This book focuses on Monet's garden at Giverny as seen through his paintings, offering a revealing insight into the artist and his work. Monet's garden was a private haven where domestic pleasure, artistic vision and aesthetic delight converged. It became as powerful a passion in his life as painting — he chose his planting schemes as carefully as he chose colours for his palette. It was also the inspiration for his art, and the subject of some of his greatest paintings. Exploring his vision of the world of beauty he brought into being, Debra Mancoff shows how Monet's endeavours as a gardener were part of his identity as a painter and how his artistic vision drew strength from his passion for his garden.

This book presents the best garden designs of the last five years from more than 50 top garden designers. It offers design solutions for every situation, every area, all tastes and budgets, and any size of garden. It draws on the talents of celebrated designers such as Tom Stuart Smith, Luciano Giubbilei, Cleve West, Dan Pearson and Joe Swift. It also showcases the work of lesser-known designers whose innovating designs deserve wider recognition. The process of garden design requires many thousands of small decisions in the pursuit of the most appealing solutions for outdoor spaces. But this book makes the complex process simpler by offering ample choices of contemporary design for you to explore what's possible, what's practical and what's affordable. Comprising garden rooms, ornamental details, styles and planting ideas, this book will appeal to every forward-looking garden owner, whether they manage a small or medium sized garden, a roof terrace, balcony or courtyard space. It offers cutting edge solutions for those seeking an entirely new look as well as key details that can make all the difference.

Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds will be a captivating photographic portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them, with a focus on Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. Accompanying the photographs will be essays on the design and planting that explain the designers' inspiration and passion alongside historical and factual information. This is a very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson-Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of a corner of England with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savoured and enjoyed along with those who know them best.

The Fine Art of Fashion Illustration is a visual celebration of fashion image making and illustration from the Renaissance to the end of the Art Deco period, when studio photography became predominant in the promotion of new fashionable styles. It shows fashion illustration as an art form of allure and beauty, as captured by talented image-makers and printed in publications spanning centuries. Featuring over 300 illustrations, it is a beautiful and comprehensive document of the talent and artistry that went into the design and making of European fashion images from the second half of the sixteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century.

Mick and Brita tell the story of the Beatles in the vivid and exciting way which has become the hall mark of their books. The story begins... John Lennon's Liverpool childhood with Auntie Mimi, and his school band The Quarrymen; the friendships with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, and their entry into the band; renaming the band The Beatles; the arrival of Brian Epstein as manager; the tour to Hamburg; record label boss George Martin becomes an important influence; Ringo Starr joins the group; fame and screaming fans; the famous tour to the USA; the making of the albums, key hit songs and films; the later years, with the influence of Indian spirituality after their visit to India, and finally the break-up of the band and the beginning of solo careers for the Fab Four.

The product of extended visits to properties associated with Wright, and extensive interviews with surviving colleagues and students, this is the first book in full colour to focus on Wright's four most famous residential landscapes — his first home and studio at Oak Park, Illinois; his magnificent 3,000 acre summer home Taliesin, Wisconsin; his 600-acre winter home Taliesin West, Arizona; and Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, the commission that made him world famous. Featuring an introduction by James Van Sweden, America's leading garden designer and landscape architect, this book highlights a revolutionary take on garden design. It also explores the source of Wright's inspiration in Japanese and Mayan landscapes as well as his appreciation of the stone meeting circles and naturalistic prairie plantings of the great landscape architect Jens Jensen. Two final chapters offer planting plans for a prairie-style and a desert-style garden inspired by Wright's designs.

The story of Liberty's is the story of design. The brand has been an international byword for style and innovation since May 1875, when Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened the doors of his Regent Steet shop. The son of a draper, Arthur Liberty (1843-1917) was inspired by the conviction that if he could only raise the capital to open his own shop, he could change the whole look of fashion in dress and interior decoration. He did exactly that. With an impressive ability to spot talent and to promote good, innovative and interesting design, Liberty's shop quickly became the epicentre of London's Aesthetic movement, the place where Oscar Wilde bought Japanese silk. Succesive movements found a home at Liberty's: Arts and Crafts; Art Nouveau; Art Deco; and the Georgian revival. The work of almost all the great designers of the past century in the fields of glass, metalwork, furniture, ceramics, fashion and, above all, textiles has appeared under the Liberty label. In this book Martin Wood tells the story of Liberty's, its design and its designers: from the pewter and silverware of Archibald Knox and the Silver Studio and William DeMorgan's tiles to the fabrics of Lucienne Day, Sonia Delaunay and Bernard Nevill and the furniture of Piero Fornasetti, Vico Magistretti and even Ringo Starr.

This beautiful collection of fabulous photographs and incisive pen portraits captures the world of Cecil Beaton, one of the most celebrated portrait photographers of the twentieth century. Cecil Beaton: Portraits and Profiles combines Beaton's photographic and pen portraits. Beaton's portraits offer insight, beauty, witty observations and a fascinating glimpse into his world. His images often flattered but his diaries and journals didn't necessarily follow suit and he was described by Jean Cocteau as Malice in Wonderland. Included are stars of music, fashion, society, stage and screen. From Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol, Coco Chanel and Princess Grace through to Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor and Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Of Audrey Hepburn, Beaton said she is like a portrait by Modigliani where the various distortions are not only interesting in themselves but make a completely satisfying composite. Marilyn Monroe romps, she squeals with delight, she leaps on the sofa. It is an artless, impromptu, high-spirited, infectiously gay performance. It will probably end in tears. Marlon Brando was pallid as a mushroom, smooth-skinned and scarred, with curved feminine lips and silky hair, he seems as unhealthy as a lame duck. Yet his ram-like profile has the harsh strength of the gutter Cecil Beaton's life spanned many worlds and these are captured here through his fabulous photographs and incisive observations.

William Burges (1827-81) was arguably the greatest of all Victorian architects. But he was more than just the creator of a modest number of fabulous, and fabulously expensive, buildings. He dreamed of hundreds more, designed dozens, and in addition created some of the most remarkable furniture and jewellery of all time. He was an art-architect. Rich, clever, well connected and short lived, he was uncompromising, profoundly learned, skilled in every process of design and explosively inventive. A brilliant talker, pungent critic and hilarious companion, he was one of Victorian London's great eccentrics and networkers, though he was bewitched by the Middle Ages. The great buildings that he completed include Cork Cathedral, Cardiff Castle and the even more eccentric Castell Coch, the great Yorkshire churches of Skelton and Studley Royal, the magnificent country houses of Knightshayes in Devon, and Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, and his own astonishing Tower House in Kensington. His furniture, fabric and jewellery designs and his unrealised projects were also hugely influential, and the former are now enthusiastically collected. This book was a landmark in Victorian studies when first published in 1981 and is now completely revised and re-illustrated substantially in colour.

The Alhambra palace complex is imposingly situated above the town of Granada, on the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada, southern Spain. It is the most important surviving medieval Islamic palace in the world. Michael Jacobs takes a fresh look at this magical palace-fortress, built by the Muslim Nasrid rulers and the potent mythology that has grown up around it. The heart of the book is a tour of the palace and the adjoining gardens of the Generalife. The final chapter assesses the literature, art and architecture inspired by this legendary place.

The RHS Wild in the Garden Diary 2014 celebrates British wildlife. It is illustrated with photographs of birds, mammals, amphibians and insects that may be found in gardens, plus tips on how to manage your garden to enhance the wildlife potential and thereby add interest and enjoyment. Illustrated with full colour photographs this week-to-view diary includes an internal storage pocket and ribbon marker.

This is an anthology of short diary entries (with the occasional journal entry or letter), one or two for each day of the year, which, taken together, will provide an impressionistic portrait of life in the city over the last five centuries. The book will vividly evoke moments in the lives of Londoners in the past, providing snapshots of the city's inhabitants at work, at play, in pursuit of money, sex, entertainment, pleasure and power. A prefect book for readers of The Assassin's Cloak or Craig Taylor's Londoners, and essential reading for all those who live in or love the city.

Cats are the most enigmatic and alluring of domestic animals. Beguiling beauty, fierce independence and aloof intelligence characterize their long and exotic history. The Grace of the Cat is a celebration of this captivating animal and a moving account of the feline's journey from the wild to a comfortable domestic existence. In this beautifully illustrated book, Tamsin Pickeral traces the colourful and tumultuous history of the cat, from its glory days in Egypt to its transport on creaking ships to America. She explores the diverse role of the cat in each culture, culminating in the origins of cat shows, and the selective breeding of pure bred, pedigree animals. Inside this richly illustrated book you will discover the stories behind more than fifty breeds of cat, from the lithe-bodied Abyssinian to the intelligent Russian Blue, and from the graceful, long-haired Balinese to the lop-eared Scottish Fold. The evocative and informative text is accompanied by stunning photographs of every featured breed by award-winning photographer Astrid Harrisson. Her breathtaking images capture the many facets of what makes a cat a cat-its elegance, spirit and wit. The Grace of the Cat is an essential volume for everyone who loves cats.

As weird and wonderful as Escape from Mercy Hall and Secrets of Mercy Hall, the final book in the trilogy see the children back behind the Hedge again, this time on a rescue mission. Where is the lever to the Hedge? Shouted Jethro Barking as he towered over them! I'll feed you to the sharks, I'll hang you by your feet, I'll give you to the Muttons, one by one 'till you tell me. So ended Secrets of Mercy Hall. Now, Digby, one of the orphans, has gone missing after visiting a travelling circus. Whilst investigating behind the scenes Milly, Singer and Charlie discover a sinister secret. Minlings from behind the Hedge are caged and ready to be displayed in the circus freak show. The worst has happened — Jethro Barking, or Old Barking Mad, has finally escaped and is selling everything he can, gold, diamonds and Minlings! Aided by their old friends, Drago, and Batty the Tick-Tock bird, the children use powers gained in the Rainbow Cave to outwit Old Barking Mad and finally solve the mystery of the Hedge forever.

This weird and wonderful tale follows the exploits of eight year old Milly, and nine year old George and Samuel, as they escape from the grey world of a Victorian orphanage into a land of curious and unsettling modernity.

In ad 79, the volcano Vesuvius erupted, burying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and rock, and leaving them remarkably well preserved for centuries. While Pompeii has been extensively written about and popularized, the remains of its sister city, a smaller yet wealthier community close to the sea, are less widely known, but they have yielded spectacular archaeological evidence. This is the first major study of Herculaneum since that of Joseph Jay Deiss, published in 1966 and last revised in 1993. And in any language there have only ever been a handful of books available, mostly guidebooks and exhibition catalogues. Herculaneum is based on the latest excavation work and incorporates much new material that has revolutionized our understanding of the site. The book draws on a decade's work with the Herculaneum Conservation Project which, thanks to the Packard Humanities Institute, has begun to reverse the neglect of previous years which had reduced this extraordinary site to a critical condition. Illustrated with more than 300 newly taken colour photographs and archive illustrations, plus eight spectacular 360-degree panoramas, it is the definitive overview for the general public of what we know and understand about Herculaneum, of what is still unknown and mysterious, and of the potential for future discoveries in both archaeological and political contexts.

The great houses of London represent one of the marvels of English architecture and yet they are almost entirely unknown. They are for the most part disguised behind sober facades but their riches within are astonishing. This book will range from the romantic 17th century Ashburnham House, nestling in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, through the splendid 18th century aristocratic palaces of the West End, to the curious and quirky arts and crafts houses of Holland Park and Kensington, to the cool modernist houses of Hampstead and the exuberant post-modern interiors of the last thirty years. Every house has its own story to tell. This might be the colourful history of the occupants (such as the Duke of Wellington entertaining ladies at Apsley House), the great art collections they held (the Titians at Bridgewater House or Sam Courtauld's Impressionist paintings at Home House), or the architectural wonders of William Kent's 44 Berkeley Square and Burges's Tower House in Melbury Road. The book promises to be a great revelation.

“Any creature who gets changed after passing through the Rainbow Cave is sentenced to death by pegging out,” said Drago soberly. “They are simply chained out in the fields and when the evening comes the Muttons appear and eat everything in sight.” In trouble again with the unpopular headmaster of Mercy Hall, Jethro Barking, Milly escapes from the orphanage with the help of her friends George and Samuel, and sets out to find her lost older brother, Tom. Little did any of them expect to be bundled through a thorn hedge by shadowy figures, into a strange land of Muttons (flesh-eating sheep), and forbidden Changelings. Finding Drago, a slave dog, staked out and at the mercy of the Muttons, they save him. In doing so they learn about the mysterious Rainbow Cave and the strange people, called the Robes, who control the cave and the glowing city beyond. Aided by Drago, and Batty the Tick-Tock bird, the children travel through the Rainbow Cave itself and discover the Dome, an enormous electro-magnetic power generator, worked by slaves kidnapped from their own world. Can the children escape? Can they help the slaves escape? And are they now changelings themselves?

A colourful snail asks you to help him look for his favourite painting. Follow his silver trail through a selection of famous modern paintings by an exciting range of modern artists including Pollock, Rothko, Mondrian, Dali, Picasso and Matisse in search of a piece of art that represents him.

This beautiful book is a collection of poetry from all around the world, illustrated by some of the finest picture book artists working today including Peter Sis, Children's Laureate Anthony Browne and Quentin Blake. Produced by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), this is a poignant and uplifting book to treasure, inspire and educate.