Join Alistair Hall, author of London Street Signs: A Visual History of London’s Street Nameplates, for an illustrated talk on his expertly curated collection of the most significant, beautiful and curious street signs, from enamel plates to incised lettering, the simplest cast iron signs to gloriously ornamental architectural plaques that can be found hiding in plain slight across London.

When: Sunday 25 October 2020, 1.30 pm-2.30 pm | Where: Zoom | Price: £5

ABOUT THE BOOK

A showcase of London’s street nameplates – from the curious to the ornate.

All around London, you can find a remarkable public archive of lettering in the city’s street nameplates. A unique collection of styles and forms that stretches back to the 17th century, these little labels hide in plain sight – we use their information daily, but too often fail to really notice them. And they aren’t just visual anchors, telling us where we are; but temporal anchors too, telling us where we’ve come from.

This expertly curated collection documents the most significant, beautiful and curious street signs, from enamel plates to incised lettering, the simplest cast iron signs to gloriously ornamental architectural plaques.

It’s a visual and typographical journey through the history of a great metropolis. Along the way, the fascinating stories behind these unassuming treasures are uncovered, revealing where they came from before being affixed to brick or stone for decades to come. We’re introduced to the iconic nameplates of the City of Westminster, the stunning tiled signs of Hampstead and the revival nameplates of Lambeth, as well as the ghost signs of the no-longer existent NE postal district.

London Street Signs is a striking visual record of our collective history that will appeal to design and history enthusiasts alike.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alistair Hall is co-founder and art director of children’s literacy charity Ministry of Stories and its fantastical shop, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies. In addition to running design studio We Made This, with projects including the Penguin Great Ideas series and clients such as London Cycling Campaign and the Crafts Council, Alistair also manages to find time to lecture in Graphic Design at The Cass and Typography at Central Saint Martins.

Join Christopher Beanland, author of Lido: A Dip Into Outdoor Swimming Pools, for a talk on the history, design and people behind the pools and what makes outdoor swimming so special.

When: Thursday 22 October 2020, 6pm-7pm | Where: Zoom | Price: £5

ABOUT THE BOOK

A celebration of outdoor swimming – looking at the history, design and social aspect of pools.

Few experiences can beat diving into a pool in the fresh air, swimming with blue skies above you. Whether it’s a dip into a busy and bustling city pool on a sweltering summer day, or taking the plunge in icy waters, the lido provides a place of peace in a frenetic world.

The book begins with a history of outdoor pools – their grand beginnings after the buttoned-up Victorian era, their falling popularity in the 20th century, and the newfound appreciation for the outdoor pool, or lido, and outdoor swimming in the 21st century.

Journalist and architectural historian Christopher Beanland picks the very best of the outdoor pools around the world, including the Icebergs Pool on Bondi Beach, Australia; the 137m seawater pool in Vancouver, Canada; Siza’s concrete sea pools in Porto, Portugal; the restored art deco pool in Saltdean, UK, and the pool at the Zollverein Coal Mines in Essen, Germany.

The book also features lost lidos and the fascinating history behind the architecture of the pools, along with essays on swimming pools in art and interviews with pool users around the globe about why they swim.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Beanland is a journalist and author who specialises in architecture and travel writing. He is the author of Concrete Concept: Brutalist buildings around the world and writes regularly for The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph and Mr Porter.

Join artist, author and tutor Anne Kelly for a socially distanced book signing at Pincushion Pantiles and learn more about her latest title Textile Travels.

When: Saturday 3 October 2020, 2-4pm

Where: No. 25, Lower Walk, Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5TD

*Please contact Pincushion to reserve your copy*

ABOUT THE BOOK

An evocative exploration of how travel – local and far away – can inform, inspire and enhance textile art.

Travel has always featured heavily in textile art, from artists’ ‘travelling sketchbooks’ to large-scale installations mapping coastal erosion or the effects of climate change. In this book, renowned textile artist Anne Kelly shows how to capture your travels, past and present, in stitch, with practical techniques sitting alongside inspiring images.

She begins the book by discussing maps in textile art, including their iconography as well as incorporating actual maps into textile work. She then goes on to explore the influence of different cultures from across the globe on textile art.

From India and Peru to Scotland and Scandinavia, the book shows how to harness traditional techniques, fabrics, motifs and colours for use in your own work. The chapter ‘Stopping Places’ captures the moments in time on a journey that can be distilled, remembered and documented to create stitched postcards, sketchbooks and other pieces. The final chapter, ‘Space and the Imagination’, explores the possibilities of space travel as a source of inspiration, and covers inner space too, with artists mapping their own emotional journeys.

Including a wealth of practical tricks and techniques as well as exquisite photography of both Anne’s own work and that of other leading textile artists, this fascinating book will inspire all textile artists, embroiderers and makers to use past travels to influence their work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Kelly is a textile artist and tutor. She trained in Canada and the UK and now teaches and speaks to guilds and groups. Her work is exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions, including private collections in the UK and abroad, the Vatican Collection in Rome and at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. She was recently artist-in-residence at Sussex Prairies Garden in West Sussex and exhibited at the international World of Threads Festival and the Prague Patchwork Meeting. She is the co-author of Connected Cloth, also published by Batsford.

Join Elain Harwood, author of Art Deco Britain, for The Deco Dynamo – a bike tour through London’s most famous Art Deco buildings.

The Deco Dynamo is a gentle, light-hearted ride through central London on a Sunday morning looking at the best Art Deco exteriors, including some NOT featured in Art Deco Britain.  It will start at Victoria Station at 10am, followed by a ride through Hyde Park and Mayfair, up Regent Street and Portland Place, then to the Carreras Cigarette Factory (Mornington Crescent), with a short break.  The second part of the tour will continue through Holborn and the City, finishing near Borough Market (London Bridge) where there are plenty of places for lunch, beer or both.  Expected finish time will be around 1.30pm-2pm.

Bring your own bike – suitable for Bromptons. Participants must undertake the tour at their own risk and wearing a helmet is advisable.

When: Sunday 23rd February 10am – 2pm
Meet time: 10am
Meet place: Victoria Station outside WH Smith on main concourse
Finish time/place: 1.30pm – 2pm, Borough Market
Members’ price: £15
Non members’ price: £25

For more information and to book tickets, please visit the Twentieth Century Society website.

ABOUT ART DECO BRITAIN

The definitive guide to Art Deco buildings in Britain.

The perennially popular style of Art Deco influenced architecture and design all over the world in the 1920s and 1930s – from elegant Parisian theatres to glamorous Manhattan skyscrapers. The style was also adopted by British architects, but, until now, there has been little that really explains the what, where and how of Art Deco buildings in Britain. In Art Deco Britain, leading architecture historian and writer Elain Harwood, brings her trademark clarity and enthusiasm to the subject as she explores Britain’s Art Deco buildings.

Art Deco Britain, published in association with the Twentieth Century Society, is the definitive guide to the architectural style in Britain. The book begins with an overview of the international Art Deco style, and how this influenced building design in Britain. The buildings covered include Houses and Flats; Churches and Public Buildings; Offices; Shops, Showrooms and Cafés; Hotels and Public Houses; Cinemas, Theatres and Concert Halls; Sports Buildings; Industrial Premises and Transport Buildings.

The book covers some of the best-loved and some lesser-known buildings around the UK, such as the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, Eltham Palace, Broadcasting House and the Carreras Cigarette Factory in London, Finella in Cambridge, St Christopher’s Church in Liverpool and Tinside Lido in Plymouth.

Beautifully produced and richly illustrated with architectural photography, this is the definitive guide to a much-loved architecture style.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elain Harwood is the historian at English Heritage responsible for its post-war research and listing programme. Her publications on the subject include England’s Post-war Listed Buildings and Space, Hope and Brutalism: English Architecture 1945–1975 and many articles for Twentieth-Century Architecture, the journal of the Twentieth-Century Society.

Join best-selling author Gavin Pretor-Pinney at Blackwell’s Oxford Broad Street’s annual Yule Fest event for a truly unique event celebrating the beautiful and vast variety of our cloud-filled world…

Gavin Pretor-Pinney started the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2005. Since then, he’s been encouraging people to ‘look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds.’ Membership to the Society now includes over 47,000 cloudspotters. Together, they capture and share the most remarkable skies, from sublime thunderstorms and perfect sunsets to hilarious clouds that look like things.

A Cloud A Day is a beautifully illustrated book containing 365 skies selected by the Cloud Appreciation Society. There are photographs by sky enthusiasts around the world, satellite images and photographs of clouds in space, as well as skies depicted by great artists over the centuries. The clouds are accompanied by enlightening explanations, fascinating snippets of cloud science, poetry and uplifting quotations.

The perfect dip-in-and-out book for anyone who wants to de-stress and reconnect with nature, A Cloud A Day will inspire you to open your eyes to the everyday beauty above and to spend a moment each day with your head in the clouds.

When: Sunday 8th December, 1pm – 2pm
Where: Blackwell’s Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ
Price: Free admission

This event is free to register. Please note, the talks may be taking place in the bookshop’s Philosophy Department which is only accessible via a small set of stairs. Seats are allocated on a first come first seated basis – to ensure you have a seat please arrive early; standing room only will be available once all seats have been taken. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call their Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

Join best-selling author and Cloud Appreciation Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney at one of his Cloudspotting for Beginners events to mark the release of A Cloud A Day.

Gavin will take you on an illustrated tour of the sky in this enlightening and entertaining talk. He will show how to recognise many of the varied and beautiful cloud formations, from the fair-weather cotton tufts of Cumulus to the UFO shapes of lenticularis clouds and the surreal undulations of fluctus clouds. Gavin will explain why clouds look the way they do and how they reveal the invisible movements of our atmosphere. You will learn why clouds are the most evocative and poetic aspect of nature, how cloudspotting is the perfect antidote to the pressures of the digital world, and why spending a few moments each day with your head in the clouds will help you keep your feet on the ground. Looking up will never be the same again!

You will find more information about each event through the organisers’ websites below. Each talk will be followed by a book signing.

Blackwell’s, Manchester

When: Monday 25 November, 7pm-8.30pm
Where: Blackwell’s Bookshop, University Green, 146 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9GP

For more information and to book tickets, please visit the event page.

Atkinson-Pryce Books, Biggar

When: Tuesday 26 November, 7.30pm
Where: Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, 27 High Street, Biggar ML12 6DA

For more information and to book tickets, please visit the bookshop website.

The Mainstreet Trading Company, St Boswells

When: Wednesday 27 November, 7.30pm
Where: The Mainstreet Trading Company, St Boswells, Scottish Borders TD6 0AT

For more information on the talk and to book tickets, please visit the event page.

The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh

When: Thursday 28 November, 6.30pm-8pm
Where: The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA

For more information and to book your ticket, please visit the event page.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney started the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2005. Since then, he’s been encouraging people to ‘look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds.’ Membership to the Society now includes over 47,000 cloudspotters. Together, they capture and share the most remarkable skies, from sublime thunderstorms and perfect sunsets to hilarious clouds that look like things.

Top image: Altocumulus lenticularis, spotted over Lake Pukaki, South Island, New Zealand by Tania Ritchie

Author image photograph by Bill Bradshaw.

Join cloudspotter and bestselling author Gavin Pretor-Pinney at The Swan Theatre for a truly unique event celebrating the beautiful and vast variety of our cloud-filled world…

Gavin Pretor-Pinney started the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2005. Since then, he’s been encouraging people to ‘look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds.’ Membership to the Society now includes over 47,000 cloudspotters. Together, they capture and share the most remarkable skies, from sublime thunderstorms and perfect sunsets to hilarious clouds that look like things.

A Cloud A Day is a beautifully illustrated book containing 365 skies selected by the Cloud Appreciation Society. There are photographs by sky enthusiasts around the world, satellite images and photographs of clouds in space, as well as skies depicted by great artists over the centuries. The clouds are accompanied by enlightening explanations, fascinating snippets of cloud science, poetry and uplifting quotations.

The perfect dip-in-and-out book for anyone who wants to de-stress and reconnect with nature, A Cloud A Day will inspire you to open your eyes to the everyday beauty above and to spend a moment each day with your head in the clouds.

When: Saturday 2nd November, 2pm
Where: Swan Theatre, 138 Park Street, Yeovil BA20 1QT
Price: £10 (members £8.50)

Congratulations to Adam Dant and Maps of London and Beyond – Winner in the ‘Travel and Illustrated’ category at this year’s Catholic Herald Book Awards 2019

The inaugural Catholic Herald Book Awards 2019 ceremony was held on the 16th October at proprietor Sir Rocco Forte’s Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. The Travel and Illustrated Book Award was judged by Lady Forte, Elizabeth Hurley, Nicky Haslam and Peter Sheppard. Maps of London and Beyond was announced the winner from a shortlist of four books.

Maps of London and Beyond is a spectacular, large-format collection of Adam Dant’s fine art maps giving a unique view of our history and life today, published in collaboration with Spitalfields Life Books.

Artist and cartographer Adam Dant surveys London’s past, present and future from his studio in the East End. Beautiful, witty and subversive, his astonishing maps offer a compelling view of history, lore, language and life in the capital and beyond. Traversed by a plethora of colourful characters including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft and Barbara Windsor, Adam Dant’s maps extend from the shipwrecks on the bed of the Thames to the stars in the sky over Soho. Along the way, he captures all the rich traditions in the capital, from brawls and buried treasure to gin and gentlemen’s clubs.

Adam Dant studied at the Royal College of Art, London and the MS University Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, India. He creates dense, elaborate narrative drawings that examine and depict public contemporary life, space, mythologies and histories. These works are thoroughly researched, with the artist drawing on a deep well of historical and visual sources to create his wittily perceptive detailed drawings. Dant lives and works in London.

Illustrator Eleanor Crow celebrates the small neighbourhood shops of London, from cheesemongers to chippies, and champions the enduring culture of Britain’s small shops.

Her new book Shopfronts of London is a collection of more than 100 watercolour illustrations of the capital’s bakers, cafes, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. In this illustrated talk, Eleanor talks about recording London’s shopfronts and brings to life the the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers – stretching all the way from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell and Walthamstow in the east. This event is brought to you as part of Bloomsbury Festival 2019.

When: 17 October 2019, 6.30–8pm
Where: My Bloomsbury Hotel
FREE but booking is essential

More about Bloomsbury Festival

For ten days in October, Bloomsbury Festival will present an inspiring programme of arts, science, literature, discussions and reflection, that shines a light on the radical
imaginations, institutions and 11,000 residents of contemporary Bloomsbury, one of youngest and most diverse areas in the country. Taking place everywhere, including major institutions like The British Museum and University College London (UCL), small and quirky spaces like The Horse Hospital, in Bloomsbury’s historic garden squares, and on its famous streets, over
120 events will pop-up across this lively cultural quarter. Most events are FREE.

Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s lunar landing, the 2019 Festival theme Small Steps and Giant Leaps will act as a springboard for a host of creative and engaging Festival events and projects for 2019. Celebrating endeavour, progress, and pioneering achievements Small Steps and Giant Leaps will embrace the small vital contributions alongside the famous moments, shining a light on the radical imaginations, institutions and residents of contemporary Bloomsbury.

General Woodwork Supplies, Kingsland High Street. © Eleanor Crow.

Join John Butler for the launch of his latest book, The Relics of Thomas Becket: A True-Life Mystery, available exclusively at the Canterbury Cathedral before its publication in January 2020.

This book marks the 800th anniversary of the translation of Thomas Becket’s relics in 1220 from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to the shrine in the Trinity Chapel. In it, John Butler carefully sifts the evidence about the fate of Becket’s bones when the shrine was destroyed in 1538, and he explores a series of probing questions. Did the monks of the cathedral attempt to hide the relics before King Henry’s commissioners arrived in Canterbury? Were the bones burnt on the orders of Pope Paul III, as many believe, or did they somehow survive? What is the significance of the grave discovered in the crypt of the cathedral in 1888?

Against a background of church politics and carefully referencing all his sources, John Butler pieces together an intriguing story of faith, science and romanticism that will appeal to all who relish a true-life mystery.

John Butler is Emeritus Professor at the University of Kent and an expert on the history of Canterbury Cathedral. He is author of the acclaimed Quest for Becket’s Bones (1995) and the prize-winning The Red Dean of Canterbury (2011).

When: Monday 23rd September, 5.30pm-7.30pm
Where: Dean John Simpson Room, Canterbury Cathedral Lodge, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2EH
Price: Free

For more information and to book your free tickets, please email enquiries@cathedral-enterprises.co.uk or call 01227 865 300.

Refreshments provided.

Join art director David Hillman and fashion editor Caroline Baker for a special evening celebrating the legendary 1960s magazine Nova and our book dedicated to its legacy, Nova 1965–1975. The two will be in conversation with magCulture’s Jeremy Leslie, and there will be time for audience questions.

Signed copies of the book will be available.

A reissue of a cult design book about Nova, the groundbreaking British magazine of the 60s and 70s, with a new introduction by David Hillman.

Nova 1965–1975 celebrates one of the most influential magazines in history. Known as ‘the thinking woman’s magazine’ Nova was a British publication that set itself apart from its contemporaries by creating a magazine that was not just about fashion but was also politically, socially and sexually aware. The magazine covered issues that were controversial at the time, such as abortion, gay rights and The Pill, and featured writers such as Susan Sontag, Harold Pinter, Elizabeth David, Prue Leith, William Trevor, Christopher Booker and Graham Greene.

The book is compiled by David Hillman and Harri Peccinotti, who worked as Deputy Editor and Art Director on the magazine respectively. The design and layout of the magazine were as groundbreaking as the content, and borrowed ideas from the psychedelic subculture and underground press of the day. Nova was one of the first magazines to include black models in their photoshoots, and regular photographers for the magazine included Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Don McCullin, Bob Richards and Diane Arbus.

The book selects the best covers and articles from the magazine’s decade-long output and looks at them in detail, featuring many of its iconic covers.

David Hillman is one of Britain’s leading graphic designers, responsible for the iconic redesign of The Guardian in the 1980s and of Phaidon’s identity, among many others. He has been awarded two prestigious gold and 16 silver awards from D&AD. He is a Royal Designer for Industry and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art. Hillman joined Nova as Art Director in 1968 and became Deputy Editor in 1970, leading the way in the magazine’s bold art direction.

Harri Peccinotti is an English photographer best known for his boldly graphic, erotic photographs. He photographed the influential Pirelli calendar in 1968 and 1968, marking a new style of photography that celebrated everyday details. He was an Art Director at Nova and was hugely influential on the magazine’s graphic design as well as the photography.

When: Tuesday 24th September 2019, 7pm-9pm
Where: magCulture, 270 Saint John Street, London EC1V 4PE
Price: £7.06

For more information and to book tickets, please visit the the event’s Eventbrite page.

Join our best-selling author Gavin Pretor-Pinney for an enlightening discussion of clouds, cloudspotting and his new new book A Cloud A Day.

Despite founding the Cloud Appreciation Society – which boasts 46,000 members from 120 different countries – and authoring the bestselling book The Cloudspotter’s Guide, Gavin Pretor-Pinney has always rejected the title of expert – preferring instead to think of himself as someone who is just very interested in clouds. But his knowledge is rich, and his latest book A Cloud A Day is both an informative guide to the clouds that grace our skies and a beautiful and timely reminder of the power of taking a moment each day to stop, look skywards, and take in the wonders above our heads.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is a writer, speaker and graphic designer and the founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society. He was also co-founder of The Idler magazine – which champions the importance of downtime in creative thinking. Gavin is the author of four books. The Cloudspotter’s Guide and The Cloud Collector’s Handbook were both international bestsellers and Gavin’s third book The Wavewatcher’s Companion won the 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books – considered the most prestigious prize in popular science publishing. He lives in Somerton in Somerset.

Tickets include entry and a glass of wine. There will be a Q&A after the talk. Books will be available to buy on the night and Gavin will be happy to sign them.

Please note: parking at the venue is extremely limited. On-street parking is usually possible in the evening. Alternatively, you could park in any of Frome’s public car parks and enjoy the short walk to the venue.

When: Wednesday 11th September 2019, 7.30pm
Where: The Refectory @ Forward Space, The Old Church School, Butts Hill, Frome BA11 1HR
Price: £5 (ticket includes a glass of wine)