A handy poetry companion to keep around in times of difficulty.

This supportive anthology of 100 specially chosen poems is here to help. Whatever the shape of your struggle, there’s a poem here to guide you through it, providing a shoulder to cry on or a helping hand. There are meditations on the nature of life, grief, and memory, and how the fabric of life and death weave together. Poets young and old, classic and contemporary, give their perspectives on loss all across the spectrum of love, from pets to partners to abstract ideas. 

This collection of poems includes the likes of Shakespeare’s timeless observations, Maya Angelou’s thoughtful philosophising, the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu, and much much more. You can trust in the poetry of some of the brightest and most sensitive minds throughout history to reach out to you through your feelings to offer you relief and understanding in confusing times.

Following on from 100 Happy Poems and 100 Poems to Help You Sleep, this is a collection of poems that will help you feel a little less alone in your time of need.

‘Dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother.’
(Leigh Bowery, 1985)

Outlaws dives into the anarchic energy of London’s 1980s club scene, celebrating the avant-garde, experimental designs of Leigh Bowery and his fellow fashion renegades, including John Galliano, Stephen Linard, BodyMap, Pam Hogg, Rachel Auburn and Wayne Hemingway. 

This unique and daring creative movement sparked an explosion of outrageous fashion. Outlaws features specially commissioned photography of original outfits crafted by 28 trailblazing clothes designers. They are accompanied by first-hand accounts from musician Holly Johnson, DJ Mark Moore, artist Peter Doig and photographer Dave Swindells, as well as rare photos and flyers from club nights where these outfits were worn, such as Bowery’s legendary Taboo.

Outlaws captures a subculture that defied norms and pushed the boundaries. It is a tribute to the visionaries who reshaped British pop culture and blazed a trail to high fashion.

First published in 1956, We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading gardener of the 1960s, and her husband Walter transformed an acre of wilderness into a stunning cottage garden, still open to the public at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, England. This is now one of the most important books on gardening ever written. A beautiful and timeless book on creating a garden.

Margery Fish turned to gardening when she was in her mid-forties and went on to develop the whole concept of a cottage garden. She had a love of flowers coupled with a passion for nature and made an intensive research into the traditionally grown plants with which cottage gardens in Britain were once so densely planted. In this classic owrk, she recounts the trails and tribulations, successes and failures, of her venture with ease and humour. Topics covered are colourful and diverse, ranging from the most suitable hyssop for the terraced garden through composting, hedges, making paths to the best time to lift and replant tulip bulbs. Her good sense, practical knowledge and imaginative ideas will encourage and inspire gardeners everywhere. 

A fascinating exploration of VW, one of the most revered and enduring international car brands, with dynamic photography and insightful text that explains why we love them and why you should want to own one.

With a second-to-none reputation for reliability, innovation and style, Volkswagen is one of the world’s best-loved car manufacturers. From the adorable and unforgettable Type One, otherwise known as the Beetle or Bug, which reached huge heights of popularity in the 1960s, to today’s groundbreaking hybrid and electric vehicles, good design has always been at the forefront of VW’s philosophy.

This fascinating book, written by a long-time VW fanatic who is also an expert in art and design, traces the development of Volkswagen design throughout the years, examining the most exciting and stylish models – not only the Beetle but the huge range of family cars, camper vans, SUVs and modern city cars the company has produced throughout the years, and not forgetting the iconic Golf GTI.

The perfect gift for the car aficionado in your life, whether they own a VW or not, this fun and quirky book explores everything that’s great about this classic brand.

Master painting lively figures and private portraits, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations.

Bestselling artist and author Hazel Soan explains how to create beautiful and engaging paintings of strangers and loved ones, with handy hints and work-in-progress paintings throughout. Learn how to overcome shyness or anxiety about painting people in private and in public. Capture their energy and see beyond their likeness through angles, movement, tone and detail. Understand how to make them comfortable with poses, a timeframe and support. Learn about clothing, proportion, measuring and scene-setting.

This is the only book you need for painting people and portraits. This extensive guide is ideal for all painters, new or experienced.

A practical and inspirational resource for any visual artist who wants to paint in a less figurative way and take their first steps into the realm of abstract art.

Through practical projects and easy-to-follow demonstrations, renowned artist Laura Reiter shows you how to create beautiful and unique abstracts in mixed media. Whether you want to simplify a subject into its abstract elements, or experiment with colour, line and form to make something completely new, this book will help you find an approach that works for you.

It covers how to use materials creatively, focusing on watercolour, acrylics and combining different paint media, and how to have fun with colour and composition to create something unique. The author explains how to find sources of inspiration and build up a mark-making repertoire, bringing in texture and collage, and includes a wealth of playful exercises to help you develop your own individual abstract painting style.

Beautifully illustrated with the author’s vibrant abstract compositions, the book also features stunning examples from other leading artists whose work is partly or wholly abstract. This fascinating book is all any artist needs to successfully make the move into abstract painting.

This richly illustrated volume features expressive paintings by three East Asian and Asian American painters whose lives were fundamentally shaped by the major conflicts of the twentieth century.

Internationally recognized Hong Kong artist, Chao Shao-an, shaped modernist approaches to Chinese ink painting. Through the metaphorical subjects of bird-and-flower paintings, he ruminated on events from the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 to the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Keisho Okayama, son of a high-ranking Japanese Buddhist priest, arrived in the United States with his family to help proselytize Buddhism, only to spend several formative childhood years incarcerated in a WWII internment camp. His large-scale paintings contemplate these and other deeply affecting experiences from his life. Vietnamese American painter Ann Phong’s work reflects on her escape from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, as well as the experiences of the Vietnamese immigrant community in the United States. Published to accompany a national traveling exhibition, this elegant book will be of interest anyone exploring conflict, trauma, and healing through art.

Offering a new approach seen through a variety of frameworks, this groundbreaking publication reframes the narrative of American Art through the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

How might American art be experienced at this moment? Disrupting traditional presentations of art from the Americas and offering a new set of approaches to collection display and interpretation, this groundbreaking publication reframes 2,000 years of art drawn from the world-renowned holdings of the Brooklyn Museum.  Organized within a variety of innovative frameworks, such as “Trouble the Water,” “To Give Flowers,” “Several Seats,” and “Witness,” iconic artworks are grouped alongside never-before-exhibited works, all beautifully illustrated and to dazzling effects. Texts written by curators, community members, botanists, drag artists, and other thought partners highlight both the curatorial approach and the unique transdisciplinary conversations that can occur between objects. Prioritizing dialogue and engagement, this bold publication creates an accessible and inclusive experience of American Art that spans time, culture, nation, and medium.

In this new title in Scala’s popular Director’s Choice series, Colin B. Bailey introduces the Morgan Library & Museum’s outstanding collection, including gems such as a rare Gutenberg Bible, working manuscripts by Mozart, Handel, Joyce and Wilde and works by Rembrandt, Schiele and Van Gogh.

A museum and independent research library located in the heart of New York City, the Morgan Library & Museum began as the personal library of financier, collector and cultural benefactor John Pierpont Morgan. As early as 1890 Morgan had begun to assemble a collection of illuminated, literary and historical manuscripts, books, drawings and prints. Musical manuscripts, modern and contemporary works on paper and photography have been added to the collection as it has grown through the years. This beautifully illustrated volume offers a lively introduction to Bailey’s chosen works, providing unique and personal insights into the heart of this beloved collection.

This stunning publication unearths the priceless scores at the heart of The Juilliard School’s unparalleled collection that has supported the education of performing artists for more than a century. Famed soprano Renée Fleming describes Juilliard School Library Music Manuscripts as a  "map to the treasure” of one of the world’s finest collections of musical manuscripts. 

This richly illustrated and elegantly designed book features masterpieces including the final manuscript of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with revisions, corrections and alterations by the composer; the autographed manuscript of the final scene of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro

Delve into the amazing stories behind these unique manuscripts, sketches, engravers proofs and first editions by Bach, Brahms, Schumann and others. The accompanying texts are written by scholars and performers who convey the manuscripts’ importance to music scholarship and the history of the performing arts.