Why are so many contemporary artists turning to thread, fabric and fibre to make their most powerful work?

Textile art has surged into the spotlight, shedding its long-standing association with domesticity and craft to take centre stage in galleries, biennales and critical discourse. Ramona Barry and Beck Jobson explore this vibrant resurgence, and the way artists across the globe are embracing traditional techniques like weaving, embroidery, quilting and dyeing, while pushing them into bold new territory. Far from decorative or nostalgic, these works speak to urgent contemporary themes: identity, gender, migration and environment.

Textiles have become a site of resistance, storytelling and innovation. This global survey of forty-four artists reveals the shifting boundaries between craft and fine art, and the expressive power of cloth in the hands of today’s most boundary-pushing creatives. Textile art isn’t just having a moment: it’s reshaping the conversation.

Following the success of A House Party in Tuscany and Italian Coastal, Amber Guinness invites you on an artful tour through her beloved Southern Tuscany and favourite pockets of Florence. Winter in Tuscany celebrates the region’s rich culinary and cultural traditions with a quanto basta approach – the intuitive, Italian method of ‘just enough’ – and brings the heart of Tuscany’s cosy autumnal and wintry flavours to your kitchen.

But quanto basta is more than just a philosophy for cooking; it’s a metaphor for life. This book celebrates life in the off-season; an ode to exploring Tuscany’s villages and countryside when the crowds have thinned, allowing for a deeper, more intimate connection with the culture, food and landscapes. In discovering treasures off the beaten path, Amber highlights the richness of exploring at a gentler pace, when Tuscany truly reveals itself.

The book is filled with an array of hyper-local, traditional recipes for the home cook: from antipasti, zuppe – thick, hearty Tuscan soups – and brodo, brothy concoctions that bring comfort on colder days, to rustic pasta, rice and secondi – meat and vegetable mains that celebrate the season.

Whether you’re strolling beneath Della Robbia’s cherubs or simmering a hearty soup on a cold winter’s night, Winter in Tuscany is an invitation to slow down and appreciate the beauty in small moments and big flavours.

Slow Looking: The Art of Nature is a unique celebration of the relationship between art and nature across millennia. Eschewing a linear narrative of art, this inspirational collection of global artworks makes connections between the nature that surrounds us and the vision of a dazzlingly wide range of artists. Readers will encounter motifs, colours and subjects that have mesmerized artists – and viewers – throughout history, and in the process, develop their own understanding of how they see the natural world. Olivia Meehan has mixed paintings, drawings, sculpture, textiles and decorative arts from across the entire period of human creation and territory in thought-provoking juxtapositions. On every page, she invites us to find something new in a familiar landscape and to experiment in the observation of nature’s wonders.

Exploring the various intersections between artistic techniques and thematic elements, across land, sea and sky, she reveals the deep-rooted connections between humans beings and our natural world: the forms and colours of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting of a shell echo a carved fossil from 500,000-300,000 BCE; Van Gogh’s olive trees (1889) are juxtaposed with Ancient Egyptian carved limestone dated between 1353-1323 BCE; and while waterlilies captivated Claude Monet, their allure also travelled as far as Japan to Kawase Hasui (1929).

Following nature’s patterns, this guided observation of nature offers a novel way of contemplating the world.

What is the secret to growing abundant cut flowers even in unpredictable conditions? Here is the complete guide for your seed-to-vase journey. Grow flowers with incredible fragrance, discover gorgeous varieties, embrace sustainability and enjoy the magic of homegrown flowers.

In this book, a flower farmer shares her secrets to successfully growing cut flowers for your home, wherever you live. Whether your growing space is large or small, it’s remarkably easy to be surrounded by colour for many months of the year. Learn more about:

Unusual, heirloom and new plant choices.
Trending plants and flower fashion.
Cold-hardy, heat-tolerant and drought-resistant plants.
Soil blocking and successful growing from seed.
Drying your own flowers.
The importance of daylength.
Low maintenance plants for busy people.
Hero flowers for every season.
Recipes for stunning arrangements.

Secrets from the Flower Farm examines innovative ways of growing and shares clever plant choices so you can cut armfuls of flowers for months on end.

Medicinal herbs aren’t just for traditional medicinal preparations, they are also a wonderful way to compliment a healthy diet. The Medicinal Garden is a brilliant guide to revitalizing your health by soothing your mind, body and green thumb.

From edible treats to therapeutic remedies, unearth the healing potential of plants both wild and cultivated. Featuring forty herb profiles and seven medicinal weeds ideal for foraging, learn how to set up and maintain a planted or potted garden for a healthful life.

Discover the healing power of your very own medicinal garden with edible recipes for cakes, biscuits, jams, soups, teas and many more. The book features easy, natural remedies for your skin, gut, muscles, heart and mind with recipes for oils, tinctures, compresses, steams and washes for health and healing.

Paul Bangay is a landscape designer who relishes the challenge of working at scale. He creates gardens that feel as though they’ve been there forever.

They emerge from the countryside, with borrowed landscapes and dramatic views as key elements. Within each design, Paul makes spaces that bring different experiences of the garden. Large sweeping lawns, magnificent soaring trees and numerous, deep garden beds. An allée of trees directs the eye to mountains in the distance. Outdoor dining areas offer intimate vantage points within the broader scale.

From grand gardens in France to a forest grown from seedlings, join Paul on this tour de force of projects complete with lakes, mountains and walled gardens. Paul shares the design process, as well as garden plans and extensive planting lists, while Simon Griffiths’ photography captures the sublime form and light of these generous landscapes.

Big Garden Design documents the principles of landscape design from the most precise detail to the grandest vista.

Flowers and Foliage: Creating Contemporary Botanical Art explores the always popular subject matter of botanical art. This is a beginner’s guide to creating contemporary botanical art for everyone who loves flowers: tulips, sunflowers, orchids and many more.

Fantastic ice-breaker exercises include:

Drawing with the non-dominant hand
Blind contour exercise to test hand-eye coordination
Drawing a flower upside down to practise observational skills to draw what you see rather than your perceived idea of what a flower looks like.

To help guide readers and budding artists to create their own amazing botanical art, each activity includes:

Step-by-step imagery
Flower diagrams with labels
Original commissioned photography

The projects include working with different media: watercolour pastel pencil ink and use a range of popular flowers as inspiration. With a focus on appreciating nature and making time to play, this simple introduction makes the beloved style of botanical art accessible to all.

For the fashion designers whose homes are featured in this book, being creative is more than a career, it’s a deep-seated need that has no bounds. An eye for exquisite detail in the studio transforms their living spaces into both a haven and a muse.

As boldly individual as the designers who call them home, the spaces here cross six countries and represent thirteen different architectural styles spanning more than five hundred years, from a 14th-century Italian palace to a 21st-century renovation in the English countryside. They range in size from one-bedroom flats and compact country cottages to mansions, villas and palazzos. Step into the varied worlds within these pages, each one a window into the soul of the creator and an endless source of inspiration for creative living.

‘A magical tastescape from Tuscany to Sicily, with mouth-watering and authentic recipes’ Clodagh McKenna, author and TV chef

An enchanting and delectable journey to the shimmering waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, via plates of pasta, baked fish, and glasses of peach-laced white wine – from the author of A House Party in Tuscany.

Welcome to the Tyrrhenian Sea, home to la dolce vita, sun-drenched islands and seaside towns where even the simplest trattoria has an effortless glamour.

Following on from the success of her first book, A House Party in Tuscany, Amber Guinness travels from the Tuscan coast down through Lazio and Campania via Naples and the Amalfi Coast and on to northern Sicily. Amber delves into the history, stories and flavours that have come home to her kitchen and shaped her food philosophy.

Amber’s quest for maximum flavour with minimal effort shines through in these delicious and achievable recipes that will bring an authentic mouthful of coastal Italy to your table: crostini with ricotta and ‘nduja; zucchini and mint lasagne; tomato linguine with capers; seabass with pistachio and almonds; Neapolitan vinegary fried zucchini; potato and caper salad from Salina; raspberry tiramisu and the ultimate Amalfi lemon cream cake.

Inspired by the markets and food of summer holidays by the beach, Italian Coastal is a fusion of recipe book, travelogue, and memoir – with sumptuous food and travel photography throughout – that will transport readers to the sunny Mediterranean.