At the end of the First World War, the German doctor Hans Prinzhorn began collecting the paintings, drawings and sculpture of schizophrenic patients that would astonish and delight the world. The Prinzhorn collection as it was called inspired a new generation of artists, including Paul Klee, Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. What the doctor could not have known however was that these works would later be used to prepare the ground for mass-murder. Adolf Hitler soon perceived Modernism's interest in madness as a threat - a Jewish-Bolshevik plot aimed at degrading the Aryan soul. Hitler was a failed artist of the old school and he stripped modernist works from German galleries and shamed them in exhibitions of 'Degenerate Art' alongside the 'insane' material of Prinzhorn's collection. He ridiculed the avant-garde and destroyed the cream of Germany's modern art collections. This action was mere preparation in Hitler's onslaught against so-called 'degenerate' people, and Prinzhorn's artists were caught up in both. By 1941, Hitler's regime had killed 70,000 psychiatric patients. It was an extermination campaign that served as the prototype for the Final Solution. Bringing together inspirational art history, genius and madness, and the wanton cruelty of the fanatical 'artist-Führer', this astonishing story lays bare the culture war that paved the way for Hitler's first extermination programme, the psychiatric Holocaust. 16 pages of colour and black and white photos and four pages of maps and list of names of the principal artists. 304pp in large softback.

HOME ALONE ADVENT CALENDAR: The Official Advent Calendar

An international bestseller, this is an anti-fascist history lesson disguised as a novel. Italy is exhausted, tired of the political class and the inept moderates and agonising machinations of a democracy that no longer seems to be working. While the leaders of the country have sat idly in the safety of parliament, achieving nothing, one man on the outside has risen to the top. A misfit par excellence, a protector of the demobilised, a lost drifter searching for the way, he speaks for the outcasts, renegades and the ideologically pure. He is a former socialist leader ousted by his party, the director of a small opposition newspaper, and a tireless political agitator. Like an animal he can smell that change is coming. His name is Benito Mussolini. M tells the story of the rise of Fascism from within the mind of its founder. Rich in historical detail and interspersed with real documents and sources, this is a masterful work with urgent resonance for our times. Lucy Hughes-Hallett in the New Statesman said, 'Panoptic and polyphonic, Scurati's book gives us the experiences of the fearful and the feared, the rhetoric of both the revolutionaries and the reactionaries.' A huge 773 page softback.

Whitehead has worked in newspapers for nearly 40 years, 21 of them in a variety of senior roles on The Times and he also writes obituaries for Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. This book showcases great batsmen like Bradman, Ponting, Gower, Trumper, Boycott and Greg Chappell, and the great bowlers Trueman, Warne, Larwood, Lillee, Underwood, McGrath and Anderson, along with the great captains such as Brearley, Ian Chappell, Vaughan, Armstrong, Jardine, Steve Waugh and Len Hutton. England against Australia for the Ashes is one of the oldest and greatest rivalries in sport, and almost its entire history has been covered in The Times. The whole story is here, from Shane Warne's ball of the century in 1993 to Gilbert Jessop's power hitting at The Oval in 1902, from the infamous Bodyline Tour of 1932-33, to England's surrender to the pace of Lillee and Thomson in 1974-75; from Len Hutton's Coronation-year triumph in 1953 to the long years of defeat before the Ashes were finally recaptured in 2005. Here are all the highs and lows and featuring some of the greatest writers in the history of the sport. Extremely well illustrated throughout with newspaper clippings, archive photos, front pages, and the work of the finest newspaper photographers and correspondents including Richard 'Beau' Vincent 1930-51 and Christopher Martin-Jenkins 1999-2008 among them. Paperback, 384pp, 15.6 x 23.4cm.

The uplifting true story of a family who left their old life behind to spend a year living wild in a tent around Britain. With a baby and a toddler, mounting debt, work demands and stress trampling over their desire to spend time together as a family in nature, Jen and Sim Benson move out of their rented accommodation, sell up their possessions, and decide to live in a tent for a year as nomads around rural Britain in the search for a simpler, more meaningful way of life. This is the story of that year, the doubts, epiphanies and the weather, the hardships of each season experienced in the great outdoors. Chapters include At Home in Wiltshire and the Peak District, From London to Wilder Places, A Cottage on Dartmoor, Christmas Under Canvas in the Blackdown Hills, Restorations in Cornwall and the South Hams, The Kindness of Strangers in Dorset and on Exmoor, The Highs and Lows in the Lake District, Idyllic Summer Days in the Welsh Borders, Festivals and A Return to Dartmoor. With map and photos, 254pp.

The kingdom of Benin was at the epicentre of the largest historical empire ever established in the 'rainforest belt' of West Africa. Today it is part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and it looks to compete with the most modern states of Africa while losing none of its unique heritage. Weighing in at a hefty 1.6kg and 608 pages in a slipcase measuring 29 x 36cm, we have a rare 2020 first edition published in Nigeria. It begins with the growth of an African civilisation, the origin of Benin and its monarchy, the establishment of the Oranmiyan-Eweka dynasty from Oba Oranmiyan to Oba Ewuare II, kingdom to empire building 1440-1897, the administrative and political structure, military organisation, religious practices including the origin of worship at Holy Aruosa Cathedral, economy and society, artistic and hand-crafted artifacts, antiquities and other arts, heroines and queen mothers of the Benin kingdom, the last king of independent Benin, the resilience and grandeur of royalty and the philosopher and diplomat kings who followed. The epilogue even covers human trafficking and the traditional and diplomatic fight against modern slavery. As you turn the huge pages of this remarkable coffee table book you will see a leopard head hip ornament in brass from the 16th century, ornate brass heads and memorial sculptures, archive photographs, a table of the evolution of Benin Chieftaincy titles, and Chiefs in traditional costumes with beads and decorated robes of the finest materials. Presiding over all these historical and cultural riches is His Royal Majesty Omo N'Oba Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin and current representative of the remarkable royal dynasty that weaves together this nation and its peoples. Written by the finest Nigerian scholars and essayists in the most beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated book on the culture of Benin and Africa in general. Blood red satin pagemarker, gold foil title, slipcased and with hundreds of colour illustrations. 608pp.

LONDON BUS

ARTHUR RACKHAM ART COLORING BOOK

BEST KEPT SECRETS OF EUROPE

BRITISH SUBMARINES IN TWO WORLD WARS