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The first monograph on the first photographer to be awarded the Prize for Editorial, Advertising & Fashion Photography by the Royal Photographic Society, this extraordinary collection celebrates David Stewart’s surreal eye and his literal focus on the unusual, the bizarre and the deadpan presentation of the unexpected. Meticulously composed tableaux create off-centre observations of everyday life that are simultaneously familiar and disturbing. This groundbreaking survey of of a lifetime of looking, thinking, composing and creating exceptional photographic compositions of the absurdity, comedy and nightmarish potential of everyday life will resonate with all.

William Carne’s life, like so many others in the 20th Century, was defined by the two World Wars. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aged just sixteen in 1914. This is his story of his life at sea, from his own memoirs, letters, diaries and photos. It is a humbling account of his time as a midshipman on HMS New Zealand at the Battle of Jutland, to Captain of HMS Coventry in 1941 during the evacuation of Crete. It is also a fascinating insight into society at that time, both in the Service and at home. It is the story of The Making of a Royal Naval Officer.

Written by Bernard Leach, the father of British studio pottery, this seminal book is the first treatise to be written by a potter on the workshop traditions handed down from the greatest period of Chinese ceramics in the Sung dynasty. With this book, potters can learn everything from how to adapt recipes for pigments and glazes to designing kilns.

First published in 1956, Swifts in a Tower still offers astonishing insights into swifts' private lives along with thoughts about their life style and wider issues. Now more than sixty years later swifts have been studied even more thoroughly, with technology unimaginable in the 1950s. This continues to reveal even more of their secrets, so this edition, published in association with the RSPB for their Oxford Swift City project includes a new chapter by Andrew Lack, bringing the story of this remarkable bird into the 21st Century.

Energy is Life: Why Environmentalism Went Nuclear follows Zion Lights’s personal and powerful journey: from grassroots green activism to becoming one of the UK’s leading advocates for nuclear energy. In a time of climate crisis, energy poverty and growing demand for clean power, she examines why long-established environmentalists like herself once feared nuclear energy, why many have since come to embrace it, and makes a compelling case for why nuclear energy must be part of the solution. Accessible, evidence-based, and deeply human, this book challenges common myths and invites readers to rethink what it really means to care for people and planet alike. If you believe in a greener, fairer future, this book just might change your mind – and give you hope.

Bill Wyman has worked in the London borough of Chelsea on-and-off since joining the Rolling Stones in 1962, and has lived in the area since 1982. Over the past few years, Bill has walked every street of his beloved neighbourhood, photographing anything unusual that caught his eye: bridges, churches, pubs, shops, houses, monuments, decorative wall plaques, blue historical plaques, statues, weather vanes, front doors, street signs and coal hole covers. Alongside his photos, Bill began to research the area thoroughly – its history, its stories, and its residents. Bill Wyman's Chelsea is the result of this work: a comprehensive and informative guide to a London borough steeped in culture and history, as seen through the personaland affectionate lens of a long-standing resident, who himself plays a part in the history of the area. Complete with walking tour itineraries, maps, an A-Z of streets, historical information, over 300 of Bill’s photos and knowledge from an insider; Bill has produced what can confidently be called the ‘Master Book on Chelsea’.

In 1940, Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, both established artists with international reputations who had become disillusioned with the commercial aspects of the art world, moved to Benton End, overlooking the River Brett on the outskirts of Hadleigh, Suffolk. What they found there was a somewhat ramshackle but capacious sixteenth-century farmhouse, standing in over three acres of walled gardens lost beneath brambles and elder trees; the house had not been lived in for fifteen years. But Benton End became both their home and the new premises of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing which, in 1937, they had founded together in Dedham, Essex. From 1940 until Lett Haines died in 1978 and Cedric Morris in 1982, Benton End was an exotic world apart where art, literature, good food, gardening and lively conversation combined to produce an extraordinarily stimulating environment for amateurs and professionals alike. Ronald Blythe recalls that 'there was a whiff of garlic and wine in the air. The atmosphere ...was robust and coarse, and exquisite and tentative all at once. Rough and ready and fine mannered. Also faintly dangerous.'The sharply contrasting characters and interests of Morris and Lett Haines ensured the widest range of contacts and visitors to Benton End who included Francis Bacon, Ronald Blythe, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, David Carr, Beth Chatto, Randolph Churchill, Elizabeth David, Lucian Freud, Kathleen Hale, Maggi Hambling, Lucy Harwood, Glyn Morgan, John Nash, and Vita Sackville-West. There was no formal teaching and students were left free to pursue their own enthusiasms and to show their work to Morris or Lett Haines for advice. Without formal teaching, they were free to pursue their own enthusiasms, while Morris's skill as a plantsman and noted breeder of irises, contrasted with Lett Haines's intellectual sophistication, interest in food and wine, artistic experimentation, and a general lack of enthusiasm for the outdoors.

The history of the Order of St Patrick, est. 1783, with lists of grand masters, knights and officers.

Four university friends visit Jerusalem and return home sharing a secret which will change their lives and those under theirinfluence. After his father’s death, and before taking up his own place at university in Edinburgh, the son of one of the four findshimself at the centre of a dangerous quest. Evil swirls aroundhim as he encounters a mystical ferryman with superhumanstrength, a strikingly beautiful girl who befriends him, his father’s contemporaries who he meets for the first time, and aprofessional assassin employed by one of them to kill him. In a race against time, and in his naivety unable clearly to distinguishbetween friend and foe, he receives his father’s sole legacy, a box apparently only containing a candle. The quest takes himto Jerusalem and Southern France; to Whitby, the Hebrides, Walsingham and the Norfolk salt marshes. ‘Something almostlost to the world remains’.

In 1972 Leo and Philippa Bernard bought Chelsea Rare Books, a small antiquarian bookshop in the King’s Road, Chelsea, advertised for sale in The Times. The Bernards had no previous experience of bookselling, but Chelsea in the 1970s was a lively place. The stock they acquired with the shop included everything from field sports to embroidery, children’s books, art and modern first editions.In the basement they launched The Beaufort Gallery selling prints and paintings. The young women who joined them as bookselling assistants became friends, often introducing a successor before leaving to marry, have children or move to the country. Philippa Bernard makes light of the hard work she and Leo shared, not to mention the heavy work, handling the books.

New York’s Fifth Avenue, America’s ‘Street of Dreams’ is one of the most remarkable thoroughfares in the world. Shown on the Commissioners’ map of 1807 emerging from a country road, then in the proposed grid plan of 1811 as one of the major boulevards, Fifth Avenue by the end of the century was synonymous with a lavish fashionable life, grand mansions, and services catering to the wealthy.Above Washington Square, in the 1840s and 50s, mainly speculative brownstone rowhouses marched steadily northwards.The merchants of the port, the social fabric of the City, after the Civil War shunned the more aggressive arrivistes such as Alva Vanderbilt and Marietta Stevens who employed European influenced architects and decorators to build and furnish grand mansions in contrast to their brownstone neighbours.And then, it was all gone. Swept away in the shadow of tall buildings, the New York house was no longer the ultimate symbol of identity. All that exquisite and substantial work quickly fell before the wrecker’s ball.This book seeks to recreate Fifth Avenue as it grew, flourished and failed. Over 200 archive photographs help tell the story of Fifth Avenue’s 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and society.

John O'Connor (1913-2004), a romantic but also a realist, recorded old endangered things, high and low: churches, canals, barges, dilapidated barns and garden sheds. With a keen eye, sure hand and way with words, he drew, engraved, painted and described what he valued most around him. Talkative, friendly as a teacher, humorous and hard-working, his curiosity about his fellow human beings and affection for, and knowledge of all things English, drove much of his best work. He enjoyed the process of engraving into his 90s, illustrating articles for The Oldie.A scholarship from Leicester Art School took him to the Royal College of Art in 1933 where his tutors were Eric Ravilious, and John Nash RA who shared his interest in plants and gardening. Illustrated with family photographs and reproductions of his father's work, this biographical account by his son, Michael O'Connor (Mike), was still unfinished when Mike died in 2021. It has been edited and seen into print by Josie, Mike's daughter.

From the human truths, brutalist architecture and packed tube trains of 1970s London to the vineyards, Renaissance châteauxand riotous festivals of Gascon France, Michael Fell (1939 – 2023) chronicled the world he saw. His exuberant paintings and printsexplore the sadnesses, humour and joys of ordinary people in work combining technical freedom with visual wit, compassion and delight. Fell’s visions of city, town and landscape raise intriguing questions about the relationship between perception and feeling. Motifs and images of day to day life, captured with Fell’s fine draftsmanship, appear alongside literary, religious andaesthetic allusion.The Art of Michael Fell, edited by art historian Andrew Wilton, explores the artist’s life, work and influences, withperspectives from leading figures in the world of art criticism, painting and print making. This richly illustrated study will bringa new appreciation and understanding of the original, technically inventive and wide ranging oeuvre of a notably private artist.

Jacqueline Duncan founded The Inchbald School of Interior Design in 1960, and the Inchbald School of Garden Design in 1972. War-time experiences as a young evacuee living in grand English country houses kindled her fascination with buildings and gardens before she met and married Michael Inchbald, aleading interior decorator.Britain had no equivalent of the Parsons School of Design, in the USA, so Jacqueline Duncan became determined to establish a school in London.An important component of Inchbald courses is Interior Design history, which Jacqueline Duncan outlines, explaining how the profession developed out of associated trades and gift ed amateurism. Many distinguished Interior Designers and Garden Designers are Inchbald graduates. Examples of theirwork are included in an appendix.

After the failure of Britain’s latest air-defence destroyers in the 1982 Falklands War, a public controversy began over an alternative: The S90 ‘Short Fat’ frigate designed and proposed by Peter Thornycroft and David Giles.This is the almost incredible but well-documented story of the author’s 40-year-long hard-fought battle with naval authorities and governments on both sides of the Atlantic, to prove the virtues of his designs which they had rejected on the basis of theory rather than fact, and then eventually to win substantialcompensation after they covertly infringed his patents in two new classes of warship.With a Foreword by the late Admiral Lord Hill-Norton, Former Chief of the Defence Staff; Technical Appendices; Glossary and Dramatis Personae.

Living in a time of instant access through electronic communication, it is hard to remember the importance of letters in the past. For those with family living abroad, the post office was a lifeline. Normally the envelope had no more than an address but for some few individuals there was more involved. The hundreds of envelopes executed by W.H. Chignell (1841-1933), never before published, excel in this eld: indeed they are artistic endeavours in their own right.Chignell began married life as an organist and choir master rather than a professional artist. He was the father of seven children and after the break-up of the family home, several emigrated abroad and others moved to disparate parts of the UK. They kept diaries, wrote journals or in one case published a book on life in Papua New Guinea. These contain descriptions of what it was like to receive letters and perhaps even more exciting to have 'home thoughts from abroad' evoked on the envelopes. It is wonderfully fortuitous that so many survive, a selection of which are published in this volume.

New York's Fifth Avenue, America's 'Street of Dreams', is one of the most remarkable thoroughfares in the world. Shown on the Commissioners' map of 1807 emerging from a country road, then in the proposed grid plan of 1811 as one of the major boulevards, Fifth Avenue by the end of the century was synonymous with a lavish fashionable life, grand mansions and services catering to the wealthy. Above Washington Square, in the 1840s and 50s, mainly speculative brownstone rowhouses marched steadily northwards. The merchants of the port, the social fabric of the city, after the Civil War shunned the more aggressive arrivistes such as Alva Vanderbilt and Marie (R) a Stevens who employed European inuenced architects and decorators to build and furnish grand mansions in contrast to their brownstone neighbours.And then, it was all gone. Swept away in the shadow of tall buildings, the New York house was no longer the ultimate symbol of identity. All that exquisite and substantial work quickly fell before the wrecker's ball.This book seeks to recreate Fifth Avenue as it grew, flourished and failed. Over 200 archive photographs help tell the story of Fifth Avenue's nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture and society.

For diversity, energy, hardship and tenacity Tom Peters’ life was exceptional. Enslaved in 1760, and escaping for a third time in 1775 when the Dunmore Proclamation offered fugitive slaves emancipation in return for military service, he enlisted in the British Army. Promoted to sergeant, he served in the Black Pioneers until 1783. Subsequent settlement of the Africans in Nova Scotia was a failure; it resulted in Tom visiting London in 1791 to meet abolitionist MPs and in 1792 15 ships carried the Africans to a prepared settlement in Sierra Leone where arriving in May that year, Tom Peters died of fever three months later.Some events have been omitted, but among people who featured were General Sir Henry Clinton; Granville Sharp; William Wilberforce; Tom’s wife, Sally, and his children, Clairie and John; Sir John Parr the Governor of Nova Scotia; Sir Guy Carleton, Governor General of Canada; and John Clarkson and William Dawes, Governors of Sierra Leone. Rumours surround his life, including his audience with Queen Victoria. Part one is fiction: Tom was born in Yorubaland (Nigeria) not in Ashanti (Ghana). But parts two, three and four are historically more accurate. Conversations throughout are imaginary.

Christopher White explains why he chose this title for his new book: ‘The often intimate, reflective and personal side to Rembrandt’s work in treating subjects from history or the Bible reveals an increasingly more introspective interpretation than his contemporaries.’ Rembrandt’s sharp eye draws inspiration from the domestic scene, the local street and wherever he went. His subjects include: children, beggars, musicians, dogs, pigs, horses; even elephants and lions.White studies Rembrandt’s technique from an aesthetic rather than a scientific point of view; his willingness to experiment whether drawing, painting or etching is a notable feature of his work, and by discussing examples of the three different media side by side, the author demonstrates their interdependence.

Gail Mallatratt says, ‘I’m a colour person and the longer I live the more I love it and am motivated by it. Colour and stories are best. Colour gives me energy.’The vitality of Gail’s colour printmaking is often startling and even surreal, making the familiar seem new. ‘I hold a dialogue with the print coming off the woodcut’, and there is always an element of surprise for her in the result, causing her to adapt colour and process as the work proceeds.‘One important thing about colour and living with it’, Gail reflects, ‘is that it is relative. It changes depending on what it is next to – a muddy ochre can zing out next to a blue or a black. Burnt Sienna can look bright next to a polished medium-tone oak wood. Water can be grey or brown or blue depending on how the light hits it.’‘I need to wear colour, lots of different ones, to feel right for the day. There is no underestimating its importance to the spirit.’ Born in San Francisco, Gail came to London in 1972 with an English husband and her first child. She has an MA degree from Stanford University in teaching English, and Graphic Design and Information Design degrees from the University of the Arts. She studied printmaking at Camberwell and was awarded an MA degree. Before taking up printmaking full-time Gail worked in Corporate Identity design.

The merchant, Paul Brandt, moved from Stettin (now in Poland) to Hamburg in 1686. His business prospered and four generations later, fifteen-year-old Wilhelm Brandt was apprenticed to the merchant Alexander Christian Becker in Archangel. Trading flourished in a variety of commodities including timber, flax, skins and sugar, and in 1805 Wilhelm's older brother Emanuel Heinrich moved to London and set up the agency for the Archangel business which subsequently became the family bank.Peter Augustus Brandt (ninth generation) was born in 1931, and after Eton, Cambridge and national service in the Royal Navy joined Wm Brandt's in 1954, becoming managing director in 1966. After the bank's successes in the 1960s, it was taken over by National and Grindlays and eventually sold in 1972, 160 years after its founding.With over 70 illustrations, many in colour, including family portraits, houses, documents and artefacts from the archives. Maps of Germany, the Baltic, England and Archangel show places with which the family and its businesses were associated.

Delving into Frederick Sandys's unconventional life, Betty Elzea's research reveals much about his complicated andoften scandalous relationships.Born and educated in Norwich with an artisan background, Sandys was bohemian by nature, though from necessity, to the world at large, he appeared genteel and respectable. Unfortunately disorganised, un-businesslike and preferring to live alone as a bachelor in lodgings, he struggled to support two growing families of illegitimate children.From youth, developing skills as a draughtsman and painter, he moved to London, meeting Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates, while keeping a foothold in Norwich where he maintained friendships and enjoyed the support of the Norfolk gentry and several notable Norwich industrialists.Norfolk landscape painting and nature studies led to commissioned portraiture which became his main sourceof income. He is known for depictions of beautiful women in legendary disguises as well as meticulously-detailed portraits of elderly women. He also pioneered a new type of large-scale portrait drawing in chalks.

Glasgow Museums has the finest and most comprehensive collection of Italian paintings of any civic museums service in the United Kingdom.

A glorious essay by Winston Churchill about one of his favourite pastimes, painting.

This book is the first in the series of publications about Glasgow Museums' European Costume collection.

The complete set of Eagle comic strips which tell the story of Winston Churchill's life - his birth at Blenheim, his education at Harrow and Oxford, his time in the army as well as his appointment to government and eventually to his stint as War Leader.

Contains 40 of his best poems. June 2014 marks the Centenary of Laurie Lee's birth - this will be marked with new editions of his most famous literary works.

There can be no potter in the world whose name is more widely known and respected than that of Bernard Leach. He is as famous in Japan and the East as he is in Europe and America, not only as an artist-craftsman but also as a thinker.

Volume III in our In Arcadia Series is a beautiful bird book - elegant descriptions of our best-loved birds alongside simple, yet stunning woodcuts.