Sip your next relaxing cuppa from this luxury shiny black cat mug with tail-shaped handle which is easy to hold, two black ears that pop up above the rim, closed white eyes, white whiskers, a tiny cute heart shaped nose and big white chin. The inside of this quality ceramic heavy mug is bright white as is the base, and we have chosen it for its quality and appealing design. Now to get Lottie the whippet away from the bubble wrap which protects it in its cardboard gift box.

World famous illustrator of the Roald Dahl stories and many other children's classics, Quentin Blake takes his sketch pad everywhere. This gorgeous volume, with Blake's own inimitable commentary, starts with quirky sketches of exhibits from the Science Museum in Kensington, including Stephenson's Rocket exploding with steam and artistic energy. Blake is fascinated by the Victorian children's book The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin, and he tries his hand at depicting the precipitous and rather sinister mountain scenery that Ruskin had in mind when he wrote the story for 12-year old Effie Gray, to whom he was later briefly married. Michael Morpurgo is a regular collaborator, and Blake's sketches for "Didn't we have a lovely time?" bring to life the touching story of a Vietnamese boy who talks to a horse. Blake has illustrated numerous books for the Folio Society, including Apuleius's Golden Ass, a classic novel from the ancient world. His edition features a wonderfully romantic depiction of the fable of Cupid and Psyche, with Psyche holding up her lamp to look at the beautiful boy. Blake's sketches for Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker are darker in colour and mood, with Blake's superb watercolour technique effectively employed to create threatening skies. For an "Artists on the Beach" exhibition in Hastings, Blake imagined portraits of well-known artists on easels set up on the beach, including Maggi Hambling, Edward Burra, Dod Procter, and Alfred Wallis. Finally his paintings for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital include lovable dragons, donkeys, rabbits and fabulous invented creatures. 224pp, softback, illustrated in colour throughout.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

In the evening of 4th April 1793, preparations were being made for a clandestine ceremony in Rome. The wedding of the son of the King of England to the daughter of the Governor of the Bahamas would not only be concealed, it would also be illegal. That night His Royal Highness Prince Augustus Frederick was married to Lady Augusta Murray without witnesses. The couple had known each other for only three months and shared a birthday. They were deeply in love, but the consequences of their rash union would be terrible. 'Death is certainly better than this' - the couple had considered suicide the evening before. The sixth son of King George III was forbidden under the Royal Marriages Act to marry without the King's permission. The daughter of the Earl of Dunmore would turn from an 18th century socialite into a 19th century social pariah, her children declared illegitimate, and her family scorned. It was the worst miscalculation of the Prince's life, but while he eventually found redemption, Augusta's destiny changed beyond anything she could imagine. Julia Abel Smith uses material from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle and the Dunmore family papers to create a dramatic biography set in the reigns of King George III and IV against the background of the American and French Revolutions. With family trees and 16 pages of b/w illus.

Daily Telegraph Book of the Year, this atmospheric thriller introduces a Scandi-noir Tuva Moodyson Mystery. Eyes missing, two bodies lie deep in the forest near a remote Swedish town. Tuva Moodyson, a deaf reporter on a small-time local paper, is looking for the story that could make her career. Can she outwit the killer before she becomes the final victim? She would like to think so, but first she must face her demons and venture far into the deep dark woods if she wants to stand any chance of getting the hell out of small-time Gavrik. Five villagers, 600 square kilometres of Swedish forest. One reporter. Two bodies... A novel loaded with atmosphere, the tension is unrelenting right from the highly tense opening when Tuva comes face to face (or truck to face) with a charging stag; there is an ominous feeling of dread seeping from every page. Written by a British graduate who lives in Sweden who must have seen the troll sculptures he includes in his book. Stickered, 339pp, paperback.

The longest street name in Britain is Bolderwood Arboretum Ornamental Drive in the New Forest. The shortest is Rye in Puriton in Somerset. There are some 800,000 streets in England, Scotland and Wales that have a name, along with several thousand more in Northern Ireland ranging from Aachen Way in Halifax to Zurich Gardens in Bramhall in Stockport. There are more than 5,400 High Streets, but there is only one Christmas Pie Avenue. There are thousands of Roads, and Closes, but very few Vennels and Boulevards. Some state the obvious - Station Approach or River View and some are more obscure like Gillygate or Titty Ho. There are important Roman roads like Ermine Street from London to York, Watling Street from Dover to Chester, Stane Street from London to Chichester, and Dere Street from London to Cirencester. With a history from Saxon times onwards, the Circus in Bath to Piccadilly Circus, crescents and squares, quays and mews, Holborn Viaduct, here are the Latin derivations, the steps and the follies, twittens and drangways, gates and hills - natural features, trades and traders, battles, war heroes and political figures, royal connections, noble land owning families, builders and developers, local worthies, artists and entertainers, writers and sportsmen and the unique, unusual and unfortunate names like Ugly Lane, Upper Butts or Uranus Road. Eminently browseworthy, with gazetteer, 225pp.

Author of 'The Little Paris Bookshop' Nina George found this novel 'enchanting'. It is heart-breaking and touching, an international bestseller, translated from the German. Julien Azoulay is famous around the world for his bestselling romance novels, but last year his beloved wife Hélène died, leaving him to raise their young son alone. Since then, Julien seems to have lost his belief in love, and with it his ability to write. Luckily, Hélène was clever and before she died she made Julien promise to write her one letter for each year of her life. Now, in the famous cemetery in Paris, Julien stands with his painful first letter in his hand. Here, even though Julien wouldn't believe it, something wonderful is going to happen. Amongst the narrow, cobbled streets of Montmartre, Julien will discover the truth we all hope to find - that love is real, that miracles can happen and, most of all, that if you can be brave enough it's never too late to rediscover your dreams. The author studied romance, languages and literature at the Sorbonne, worked in a bookshop on the Rive Gauche in Paris, and in his love letter to the city believes in the healing power of the written word. A charming read for every bibliophile and Francophile, the book has beaucoup de charme. 260pp, paperback.

The first Alan Lewrie, this action-packed naval adventure is ideal for fans of C. S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Julian Stockwin. His exploits echo with the bustle of crowded ports and the crash of naval warfare. It is 1780 and 17 year old Alan Lewrie is a brash young libertine with a head full of dreams. When he is found in bed with the wrong woman, he is forced to leave his profligacy behind for a new life at sea. Although sickness and hard labour await him aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Lewrie finds himself gradually adapting to the world of a midshipman. But as he heads for the war-torn Americas and into a hail of cannonballs, will he ever catch wind of the plot brewing against him back at home? 407pp, paperback.

When the young lawyer Daniel Pitt is called from his chambers in Lincoln's Inn to identify a body, he fears that the murder victim will be his friend Kitteredge. But it turns out to be senior lawyer Jonah Drake, who for some reason had borrowed Kitteredge's distinctive coat. Drake was savagely knifed in an alley in London's disreputable Mile End, and Pitt and Kitteredge need to know why. Moneylenders, brothels, opium dens? The reputation of the chambers is at stake, and the head Marcus fford Croft is visibly uneasy. Drake was a cultured man in comfortable circumstances, dealing exclusively in cases of embezzlement, but looking at his financial records Daniel has a feeling there is something wrong. Money is being moved too often with no apparent reason. His search takes him to two possible sources, Drake's client Peterson who was lucky to escape with his life when Drake defended him for murder, and also to the shady world of the shipping tycoon Erasmus Faber. The more Daniel delves, the worse it looks for Marcus, and to complicate matters Daniel is in love with Marcus's daughter. A gripping detective novel in the authentically realised setting of Victorian London. 293pp.

Myrmecologist Edward Wilson, who has won two Pulitzer prizes for his scientific writing, has created an absorbing account of his lifelong interest in ants, partly in the hope of encouraging aspiring scientists to specialise in the insect world, where most of the 15,000 ant species discovered so far still await further study. Ants organise themselves into societies of a complexity that rivals that of humans, though the details are very different, for instance all the ants that are active in the social life of colonies are females. Adult male ants do no work and their only function is insemination. Ants are the most warlike of animals and many eat their dead and injured in battle. When forming an army they start with the oldest, sending their old ladies into the front line and continuing down the age hierarchy. The author started studying insects as a boy when he was given a microscope for Christmas, and when a horde of ants marched three or four abreast into his backyard he decided ants were to be his life's work. A different mode of hunting is the swarm-raiding tactic of the species Eciton burchelli, in which tightly packed ants fan out. When they encounter a crevice, the leaders link jaws and legs to form a bridge. Dolichoderus imitator, by comparison, is an unaggressive, timid ant which the author encountered in the Amazon, and they ran away so quickly that it was difficult to get a specimen. Social insects communicate by taste and smell, or in scientific terms by pheromones, chemical substances passed back and forth by individuals. Ants are the virtuosos of chemical communication, and you can test this by putting a drop of sugar near a nest and then watching the result. Together with other entomologists the author has developed a system which allows him to interpret the meaning of some of these pheromones. 230pp, black and white illustrations.

Even non-dancers can enjoy dramatic views of ballerinas on a gaslit stage in 19th century Paris. This keepsake box holds four cards each of four different images: the cover image, Green Dancer, is a pastel and gouache on paper, c. 1880, in the Museum Thyssen-Boremisza, Madrid. From the Musee d'Orsay, there are End of an Arabesque, an oil and pastel on canvas from 1877, and The Star, pastel on paper, c. 1876. The "en pointe" dancer from The Rehearsal is a pastel and oil from a private collection. A sturdy decorative box holds cards and envelopes neatly, and when the cards have been sent, it's great for storing all sorts of little things - from extra buttons to pearls. 16 notecards and 17 coloured envelopes. Each box has informative liner notes about the images on the cards, which include many fine art and museum images. The sturdy box measures 5 x 6 x 1¼", has a hinged lid with a magnetic closure.