‘…captures all the beauty, all the anguish, all the feelings and stories and rituals that made us fall in love — and stay in love — with running.’ – Anne Helen Petersen, author of Culture Study.

This is Running is a celebration of the world of running, exploring everything you’d need to know about the sport and the rich culture that surrounds it.

Running is huge with an estimated 621 million runners worldwide but behind that statistic is a world that is as diverse as the people who engage in it. From the elite endurance of the Rarámuri tribe from Mexico who frequently run ultramarathons in nothing but simple sandals made from discarded car tires to some of the most famous races which are household names for runners and non-runners alike, coach and journalist Raziq Rauf gives a fascinating snapshot of this world.

This is Running covers why, where and how we run, incorporating insights from psychologists, sociologists and other experts from our first dash around a childhood playground to joining a run club or hitting high-altitude mountain trails whether that be for the health benefits, to make friends, test your own limits or to explore the world around you.

A host of compelling essays explore topics such as running’s technological revolution, brands and streetwear, women’s experiences of running, the boom of trail running and the future of the sport. Also included is a selection of the world’s most notable runs including The London Marathon, the UTMB and the Barkley Marathons, and Q&As with individuals who are pioneering global running culture including influencer and comedian Laura Green, Nils Arend from The Speed Project, professional trail running athlete Dylan Bowman and Jessica Zapotechne from Girls Run NYC.

Beautifully illustrated throughout with striking photography, This is Running is the perfect gift for the obsessive runner in your life, or for anyone who wants to know more about the sport and the culture that surrounds it.

Quite simply, if you are a runner, this book is catnip to your passion. 

A practical and inspirational guide to choosing, blending and spinning richly textured artisan yarn for weaving, knitting and other textile art applications.

Imogen Bright Moon is a British Romani textile artist who creates richly textured, highly tactile woven textile works from yarn that she spins and blends herself. In this elegantly designed book Imogen reveals the secrets of her practice. In evocative, engagingly written text accompanied by sumptuous images of her work in her studio throughout the year, she explains:

• How to choose raw fibres for use in your work: the author’s are ethically sourced from various ecologically responsible sources, including a rescue flock of sheep on the South Downs.
• How to put together different types of fibres – raw sheep’s wool, plant fibres such as hemp, soya and wild silk, alpaca hair and much more – to create richly textured yarn.
• The delicate art of blending naturally occurring pigments, working with shade and tone to create subtle and nuanced colours, a process that Imogen likens to a painter mixing paints on a palette.
• The principles of hand-spinning, from a simple single spun thread to more complicated yarns such as triple-chain ply yarn, using a traditional floor spindle.
• How to skein, soak and wet-finish your yarn, and how to store your yarn stash.
• Ideas for taking your yarn into finished craft and art projects, with details of the author’s own work.

With an emphasis on engagement with nature, the rhythms of the seasonal craft cycle, ethical making, sustainability and mindfulness, this book is ideal for weavers, textile artists and anyone seduced by the joys of yarn.

This collection of over 75 simple and delicious recipes is perfect for students, anyone moving out of home for the first time, or just wanting to take their cooking skills to the next level.

Whether you’re a student, moving into your first flat, or just wanting to improve your cooking skills, this is the only cookbook you’ll need to create simple, quick and reliable recipes.

This cookbook includes over 75 timeless classics, the majority of which can be made within an hour. Recipes include: 

• Sausage rolls
• Chilli con carne
• One pan roast dinner
• Ratatouille
• Shepherd’s pie
• Cheesecake
• Jam tarts
• Apple, blueberry and cinnamon muffins

The Independent Cook is an easy-to-follow guide, which covers all the basic techniques you need to know to set you up for life. The recipes are tasty and straightforward, with QR codes linking to videos of key techniques, which will walk you through how to separate an egg, knead dough or halve and stone an avocado. Whether it’s a weeknight dinner or hosting a dinner party for your friends, this book has got you covered.

Based on an exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery held in autumn 2024, In the Footsteps of the East London Group brings together 35 original paintings by members of the East London Group, paired with 22 new interpretations and responses from contemporary painters including David Hepher, Doreen Fletcher and Tim Craven.

The East London Group were a group of artists who created paintings in the 1920s and 30s of buildings, streets, and London life. They were mostly working class, realist painters whose formal education had often stopped at an early age. The group developed from an art club at the Bethnal Green Men’s Institute to a group of painters who exhibited alongside prominent artists of the day and attracted enormous press coverage and support. They were taught by Walter Sickert, John Albert Cooper, Phyllis Bray, and others.

Curated by the Urban Contemporaries Group, a London-based collective who are interested in exploring the urban experience, the exhibition features 35 original paintings by members of the East London Group alongside 22 contemporary paintings inspired by them, from leading artists working in the urban landscape tradition, including Timothy Hyman, Philippa Beale, Nicole Poh and Marc Gooderham. Each artist selected for the show has a respect and curiosity for the history of the area and for these paintings made on the streets of Bow a hundred years ago, and which open a window onto the past life of east London and an earlier period in British art.

This fascinating book brings together all the images from the exhibition in print, showcasing surprising pairings of paintings from a group of artists that are steadily growing in popularity and reputation with fresh interpretations from a new generation of painters.

Learn how to create beautiful, modern flower wreaths, not just for Advent and Christmas but throughout the year. Decorate your front door, walls and dining tables, and even your head with flower wreaths.

Organised around the seasons of the year, this book has 40 flower projects for all occasions, from the first longing for spring and budding greenery via summer light and harvest time to Christmas and winter rest. All wreaths have clear step-by-step instructions in text and pictures. There are facts about which materials are suitable and sustainable for the different seasons, including which you can pick yourself from nature or your garden. Written by florist, photographer and writer Malin Björkholm, whose wreaths and flower arrangements have become famous on Instagram due to their simplicity and use of natural materials.

Projects in this book include an enchanting bright yellow mimosa flower wreath for spring, a traditional midsummer Swedish flower crown, a striking circlet of dried flowers and berries for autumn and a classic door wreath with pine cones for Christmas. More luxurious and more modern than any wreath-making book you’ll have seen before, these magical projects will provide endless inspiration for year-round decorating with flowers.

The story of one of Britain’s greatest buildings and its spectacular architectural evolution – reissued in a stylish hardback for the first time.

As the seat of archbishops, Canterbury Cathedral has been one of Britain’s most important buildings for over 1400 years. The cathedral as we know it evolved spectacularly between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries. Within its designs are references to a world we have forgotten: its relationship to Rome, mythology, hidden geometry and the display of saintly relics.

Architectural historian and broadcaster Jonathan Foyle explains how Canterbury’s turbulent past – including a catastrophic fire, an earthquake and the murder of Thomas Becket – shaped the building, leaving us today with an extraordinary composite work of architecture as well as a unique repository of European arts and crafts. He reveals the fascinating stories and iconography behind the design of this medieval masterpiece.

The book features specially commissioned images by the photographer Robert Greshoff as well as carefully selected archival illustrations, and includes a number of the author’s own drawings. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, provides the foreword, while an additional chapter by Heather Newton covers the cathedral’s modern conservation programme.

A revised and updated hardback edition of the book first published to mark the reopening of The Courtauld Gallery in late 2021.

The Courtauld houses one of the United Kingdom’s great art collections, displayed in the magnificent historical setting of Somerset House in central London. This publication presents a selection of its highlights – paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and decorative arts – each beautifully illustrated and accompanied by insightful commentary. Notable among these treasures are remarkable Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including the world-famous A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Édouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

This book is also an engaging account of how The Courtauld became an internationally renowned centre for the teaching and research of art history, conservation and curating. It was founded nearly a century ago in the belief that art has the power to enrich people’s lives. The Courtauld continues that mission today, promoting the understanding of the visual arts and offering a place where everyone can find enjoyment and inspiration.

An entertaining and enchanting collection of myths, tales and traditions surrounding the seas, skies and woodlands that make up our natural world. 

Enter an enchanting world where the mysteries of the seas, skies and woodlands come alive through shared myths, legends and folk tales. From the majestic creatures that dance beneath the waves to the celestial beings that populate the heavens and the spirits that reside within the forests, The Treasury of Folklore offers a portal into the lore of the natural world that has been whispered through the generations.

In this mesmerising compendium you’ll embark on a journey through the rich tapestry of myths, legends, and tales that have been woven into the very fabric of our natural world. You’ll tread mysterious waters and be beguiled by the sirens and sea monsters, soar to new heights with winged Pegasus and uncover stories of celestial beings, from thunder gods to constellations that have guided traveller’s across the heavens. And as you wander through the ancient woods, you’ll encounter spirits between the branches, insatiable cannibalistic children hewn from logs and the promise of the big, bad wolf.  

The stories included here traverse countries and continents and have been carefully selected to highlight how humans are linked through time and place, with shared dreams, fears and ways of rationalising the unknown. Immerse yourself in the tapestry of tales collected in these pages, each story a testament to the enduring enchantment of the seas, skies, and woodlands.

Delicate jellyfish and anemones, octopus, tentacled squid, and bizarre-looking soft-bodied sea creatures were meticulously recreated in glass by father and son artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late nineteenth century. Renowned for their beauty and exacting detail, the Blaschka invertebrate models were commissioned by universities and museums throughout the world as teaching models for students of natural science and marine life. Illustrated here for the first time with breathtaking new photography are 60 of the most exquisite models from the exceptional collection of Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Together with Harvard’s famous Glass Flowers, a new exhibit of these restored glass animals now comprises the largest Blaschka collection on display in the world.  Bursting with intricate details and stunning photography, this elegantly designed book will be a must for all those interested in marine biology, the delicate art of glass craftsmanship, the history of science, and the quiet beauty of the natural world.

A practical and inspirational guide to creating beautiful bespoke quilts without the constraints of strict rules or patterns.

In Free-Form Quilts and Patchwork, internationally renowned Jessie Cutts of Cutts & Sons shows quilting doesn’t need to be daunting or require meticulous measurements or lots of planning. Instead, you can design and make up your work as you go along, being playful with colour and allowing mistakes to take your projects in new creative directions. In clear and engaging text accompanied by striking photography of the artist’s own work, Jessie guides readers through:

• Exercises to help practise improvisation, encouraging a looser approach to patchwork without a specific project in mind.

• Projects that introduce methodology while allowing space to create unique compositions. These include hand stitching a potholder or a mini quilt; experimenting with tonal stripes; creating playful blocks and loose checkboards.

• Information on materials and techniques with tips on collecting fabrics, creating palettes, cutting with confidence, machine piecing, hand stitching, improvising guidelines, patchwork guidelines and how to finish and display quilts.

With an emphasis on letting go of conventions and perfectionism, and instead allowing serendipity to be part of the enjoyable process of creating compositions in fabric, this book is ideal for anyone who feels intimidated by precise patterns and wants to create personal and unique quilts with guidance on how to get there.

Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines gives an intriguing insight into the historical relationship between cats and humans by exploring the folklore, myths and legends that relate to cats from around the globe.

For thousands of years, cats and humankind have been inextricably intertwined. From the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Bastet to the cat demon Yokai of Japan, people have been fascinated, enthralled and horrified in equal measure by everything feline-related.

Throughout history, cats have been revered and reviled and everything in between. Worshipped as divine, blamed for plague and pestilence, or labelled as the demonic companions of witches – whether fair or foul, no other animal has attracted such consistent attention, a fact strongly illustrated by the vast number of myths, legends, sayings, superstitions and tales that exist regarding these enigmatic creatures.

Today, mankind is no less under the feline thrall, with cat memes, videos and celebrity cat accounts numbering amongst the highest-ranking entertainment across the internet. Unknown to many, this cultural fascination has a deep and rich history that spans continents and millennia. Discover the roots of this age-old captivation with our feline counterparts and why they have been loved – or otherwise – by so many.

Featuring more than 140 of Rosie Sanders’ glorious watercolour illustrations, Rosie Sanders’ Apples is the most trusted authoritative guide to apple identification in the UK.

First published as The English Apple in 1988, this comprehensive guide depicts the range of form, texture, colour and shape characterising varieties such as Cox’s Orange Pippin, the Worcester Pearmain, Granny Smith or the Blenheim Orange. Each apple illustration is accompanied by a short description, a cross-section drawing and a list of characteristics, from size and shape to seeds, stalk and leaves. 

The meticulous attention to detail makes this the definitive guide to identification, as well as a source of inspiration for apple growers everywhere.