Our Recommendations
Below is a selection of titles Hatchards believes are amongst the best
books currently available.
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BURYING THE BONES: PEARL BUCK IN CHINA
by HILARY SPURLING Pearl Buck grew up as a child in Imperial China with her American missionary parents. She thought of herself as Chinese, that is until the Boxer Rebellion - the first stirring of revolution. Eventually forced to migrate to the U.S. Pearl Buck wrote The Good Earth - a pioneering and bestselling novel of everyday China - and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. A nuanced picture of 20th-century China complements Hilary Spurling's perceptive biography.
£ 15 Hardback 9781861978288 Available Now
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THE CAPTIVE QUEEN
by ALISON WEIR In this epic historical tale of love, lust and the birth of a royal dynasty, we meet Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine. The year is 1152 and she is escaping on horseback from her marriage with Louis of France and riding to the man she loves: the future King of England, Henry Plantagenet. Their union will found a great empire and spawn a devil's brood. Passion, conflict and murder will be the tempestuous legacy of Eleanor's desire.
£ 14.99 Hardback 9780091926212 Available Now
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COUNTRY
by JASPER CONRAN Renowned designer Jasper Conran has rediscovered rural living: the appreciation of open landscapes and a simpler way of being. This unique vision of life in the countryside is resplendent with over 300 beautifully shot and choreographed photographs. They lead us through the seasons, courting interiors and exteriors, detail and landscape in such a way as to mesmerise our senses and excite our imagination.
£ 50 Hardback 9781840915181 Available Now
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MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS
by MICHAEL CHABON A comic edge underpins this autobiographical collection of interlinked essays in which Michael Chabon questions what it means to be a man in the 21st century. Reflecting his position as son, husband and father, Chabon traces memories of childhood, his parents' divorce and the joys and agonies of adolescence. With its warm, lyrical style, this "life made of parts and pieces" is a moving and dazzling venture into non-fiction for the author of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
£ 16.99 Hardback 9780007150403 Available Now
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THE NEAREST GUARD: 500 YEARS OF PROTECTING THE SOVEREIGN
by DAVID EDELSTEN With a personal foreword by HM Queen Elizabeth II, The Nearest Guard is a history of Her Majesty's Body Guard. Formed five hundred years ago by Henry VIII as a mounted escort, it last saw active service during the English Civil War before becoming a primarily ceremonial unit. Beautifully illustrated and including a Roll of Gentlemen, this book is a reminder, as Her Majesty notes, of "the rich panoply of British life".
£ 29.99 Hardback 9781903071267 Available Now
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THE LOST BATTLES: LEONARDO, MICHELANGELO AND THE ARTISTIC DUEL THAT DEFINED THE RENAISSANCE
by JONATHAN JONES In 1504, in a room of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, two great men entered into competition with each other and so ignited the High Renaissance. Those men were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and they were competing for a commission. In a riveting account, Jonathan Jones recreates the atmosphere of the city and highlights the importance of this scene: the moment that an artist’s individual style became valid, and valued, in its own right.
£ 25 Hardback 9780743285391 Available Now
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THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST
by PHILIP PULLMAN In a radical retelling of the story of Jesus - part novel, part history and part fairy tale - Philip Pullman (an atheist) exercises his magical storytelling and subversive wit. Rewiring the mysteries of the Gospel and two millennia of church orthodoxy, this is as controversial and thought-provoking as it is entertaining. A powerful addition to the already classic Canongate Myths series.
£ 14.99 Hardback 9781847678256 Available Now
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MOLOTOV'S MAGIC LANTERN: LETTERS FROM RUSSIA
by RACHEL POLONSKY In Molotov's former apartment, Rachel Polonsky made a grim discovery: he was a bibliophile. The man responsible for breaking so many writers' lives in the purges and the GULAG had read their books. In turn, Polonsky visits cities and landscapes associated with the library. These are places rarely on any tourist's trail. It is a unique methodology, generating an alternative perspective on 20th century Russia, as she records personal, intellectual and social histories anew.
£ 20 Hardback 9780571237807 Available Now
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UNRELIABLE SOURCES: HOW THE 20th CENTURY WAS REPORTED
by JOHN SIMPSON Casting his analytical eye from the heart of the media establishment, John Simpson questions the power of the press to report and influence events. From the stoking of anti-German sentiment in the lead up to World War I by the Daily Mail to the support of Thatcherism by The Sun, newspapers in particular presume power and freedom: but wherein lies responsibility? Simpson relates a fascinating history and asks some deeply probing questions.
£ 20 Hardback 9781405050050 Available Now
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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE MODERN CENTURY
by PETER GALASSI The influence of Henri Cartier-Bresson on 20th-century photography – for art and journalism – has been immense. His career began in the 1930s with experimental camera-work that revealed a potential to capture the essence of the living moment. It grew to include major works of reportage: in China during the revolution, in the USSR after Stalin's death, and across the world. Drawing extensively on unfamiliar archival material to detail Cartier-Bresson’s travels and fully reconstruct his picture-stories, Peter Galassi presents a foundational new monograph.
£ 55 Hardback 9780500543917 Available Now
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