‘Whether you are new to wanting to understand birdsong, or are already a fully fledged birdwatcher, this book casts a spell. A truly lovely reading experience’ – Love Reading

This is a book full of fascinating stories about birdsong for every week of the year, with QR codes to bring each song to life.

Leading bird expert and writer, Dominic Couzens, takes you on a journey to enjoy an authentic year of birdsong around the world, one for every week of the year. From the ancient song of the Rifleman that was likely the first sound made by a songbird to the Eurasian Skylark who evokes the zenith of summer, from the constant companion of the American Robin whose song resonates from the top of skyscrapers and complements the howling of a wolfpack in Alaska to the drumming rhythm of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. This book covers a myriad of topics including bird nature and behaviour, stories and literary masterpieces inspired by birdsongs, the musicality of the notes, and what different songs communicate.

Each of these fascinating stories are accompanied by illustrations by award-winning artist Madeleine Floyd and a QR code to let you listen to the birdsong while you read.

A natural wonder that has captivated and fascinated generations, birdsong is the soundtrack to life. This book offers the perfect tonic whether you are an avid birdwatcher or just want to understand the songs that are often the first thing we hear in the morning and the last thing we hear at night.

A happy plant makes for a happy home and a happy life; find the right plant for each room.

Indoor plants have never been so important as we realise the power of their presence in making us feel calmer and more connected to nature. But dying plants around the house are negatives you could do without!

This unique guide from an indoor plant expert explains what plants you should keep in each room, and whereabouts. It contains:

• Easy-to-understand but horticulturally accurate information on what affects plants in each room – light, humidity and temperature.

• What typically makes each room different, which plants best suit which room, and how to care for them so that you and the plant are happy. 

• Working with individual microclimates within that room – for example, a plant that might work on a coffee table in the middle of a room might not work on a bookshelf next to a window.

• Invaluable information on how to arrange the plants to make stunning arrangements for your home interior. 

The first half of the book focuses on the five key rooms in any home, with ideas for the reader who wants to green up specific rooms, while the second half is a comprehensive directory of house plants. Each entry has information on light level requirements and tolerance, detailed information on care and colour inspiration for styling the plant. Each plant is also rated by difficulty. 

This is the most practical guide to building an indoor garden, room by room, to ensure happy plants, a happy home and happy humans. 

A glorious global celebration of modern railway architecture in the mid-20th century and beyond.

Many railway books are about nostalgia for the steam age, but this one is different: a global study of railway architecture from the 1950s onwards and into the future. In 50 fascinating entries, renowned travel and architecture writer Christopher Beanland looks primarily at stations but also covers starkly brutalist signal boxes and depots, charming art-adorned undergrounds and international examples of pioneering signage and design.

Station explores LA’s iconic Union Station, the verdant Atocha Station in Madrid and Warsaw’s spectacular modernist stations, but it also includes less familiar examples such as Saudi Arabia’s high-speed Haramain Line, the joyous monorail at Walt Disney World Resort and Mexico’s anticipated Tren Maya. The book also contains essays on topics including hanging railways in Germany and Japan, the intriguing architecture and design of Berlin’s U-Bahn stations and the joy of interrailing.

Illustrated with glorious photographs throughout, this stylish and contemporary book is a celebration of modern railway architecture at its best and will appeal to rail enthusiasts and architecture aficionados alike.

Immerse yourself in the sublime words of the Bard with this sumptuous anthology of Shakespeare, with one entry for every night of the year.

Chosen especially by a Shakespeare fanatic to reflect the changing seasons and daily events, the entries in this glorious book include:

Romeo and Juliet on Valentine’s Day.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Midsummer.

The witches of Macbeth around their cauldron on Halloween.

Also featured is one of Shakespeare’s only two mentions of football for the anniversary of the first FA cup final. 

Beautifully illustrated with favourite scenes from Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, this magnificent volume is a fun introduction to the well-known work and lesser known plays and poetry and is designed to be accessible to both adults and curious children.

Keep this book by your bedside and luxuriate in the rich language of the greatest writer the world has ever known, for entertainment, relaxation and timeless wisdom every night of the year.

Explore the glories of Scotland on an evocative trip to Outlander country.

This beautiful book, a companion to the bestselling Outlander’s Scotland, introduces more than 25 of the locations featured in the hugely popular TV show, concentrating this time on Seasons 4–6. The intrepid Claire and Jamie Fraser are starting a new life in America that is packed full of the adventure and romance fans have come to expect, against a backdrop of stunning scenery – still provided by breathtaking Scottish settings.

Discover the woods near Stirling where the Frasers make their new home, Fraser’s Ridge, and the farm shop in East Lothian where the villainous Stephen Bonnet hosts his fight club. You’ll see the very tree where Jamie carves his claim to Fraser’s Ridge, the beach where Brianna is dramatically rescued in Season 4, and the house that became River Run, Aunt Jocasta’s palatial home. Included in the book are useful guides to attractions that can be visited, along with several longer walks around the countryside showcased so beautifully on screen. We also reveal some secret locations for the upcoming Season 7! 

This gorgeous travel guide is a must-have for the legions of passionate Outlander fans, as well as everyone who loves Scotland.

How to work with a limited palette, with step-by-step demonstrations.

One of the world’s best art teachers shows you how to give spontaneity and lightness to your work with a limited palette. Using only three colours (up to five at the very most), is the most effective way to give your art a fresh feel. With an array of paintings, techniques and step-by-step demonstrations, renowned artist Hazel Soan goes through a range of specific colour combinations that work. 

Each chapter looks at a different combination, guided by a principal hue or pigment property. For landscapes she discusses cool blue and warm yellow, for gardens transparent reds and complimentary green, and for seascapes warm blue, cool yellow and granulation. The author explores the almost inexhaustible three-colour combinations but also discusses when four- or five-colour combinations would enhance or work more efficiently. This ensures your work is more cohesive, light and brings out the beauty of the watercolour medium. 

This extensive guide is packed with demonstrations, work in progress and finished paintings – and every single painting will have the colours itemized, making this not only a great technique book but great resource for colour combinations. Ideal for all painters, new or experienced. 

Fully illustrated with beautiful photographs, this special commemorative book by royal biographer Brian Hoey – who had the privilege of meeting Diana on several occasions – pays tribute to the life of this remarkable young woman.

Diana, Princess of Wales was admired throughout the world for her vitality, compassion, determination and beauty. When she first came on the scene, she brought a new dimension to the Royal Family and quickly became regarded as one of the most glamorous women in the world.

Yet she remained very much her own person: tough but touchingly vulnerable, self-willed but compassionate to a degree that was unprecedented in one of her generation and background. Her tragic death in 1997, in the prime of her life, shocked the world and unleashed a tide of public grief rarely seen. More than a quarter of a century later, her worldwide popularity remains as strong as ever: she is the unforgettable Diana.

A textile artist’s guide to creating exquisite, intimate and nostalgic work inspired by the home.

Ali Ferguson’s work takes inspiration from domestic life and the objects that surround and comfort us in our homes. Vintage fabric and hand-embroidered text are beautifully paired to create evocative pieces that are imbued with the magic of everyday existence. In this wonderful book Ali reveals the secrets of her work and shares her ingenious methods for finding inspiration at home to create stunning work that uses embroidery, quilting, collage and found objects.

Chapter One explains how to create ‘threads of thought’ that stem from the tiniest details within the rooms of your home, resulting in extensive mind maps you can use to inspire your finished work. Chapter Two shows how to translate these ideas into stitch and select the perfect materials for the mood you want to convey in your work. The rest of the chapters take you through the different rooms in a typical home, from kitchen to bedroom, giving a wealth of ideas for finding inspiration from each of these spaces in your own household, accessing memories, stories and emotions to help you create intensely personal and meaningful textile art pieces.

Beautifully illustrated with the author’s own work and that of other leading textile artists who draw inspiration from home life, this book revels in cloth and the joy that it brings to every textile artist. It is the ideal book for any artist or embroiderer who wants to explore new sources of inspiration on their very doorstep.

Poems to celebrate spring.

A sublime bedside companion to enjoy as the frost melts and days grow longer, with poems to immerse yourself in the season. From William Blake and Emily Dickinson to Robert Browning and Eleanor Farjeon, some of the finest poets that ever put pen to paper describe this wondrous season of new beginnings.

With one entry for every day through spring, from 1st March until 31st May, this collection of 91 poems will invigorate you in the warmer and wetter months of Spring, from Robert Herrick’s first drops of March dew and the breaking blossoms of Laurence Binyon’s April day to William Blake’s meadow-sweet May and Emily Dickinson’s promise of light to come.

This beautiful and collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Poem for Every Night of the Year and features poems inspired by springtime by Laurence Binyon, Margaret Cavendish, Amy Lowell, William Wordsworth and many more.

An informative guide to understanding and implementing the fundamentals of the Caro-Kann, the easy way. 

The Caro-Kann defence, named after the German chess players Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann, is notorious for its simple solidity and is a popular chess opening that players of all levels benefit from having in their arsenal. It is a firm favourite of grand masters past and present, including Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Anand.

This is the fifth book from International Master Thomas Engqvist, and it avoids overcomplicated details and endless computer variations, focusing instead on key variations of the Caro-Kann that can be committed to memory. Examining classic games to demonstrate key moves in action, Engqvist brings the defence to life and provides you with the knowledge you need to put strategy into practice.

A timely, large-format collection of fine art maps from Adam Dant, looking at the fractious world of politics.

Adam Dant’s Political Maps is an all-new collection of this highly regarded artist’s intricate, absorbing and beautiful maps, this time focused on the world of politics. Informed by his experiences as the official artist of the UK general election in 2015, these glorious works of art are amusing and subversive, hugely imaginative and packed with eye-catching detail.

Themes range across the spectrum of British and global politics past and present, bringing in recent political upheavals (‘Stop That Brexit’) and current issues such as the controversy around certain statues (‘Iconoclastic London’), alongside more timeless subjects like a map of US presidents (‘Presidents of the United States of America’), and, of course, the pandemic (‘Viral London’). Other highlights include:

• Johnson’s London: Notorious places associated with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, including all the houses he has ever lived in
• New York Tawk: A visualisation of New York City through a century of its slang
• British Left Groups: A fascinating history of left-wing parties and pressure groups through the decades
• Quitting Europe: Brexit encapsulated in exotic European cigarette packets from the artist’s youth

Witty, acerbic and intelligent, this unique collection will delight history enthusiasts, art lovers and politics buffs of all persuasions, and its large format guarantees hours of happy browsing of the densely packed detail Adam Dant brings to all his images.

Learn how to grow and dry flowers, plants and herbs to create dried floral arrangements that will breathe fresh life and style into your home without breaking the bank!

In this contemporary reimagining of a timeless craft, Ann Lindsay Mitchell guides you through the method of drying flowers in three achievable steps: growing, drying and arranging. This excellent source of practical advice is explored through an encyclopaedic list of flowers and foliage with specific information on how to grow, cut and dry them to best effect. From coffee table posies and large arrangements to hand tied-gift bunches and wedding bouquets, beautiful photography accompanies guidance to creating arrangements with your newly dried flowers. 

Filled with delicate watercolour illustrations alongside stunning photography of both simple and elaborate floral arrangements, Forever Flowers is an exceptional guide to growing, drying and arranging. 

Suitable for both experienced professionals and hopeful newcomers to the art of drying flowers, the information in the book is an invaluable resource for all to reference and return to. Anyone can create everlasting arrangements for friends, home or occasions that can be cherished for years to come.