One day an old lady swallows a fly and the only way she can get rid of it is to swallow a wriggling, tickling spider... For over a century this subversive rhyme has delighted children and parents alike. Its galloping rhythm is perfect for reading ou...

Janet Stone's photograph albums feature informal portraits from the mid-twentieth century of many of the leading cultural figures and personalities of the day. The wife of the distinguished engraver Reynolds Stone established a kind of literary salon...

This book explores the stories behind seventy-five extraordinary maps. It includes unique treasures such as the fourteenth-century Gough Map of Great Britain, exquisite portolan charts made in the fifteenth century, the Selden Map of China – the earl...

Behind every typeface is a story – who designed it, and why? What are its distinctive characteristics, and what cultural baggage does it carry? This book explores fifty of the most remarkable typefaces, dating from the birth of European printing in...

Did you know that coffee was recommended as protection against the bubonic plague in the seventeenth century? Or that tea was believed to make men "unfit to do their business" and blamed for women becoming unattractive? On the other hand, a cup of ch...

With complete transcripts of the distress messages, "Titanic Calling" vividly brings to life the voices of the individuals in this drama, retelling the legendary story as it was first heard. The narrative begins with warnings of ice, including sever...

To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal...