Prehistoric Anatolia, the Hittite Age 2000-1250BC, the Dark Ages to the Persian Conquest 1250-494BC, the Persian Empire at war with the Greeks 494-334BC, Alexander the Great and his legacy 334-133BC, the impact of Rome 193BC to AD330, the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of Constantinople to the Battle of Manzikert 330-1071, the Byzantine Empire and the Turks 1071-1461, the Ottoman Empires, the Ataturk Years 1909-1938 and Modern Turkey 1939-present, the book offers a full history. At least seven ancient civilisations have made their homes in Turkey and all have left their mark on the landscape, architecture and art in the place where East meets West. Stoneman's readable account covers the legendary Flood of Noah, the early civilisation of Catal Huyuk 7000 years before Christ, the treasure of Troy, the Seljuks, and the Golden Age of the Sultans to the upheaval and changes wrought by Kemal Atatürk culminating in the strong position Turkey now occupies on the world stage. Includes maps, chronology of events, major battles and lists of native rulers. Pen and ink artworks, 247pp, paperback.

'Ideal before-you-go reading' - The Daily Telegraph, this is a superb series to collect in the Armchair Traveller series from Haus Publishing. This definitive concise history of Portugal from its earliest beginnings right up to the politics and life of the present day is invaluable whether you are travelling or not. It was not until the 12th century that Portugal became a country in its own right, having been a Roman colony and then having suffered both Barbarian and Islamic invasions. The Golden Age of Discoveries, the reign and foresight of Henry the Navigator, and the great seamen such as Vasco da Gama led to the founding of Portugal's empire and wealth. Troubled times followed - in 1755 Lisbon was virtually levelled by the Great Earthquake, and the country had hardly recovered its former prosperity when it was overrun by Napoleon's troops at the start of the Peninsular War, to be followed not long after by the Miguelite Civil War. The middle decades of the 19th century saw the port wine trade flourish, and further colonial expansion into Africa. Ever since the bloodless revolution of 1974 over through the right-wing dictatorship of Salazar, the country has regained its stability and now takes its rightful place in the European Community. The book covers the history of early Burgundians and Braganzas and a chronology of major events and rulers of Portugal plus a historical gazetteer. 12 maps, pen and ink artworks. 228pp, paperback.

A Traveller's History of Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Buy all four in the series and save even more.

Cardinal Richelieu curated a cattery at the Louvre Palace. Rural buildings with crumbling walls and peeling paint with a beautiful black cat perched on an old barrel. 'I believe cats to be spirits come to earth' said Jules Verne with a lovely furry grey tabby striding atop a fence. Remarkable French landscapes, both urban and rural, are populated with cats brimming with personality, whether languidly strolling in a quaint village or regally perched on the doorstep of an elegant château. Now, a carefully curated selection of these unforgettable images is available in a small, charming book that will be an all-around delight for Francophiles and cat lovers alike. 60 pages. Colour. 15.88 x 18.42 cm.

Breakfast - drink coffee in cafes in Paris as the city wakens, Parisian dogs play in manicured parks, the gargoyles of Notre Dame and their medieval riddles, Rodin's The Thinker, here is a book of illustrations celebrating French culture and must-see sites in the capital of France. Take an enchanting tour of Paris's most charming places, objects, and pastimes. Organized by season, it takes the reader through a year's worth of quintessentially Parisian experiences, from secret gardens bursting with roses to exotic plumage at the city's bird market, fantastical murals on the ceiling of the Paris Opera House, street vendors serving freshly roasted chestnuts in newspaper cones, candied violets at Paris's oldest sweet shop, dazzling colours in the stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle, cups of hot chocolate on a cold winter day and more. The friendly text and whimsical illustrations make this a poetic letter to the City of Light. A uniquely intimate perspective in this triomphe of je ne sais quoi and joi de vivre! 16.51 x 24.13cm. 112 pages.

Press out the illustrations from the page and transform your book into a cityscape to treasure and display. The book describes over 50 classic structures in Paris, the modern city with a historical heart, in an authoritative and compelling style. Includes of course the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, the Palais de Tokyo, Castel Béranger, La Place de la Concorde, Maxim's de Paris, the Café de la Paix, Opéra Garnier, Galeries Lafayette, Moulin Rouge, Musée du Louvre, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Fontaine Igor Stravinsky with its bright, primary-coloured whimsy of fibreglass and polyester shapes, and more. For each there is the address, architect, date opened and dimensions and a brief history. Press around each building holding the page steady, discard the excess card, smooth the edges with your fingers and it magically forms a display from the top of the book. Colour, 110pp.

From a few thousand tours he has conducted in 70 countries, Bryan Bland recounts history, dramatic scenery, green exercise as a therapeutic intervention, and location filming and much else from world politics to the crucial life-enhancing role of music in his light-hearted examination of the profit of birding. Red-Lord Parrot, Keel-billed Toucan, Red-Crowned Ant-tanager, Collared Aracari, Pale-billed Woodpecker, Indigo Bunting, Ocellated Turkey, Red-capped Manakin - the only man-made structures visible were pre-Columbian and the roof combs of Mayan temples constructed 1,300 years ago. As far as the eye could see stretch nothing but the largest tract of the rainforest, north of the Amazon 'like sitting on top of a giant broccoli.' Author Bryan Bland has spent a lifetime discovering that there is more to birding than the obvious interest derived from just watching the birds. The pastime is also instrumental in opening doors for life's other pleasures and with his humorous and anecdotal text, birders and non-birders will be swept along with his tales of running 50 miles across the land-slide strewn Himalayas in order to keep an appointment with a tour group, to meeting Britain's first-ever breeding pair of Parrot Crossbills using material from Bryan's beard to build their nest. Based in the birding hotspot of Cley in Norfolk, Bryan alternates his highly regarded residential bird watching courses with his overseas tours, and he is also a highly regarded bird illustrator. 352pp, beautiful line art throughout.

In the words of The Times. 'Rome's history is written in blood, and Addis, who has a vivid, pacey writing style, spares not the squeamish as he describes three millennia of violence from the first kings to Il Duce.' Snappy paragraphs are underpinned by serious reading in this history comprising of a series of vignettes from Rome's ancient foundation to the Second World War, via Gauls, ghettos and gladiators, and its 22 chapters bring to life in 22 scenes from its 2,500 year history. Each is a self-contained narrative whether it is the murder of Caesar, the near-destruction of the city by the Gauls in 387BC, the construction of the Colosseum and the fate of the gladiators, Bernini's creation of the Baroque masterpiece that is St Peter's Basilica, the brutal crushing of Republican dreams in 1849, the sinister degeneration of Mussolini's first state, or the magical, corrupt Rome of filmmaker Fellini's La Dolce Vita. From Chapter 17 Judgement, the Sack of Rome 1527: 'The Peasants' War became a massacre. The peasant leader Thomas Müntzer, a preacher and old admirer of Luther's, was tortured and killed...Bourbon too was preoccupied: his dreams of conquering France had failed. His promised bride, the emperor's sister, was now being married off to King Francois as part of the post-Pavia peace deal. Mustering his wounded dignity, he set off for Spain, hoping at least to be rewarded with the Duchy of Milan.' Personal, easy to read, 632 magnificent pages with colour and black and white photos.

Each huge page is a delight and an artwork of great beauty. Joan Blaeu (1596 Alkmaar-1673 Amsterdam) was a leading Dutch cartographer and member of the Amsterdam council. Son of Willem Blaeu, also a famed cartographer, Joan and his brother Cornelius took over his father?s workshop in 1638. He became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company and would gain further fame with a collection of Dutch city maps entitled Tooneel der Steeden, the first atlas of Scotland, and the masterwork Atlas Maior. Superlatives tend to fail in the face of Joan Blaeu's Atlas Maior, one of the most extravagant feats in the history of mapmaking with its exquisitely decorated borders in colourful crests and queens and houses and peoples. The original Latin edition, completed in 1665, was the largest and most expensive book to be published during the 17th century. Its 594 maps across 11 volumes in Latin spanned Arctica, Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. Taschen's meticulous reprint brings this luxurious Baroque wonder into the hands of modern readers. In an age of digitised cartography, it celebrates the steadfast beauty of quality print and restores the wonder of an exploratory age, in which Blaeu's native Amsterdam was a centre of international trade and discovery. The edition derives from the Austrian National Library's complete coloured and gold-heightened copy of Atlas Maior, assuring the finest detail and quality. University of Amsterdam's Peter van der Krogt introduces the historical and cultural significance of the atlas while providing detailed descriptions for individual maps, revealing the full scale and ambition of Blaeu's masterwork. 25 x 38cm, 4.13 kg, 512 pages. Text in English, French, German. Another gorgeous and collectable Taschen publication.

A vivid and revealing book focused on the fascinating European journeys of British artist Frances Hodgkins. The much overlooked New Zealand-born Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947) arrived in London in 1901 and, by the 1920s, had become a leading British modernist, exhibiting frequently with avant-garde artists such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. This book explores Hodgkins as a traveller across cultures and landscapes - teaching and discovering the cubists in Paris, absorbing the landscape and light of Ibiza and Morocco, and exhibiting with the progressive Seven & Five Society in London. See dreamy watercolours of fishermen, a summer garden, Belgian refugees, a hilltown landscape, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire countryside and dozens of intriguing still lifes. Complete with a rich visual chronology of the artist's encounters abroad, alongside over 100 of Hodgkins' key paintings and drawings, the book is an illuminating journey that moves us from place to place through the writings of a number of distinguished national and international art historians, curators and critics: Frances Spalding (University of Cambridge, England), Alexa Johnston (Auckland-based writer and curator), Elena Taylor (University of New South Wales, Australia), Antoni Ribas Tur (Ara newspaper, Spain in the 1930s), and Julia Waite on St Ives, Sarah Hillary on material and technique, Catherine Hammond and Mary Kisler (Auckland Art Gallery Toi oTamaki, New Zealand). 23.5 x 28.5cm, 268 pages. Thames & Hudson, 202 stunning full page colour illus, ephemera and photos.