Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an innovator.

He is undoubtedly one of Scotland’s most celebrated architects. His astounding buildings creatively reinterpreted the past and opened the way for the Modern Movement. Architecture was his first love, though he was also a highly accomplished artist and designer of interiors, furniture, metalwork, glass and textiles. In addition his graphic design work, using nature and organic plant forms, made him an early exponent of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In the later years of his life he produced watercolour paintings of intense power and subtlety. His extraordinary work is still regarded today as innovative and modern, and continues to astonish and delight art lovers everywhere.

‘One of the best guide books … all that you need to ensure a thoroughly enjoyable do-it-yourself Outlander tour.’
– Outlander Home Page

‘Beautifully presented … and the print quality of the book is top-notch.’
– Scottish Field

‘Billow and breeze, islands and seas, Mountains of rain and sun…’

Since 18th-century Highland warrior Jamie Fraser and resourceful 20th century medic, Claire Randall first met on screen in 2014, millions of viewers have been swept away by the Outlander TV series to the wild hills and craggy castles of Scotland. Now you can follow in the footsteps of Claire and Jamie with this guide to the inspiring locations where Diana Gabaldon’s novels were set and the hit tv show were filmed.

From the ancient cobbled streets, gabled palace and herb garden of Culross, which became fictional Cranesmuir, to the iconic 1960s Pathfoot Building at the University of Stirling, which Claire’s daughter Brianna visits on her first trip to Scotland, you can time-travel through centuries. In Scotland, different eras coexist and collide – just as they do in Outlander.

Focusing on easy day trips from the characterful cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow – themselves jam-packed with Outlander locations – this guide will tell you about the most rewarding sights, when to visit them and how to get there.

Harry Potter, A Fish Called Wanda, Inspector Morse, Downton Abbey and X Men are just a few of the films that have become synonymous with the world renowned University City of Oxford.

This new Pitkin souvenir guide highlights key sites that have become famously linked to these internationally successful and much loved films and TV specials. Not limited to Oxford city centre, this guide will also include the often-used film location Blenheim Palace, located just outside Oxford.

With 15 individual Walks around Oxford, and information on both architecture and filming history, this guide will become a must-have souvenir for every visitor to Oxford.

John Blockley was one of Britain’s most outstanding watercolour and pastel painters of the late 20^th century, and has exhibited at the Royal Academy. Self-taught, he produced work that has always been experimental and progressive. His highly textured style was well ahead of his time and still hugely influential now.

The quality of his work is even more staggering given that he never trained at any art college, and spent most of his working life as an engineer. He only started painting full time at the age of 52. His obsession for drawing and painting, even while a successful engineer, was driven by his search for the essence of his subjects. The power of his paintings reveal that passion.

This beautiful retrospective of his work, including drawings, watercolours, pastels and also acrylics, brings together the best of his work. The illuminating commentary on his work is from his daughter, Ann Blockley, who is also an acclaimed painter in her own right. She understands completely where John Blockley was coming from in his artistic vision and also explains the techniques he used. Breaking with so many traditions in watercolour painting in the 1960s, John was and is an influential figure in the art world.

John said, ‘In order to paint the terrain as I see it – blotched, mottled, grainy – I must experiment’. These experimentations are still of huge value to painters today. This book is perfect for any painter who enjoys John’s work but also for all the many, many fans of his work.

An updated edition of Paul Keres’ classic endgame instructor, designed specifically for practical players with over 500 extra diagrams to facilitate learning and memorisation of critical lines of endgame play.

It is an essential practical book, for all chess players, from one of the world’s greatest grandmasters. Keres remained an elite grandmaster throughout his life and is widely regarded as one of the s strongest ever players not to have won the world chess champion.

His book is a comprehensive guide to the precise handling of all basic endgame positions. It features logical step-by-step explanations of procedures required to obtain the best possible results from frequently occurring queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn endings. It includes commentaries on the final stages of selected tournament games, which demonstrate the art of favourable transposition from complex to clear-cut endgames.

Britain has a wealth of royal palaces, some owned by the Crown as part of the country’s assets, while others have been bought by members of the Royal Family themselves as personal residences. Each property has a fascinating story behind it, as well as its own unique place in history.
This beautifully illustrated book looks at some of the UK’s best-loved royal homes, current and former, their buildings, gardens, treasures and, of course, their inhabitants past and present. Discover how these homes have evolved over the centuries and how they are being adapted for the future and the demands of modern life.

Written by seasoned Pitkin royal author Halima Sadat, this easily digestible volume makes a wonderful companion for anyone visiting these impressive buildings and their beautiful gardens.

Entries include: Hampton Court, Osborne House, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, Highgrove, Sandringham and Balmoral.

William Marshal, born about 1147, was the son of a minor lord who held the hereditary title of ‘Marshal’, or head of the king’s security. He became a knight loyal to five kings, the most powerful man in the kingdom, the hero of Magna Carta and a saviour of England. At his funeral in the Temple Church, London, on 20 May 1219, he was described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as ‘the greatest knight in the world’. William’s son commissioned a biography of his father, The History of William Marshal, which brings William vividly to life and is the fullest and most dramatic such biography to reach us from the Middle Ages. 

The Rotunda of the Temple Church still contains eight 13th-century effigies of knights in armour. Three of the Marshals – William and two of his sons – are known to have been buried in the Church. By the late 16th century, antiquarians were trying to identify William’s effigy among them; and since 1843 one effigy in particular has been universally accepted to be William’s. 

This has recently been disputed by a set of drawings, dating to c. 1610, discovered in Washington, DC. These drawings show all the medieval effigies in the Temple Church – and a further, long-lost gravestone which matches the earliest descriptions of William’s tomb. This raises a fascinating question: has the real monument to William been lost? This book will uncover the details of this latest discovery and commemorate the greatest knight that ever lived. 

This beautifully illustrated biography of Meghan covers her early years, Hollywood career, fairytale wedding to Prince Harry, and new role as duchess and mother. This book features images of the couple’s newborn son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

In 2018 a new kind of royal joined the House of Windsor. Her name was Meghan Markle and the country fell in love with her.
Following her marriage to Prince Harry, bi-racial American Meghan Markle has come to represent the changing face of the modern Royal Family. Like her husband, she communicates on issues of importance to her with passion and sincerity.
This book charts Meghan’s extraordinary life so far, following her journey from the suburbs of Los Angeles where she grew up in a single-parent household to her life as a modern-day princess within one of the world’s most important royal families. It describes her days as a successful film and television actress in the US, looks at her humanitarian work and discusses the ‘Meghan effect’, a direct result of her enormous popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. It also records, with stunning photos, her beautiful wedding to Prince Harry, a truly global celebration that attracted around 2 billion television viewers worldwide.

Post-wedding, we bring this royal love story up to date, defining Meghan’s role as an ambassador for the Royal Family, looking in detail at her first year as Duchess of Sussex – and celebrating her new role as a mother.

Anne Boleyn is one of the most divisive figures in British history. Her love-match with Henry VIII and her subsequent execution at the Tower of London after only three years of marriage have made her the subject of heated debate and speculation.

Everyone wants to know how she really felt and how and why she became queen: was she a ruthless schemer or was her death simply a tragic consequence of court politics?

Unbiased descriptions of Anne are difficult to find: most were written after her death. Anne was effectively written out of history for the rest of Henry VIII’s reign, and that of his son, Edward VI. Her name was literally chiselled out of the fabric of Hampton Court, her badges and heraldry replaced by those of Jane Seymour.

Historians continue to battle over her reputation today and the fascination with the life and death of Anne Boleyn lives on. This objective and informative book brings clarity to our view of Anne Boleyn, perhaps the most influential and important queen consort England ever had.

This beautifully illustrated guide reveals the cities, towns and windswept landscapes that have formed the backdrop to some of Scotland’s most famous films. Colour photographs and detailed descriptions of each location allow you to follow in the footsteps of some of cinemas most famous characters.

Among the films covered in the book are Gregory’s Girl, the Harry Potter films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, One Day, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Rob Roy, Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and The Wicker Man. TV series include Taggart, Outlander and Game of Thrones.

Scotland Film Locations takes in some of the most popular and beautiful sites in Scotland, from the streets of Edinburgh and the famous train journey over Glenfinnan Viaduct that inspired Harry Potter to Doune Castle, which featured in Game of Thrones, and the Isle of Skye, which formed a backdrop to The BFG and Macbeth. With this indispensable guide you will be able to step into some of your favourite films and discover the locations that created movie magic.

‘He seems perfection and I think that I have the prospect of very great happiness before me…’ Victoria in a letter of 15 October 1839

One of the greatest royal love matches of all time was that of Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. The English princess, born at Kensington Palace in 1819, and the German prince were cousins, and first met when Victoria was 16. At their second meeting in 1839 she, by now Queen Victoria, proposed to him and they married the following year.

Victoria and Albert’s romance marked a turning point for Britain’s royal family, and to the queen in particular love and marriage proved a source of strength and comfort. The two young people were brought together, like so many royal couples, by the scheming of matchmakers. The aftermath was not always easy. Albert’s adopted country remained wary of his intelligence and seriousness, most people as unaware of his private playfulness as they were of the contrasting aspects of Victoria’s own character.

Victoria and Albert tells of a young couple’s love: how the two grew up, what they were like, how they first met. Love deepened within their marriage, as they became partners in private and in public, at home with their family and ever on duty as sovereign and consort.

This beautifully illustrated book is part of the Pitkin Royal Collection series, celebrating the lives of the British royal family. Other notable titles in this insightful series include Royal Babies, The Queen and Her Family and Queen Elizabeth II.

“Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made into one.” Oscar Wilde

Oxford has for centuries inspired and delighted, and its beauty and antiquity have been celebrated by some of the most famous writers and artists in history.

The unique characteristics of Oxford are captured in this stunning photographic collection – the famous colleges and grand buildings, the parks, the riverside walks and the wide streets. From Boars Hill to South Park, this beautiful book explores the familiar and the hidden Oxford. 

Extracts of poetry and prose from famous writers such as Lewis Carroll, Evelyn Waugh, Samuel Pepys, Dorothy L. Sayers and Jan Morris complement the images perfectly, creating a memorable portrait of this much-loved city.