DO AHEAD CHRISTMAS Stress Free Cooking

£16.99

Bibliophile price: £8.50

IN SEARCH OF A MASTERPIECE

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD    Book Number: 92484    Product format: Hardback

Sub-titled 'An Art Lover's Guide to Great Britain and Ireland', this expensive-looking Thames & Hudson publication reproduces 273 colour illustrations in a personal selection by the author. Christopher Lloyd has come across and enjoyed artworks in public collections during his 20 years at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, and his principal areas of expertise are the Italian Renaissance, French Impressionism and British art. The aim of his book is to encourage people to visit galleries and museums and his search begins in London, but very much lies further afield including some surprises and many pictures of marvellous quality as he travels through England to Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Industrial Revolution brought great wealth to many British cities and the Museum Acts of 1845 and 1850 enabled boroughs to divert a portion of the rates towards local amenities including art, scientific, library and other cultural institutions. For example the interior of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow is redolent of the exhibition hall which helped to finance it. Genuine acts of philanthropy have led to many municipal museums and galleries being founded such as the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Harris Museum in Preston, the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, Cartwright Hall in Bradford, the Holburne Museum in Bath, the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow among them. Other galleries have flourished under the auspices of universities and many today uphold their founding principles and have been lucky enough to secure extraordinary works of art. In the course of his journey, Christopher Lloyd introduces 266 paintings by a host of artists from different centuries and countries, from c.1300 to the present day and each entry includes an account of the artist. At the Tate Modern you will discover Pablo Picasso's Woman in a Chemise which belongs to the final phase of his Blue Period and coincided with his decision to move for good from Spain to Paris where he established a studio in Montmartre. The next entry is Bonnard's The Bath, a modern Ophelia, followed by Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. We glance sideways to the V&A with works by Raphael and Degas and Aspley House (famously No.1 London) with Velásquez's The Water-Seller of Seville, and Sir David Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch 1822. There are page after page of superbly curated and chosen entries, and one of our favourites must be the dappled light on the flock of geese reaching the watering hole under the eyes of the viewer in The Water Splash on page 196 and the three beautifully dressed Victorian ladies enjoying archery on page 215 in a painting to be found in Exeter. From Penzance to Derby, Cambridge and Hull to Manchester and Cardiff, this is a journey of exploration and a feast for the eyes. 496 large pages in a beautifully bound heavyweight tome.

Published price: £29.95

Bibliophile price: £16

MORNING GLORY ON THE VINE

The Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell produced her ground-breaking album Blue in 1971. It emerged as a singular commercial and critical success around the world and at the time the artist herself puzzled herself over what to give her friends that Christmas. The result was a handmade book with only 100 copies produced, filled with her own handwritten lyrics and reproductions of her many stunning drawings - portraits, abstracts, random concert goers, a road trip psychedelic dream sequence, a very detailed peacock feathered line art princess and Ottoman style palace line drawing, a pensive self-portrait, an aeroplane engine seen just in the fuselage in black and white under a bright zigzag yellow thunderstorm facing a page with the poem 'A Plane is a Bird' dated 28th May 1969. It is all written in her beautiful cursive handwriting, faithfully reproduced in facsimile in this 2019 first edition published by Canongate Books. The album is a better way of understanding what Joni Mitchell found beautiful and worth holding on to, and the lyrics are from her first five albums as well as some unreleased songs, reminding us of what a stunning lyricist and poet she is. In her own words 'This collection of poems and songs and drawings is for myself and for my friends and loves who are this book.' There is a poem about Woodstock, Temptation, and of course the famous Big Yellow Taxi and Let the Wind Carry Me among the 60 lyrics and poems reproduced very neatly with absolutely no crossings out in her own handwriting. Furthermore there are stunning portraits of friends like Jane Lurie in bold psychedelic colours, Judy Collins, Graham Nash, James Taylor, David Crosby, the cover of Court and Spark, Georgia O'Keefe and Neil Young among the 34 full page colour plates. A beautiful big 128 page first edition, 23 x 28.5cm.

Published price: £30

Bibliophile price: £16.50

SITA RAM'S PAINTED VIEWS OF INDIA

J. P. LOSTY    Book Number: 92359    Product format: Hardback

Sub-titled 'Lord Hastings's Journey From Calcutta to the Punjab, 1814-15', we are immersed in an Indian visual feast in very glamorous landscape Thames & Hudson publication with over 200 colour illustrations. The reason for the journey was to inspect the British possessions in India and to meet Indian rulers and notables in Lord Hastings's capacity as Commander-in-Chief and to keep a closer eye on the current war with Nepal. J. P Losty brings alive the 17 month long expedition in a flotilla of 220 boats from Barrackpore past Patna, Benares, Allahabad and Cawnpore, and then overland to Lucknow, Delhi and the Punjab, through Sita Ram's previously unpublished paintings of colonial India, now mostly in the British Library. Lord Hastings's journal of his travels from Calcutta records the events and views of this journey and was accompanied by 200 large watercolour illustrations. The book includes an edited version of the journal charting his passage and the paintings reveal architectural detail and a striking sense of place. Here are three noble gothic arches which in fact do not exist at the courtyard and prayer hall of the Jami Masjid at Delhi, an encampment of tents with a Union flag flying, probably the Begum's own. Presumably after this encounter Lady Hastings left for Delhi taking Sita Ram with her. Typical diary entries begin 'We breakfasted with the Nawab Vizeer.' 'At night we proceeded to Constantia, which is to be our residence. It is three miles from the palace.' 'I went in the morning as soon as it was light to shoot in the Park of Dilkoosha, according to a solicitation made to me by the Nawab Vizeer. He pays great attention to anything which he regards as having been the wish of his father.' There is a map, a history of the artist Sita Ram and some of his natural history studies reproduced in colour plates such as of a young ostrich lacking tail feathers, and a tamarind tree, but best of all are the architectural details of the sculptures on tombs, doors of temples and façades with beautiful filigree stonework. Richly detailed for all with an interest in the British Raj, history, architecture and natural history and the military situation of the period. A magnificent heavyweight publication, 256 large pages.

Published price: £35

Bibliophile price: £18

BEST WISHES, WARMEST REGARDS

Applause, tears, hugs, the entire journey and the story of Schitt's Creek in one huge 368 page volume. Colour photos throughout.

Published price: £25

Bibliophile price: £12.50

MADRID AND THE PRADO

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This superbly illustrated Ullmann publication, with text in both German and English in parallel, looks at the origins of the city, the Castilian small town Madrid 1085-1561, the residence of the Habsburgs 1561-1700, the spectacular Prado Art Museum, the Bourbons 1700-1808, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the royal castles around Madrid.
Published price: £14.99
Bibliophile price: £7.99

LUXURY RAILWAY TRAVEL

LUXURY RAILWAY TRAVEL https://youtu.be/rJmuBIONvm4 via @YouTube Order Here:-https://www.bibliophilebooks.com/epages/Bibliophile.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Bibliophile/Products/92166

Luxury railway travel exerts a glamour associated with the Orient Express, the Golden Arrow, the Blue Train, and the Flying Scotsman. Archive posters.

Published £35 Bibliophile £18.50

COASTAL BRITAIN ENGLAND & WALES

 COASTAL BRITAIN ENGLAND & WALES by STUART FISHER    Book Number: 92299    https://www.bibliophilebooks.com/epages/Bibliophile.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Bibliophile/Products/92299

Celebrating the history, heritage and wildlife of Britain's shores from the clear blue waters of serene Cornish bays to the tempestuous seas around rugged Pembrokeshire headlands, the book journeys around the varied shorelines to complete the most comprehensive survey ever taken. Britain's coastline spans almost 8,000 miles from remote countryside to modern cities, through industrial hubs to fishing villages that have remained largely untouched for centuries. This big visual guide takes us to many places of interest exploring history and heritage, striking architecture, wonderful flora and fauna and delves into art, literature and culture. Starting in the north at the Cheviots and Lindisfarne, Norfolk, the Thames, the Strait of Dover around Sussex and the Isle of Wight, Cornwall to Carmarthen Bay, the Holy Island (Ynys Gybi), Merseyside and Morecambe Bay and back up the west coast to the Lake District and the Solway Firth, here are windmills and train lines and lighthouses and Roman remains at Burgh Castle, lifting bridges, beautiful harbours and estuaries and famous beers and books for each region. There are some coloured maps and fact boxes pointing out distance, OS reference, tidal constants, and glorious colour photographs on every huge page. With double column layout, clear bold headers, evocative photography as well as vignettes of book covers, stamps and local artefacts, the visual guide certainly conveys the character of each area and the facets that make each stretch of Britain's shoreline so special. 336 very large pages, sturdy softback.
Published price: £25
Bibliophile price: £11