While the youngsters and almost-adults are back to school, it could be time for the rest of us to put our minds back to work and learn about whatever tickles your fancy — try a new recipe, read about Sir Bill, devle into art and architecture, learn about… poison, anyone?

That’s right, between history, cookbooks, memoirs and travel writing, the below list has something for everyone in the audience.

Big Vegan Flavor: Techniques and 150 Recipes to Master Vegan Cooking by Nisha Vora
Avery, 9780593328934, HB, 608pp, £40, 3/9/2024
Cookery and Recipes

A groundbreaking and comprehensive ‘vegan flavour bible’ — with 150 must-make recipes — from the wildly popular home cook and creator behind Rainbow Plant Life.

With more than two million devoted fans online, Nisha Vora has become the trusted source for exceptional vegan recipes for the home cook. That’s because of her ‘flavour first’ philosophy. It’s an approach she’s honed nearly a decade creating plant-based dishes that just plain taste amazing, labels aside. Now she’s created an essential, comprehensive guide that codifies the principles of plant-based cooking for the first time, from how to coax the most out of your ingredients and how to understand essential flavour pairings, to how to achieve impossible-to-resist, must-have-more textures and embrace the myriad ways vegetables can be enjoyed: roasted, caramelized, braised, pampered in bold marinades and umami-rich sauces, and so much more. As Nisha demonstrates in this groundbreaking book, the creative possibilities are endless thanks to the rich variety in the plant-based kingdom and the infinite and exciting ways there are to achieve big flavour.

A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin by Robert Templer
Bui Jones, 9781739424343, PB, 448pp, £12.99, 3/9/2024
History

A cultural history of one of our deepest fears.

Poison — invisible, unknown, hard to detect and deadly — taps into hard-wired anxieties about the risks of the world around us. From ancient times to the modern age, it has always created more fear than any other threats. In A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin, author Robert Templer takes us through the dark maze of poison. In this panoramic survey, Templer also shows how history is littered with the bodies of those killed for poisoning or being seen as poisonous. Pogroms against Jews, the burning of witches and the murder of slaves are extreme expressions of the fear that came from the lack of understanding of the risks of poison. A Basilisk Glance brings together scientific, cultural and social history to explore the meaning of poison through the ages. It examines how this fear — real and imagined — took hold, how it has maintained a grip on everyone from the most powerful figures of history to the poorest on the planet, and how it persists today.

The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things: A Year of Salvage by Suzanne Joinson
The Indigo Press, 9781911648680, PB, 304pp, £13.99, 5/9/2024
Literature and Memoirs

Suzanne Joinson grew up in a 1980s council estate in Crewe, where her parents were followers of The Divine Light Mission cult. This clash of class and counterculture destroyed her family, leaving a legacy of turmoil and poverty.

Years later, she attempts to reclaim what she’s lost and piece together the impact of a childhood infused with esoteric yoga practices, psychedelic encounters, and meditation techniques. She acquires replicas of beloved objects that had to be destroyed in regular purges in the hope of restoring family ties. The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things explores the realm of mother-daughter relationships and inherited trauma, in a moving, delicately-woven account of coming to terms with a complicated past.

The Art of Play by Emmy Watts
Hoxton Mini Press, 9781914314698, HB, 208pp, £30, 5/9/2024
Architecture

The world’s most extraordinary playspaces from around the world.

A photographic exploration of the world’s most imaginative and surprising playscapes, spanning artist-designed play sculptures, picturesque soft plays and wildly creative conceptual playgrounds, from Copenhagen to Canberra, via Bangkok and Beijing. Discover more than 100 playful environments — some recently installed, others currently serving their third generation of children, some private and many more public, but all united by their originality, visual appeal and power to help children unleash their creativity and adventurous spirit.

Marshland by Gareth E. Rees
Influx Press, 9781914391286, PB, 312pp, £11.99, 12/9/2024
Travel Writing

Cocker spaniel by his side, Gareth E. Rees wanders the marshes of Hackney, Leyton, and Walthamstow, avoiding his family and the pressures of life. He discovers a lost world of Victorian filter plants, ancient grazing lands, dead toy factories and tidal rivers on the edgelands of a rapidly changing city. As strange tales of bears, crocodiles, magic narrowboats, and apocalyptic tribes begin to manifest, Rees embarks on a psychedelic journey across time and into the dark heart of London itself. First published by Influx Press in 2013, Marshland is a deep map of the east London marshes where nothing it as it seems, blending local history, folklore, and weird fiction in a genre-straddling classic of contemporary place writing. This fully revised and expanded 2024 edition features brand-new material and never before-seen photographs from the author’s archive.

Cats in Art: From Prehistoric to Neo-Pop Masterpieces by Alix Pare
Tra, 9781962098052, HB, 108pp, £22.99, 3/9/2024
Arts

Unravel the symbolic significance and creative influence of cats in art history through a curated collection of masterpieces.

Did you know that, until the Middle Ages, people were wary of half-domestic, half-wild animals? That cats evoked laziness, cruelty, greed, and even lust? And that ‘having a cat’s nose’ was a serious physical defect at the time? The cat traverses the history of civilizations and the history of art. Its symbolism fluctuates: revered in ancient Egypt, assimilated to Satan in medieval religious painting, companion to the free and independent artist in the 19th century. Throughout the pages, explore the works of Lorenzo Lotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Francisco de Goya, Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, Fernand Leger, Balthus, Andy Warhol, and more. Inside, you’ll find: a precise selection of essential and unexpected works, clear visual cues: timelines, maps, graphs, and a variety of sidebars: anecdotes, background information, influences.

Advice for the Soul by Vincent Van Gogh
September Publishing, 9781914613685, PB, 192pp, £13.99, 19/9/2024
Arts

Gorgeously illustrated and deeply consoling — a pocket-sized collection of Van Gogh’s words and pictures — packed with love, advice and guidance.

Newcomers to Vincent and Theo Van Gogh’s letters are often overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the emotional advice, familial and romantic love and artistic endeavour detailed within. But their letters are almost impossible to appreciate in their sheer volume. This series has been created in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum to create an accessible route for visual inspiration seekers into the writings and wide range artworks of Van Gogh. A beautiful follow on to books in the series about creativity and nature — this focuses on relationships, advice, artistic community and support. Uniquely, this beautiful little volume also includes images from the Van Gogh Museum by artists that Vincent and Theo themselves collected and traded pictures and letters with, from Paul Gaugin to Toulouse Lautrec. A rich, life-enhancing, spiritually inspiring treasure of a book.

Farewell Yellow Brick Road: Memories of My Life on Tour
by Elton John, foreword by David Furnish
Hyperion Avenue, 9781368099165, HB, 256pp, £50, 24/9/2024
Music

In this lavish retrospective authored by the icon himself, Elton John shares his fondest memories, most unforgettable moments, and previously untold stories from his record-breaking final tour.

Farewell Yellow Brick Road is a full-colour celebration of Elton John’s record-breaking, globe-spanning farewell tour — from Allentown to Auckland, from Sydney to San Francisco. Featured concerts include Elton’s dazzling performances at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in November 2022, the finale of which streamed live on Disney+. Fans will be treated to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into every aspect of these spectacular shows, including Elton’s legendary touring wardrobe by Gucci, the set design, official photography, and more. As the tour weaves across the world, Elton reaches back in time to reflect on key moments from his life on the road and to reminisce about the beginning of his career while sharing never-before-seen images and memorabilia. A poignant foreword by David Furnish, Elton’s husband and manager, as well as the tour’s creative director, rounds out this incredible insider’s look. Join Elton on his remarkable, career-affirming farewell.

‘Sir Bill’: The Complete Bill Nicholson Story by Steve Perryman & Norman Giller
Vision Sports Publishing, 9781913412692, HB, 288pp, £20, 26/9/2024
Sport

No man has had such an influence and effect on Tottenham Hotspur as Bill Nicholson. Known as ‘Mr Tottenham’, Bill played in the club’s 1951 Championship-winning team and went on to manage the club from 1958-1974.

Under his leadership Spurs famously won the League and Cup Double in 1961, the FA Cup again in 1962 and 1967, the League Cup in 1971 and 1972, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963 (the first English team to win a European trophy) and the UEFA Cup in 1972. The book covers Bill’s upbringing in Yorkshire, his move to London as a young man after the War to play for Spurs, his time as a player in the famous Push-and-Run championship team in the early 50s with team mates such as Alf Ramsey, and on to his promotion to Tottenham manager in the late 50s and the successful career that followed. Steve and Norman use conversations with Bill to explore what made him a great manager and a great man. The most successful manager in Tottenham’s history — the establishment never rewarded him with a knighthood, despite campaigns from the public, but Spurs fans feel he should be ‘Sir’ Bill.

Writing the Murder by Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst
Dead Ink, 9781915368737, PB, 272pp, £10.99, 9/26/2024
Literary Studies

An essential tool for the grizzled veteran and the fresh-faced rookie alike, Writing the Murder gives you the motive and the means to write your own tales of murder and intrigue.

There’s been a murder… From the macabre tales of Edgar Allan Poe through to the locked-room mysteries of the Golden Age, to the many faces of modern crime fiction and the explosion of true crime, writers have always explored the most taboo of human transgressions: the taking of a life. What is it about murder that has fascinated us for so long? And what is it about crimes of this nature that make for such compelling fiction? Gathering an impressive line-up of suspects, Writing the Murder asks some of the finest contemporary writers to dissect their craft and analyse the place of murder in fiction. Authors such as Charlie Higson, Louise Welsh, Jessie Greengrass and Tom Mead interrogate what it means to write about this most illicit of acts, the lasting appeal of crime fiction, and offer practical advice for those looking to write seriously and convincingly about crime.