pamukkale Thermal Pools (Turkey); Giza Necropolis (Egypt); Eye of the Sahara (Mauritania); Fairy Circles (Namibia); Gates of Hell (Turkmenistan); Vaitheeswaran Koil (India); North Sentinel Island (India); Heizhugou Forest (China); Terracotta Army (China); Genghis Khan’s Grave (Mongolia); Mysterious Road (South Korea); Ise Shrine (Japan); Plain of Jars (Laos); Marine Bioluminescence (Maldives); Slope Point (New Zealand); Devil’s Sea (Pacific Ocean); Mariana Trench (Pacific Ocean); Abraham Lake (Canada); Bermuda Triangle (Atlantic Ocean); Area 51 (USA); Sailing Stones at Racetrack Playa (USA); Naica Mine (Mexico); Island of the Dead Dolls (Mexico); Snake Island (Brazil); Enchanted Well (Brazil); Catatumbo Lightning (Venezuela); Uyuni Salt Flat (Bolivia); El Ojo, the Rotating Island (Argentina); Nazca Lines (Peru); Machu Picchu (Peru); Easter Island (Chile).

Ages 8 plus.

Discover the magic of beloved the classic fairy tale Pinocchio with The Storyteller sound books. This innovative collection offers young children a new way to experience these timeless tales: designed for those who are not yet able to read independently, each book allows children to explore the stories by turning the pages while listening to the corresponding text read aloud at the touch of a button. The book becomes a modern storyteller, presenting the fairy tales with beautiful illustrations and engaging narration that brings the stories to life.

Other titles in the collection include:

9788854421707   The Storyteller: Peter Pan

9788854421691   The Storyteller: Little Red Riding Hood

9788854421721   The Storyteller: Snow White

Ages 4 plus.

This publication commemorates the public unveiling of the Sherwin and Shirley Glass Glass Collection at the Flint Institute of Arts in its new wing, dedicated to contemporary craft. Amassed during a ten-year period by Atlanta-based collectors Sherwin and Shirley Glass, this contemporary glass collection represents the greatest achievements by a large and diverse group of important international artists. With glass masterworks by more than 85 artists representing 19 countries around the world, this collection shows an explosion of creativity in the medium of glass from the late 20th through the early 21st century.

In this catalogue, FIA Executive Director John Henry demonstrates why Flint, Michigan, is an ideal location for a contemporary craft wing; Habatat Galleries founder Ferd Hampson discusses how the Glasses’ collecting interests represented a “quest for the best”, and Patricia Grieve Watkinson contextualises the Glass Glass Collection within international and American glass movements.

Contents: Contemporary Craft in Flint – John B. Henry; A Quest for the Best – Ferdinand Hampson; Tradition, Innovation, and Meaning: The Sherwin and Shirley Glass Collection – Patricia Grieve Watkinson.

“This book is a fascinating look at a history rarely told.” —The Guardian

“a fascinating look at a history rarely told” — The Observer

“In his new book “Around the World in 200 Globes” (Luster), he spot-lights some of the most significant and interesting, shpwing that a globe is more than a map on a ball.” — Wall Street Journal

“…a superb illustrator of changing boundaries and national self-regard” — Strong Words

“…exquisite examples that speak to our species’ ever-shifting ideas of who we are and where we live” — National Geographic Traveler

“…beautifully put together – and the photographs of the globes are straightforward but show off the magnificence of the collection admirably” — Amateur Photographer

The Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings (co-founder of Neutelings Riedijk Architects) is known as the architect of, among other things, the MAS in Antwerp and the Gare Maritime in Brussels’ Tour & Taxis district. Few people know, however, that Neutelings is also an avid collector who, over the years, has built up a very extensive and also very specific collection of hundreds of globes, made between 1900 and 2000. In this book, he presents his collection to the public for the first time. He selected 200 globes, each telling a very individual and interesting story about the time and place when and where they were created. Some globes bear witness to technological innovations by the way they were made, some show how advanced people’s knowledge of space was at the time, some were intended as navigational aids. Neutelings’ collection includes globes in cast iron, steel, wood and even paper; some look very old and fragile, others are very colourful, and some even give off light. Each one is a beautiful and intriguing object that teaches us a lot about the ever-changing world view of mankind. This beautiful and skillfully crafted book is an ode to these stories, to the unique objects often anonymous craftsmen produced in the last century, and to the special dedication of collectors.

The Swiss artist Otto Künzli has revolutionised modern art jewellery. In the 45-odd years in which he has been addressing the topic of jewellery, Künzli has carved out for himself a unique position of far-reaching international influence, not only as an artist and a pioneer but also as an author and mentor. Otto Künzli’s works are based on complex reflection, conceptual and visual imagination. The result: objects with a clear, minimalist appearance, captivatingly crafted to perfection and highly visible – jewellery that adorns and at the same time possesses an autonomous aesthetic status of its own. The publication presents for the first time Otto Künzli’s highly diverse oeuvre. It includes hundreds of jewellery objects as well as interdisciplinary conceptual works from the artist’s various creative phases. An extraordinary artist’s book designed in close collaboration with Otto Künzli and Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich.

Otto Künzli was born in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 1991 Künzli has held the Chair of Art Jewellery at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich – as the successor of Prof. Hermann Jünger. Otto Künzli’s work is represented in numerous international museums and collections. Alongside numerous awards, in 2010 Otto Künzli was awarded the Swiss Grand Prix Design, and in 2011 the Goldener Ehrenring der Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst, the golden ring of honour conferred by the German Association for Goldsmiths’ Art.

The Padua School originated from the Istituto Pietro Selvatico in Padua. The distinctive features of this jewelry are the use of gold reminiscent of the goldsmith’s art in antiquity and a modern and abstract formal expression within the group. Mario Pinton, who brought the goldsmith movement international recognition and acclaim in the 1950s and ’60s, is credited with founding the experimental goldsmith movement in Padua. Francesco Pavan has enlarged the scope of the Padua School with his kinetic and geometric formal idiom.

The breakthrough on the international jewelry scene took place in the late 1960s with Giampaolo Babetto, under whose support the geometric and Minimalist tendency was most pronounced. Other distinguished artists in jewelry such as Graziano Visintin, Renzo Pasquale, Annamaria Zanella, Stefano Marchetti and Giovanni Corvaya continued along these lines or went their own highly individual ways by experimenting with the use of new materials including plastic. The work of these creative artists is beautifully displayed through color photographs, which serve to highlight their great talent.

This catalogue presents masterpieces of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, and textiles from two of America’s greatest Japanese art collections, which are featured in a landmark exhibition at the Asia Society in New York, from February to April, 2020. Impermanence is a pervasive subject in Japanese philosophy and art, and recognising the role of ephemerality is key to appreciating much of Japan’s artistic production. The dazzling range of art and objects in this beautifully photographed exhibition catalogue show the broad, yet nuanced, ways that the notion of the ephemeral manifests itself in the arts of Japan throughout history. Insightful contributions from noted scholars explore the aesthetics of impermanence in religion, literature, artefacts, the tea ceremony, and popular culture in objects dating from the late Jomon period (ca. 1000-300 B.C.E.) to the 20th century.

Contents:
The Art of the Ephemeral;
Works in the Exhibition:
I. Retrieving Lost Worlds; II. Buddhism: Perpetual Impermanence; III. Tea: Choreographed Ephemerality; IV. Transforming Impermanence into Art.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, between 11 February and 26 April 2020.

Fifteen years ago, Eduardo Mencos (farmer, landscape designer and photographer) and Charles Quest-Ritson (historian, writer, journalist and editor) conceived the idea of going on a trip around the world, like Jules Verne, but with the olive tree playing the leading role. The outcome of that adventure through 26 countries is this book, which tells the story of humankind through the olive tree and its fruit. In the book, the authors take an in-depth look at a tree that is so familiar to us all and yet still remains so much of a mystery in terms of its many different guises.

With over 200 spectacular photographs taken by Eduardo Mencos, accompanied by an erudite text written by Charles Quest-Ritson, the book sweeps through the manifold manifestations of the olive tree and its distinguishing traits. It covers the origin and later domestication of the tree, all of the different roles it has played and the significance it has had at different times throughout history, its importance in the Bible, right through to the most innovative contemporary methods used today for growing and cloning olive trees, together with the prominent place it holds in the Mediterranean diet and its different uses.

The intention of this long journey is to awaken a vision of the olive tree that is imbued with beauty, poetry and curiosity.

In The 500 Hidden Secrets of Madrid, Anna-Carin Nordin presents 500 must-know addresses in the Spanish capital, such as the 5 trendiest but affordable restaurants, 5 shops with the coolest sunglasses, 5 places that are decorated by the new generation of Madrid’s designers, 5 buzzing after-work bars or the 5 most curious street names… Madrid has so much to offer, and this guide helps you to choose where to start discovering this beautiful city. It is the perfect book for those who wish to discover the city, but avoid all the usual tourist haunts, as well as for residents who are keen to track down the city’s best-kept secrets.

The Selous was my very first Africa experience, and it remains my favorite. Robert J. Ross’s extraordinary photographs take us into a natural world unlike any other on earth. A world of elephants. Of wild dogs. Of nature as it should be, can be, might be – if we keep these breathtaking images firmly in mind. A triumph! Bryan Christy, Director, Special Investigations Unit, National Geographic
The Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania is Africa’s oldest and largest protected area.  Proclaimed in 1896 and bigger than Switzerland, the Selous is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Selous remains one of Africa’s largest and greatest undisturbed ecosystems, teeming with life including one of the two largest elephant populations remaining on the African continent, probably half of all of the wild dogs in Africa, vast herds of buffalo as well as more lions than any other protected area on the continent as reported by National Geographic in August 2013. The game reserve is becoming more important by the day as the pressure on elephants and other species grows – problems that are addressed here in this book. New York-born photographer Rob Ross has spent much of the past four years photographing in this vast and difficult to access reserve. He has compiled more than 100,000 images showing all aspects of the reserves varied landscapes, seasons, flora and large and small fauna. The spectacular large-format photography book features a selection of the very best images including landscapes, wildlife portraits and behaviour, night photography, impressionist style work and breath-taking aerials.

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Rotterdam is a guide to the city’s hidden gems. It takes you off the beaten track to discover the city’s turbulent history, its modern architecture, its little-known museums, the best restaurants and the coolest clubs.
True locals Saskia Naafs & Guido van Eijck selected 500 addresses and facts about Rotterdam that few people know and presents them in lists of 5, alongside beautiful photographs. Guido and Saskia’s favourite addresses include a former harbour warehouse turned daily fresh market where you can sample a perfect locally roasted coffee or a homemade cider, a bright-red light-vessel ship where you can attend an intimate concert, or a former subtropical swimming paradise where you can grow your own oyster mushrooms.

The Labyrinth of Rooms is a story with one character, Human, who is an allegorical representation of us all. Human suddenly awakes in a square room with no memory of a prior life. A corridor leads them from that room to the next, then another, and so on until they reach the end of a 63-room labyrinth. As the journey progresses, Human contemplates their surroundings, studying the unique shape of each room and how it affects their thoughts, feelings, and actions. To understand the significance of the rooms’ architecture, Human engages in different types of thinking: questioning why the rooms were designed as such, imagining situations the rooms can host, praising what they find geometrically pleasing, speculating about the nature of the labyrinth, and even complaining about their forced existence within it. This variety is reflected in the writing of the book, which intentionally juxtaposes different genres, including storytelling, philosophical reasoning, dialogues, and prose poetry. In The Labyrinth of Rooms, the human life is conceived as a series of settings, or stated otherwise: a coevolution of our mental space and physical space.

This delightful new series of colour filled pages with easy, short and fun text makes exploring fish swimming in the ocean an exciting adventure for little ones with soft felt flaps to flip and uncover! This interactive board book with durable felt flaps plays on children’s innate attraction to peekaboo and hide-and-seek.

Ages 3+

The CARE Principles – Leadership Playbook leads us into the new era of leadership. This book shows us how to bridge the gap between different and diverse generations in our teams using the CARE Principles: Collaboration, Agility, Reliability, and Empathy. Through an easy 20 step process, practical tips and real-life stories from leaders like you, it breaks down how CARE can transform your team, making them perform better and feel truly engaged with your organisation. The time for new leadership action is now.

15 Gameboards, Booklet and Poster. 15 boards containing cards and puzzles so that the child can carry out the suggested activities. A manual that provides explanations of the activities and offers some useful hints and also how to learn more about Montessori education and apply it in everyday life. Ages: 6 plus

“I’ve loved the films of Yuri Norstein for years now. I first saw ‘Hedgehog in the Fog’ as a film student in the early 1980s and became instantly enchanted. Like many I was immediately drawn into his sensual world by the richness of the aural and visual landscapes he creates. Norstein’s films are magical and atmospheric, lovingly and masterfully executed. His story-telling and illustration style is earthy and rich in symbols which are beautiful in themselves – but one senses there is a lot more hidden behind them.” Nick Park, The creator of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run and four times Oscar-winner
Hedgehog in the Fog is an international bestseller which has already been published in many languages. The book is based on Francesca Yarbusova’s sketches to the award-winning animated film directed by Yuri Norstein. It is about the adventures of the philosophical little Hedgehog on his way to meet with his friend Bear. Along the way Hedgehog enters into a mysterious fog in which he encounters a horse, a dog, an owl, and a fish. Also available in the Norstein & Yarbusova Collection – a beautiful series of children’s picture books based on the art of famous Russian artists and animators Yuri Norstein and Francesca Yarbusova are: The Fox and the Hare ISBN: 9780984586714 and Mishmash ISBN: 9780984586745.

This volume contains nearly 1600 coins of the 9th-16th centuries from North Africa to Great Syria. The collections included in the catalogue are those of the Heberden Coin Room and the Shamma Collection. Unlike previous SICA volumes, the coins are arranged by dynasty and ruler because of the large number of distinctive types belonging to each dynasty’s coinage.

In this new volume of the Watch Book series, successful author Gisbert L. Brunner focuses on Swiss watch history and the watch industry, and in particular on the house of Oris, because what could be a more fitting connection than that of the leading expert when it comes to mechanical timepieces with the watch manufactory that is one of the few to produce exclusively mechanical watches. Founded in 1904, the company stands out in many ways in the luxury world of horology, it is run independently and not by a large corporation, it is valued as a down-to-earth brand and – in an industry that is not necessarily known for this – it focuses on sustainability, true to the motto: “Things have to make sense”. 

Of course, technology should not be missing from this volume; after all, Oris has developed 280 different calibres in its company history and manufactured them in its own factories. Companions have their say and the best watch models of the company’s almost 120-year history are presented in this usual high-quality volume.