Arts, Language & Literature
Lingo
Gaston Dorren
Why the Spanish speak so fast, the Dutch are gender-benders and it's hard to add up in Breton
Shakespeare: Ideas in Profile
Paul Edmondson
A short introduction to Shakespeare by expert Paul Edmondson
Art in History, 600 BC – 2000 AD: Ideas in Profile
Martin Kemp
An epic journey through the history of art from religious painting to postmodernism by one of the world's greatest art historians
Peas & Queues
Sandi Toksvig
The queen of Radio 4, Sandi Toksvig, delivers an entertaining and fascinating guide to what to do and why in the confusing world of modern manners
Nijinsky
Lucy Moore
The first major biography for forty years tells the tragic story of ballet's great revolutionary, Nijinsky – now in paperback.
Noise
David Hendy
Orwell Prize-nominated David Hendy explores the role of sound, noise and listening in 100,000 years of human history, now in paperback.
Spell It Out
David Crystal
A unique journey through English spelling, untangling the fascinating origins of its greatest eccentricities.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Betty Edwards
The world's most popular drawing-instruction book from a leading expert
The Story of English in 100 Words
David Crystal
An eye-opening tour of the English language through the ages
The Great Animal Orchestra
Bernie Krause
A fascinating and unique exploration of nature's music, from plants and animals to wind and rain.
The Van Gogh File
Ken Wilkie
Incorporating recent discoveries about Vincent Van Gogh's life and work, including the only photograph of him as an adult, this updated biography…
The Library Book
Famous writers on libraries real or imagined, past and future; why libraries matter and to whom.In aid of The Reading Agency
Da Vinci's Ghost
Toby Lester
The untold story of Vitruvian Man, the drawing that captured the spirit of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – and that still haunts our own
Lives of the Novelists
John Sutherland
This is the most complete history of fiction in English ever published – now in paperback.
Van Gogh
Gregory White Smith
The definitive and explosive biography, based on new material, by the bestselling, prize-winning authors of Pollock.