This volume illustrates the fascinating diversity and beauty of Sweden, a symbol of Scandinavian idyll, which inspires with its faun-red wooden houses surrounded by dense forests, with its quiet bays, long sandy beaches, lighthouses and windmills, colourful boathouses, the glittering sea between archipelagos, the infinite number of lakes, the lonely and wide snow landscapes, dog sleds, reindeer, and moose. And not forgetting its cuisine, birds and animals plants and the fascinating Northern Lights, Swedish Lapland, Smaland, Gotland and Oland, Stockholm and Dalarna and Samí, its castles and windmills, cathedrals, forests and ferries. Maps, stunning full page colour photos. Text in six languages. Softback, 17 x 20.8cm, 456pp.

The mountainous northern region, the flooded landscapes of the northeast during the rainy season, and the fertile agricultural land in the interior, irrigated by the Chao Phraya River, represent only a part of Thailand's special diversity. In addition there is the lively capital Bangkok and the dream beaches in the extreme south with the offshore islands in the Gulf of Thailand. More than 500 pictures show the country in all its beauty, which is influenced by Buddhism. See in glowing colour Chiang Mai and Rai, traditions, spirit houses, gastronomy, temples, monks, elephants and buddhas, floating houses on tranquil riversides, temples in the distance and the Mon Bridge at Sangkhlaburi, the ruin temple of Prasat Mueang Tam in Buriram, a lake of red lotus flowers, historical parks like Sukhothai with its ancient temples and columns, the canyon at Mae Hong Son with its rivers, jungle and mountains as far as the eye can see bordering Myanmar with Buddhist sanctuaries of great national importance located at the Old Town of Lamphun. Plus festivals and decorations and sacred sites and not forgetting the wildlife - watching birds or looking for bears or tigers, the colours and shapes of vegetables and fruit varieties on the floating markets and extraordinary Buddha figures in a cave among the stunning full colour photos. Maps. Text in six languages. Softback, 17 x 20.8cm, 524pp.

Tuscany captivates with its gently rolling hilly landscape, its cypress avenues and pine forests, its magnificent castles, palaces, and country villas amidst of blooming vineyards and olive groves. Cities like Pisa, Florence, or Siena with outstanding cultural treasures, tiny mountain villages, and last but not least "la dolce vita" makes the region one of the most popular in Italy. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, lush green countryside with poplar trees and grapevines, stunning beaches, the red tiled rooftops in Lucca and the brightly lit riverside and domes of Florence, visitors to Tuscany are as enthusiastic about its unique architecture, art and culture as the overwhelmingly beautiful natural setting. The Tuscan way of life has been around since the Etruscan era and whether in Pisa, or Siena or in tiny villages or the Tuscan islands in the azure blue sea, Tuscany offers the highest quality of life. There are pine forests, magnificent castles, palaces and country villas amidst blooming vineyards and olive groves. Uncork the great Tuscan wines and cuisines served on richly laid tables. In pictures the book celebrates local produce and Italian cuisine and wine, in particular Chianti and the extraordinary San Gimignano and the Elsa Valley, Livorno and Riviera degli Etruschi, plus cult vehicles, beautiful church interiors and all with a lick of good quality gelato! Maps, stunning full page colour photos. Text in six languages. Softback, 17 x 20.8cm, 516pp.

13 famous paintings like Sisley's The Lock of Saint-Mammes with every colourful brush stroke mirroring the water and boats, the beautiful close up of Mary Cassatt's Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge, Dance in the City by Renoir, Carnation Lily Lily Rose by Sargent, At the Races by Degas plus Cezanne and Manet and Morisot and Monet's Wheatstacks for December in the freezy field. 16 months - starting September 2023 and ending December 2024 (the last four months of 2023 are mini-sized). With a monthly view where the week starts on Sundays. Ready to hang wall calendar with plenty of space for notes, To Do and forward planner for an additional four months. Holidays noted, grid design, hanging hole. Large softback, colour. Stock has arrived nice and early! New full price.

Among the women artists who have transcended art history, none had a meteoric rise quite like Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Her unmistakable face and mono brow, depicted in over 50 extraordinary self-portraits, has been admired by generations. Along with hundreds of photographs taken by notable artists such as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Nickolas Muray, and Martin Munkácsi, they made Frida Kahlo an iconic image of 20th century art. After an accident in her early youth, Frida became a painter of her own free will. Her marriage to Diego Rivera in 1929 placed her at the forefront of an artistic scene not only in the cultural Renaissance of Mexico, but also in the United States. Her work garnered praise from the poet André Breton, who added the Mexican painter to the ranks of international surrealism and exhibited her work in Paris in 1939 to the admiration of Picasso, Kandinsky, and Duchamp. With access the intimacy of Frida's affections and passions through a selection of drawings, pages from her personal diary, and an extensive illustrated biography featuring photos of Frida, Diego, and the Casa Azul, Frida's home and the centre of her universe, this book allows readers to admire Frida Kahlo's paintings like never before, including unprecedented detail shots and famous photographs. It presents pieces in private collections and reproduces works that were previously lost or have not been exhibited for more than 80 years. 15.6 x 21.7cm. 480 pages, new from Taschen.

When cathedrals were bright with paint... colonnettes, gables, pinnacles and statues were rich in colour. Red, blue and yellow helped the viewer to identify the holy figures and to decipher the great book of stone. The largest medieval drawing in existence, measuring more than four metres in height, provides exceptional evidence for this. Dating from c.1360-65, it represents the central part of the façade of Strasbourg Cathedral. Even now the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages overwhelm by their imagination, technical daring and sheer scale. How could such structures be built when cities had only a few thousand inhabitants, and only the most primitive machinery was available? Who initiated them? Who designed them? Who paid for them? All around the world but especially in Italy and in Gaul, each Christian community was driven by a spirit of rivalry to have a more glorious church than the others. Gothic and Romanesque building sites are shown in detail in manuscript illumination. As the Medieval town grew, buildings turned from wood to stone and grew ever higher. Patrons sought master masons, intellectuals became administrators, artists and architects established their independence and rights. Discover tracings on stone such as in the sacristy of the Roslin Chapel in Scotland where construction began in 1450, remarkable drawings from workshops, organised guilds, the octagon of Ely Cathedral 1322 and how metal became an essential material. Fully documented and splendidly illustrated throughout in colour, 176pp, paperback.

Published in association with The National Gallery, we explore the world's greatest artists in 100 visually stunning puzzles. We zoom in on focal points of famous paintings by Degas like Combing the Hair, match the missing grid, find the twins, work out which is a fake or fortune. Many jigsaws have missing pieces where two small squares have been removed from a painting and five duplicates made of each of them. Can you identify which is correct? Discover little known facts about masterpieces like Canaletto's Venice: The Grand Canal and the quality and level of light in Rembrandt's Self Portrait at the age of 34 and the graceful postures of the figures in Piero della Francesca's The Baptism of Christ and the glowing skin with pallor perfection and blushing pink at points of Velázquez's naked woman in The Toilet of Venus. There are quizzes by century, several versions of artworks, but are they by the same artist? Answer which artworks founded or is the exemplar of a new artistic school, which artworks show an imaginary location or a fictitious one, which artworks are considered worthless and which artworks were previously owned by another well known artist, which are by women or created by a high-ranking aristocrat and which artworks show a location that still looks the same today? Constable's The Hay Wain or Millet's The Church at Arbonne? Mythic, cryptic, obscure, with answers at the back, a very glamorous 240 page large paperback, hundreds of colour illus.

Instantly recognisable and associated with pleasure, these collectable posters are just as addictive as the smoking habit itself. Out of fashion now, but in the golden age of tobacco, cigarette brands like Job, Players, Wings and Patron created superb poster art to advertise their 'sweet and cool' or 'American king size' cigarettes. 'To smoke a cigarette was to enter a harem, to nail a contract, to cruise around the world. With a cigarette between the lips, one was beautiful, wealthy, famous, mysterious, seductive, exotic, and above all, happy.' Gentlemen and ladies lounge contentedly puffing away, a Winston Churchill bulldog in silk top hat smokes a cigar, an elephant gambols happily, a black couple dance the jive, a Spanish lady relaxes and a 1920s lady in tennis whites dives across the court. Detachable and ready for framing, 29.9 x 39.9cm. Softback.

Fluid, fast and expressive life drawings start here with a wonderful comprehensive course based on classic principles. Here are essential techniques for drawing gesture, figures, clothing, expression, body language and to render fleeting gestures from memory and capturing expressions simply and quickly. Along the way develop a more spontaneous approach for successfully working from life as you learn skills about construction, hands and expressions, use photographs to draw an eye, nose or mouth and mould the features into expressions, interlock folds of clothing, pipe folds of clothing and practice spherical figures, cubic forms to settings and perspectives and the asymmetrical balance of light and dark called compressing the values. The world is constantly in motion - capture it. 128pp softback, illus. 21 x 27.4cm.

A companion to Trailblazing Men Gift Set 93776 are five more books from the bestselling series Little People, Big Dreams. Discover the lives of five trailblazing women. Maya Angelou had an early traumatic childhood and became a singer, actress and civil rights campaigner. Anne Frank was born in Germany to a liberal Jewish family, but when the Nazis came into power, she was forced to into hiding with her family and it was there she wrote her now famous diary. Frida Kahlo was a young woman when she had a terrible road accident which changed her life forever. Unable to walk, she began to paint from her bed. Coco Chanel following the death of her mother spent her early life in an orphanage where she was taught how to use a needle and thread. Audrey Hepburn had a colourful life as an iconic actress. We read about her early life during the Second World War, ballet school to her acting career. Hardbacks in illustrated glamorous slipcase, 8" x 9¾". Well under half price.