Bedside Companion to Folklore and Magic contains a rich selection of prose and poetry, fiction and fact, with one entry to read every night of the year. Within the pages of this beautifully designed volume you’ll encounter dancing fairies, ferocious dragons, trickster gods, witches and wizards, enchanted islands, shape-shifting animals, and magic spells. Fantastical delights to peruse include:

Tales from global folklore: Anansi the spider, Little Tieke the Dancing Thief from Maori legend, and Louise Erdrich’s accounts of North American Ojibwe tradition.

Fiction ranging from classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen to exciting modern fantasy such as Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and poetry including Christina Rosetti’s peerless GoblinMarket.

The very best of magical children’s literature: excerpts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Peter Pan, His Dark Materials and, more recently, Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures.

Non-fiction sources: extracts from 18th-century grimoires containing bloodthirsty revenge spells, lively accounts of enduring folk wisdom, and classic anthropological texts such as James George Fraser’s The Golden Bough.

If you’re in need of an escape into otherworldly realms, keep this book by your bedside and end every day with a fascinating flight of fantasy.

Poems to celebrate summer.

Pour out a long drink, take a seat under a shady tree, and lose yourself in this sublime collection of nature poems for summer. From William Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson, John Keats to Isaac Rosenberg, some of the finest poets that ever put pen to paper describe the slow, langorous, glowing evenings of the season.

With one entry for every summer day, from 1 June to 31 August, this collection of 92 poems will provide the perfect backdrop to those balmy summer evenings in the garden, from Christina Rossetti’s ‘larks hang singing, singing singing over the wheat-fields wide’ to Eugene Lee-Hamilton’s ‘rich, hot scent of old fir forests heated by the sun’, Samuel Palmer’s evocative descriptions of summer twilight to Rachel Field’s whimsical musings on butterflies.

This beautiful and collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Nature Poem for Every Night of the Year and also features summery poems from Geoffrey Chaucer, Amy Lowell, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Blake and many more.  

Love is such a uniquely human feeling that people have been writing about it since the invention of writing. There are many facets to this one word: do you think family, pet, home, romance, marriage? Everyone has their own attachments and associations, which makes a collection like this so fascinating.

Among the 366 poems are Shakespeare’s classic sonnets, Ocean Vuong’s experiences of queer young love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ode to her dog, Charlotte Mew dealing with loss, and much, much more. There is a wide range of voices from across the ages, expressing what love means to them.

This is the newest anthology in Batsford’s highly successful A Day series and the perfect bedside companion for late night reading or morning meditating.

A companion volume to the successful winter and spring titles, this anthology of poems is as sweet as pumpkin spice and warming as a roaring log fire. With one poem for every autumn evening, it’s the perfect literary companion as the days begin to shorten. Whether you keep it on your nightstand for some evening reading, or in your bag for when you come across the perfect cozy coffee shop, this collection of poems is bound to make you feel ready for big scarves and crunchy leaves.

With classics from Katherine Mansfield, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Shelley, William Blake, William Morris, and more, you won’t be sad that summer’s over: you’ll be celebrating because autumn has begun.

This beautiful and collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Poem for Every Night of the Year and features poems about every aspect of autumnal nature.

Traveling’s never been easier. Wherever you are, find yourself somewhere else with the newest anthology in Batsford’s Bedside Companion series. Journey through different eras, continents, and points of view, with one entry for each day of the year. Whether you’re in need of inspiration, you want to manifest your dream trip, or you just need a break, climb aboard and let some of the best travel writers of all time whisk you away to intriguing new lands.

From London to Timbuktu via Venice and the Brazilian Jungle, there’s poetry, travel guides, memoir, fiction, and more as far as the eye can see.

Swap your backpack for this book to keep by your bedside and start or end your days with a trip to wherever you desire.

This poetry anthology provides a bright and cheery way to start your day, with one joyful poem for every morning of the year.

Whether you wake up to the chirping of birds or stumble out the door in a last minute rush, it’s important to take some time for yourself in the mornings to boost your mood. Before stepping into the day, prepare yourself with a jolly poem. You could allow the poem that has been selected for that date to soothe you, to excite you, to motivate you: whatever your needs, have a meditative morning moment with a happy poem to set yourself up for a successful day.

With one happy poem for every single day of the year, keep this book by your bedside for a serotonin boost upon waking, on the kitchen counter for a pick-me-up while your coffee brews, or in your rucksack for a moment of (rare) commuting joy. With a delightful illustration for every month and a vast range of poems, it’ll be easy to find something that sparks joy within you. From the timeless phrasing of John Keats and Rumi to the celebratory observations of Wendy Cope OBE and Pulitzer Prize Winner Rita Dove, there’ll be a moment of delight ready and waiting, just for you.

366 prompts for noticing nature every day of the year.

Arranged in day-by-day format, this beautiful book is a celebration of the nature you can find in your city or town, such as urban foxes prowling in the street, wildflowers sprouting from a crack in the pavement, butterflies on your balcony and the joys of wandering along a canal path.  

Learn how to put up a bug hotel on the 5th January, search for cherry blossom on the 4th April and have a picnic underneath a willow’s branches on the 11th June. There are cloud formations to spot, avenues of trees to walk down and elderberries to harvest.

Over the past few years, many city dwellers have learned to appreciate the nature on their doorsteps, as part of the lasting legacy of lockdown.  This timely book is a celebration of the vast variety of wildlife around us, proving that you don’t need a trip to the countryside to enjoy the natural world.

A delicious literary anthology all about food. With extracts from over 200 authors, it embraces fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and even a smattering of recipes, with one piquant extract for every night of the year.

This absorbing book is a literary feast for every food lover. Within these pages, you’ll discover a wealth of foodie extracts from around the world and throughout the centuries, from Christmas feasts in Tudor times to Nigella Lawson on how much cheese to buy for a dinner party. In addition to renowned food writers such as Elizabeth David, Madhur Jaffrey and Anthony Bourdain, it includes literary greats like Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Maya Angelou, and some intriguing curiosities such as the surreal recipes in 1932’s Futurist Cookbook. And, of course, Mrs Beeton makes an appearance. Also on the menu are:

Tantalizing gingerbread in Jane Austen’s Emma.

The joys of Caribbean cooking in Sam Selvon’s  The Housing Lark.

Ingenious wartime solutions in MFK Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf and much, much more.

Keep this delectable book by your bedside and savour a whole world of delicious food writing every night of the year – and it also makes the perfect gift for the foodie in your life!