‘Full of stories of crafts and craftspeople and communities, and creativity over the ages. Wonderful’ MICHAEL MORPURGO

‘Beautiful, eye-opening and surprisingly moving – a treat to treasure’ LUCY WORSLEY

From the Isles of Scilly to the Scottish Highlands, James Fox travels the length of Britain to seek out the country’s last great craftspeople.

Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bellfounders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life: one that is not yet lost and might still shape our future.

For as long as there are humans, there will be craft. It is all around us, hiding in plain sight, animating even the most ordinary things. Fox shows that Britain is still a craft land, if only we have eyes to see it.

‘This extraordinary book will leave you awestruck‘ XAND VAN TULLEKEN

‘Brimming with fresh news and seasoned with hope. I read it in two gulps with delight’ ANDREW MARR

‘Fantastic … expert storytelling’ CONN IGGULDEN
‘Excellent’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Riveting and utterly original’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

A wild she-wolf tenderly nurses infant twins Romulus and Remus.
Marcus Junius Brutus looks out over chaos and conflict, flaunting the bloodied daggers with which he murdered Julius Caesar.
Trumpets blare, crowds roar, gladiators enter the grand Colosseum. Let the games begin.

Told through the lives of twelve remarkable coins, this is ancient Rome as you’ve never seen it before. Frescoes fade and books vanish, but the story of Rome’s epic rise and fall survives in scenes struck in gold, silver and bronze.

‘Extremely enjoyable’ EMMA SOUTHON
‘Wonderful … there are riches aplenty in these pages’ CHRISTOPHER HADLEY
‘Ingenious – filled with illuminating details’ MATTHEW KNEALE
‘Fascinating, original and fun’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Utterly brilliant. We all need to read this book’ CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN

‘Patrick’s book is fascinating and sobering and makes a compelling argument for going back to basics’ JOE LYCETT

We used to care a lot about our clothes. We didn’t have many but those we had were important to us. We’d cherish them, repair them and pass them on. And making them provided fulfilling work for millions of skilled people locally.

?Today the average person has nearly five times as many clothes as they did just 50 years ago. Last year, 100 billion garments were produced worldwide, most made from oil, 30% of which were not even sold, and the equivalent of one bin lorry full of clothing is dumped in landfill or burned every single second. Our wardrobes are full to bursting with clothes we never wear so why do we keep buying more?

In this passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but despairing of a broken global system Patrick Grant considers the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion, and how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better-quality things.

Weaving in his personal journey through fashion, clothing and the other everyday objects in his life, this is a book that celebrates craftsmanship, making things with care, buying things with thought and valuing everything we own. It explains how rethinking our relationship with clothing could kickstart a thriving new local economy bringing prosperity and hope back to places in our country that have lost out to globalisation, offshore manufacturing and to the madness of price and quantity being the only things that matter.

‘Presents a new way of thinking about the things we buy’ KEITH BRYMER-JONES

‘A magnificent compendium of everything one could ever want to know about jewels: their symbolism, physical construction, worth and history.’ – Spectator

‘A sumptuous and sweeping history of humanity’s love affair with jewels.’ – Vogue

‘From Princess Margaret’s pearls to the priciest of diamonds, gemmologist Helen Molesworth has seen them all’ – Daily Mail You Magazine

‘All the jewelry and gem history you’ve ever wondered about’ – Forbes

‘What shines through here in Molesworth’s deep love of her subject and the tactile joy of wearing such gems’ – Mail on Sunday

‘This is – fittingly – a gem of a book. Rich descriptions, fascinating histories and, at times, just pure, dazzling bling. A joy to read.’ – Tracy Borman, author of Elizabeth’s Women, Thomas Cromwell and The Private Lives of the Tudors’

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Travelling through moments in history and layers of soil and sediment, this is world history as you have never seen it before.

This is the story of precious gems, from emeralds and rubies, to sapphires and pearls. Explore their history and geology, as well as their famous owners, from Elizabeth 1 to Elizabeth Taylor, Marie Antoinette to Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel to Beyonce.

Discover the fragile emerald watch that survived cross-continental journeys and centuries under the floorboards of a London house.

Journey back through the generations of women who wore pearls as a signifier of femininity and marvel at the role these glistening objects have played in changing depictions of feminism.

Learn of the Burmese warriors who believed so strongly in the connection between rubies and lifeblood that they embedded them into their skin before battle to protect them from harm.

In this sumptuous and sweeping history of humanity’s love affair with jewels, the V&A’s Senior Jewellery Curator, Helen Molesworth, takes you behind the curtain of museums and auction houses, showcasing some of history’s most incredible and iconic jewels and the deeply human stories that lie behind them.

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‘Beautifully written and superbly interesting, Helen Molesworth tells a compelling, global story of gems – their unending allure and continuing impact on human history. – Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, author of The Radical Potter

‘Reading Precious is like opening history’s treasure chest, to discover a trove of fascinating information.’ – Jane Robinson, author of Trailblazer, Hearts and Minds, and Bluestockings

Using a wealth of little-known and recently discovered artefacts, and drawing particularly on humbler artworks, Jones paints a compelling picture of the visual environment of the great mass of ordinary people between 1200 and 1550. The picture that emerges is of a civilisation that is both like and unlike our own – one that teems with the richness of life and its contradictions. We find beliefs and traditions rendered memorable by the vivid, creative imagination and strong visual culture of the Middle Ages. Love, hatred, crime and punishment, proverbs, heaven on earth, husband-beating – all feature in the jewellery, tableware, illustrations, carvings and textiles of the period.

A major reassessment of the high medieval period, this revised and updated edition of The Secret Middle Ages is essential reading for anyone curious about their ancestors. As Jones writes, gems and precious metals may dazzle the eye, but a pewter brooch – tawdry as it may appear – has the power to reveal far more of the real medieval world.