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Secret Voices

A Year of Women's Diaries

Sarah Gristwood

Batsford

Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781837330720

Paperback publication date: 1 October 2026

Category: Letters & Diaries

Paperback price:

£ 14.99

Hardback ISBN: 9781849948159

Hardback publication date: 29 February 2024

Category: Letters & Diaries

Hardback price:

£ 25.00

eBook ISBN: 9781849949309

eBook publication date: 29 February 2024

Category: Letters & Diaries

eBook price: £ 12.99

  Our price: £

’Totally addictive.’
– Alice Loxton, The Daily Telegraph

‘An intriguing, highly snackable guide to women’s experiences.’
– Independent

‘A modern classic.’
– Alison Weir, author and historian

‘The sort of book you return to again and again.’
– Tracy Borman, author and historian

A captivating collection of daily extracts from women’s diaries.

Organised around the calendar year, in this engaging anthology you’ll find Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and Loran Hurnscot in the twentieth both stoically recording the demands of an unreasonable husband. Joan Wyndham and Anne Frank, at much the same time but in wildly different settings, describe their first experiences with sex, and Anne Lister (TV’s Gentleman Jack) in eighteenth-century Yorkshire and Alice Walker in twentieth-century California both explore their love affairs with women. It looks back over four centuries to discover how women’s experience – of men and children, sex and shopping, work and the natural world – has changed down the years. And, of course, how it hasn’t.

With several selections for each day, this book is a fascinating record of how women were thinking, feeling and reacting to historical events: Virginia Woolf relishes her new haircut and Oprah Winfrey meditates on her career, Emilie Davis chronicles the death of Abraham Lincoln and a teenage Ma Yan yearns for education in poverty-stricken China. Secret Voices contains a rich mix of well-known diarists and less familiar ones, and often the voices echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.

ABOUT THE Author

Sarah Gristwood is a biographer, journalist and commentator on royal affairs. Her previous books include the bestselling Arbella: England’s Lost Queen, The Tudors in Love, Secret Voices and biographies of Beatrix Potter, Winston Churchill, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, and HM Queen Elizabeth II. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces, and regularly contributes to TV documentary series and coverage of royal events. She lives in Kent.

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Wartime Recipes

45 tasty and nutritious recipes from the Dig For Victory years

David Notley

Pitkin

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330713

Hardback publication date: 2 April 2026

Category: Military History

Hardback price:

£ 7.99

A fascinating and nostalgic collection of over 40 wholesome recipes from the Second World War.

At a time of shortages and rationing, British householders were faced with the daily challenge of providing nutritious meals for the family. This evocative compendium of recipes, illustrated with wartime propaganda notices, photographs and advertisements to give a real flavour of the time, can all be made with modern ingredients.

You’ll find warming soups, ingenious ways with tinned meat, delicious vegetable dishes using produce straight from the Dig For Victory allotment, clever puddings using leftover bread and jam, and – for those who like that sort of thing – some recipes for offal. Dishes such as Spinach Soup with Dumplings, Corned Beef Rissoles, Tomato Macaroni au Gratin and Coconut Orange Pudding not only recall the ingenuity and camaraderie of those wartime days, but also make truly mouth-watering meals for today’s family table.

Now published at a bigger size with a beautiful new cover, this classic recipe collection makes the ideal gift for thrifty cooks, twentieth century history buffs, and anyone who wants to learn from Britain’s wartime ingenuity.

ABOUT THE Author

David Notley is an author who specialises in the social history of the 20th century. He is especially interested in cooking during the Second World War, with his Pitkin titles including Wartime Recipes with Ivor Claydon.

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Feng Shui Fix It!

100 Solutions for a Happier Home

Cliff Tan

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330744

Hardback publication date: 1 October 2026

Category: Lifestyle & Gardening

Hardback price:

£ 16.99

Reimagine your house (and your life) using tips from internet feng shui expert Cliff Tan.

If you’re not happy with your home – fix it with feng shui! How you live affects your mood and your life, and in Feng Shui Fix It! Cliff shows how you can use his easy-to-follow tips and tricks to clear the clutter, place furniture in your rooms, and add colour and decor to achieve your ideal living environment. The ancient practice of feng shui is full of practical advice to improve your space and Cliff explains the 100 most important feng shui beliefs about your home, what they mean for our modern context, and how you can fix any faux pas.

Cliff has helped millions of people across the world fix their homes through his social media videos and his one-on-one client meetings – and now he’s bringing the most-asked questions and answers together here, alongside his own drawings explaining each concept. Cliff’s aim is simple: he wants you to feel happy to be home the moment you step foot inside your front door. 

If you’ve ever wondered:

  • Where to place your bed for the best night’s sleep 

  • How to fit your work desk into your house

  • How to make your entranceway feel more welcoming 

  • How to create a money corner 

  • How to make your bedroom ready for a partner 

  • What to do if your living room faces a cemetery

  • Why it feels uncomfortable to have a bathroom above your bedroom

Cliff will answer your queries and more, along with explaining the principles of feng shui. Now there is no excuse not to fix it and live a better life. 

‘There are reasons behind each feng shui rule. Indeed, moving furniture around can actually change your life – as long as you understand how and why’ – Cliff

Dogs Can Dance

Naomi Tipping

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330645

Hardback publication date: 3 September 2026

Category: Lifestyle

Hardback price:

£ 9.99

A hilarious flip book featuring a cavalcade of mix-and-match dancing dogs.

Ever wondered what dogs get up to when you’re not looking? This captivating book provides the answer to that all-important question: they’re dancing, of course!

In this delightfully dancetastic follow-up to the bestselling Cats in Pants, award-winning illustrator Naomi Tipping presents an adorable line-up of dogs showing us their very best dance moves. Each page of the book is divided into three so you can mix them up to create oodles of different dog dancers, all rendered in Naomi’s charmingly hand-drawn, hugely expressive illustration style – these dogs are packed with personality.

Whether they’re in the ballroom dancing a tango, elegantly leaping across the stage in a tutu or doing some outstanding dog dad dancing, these performing pooches will capture the heart of every reader, young and old alike. Dogs Can Dance is the perfect gift for any dog lover – or dance fan!

ABOUT THE Author

Naomi Tipping is an illustrator who has worked for a wide variety of editorial and publishing clients over the last 20 years. She loves to combine drawing, texture and collage to create fun and figurative illustrations with a handmade feel. She delivers ‘Illustration & Imagination’ workshops in schools and other settings. She is constantly inspired by the work of young people. Naomi lives in Nottingham.

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Women, Walking

Contemporary voices on nature and belonging

Kerri Andrews

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330683

Hardback publication date: 6 August 2026

Category: Humour, Popular Culture & Games

Hardback price:

£ 20.00

Join bestselling author Kerri Andrews and ten other women as they each narrate walks that will challenge, inspire and fascinate you.

Following on from Kerri Andrews’ bestselling book Wanderers, which retold the history of walking through ten women, Women, Walking is an agenda-setting, contemporary exploration of women setting foot outdoors now, and what that means. This groundbreaking collection brings together many of the most prominent and exciting voices of the last decade across poetry, fiction, essays and journalism: Anna Fleming, Anita Sethi, Beatrice Searle, Gail Simmons, Helen Mort, Josie Giles, Kate Davis, Katharine Norbury, Linda Cracknell and Polly Atkin.

From an evocative and moving account by Beatrice Searle on walking with her mother to Gail Simmons celebrating the low-key wonders of the incidental walks we take every day, from Linda Cracknell on her walk to the shops – when the shops are two days’ walk away – and the enjoyment of the changing landscape she passes through to Kate Davis on why walking matters more when disability prevents you from doing it ‘properly’, this rich collection rewrites the notion that walking is always vigorous, enjoyable and universal. Instead, it confirms the importance of every kind of walking as a political and creative act of belonging. Moving and radical, Women, Walking challenges our notions of what walking is, and who it is for – and encourages us all to get outside, know our surroundings and find our voice.

REVIEWS

‘An engrossing collection that puts real lives and bodies front and centre, leaving the heroic masculine walker in the far distance. I am grateful for it.’

 

Katherine May author of Wintering

Good Vibrations

Resonator Guitars and American Life

Darcy Kuronen

John Troutman

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781785516474

Hardback publication date: 29 October 2026

Category: Art & Illustration

Hardback price:

£ 36.00

Unrivalled catalogue of classic American resonator guitars.

In 1927, a small Los Angeles company created a startlingly new kind of guitar. Featuring three aluminium cones inside a shiny metal body, the ‘tricone’ made by the National String Instrument Company sounded and looked like no other guitar. For a short period, until amplified electric guitars became viable in the late 1930s, resonator guitars were at the vital centre of American popular music, a legacy that has fascinated musicians and fans ever since. Featuring essays by two musical instrument experts, colour plates documenting these guitars as no other publication has, and additional illustrations that link these guitars to broader themes in American history and culture, this book provides a rich account of an iconic American object.

Josefina Auslender

Drawing Myself Free

Cassandra Mesick Braun

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781785516450

Hardback publication date: 17 September 2026

Category: Art & Illustration

Hardback price:

£ 30.00

A captivating companion to a major retrospective of Josefina Auslender’s drawings at Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.

This stunning book offers the first comprehensive exploration of Argentinian contemporary artist Josefina Auslender. Despite her prolific mastery of drawing and abstraction in graphite, colored pencil, and ink, Auslender has received disproportionately little attention by critics, scholars, and art institutions–until now.

This survey of Auslender’s artistic career spans decades and continents, conveying her lifelong passion for creating new worlds through art. By connecting the artist’s work with key moments in her professional career, intersecting with major global events, the accessible text examines issues of gender, war, grief, trauma, diaspora–and how we all, in our own ways, grapple with feelings of isolation and connection, otherness, and belonging.

Wilderness Songs

Nature’s hidden sounds and what they teach us about the wild

Justin Anderson

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330669

Hardback publication date: 1 October 2026

Category: Nature

Hardback price:

£ 15.99

Wilderness Songs tells the story of a whole host of fascinating and unexpected sounds from the natural world – all of which are brought to life with QR codes so readers can experience the incredible field of bioacoustics for themselves.

From blue whales that can converse between global hemispheres, the elusive whistling of the Northern Lights, and a volcanic explosion so loud it was heard over a twelfth of the Earth’s surface, to elephants that use individual names for different members of their herds, wildlife documentary filmmaker Justin Anderson uncovers some of the most unusual and impressive natural sounds on the planet.

Along the way, he explores the latest research into how animals communicate with one another, how recordings can be used as a fundamental tool for conservation, and the ways predators and prey use sound to hunt and escape. Also included are habitat-based chapters that examine the distinct soundscapes found within our forests, mountains, and oceans.

Drawing on his real-life experiences as a wildlife cameraman and filmmaker behind some of the most successful natural history documentaries to date, Justin weaves in vivid and exciting accounts from his life on location. He also explains how recent advances in microphones and artificial intelligence are only now allowing us to listen in and begin to understand the true complexity of these soundscapes and how, in a world where human noise is growing ever louder, animals have been forced to adapt their communication in order to be heard.

When the Sky Falls

A human history of shooting stars

Jade Angeles Fitton

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330652

Hardback publication date: 3 September 2026

Category:

Hardback price:

When the Sky Falls is a global cultural history of shooting stars spanning from the prehistoric to the present day, and exploring beliefs, superstitions, and the relationship between humanity and meteors throughout time.

Structured across four parts – ‘Art, Culture and the Meteor’, ‘Utilising Space Rocks’, ‘Belief and Superstition’ and ‘Shooting Stars’ Influence on History’ – the book explores the varied influences the shooting star has had on our global culture and history from the governing of kings, queens and emperors, to folklore, superstitions, myths, art, music and literature, not to mention the various scientific advancements and applications that meteors have allowed.

In the present day – an era largely devoid of superstition and belief – more than anything else, a shooting star symbolises hope: an irrational excuse to make a wish in an increasingly rational world. Despite (or perhaps because of) light pollution decreasing our ability to witness the night sky in the 21st century, the shooting star retains its magic. For anyone – from the tired Russian drivers who witnessed the Chelyabinsk Event in 2013, to the amateur stargazer catching a glimpse of a falling Perseid – a shooting star tearing through the black still feels like a little miracle: this book tells their captivating story.

REVIEWS

'A burst of brilliance'

Cal Flyn

'...made me look at the night sky in a completely different way.'

Will Millard

'An incredible collection of the deeply universal yet deeply personal experience of witnessing a shooting star.'

Ben Edge, author of 'Folklore Rising'

'A perfect book of miracles'

Stephen Ellcock

'...confirms Jade Angeles Fitton as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary non-fiction.'

Stu Hennigan

'A scintillating journey'

Tom Vowler

'...slender, elegant, and rich...'

Joe Gibson

'...a bright star of a book.'

Sally Huband, author of Sea Bean

‘A rich and elegantly written miscellany’

Tiffany Francis-Baker

'...a book of wonder and astonishment.'

Anna Selby

'A glittering tapestry of astral stories.... An examination of the fact that sometimes, truth is more wondrous than fiction.'

Tom Allan

'...a book for every reader – dreamer, academic and storyteller alike.’

Jodie Rhian Matthews

‘An inspiring interstellar journey through time, space and place...'

Phoebe Smith

Stitching with Nature

Creating material magic with the natural world

Katerina Knight

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330621

Hardback publication date: 1 October 2026

Category: Textile Art

Hardback price:

£ 25.00

A practical and inspirational guide to using natural materials to create precious textiles that capture the intricate and ephemeral qualities of nature.

In this beautiful book, textile artist, writer and educator Katerina Knight presents unique techniques for using dried flora and plant materials in ways you may have never imagined before. From sowing seeds to sewing stitches, Stitching with Nature brings together both horticultural and textile practices to create material magic with the natural world.

With a focus on four specific plants (lavender, cornflower, dahlia and statice), Stitching with Nature provides an overview of the history and folklore of each plant, as well as tips for how to grow them and creative ideas for how to include the plants in your textile art. Learn how to connect craft with the organic seasonal cycles of nature, growing and gathering all year long and finding inspiration in nature’s transitions.

Combining the meditative effects of spending time in nature and practising handicrafts, Stitching with Nature prioritises on mental wellbeing, helping you to calm your mind, creatively. Packed with advice and inspiration, this book is a must-have for anyone inspired by the beauty of nature.

100 Poems to Celebrate Growing Older

Jane McMorland Hunter

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330614

Hardback publication date: 1 October 2026

Series: 100 Poems

Category: Poetry

Hardback price:

£ 12.99

This comforting anthology of poems, the latest in our 100 Poems series, is the perfect collection to help you celebrate ageing (whether gracefully or disgracefully).

It includes a wide selection of poets and poems, from the famous, such as Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ and Jenny Joseph’s ‘Warning’ (‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple’), voted Britain’s favourite post-war poem in a BBC poll, to less well-known voices such as Iranian poet Mo H. Saidi, Carole Satyamurti’s evocative description of two old ladies paddling, and some ancient Greek wisdom from Callimachus. It urges you to seize the moment, to process your regrets, to make the most of what you have, to prepare for the inevitable, and most importantly, never to give up.

Keep this handy anthology nearby, whether at your bedside, in your bag or on your desk, ready to remind you that ageing is a personal journey that can take whatever shape you decide.

ABOUT THE Author

Jane McMorland Hunter writes and edits books on the good things in life: gardening, nature, cookery, craft and poetry, whilst also working part-time at Hatchards Bookshop, London. She has written and edited several books, including 100 Happy Poems, A Happy Poem to End Every Day, Ode to London, Favourite Poems of England, A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year and Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year. She lives in West London and can be found on social media at @alittlecitygarden.

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Playful Stitch

Joyful journeys in textile art

Deena Beverley

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781837330607

Hardback publication date: 12 November 2026

Category: Textile Art

Hardback price:

£ 25.00

A sumptuous and vividly colourful journey through Deena Beverley’s imaginative take on textile art, in which she shares her passion for playfulness in all things stitched and mixed media.

Here Deena shares the key ingredient in her creative practice: play – making this book a practical route map to reconnect readers with the simple, childlike pleasure of joyful experimentation and unpressured making. With chapters including ‘The Nature Table’, ‘The Toybox’, ‘The Dressing-Up Box’, ‘The Stationary Cupboard’, ‘Story Time’ and ‘Messy Play’, Deena shares how she makes creative play a part of her daily life, turning it into beautiful, award-winning hand- and machine-embroidered, painted, quilted and appliquéd work.

Packed with simple techniques which not only inject a shot of new energy into familiar materials, but which are, crucially, fun to do, Deena describes this book as ‘messy play for grownups’ with detours to the dressing-up box, a rummage through the toy box and a deep delve into the stationery cupboard, via story time.

This palate-cleansing dopamine hit of colour and texture is a creative holiday for the soul and Deena’s distinctively rich, illustrative, compelling narrative work which readers know and love, will inspire many happy hours of playful making.

ABOUT THE Author

Deena Beverley is a textile artist, author of several craft books and a regular contributor to Embroidery magazine. Her award-winning work has been widely exhibited internationally and she has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’. She is based in Wiltshire.

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