Who better to ensure the nation’s table manners come up to scratch than an English butler with over 10 years’ experience? With the revival in good manners, etiquette, spelling and grammar, this is a timely book on table manners and dining etiquette to ensure grace at the table at all times.

Covers all aspects of eating etiquette from napkin folding, cutlery, glasses,
bread rolls (never use a knife!) and silver service to how to eat soup, spaghetti,
escargots and artichokes and open a bottle of champagne. With diagrams for
those tricky table placements and eating actions and a range of tips and hints,
the book is the last word on how to eat. It will ensure that you and your family
never let the side down whatever the company you keep while dining.

A highly entertaining read for anyone with even a passing interest in London’s history. This myth-busting book takes you on a great ride through history and the city’s character. Think that the tower that holds Big Ben is called St Stephen’s Tower? Think again – it was called the Clock Tower until 2012 when it was renamed the Elizabeth Tower. Think that the Union Flag flying over Buckingham Palace means the Queen is home? Think again – it means that she’s elsewhere, doing other Queenish things.

Packed with details on real London history, it explodes a range of myths from the rumoured burial of Queen Boudica beneath platform 10 at King’s Cross to the lamp on Carting (or ‘Farting’) Lane that runs on gas from the city’s sewers. Myths regarding London’s arts, entertainment, food, drink, kings and queens, traditions as well as politics are all covered, to give you a fascinating insight into the true capital.

Glen Scouller’s paintings are full of vibrant colour and light. In Colour and Line in Watercolour – his first book – he explains how he achieves these effects. He combines traditional watercolour techniques with adding pen and ink, pastels and crayons to create paintings brimming with colour and spontaneity.

Using step-by-step demonstration paintings, Scouller shows how he builds up his paintings, working first in watercolour and adding other media to create his original style. He gives advice on his methods and techniques and encourages the reader to experiment with mixed media. He believes that keeping a sketchbook is very important, especially when travelling and shares tips on how to start and use one. There are also sections on painting outdoors and in the studio. The subjects covered are boats and boatyards, landscapes, still life, animals and figures and portraits.

Colour and Line in Watercolour encourages all watercolourists, whatever their level, to experiment with the medium and produce exciting and challenging work of their own by adding line in various mixed media to their watercolours.

London Then and Now – People and Places takes an amazing cross-section of vintage photographs of London from the 1850s through to the 1960s, and pairs them up with the same view as it looks today. The great tourist destinations are all included: Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Houses of Parliament, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, the British Museum, St. Pauls Cathedral and Hyde Park, along with classic London pubs, famous theatres, the grand stations, and Carnaby Street and the Kings Road.

The book travels along the Thames through Hammersmith, Barnes and Richmond out to Hampton Court, plus we get a fleeting glimpse of Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones posing on Park Lane and walking out of court in Southcombe Street. There are Dickensian street scenes, plus ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ and coaching inns that Dickens visited.

Sites include: Albert Hall, Albert Memorial, Bank of England, Grosvenor Square, Chelsea, Cleopatra’s Needle, Selfridges, Earls Court, Fleet Street, Soho, Haymarket, Kensington High Street, Kew Gardens, Leicester Square, Oxford Street, Paddington, Piccadilly Circus, Savoy Hotel, V&A, Natrual History Museum, National Theatre, Festival Hall, Waterloo and much more.

An inspirational guide to using nature in textile art, with step-by-step projects

Plants, flowers, gardens, insects and birds are a rich source of inspiration for artists and designers of all kinds. This beautiful guide demonstrates how to get the most out of your surroundings to create original and unique pieces in textiles.

Beginning with a chapter on drawing from nature, the book demonstrates how to use sketchbooks and create mood boards to explore your local environment and landscape. The author demonstrates how to make small pieces such as folding books based on observational drawing and stitch. Moving on to a section on floral inspiration, the author shows how to use plants and flowers in your work, from using stencilled flower motifs as embellishment to printing with plants onto fabric and making simple relief prints. Finally, the taking flight chapter demonstrates how to move into three-dimensions and sculptural work with birds and insects made from cloth.

Featuring step-by-step projects as well as work from contemporary artists, makers and collaborative groups throughout, this practical and beautiful guide shows how practitioners of all kinds can draw from the natural world for making and inspiration.

The most inspirational buildings in the world, as chosen by well-known contemporary architects.

In this book, published in conjunction with the Twentieth Century Society, 50 contemporary architects choose the buildings from around the world that have inspired them and made an impact on their own work. Architectural journalist Pamela Buxton interviewed each of the architects to create these outstanding portraits of the buildings that have influenced modern architecture. The diverse selection is introduced by Twentieth Century Society director Catherine Croft, and illustrated throughout with photographs by Gareth Gardner and Edward Tyler.

The book features a diverse range of inspirational buildings, from housing estates to castles, coal mines to cathedrals. Work by the giants of twentieth-century architecture including Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto are featured, as well as lesser-known gems. Examples include Richard Rogers (of RHSP) on Maison de Verre (Paris, France); Chris Williamson (of Weston Williamson) on the Eames House by Charles and Ray Eames (Los Angeles, USA); Takero Shimazaki (of T-SA, UK) on Hexenhaus by Alison and Peter Smithson (Bad Karlshafen, Germany); Ted Cullinan (of Cullinan Studio) on Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut by Le Corbusier (Ronchamp, France); Michael Squire (of Squire & Partners, UK) on Grundtvig’s Church by Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint (Copenhagen, Denmark); and Jonathan Woolf (of Jonathan Woolf Architects) on Haus Esters and Haus Lange by Mies van der Rohe (Krefeld, Germany).

This beautifully produced book offers a great insight into the power of existing architecture and its immense influence on the world we build today.

Becoming a Grandmaster is the ultimate aim for serious chess players, but whatever your chess abilities, this book will take you to the next level. Packed with tips, tricks and practical exercises aimed at players of all skill levels who aspire to greatness.

Even an average chess player can find the same moves as a Grandmaster as much as 75 percent of the time. The difference is that only the Grandmaster can find the other 25 percent. This book identifies the kinds of moves and techniques that account for that 25 percent. Among the topics covered in the book are: Mysterious rook pawn moves, Tacking, Piece Nullification, “King Feeling,” and how to play for a win without risk.

Written by one of our biggest-selling and best-loved chess authors, in his trademark chatty, accessible but always informative style, this book is filled with practical exercises and test games that will reveal the secrets of how to join chess’s elite ranks.

A hugely enjoyable way for young children to learn about music. Following on from our successful Chess for Children, music teacher Becky Rumens-Syratt takes young children (aged 6 to 12) on a journey to understand the basics of music, and then specifically how to start to play some of the key instruments: piano, guitar, and recorder.

With the help of Trudi Treble and Barry Bass, you can teach children the language of music, the clefs, the stave, the notes and rhythm, with great games along the way, such as making your own edible stave and notes with strawberry laces and smarties or M&Ms. It gives detailed advice such as how to hold a recorder properly for very young children to using a chocolatey finger to learn how to blow into the instrument.

It features the same style of illustration as Chess for Children and the same fun elements to make teaching your child about music as enjoyable as it should be.

The hugely accomplished textile artist Jean Draper gives an invaluable guide to designing and working with pattern in textile art.
Jean goes back to basics with simple dots and lines, demonstrating how even basic squares, circles and triangles can have a stunning impact in stitch and textiles. She provides practical and simple instructions for developing and experimenting with pattern, using grids, symmetry, rotation and repeats.
Jean draws inspiration from patterns around the world, from West African Kente Cloth to the Gee’s Bend quilts of Alabama. There are instructions on creating bands and borders, strip patchwork and strip piecing, plus an extended study of Banjara stitched textiles. Natural patterns from plants and flowers also offer exciting opportunities for stitch, and Jean explores important design emblems such a the Tree of Life alongside other stitched flower forms. Finally, the ornamentation of the body provides many unique and striking ways to interpret the human form in stitch.
Pattern is everywhere and can be used to stunning effect, taking your textile art to the next level. This fascinating and exciting guide brings together inspiration, design methods and stitching techniques to help you develop truly great textile art.

A follow-up to the bestselling ‘Improve Your Chess in 7 Days’, this essential chess instructor is perfect for players who are desperate to brush up on their tactics but don”t have time to devote to long hours of study. Handily arranged day by day, it is full of easy-to-follow advice on developing nifty tricks that will confound your opponent and help you win the game. It includes all the basic tactical skills such as pins, decoys, deflections, double attacks etc, then delves deeper, showing you how to harness them at various points of the game. It also contains a sprinkling of chess cartoons to keep you smiling as you read. Day 1: So You Want to Improve Your Tactics? Day 2: Understanding Tactics Day 3: Develop Your Creativity Day 4: Tactics in the Opening Day Day 5: Tactics in the Middlegame Day 6: Tactics in the Endgame Day 7: Blunders and Brilliancies Packed with tips and tricks, this book”s clear, no-nonsense style makes it the ideal companion for sharpening your tactics – quickly.

A practical book with simple excercises showing the basics of drawing.

Learning to draw is quicker and easier than you might think. This practical and concise book contains simple exercises and techniques to encourage you to start drawing, whether you want to be able to create a sketch, a visual diary of your holiday, or draw for sheer creative pleasure.

Sharon Finmark covers the basics of drawing, sharing advice on texture, pattern and form. She shows how to achieve light and shade, solidity of form and how to add simple perspective to your compositions. There is an introduction to working with different drawing media including pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, coloured pencils and watercolour.

Subjects covered are still life, flowers and plants, landscapes, interiors and people. By the end of this little book you should be able to draw with confidence and have fun with it!

A book of prints taken from the international bestseller Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom.

Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom was the publishing sensation of 2015. Her illustrations have taken the world by storm, and her book has sold over 5 million copies. In this Book of Prints, 20 of Millie’s favourite prints are provided one sided, on super thick card that are easily detachable. Readers can use pens, pencils, and even paints to decorate them and frame them or keep. But they also work as beautiful standalone works of art just as they are. 

From octopus to dragonflies, from butterflies to fish, from whales to rhinos, there is something to delight all Millie fans and those new to her art.