Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - January / February 2021

26 RAYMOND BRIGGS THE ILLUSTRATOR SERIES By Nicolette Jones RRP: £18.99 Format: Hardback Acclaimed author and illustrator Raymond Briggs is brought to life by award-winning writer Nicolette Jones. A BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award winning illustrator, Raymond Briggs transformed the face of children’s picture books. Stylistically versatile, he has illustrated some sixty books, twenty of them with his own text, and first became a household name in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a handful of books – Father Christmas, Fungus the Bogeyman, The Snowman, When the Wind Blows – that were entertaining and subversive and appealed to both children and adults. The refrains of his work are class, family, love and loss. Nevertheless, his default mode of expression is humour. Briggs is always funny, and the balance between this and melancholy is his defining characteristic, though his style ranges from the romantic to the grotesque, from the fanciful to the direct. Covering sixty years of Briggs’s work from political picture books to children’s classics, this study explores his great technical skill and emotional power. Fascinating for any devotee of Briggs’s work and essential for illustration enthusiasts, this showcase displays a captivating array of visual styles and innovations of both form and subject. Nicolette Jones is Children’s Book Editor of the Sunday Times, and has been a reviewer, feature-writer, diarist, sub-editor and book-prize judge. In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Eleanor Farjeon award for her ‘outstanding contribution to the world of children’s books’. She has worked for all the British national broadsheets and the book trade press, and won Maritime Literature Prizes in the UK and the US. Find out more at www.thameshudson.co.uk FOR THE LOVE OF RADIO 4 - THE UNOFFICIAL PUZZLE BOOK BY NEIL SOMERVILLE RRP: £9.99 Format: Hardback ISBN: 978 1 78783 566 5 It’s more than just a radio station – Radio 4 is a celebration of curiosity, knowledge and entertainment, and it’s a beloved soundtrack to life for millions of Britons. But for the moments when you’re not tuning in, how about a puzzle or two to pass the time? From quizzes and riddles to crosswords and sudoku, whether you’re an expert on all things Radio 4 or merely a casual listener, there’s plenty in For the Love of Radio 4 – The Unofficial Puzzle Book to tickle your fancy and tease your brain. Neil Somerville is a full-time writer and puzzle compiler. He has written many books and regularly compiles material for newspapers and magazines both in the UK and overseas. He is a member of the Magic Circle and enjoys walking, travel and country life. Neil is married and has two children. Find out more at www.summersdale.com THE V&A BOOK OF COLOUR IN DESIGN RRP: £30 Format: Hardback The V&A Book of Colour in Design is attractively simple: a celebration and exploration of colour, as revealed through objects in the world- class collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. From jewellery, textiles, glassware, ceramics, furniture and more, this compelling sourcebook offers a genuinely global perspective on a fascinating theme that will appeal to professional and student designers of any discipline. Presented by multi- award-winning graphic design studio Here Design and edited by Tim Travis, curator in the Word & Image Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum, disparate items come together in a riotous splash of colour. Discover the connection between gilt-bronze renderings of Apollo and a Finnegans two piece swimsuit in the sharp narrative captions and enjoy the rich swatches of shades that accompany the introductions to each colourful chapter. Find out more at www.thameshudson.co.uk COMMANDO DAD: THE COOKBOOK BY NEIL SINCLAIR RRP: £10.99 Format: Paperback ISBN: 978 1 78783 2 855 Swapping his beret for a chef’s hat, bestselling parenting author Neil Sinclair is back with Commando Dad: The Cookbook. More than just a recipe book, this is a practical, no-nonsense introduction to the kitchen; covering everything from basic knife skills to campfire cooking. Packed with information and guidance it will help dads: • Learn – and teach their young troops – essential culinary skills that will last a lifetime • Shop smart and make the budget go further • Make nutritious meals for the whole unit – whether at base camp or out and about • Cook in the great outdoors – everything from setting the fire to a proper camp clean-up. Enjoying good food together as a family is an important part of building good eating habits in kids and the simple recipes in Commando Dad: The Cookbook will soon have dads cooking tasty, nutritious food the whole unit can enjoy. Recipes include: Meals in Minutes, The Classics, One-Pot Wonders, Packed Lunch and Picnics, Breakfasts, Takeout at Base Camp, and Treats. Find out more at www.summersdale.com