‘A gloriously entertaining glimpse behind the closed doors of the high-end house market. I never knew property could be so riveting’ – PRUE LEITH

Spanning the course of a year, Max – the alias of London’s most exclusive property agent – guides us through the unimaginable highs and bank-breaking lows of his business, where houses sell for up to £170 million and discretion is key.

With a client list that includes a Booker Prize winner, several Oscar nominees, a stadium-filling musician, an HRH, two national treasures, a supermodel, a Duke, a Duchess, and untold FTSE board members and titans of business, there is never a dull moment for Max and his team – John, Damien and Natasha – as they negotiate both huge property deals in the office, and their complex personal lives outside of it.

Offering an insider’s view into the hidden machinations of this exclusive market, Highly Desirable sees Max attempt to balance his team, his own needs and, of course, the books against his ever-demanding clients, as he showcases the good, the bad, and the downright bizarre nature of the real-estate market of the super-rich.

‘Preposterously entertaining’ Observer
‘Brilliant’ Daily Telegraph
‘Rollicking’ Sunday Times

As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation’s stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished.

Yet – perhaps surprisingly – many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants’ balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, Noble Ambitions takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power.

* A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year *
* Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History *

‘I tore through the pages. A book I’ll read over and over again’  CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS

‘A beautiful exposition of home and what it means. Stunning‘  BOLU BABALOLA
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By the age of twenty-five journalist Kieran Yates had lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales. And in that time, between a series of evictions, mouldy flats and bizarre house-share interviews, the reality of Britain’s housing crisis grew more and more difficult to ignore.

In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. She exposes the issues underpinning the crisis, from the state’s neglect of social housing to the rental rat race, and the disproportionate toll these take on the most marginalised in society. Drawing on interviews with tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.

All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change and a love letter to home in all its forms.
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‘So incisive it’s hard to put down’  PANDORA SYKES

‘Moving and urgent’  LAURA BATES

‘Wholly transportive‘  CLARA AMFO

‘A powerful, personal and intricate tour of our housing system ? exposing who it works for and who it doesn’t’ BELL RIBEIRO-ADDY MP

The furniture is in, the cushions are plumped, the shelves are up but something is missing? a touch of design magic. This book takes interiors to another level – encouraging all of us to become home design rule-breakers, from combining polarizing qualities and using elements that shouldn’t work together but actually do, to never mixing too much of the same period or style in a space. Globally recognized interiors guru Abigail Ahern uses lavish colour photography and tried-and-tested tips to demystify the design process and decode exactly why a space works.

From key furniture arrangements and fail-safe magic formulas for surfaces, to cracking the code on mixing and matching lighting, from ‘fake it till you make it’ flooring to stylish statements with tiles, as well as remedies for renters, there are infinite ways to spice things up. Abigail imparts the tips, tricks and insider knowledge that she has honed over many years at the top of her game. Her friendly and witty writing style means that you’ll feel like you’re learning while being entertained. With this book, you’ll create a relaxing yet swoon-worthy home by layering lighting, combining colours just right, putting the sofa where it belongs (clue: not where you’d think) – and much more.

Abigail divides the home into five main subjects such as Lighting. Each chapter includes handy checklists of pro tips, and ends with a case study of a gorgeous home belonging to a creative or designer including chef Jason Atherton and top designers Jeremiah Brent and Nate Berkus’s phenomenal New York brownstone. It’s a motivational, inspirational and full to the brim of cool and clever ideas, style advice and stories. It’s good to be home!

Chapters:
Perfect Perches
Cracking the Code on Lighting
Wall Wisdom
The Low-down on Floors
Accessories and Accents

Life in the court of the House of Stuart has been shrouded in mystery: the first half of the century overshadowed by the fall and execution of Charles I, the second half in the complete collapse of the House itself. Lost to time is the extraordinary contribution the Stuarts made to the fabric of sovereignty.

Every palace they built, painting they commissioned, or artwork they acquired was a direct reflection of the lives that they led and the way that they thought. Palaces of Revolution explores this rich history in graphic detail, giving a unique insight into the lives of this famous dynasty. It takes us from Royston and Newmarket, where James I appropriated most of the town centre as a sort of rough-and-ready royal housing estate, to the steamy Turkish baths at Whitehall where Charles II seduced his mistresses. We see the intimate private lives of the monarchs, presented through the buildings in which they lived and the objects they commissioned, creating an entirely new narrative of the Stuart century.

Palaces of Revolution traces this extraordinary period across the places and palaces on which the action played out, giving us a thrilling new history of this remarkable dynasty.

Its exposed position makes it an extreme place – a viewing station for the shifting sea, the passing clouds and the changing seasons. Design writer Dominic Bradbury is your guide to this border landscape both natural and manmade, from shingle beaches to black houses.

Dungeness is a crucible for exciting architecture; the local vernacular includes fishermen’s cottages, lighthouses and ex-industrial structures. This mix has attracted leading architects including Rodic Davidson, Fiona Naylor and Brian Johnson, Simon Conder, Guy Holloway and others to complete projects in the area. The book includes sixteen stunning case studies of homes both converted from non-domestic buildings and exciting new builds.

‘Preposterously entertaining’ Observer
‘Brilliant’ Daily Telegraph
‘Rollicking’ Sunday Times

From the bestselling author of The Long Weekend: a wild, sad and sometimes hilarious tour of the English country house after the Second World War, when Swinging London collided with aristocratic values.

As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation’s stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that so many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants’ balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers.

From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, Noble Ambitions takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power, as a rakish, raffish, aristocratic Swinging London collided with traditional rural values. Capturing the spirit of the age, Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of Britain in an era of monumental social change.

Lavishly illustrated in full colour, with over 50 photographs.

What is it about old pine panelling layered with flaking paint that enchants the eye and tugs at the heart? The soft shine of wooden boards, worn and gappy. Sunlight shafting through an open door out to an unevenly flagged yard where a clay pipe might turn up alongside a Thames oyster shell or a pottery shard. Blue-and-and white export ware; the molten lustre of mahogany or worn silver; the curiosity of tricorn hat boxes or a fragment of Spitalfields silk; portraits whose owners might once have lived here. Would they have believed that these houses would stand 250 years later?

Time has imbued all these things with unforgettable patina ? not only in museums, but even more in old Georgian houses still lived in and loved, repaired, and regenerated. Like pearls, warmed to lustre by the daily caress of a hand or foot.

The majority of these extraordinary dwellings began as ordinary terrace houses, built to a pattern, often in pairs or small groups. Clusters exist in the East End of London: in Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Mile End. They are mostly Grade II-listed, and their owners put up with the bone-curdling cold of winter howling through gaps, with mending and colour-matching, patching and piecing. Not just put up with ?  they embrace it. And among them are some unrepentantly furnished with 20th- and 21st-century modern, finding poetic harmony across the centuries.