Max Gimblett
Yes to all of the above. Max Gimblett's works of art are a blend of the contemporary Western world and the spirituality of the Eastern.
His work has been exhibited in New Zealand, the USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and elsewhere and is held in major collections all over the world. As well as galleries, there are also many private collectors of his work.
If you're not familiar with his work, come in and have a look at our collection of Max Gimblett books.
BIrds of New Zealand
Moa: The Life and Times of New Zealand's Legendary Bird
won the Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize in 2013 for very good reason.
This lovely book tells the story of the life and death of the legendary moa, which for a very long time was a bit of a mystery. The moa had developed in isolation for millions of years but when humans finally discovered New Zealand, the bird was wiped out in the blink of an eye. By the time Europeans arrived, it had long been extinct.
The discovery of moa bones in the 1840s was considered the zoological find of the century but for over 150 years afterwards the giant birds continued to be a bit of a mystery. Natural historians now understand much more about the life and times of this huge bird and how New Zealand's own 'monster' evolved.
The book is beautifully put together and packed with illustrations of all kinds - photographs, drawings, sketches, paintings and diagrams. The sad story of this extraordinary creature is a fascinating history of one of nature's marvels.
Comic and Fantasy Art
by Nigel Suckling & Foreword by Brian Aldiss
This is a comprehensive selection of paintings from one of the best known fantasy artists. The pictures represent fantastic worlds peopled with the beautiful and the hideous, the romantic and the cruel, the appealing and the repulsive.
Josh Kirby's paintings are vibrantly alive and full of colour. They depict everything from swords and sorcery to dragons and demons, maidens and monsters, aliens and androids. His work is found in books, magazines, film posters and in the occasional fine art exhibition.
Brian Aldiss says this: "It's the cover for #83 (of Authentic) which remains one of my all-time favourites. It features not coleoptera but a Cleopatra. A raven-haired beauty in a scanty gown makes her way through a hallucinatory maze, followed by a tiger. Around her are walls of flowers and fish. Our bathukolpian beauty looks suitably amazed by this. It's an intriguing, fantasic, delicate picture, and guaranteed to bring in the customers."
A Forger's Tale
Shaun Greenhalgh was sentenced to four years and eight months' imprisonment in 2007, having been convicted of forgery. He had been working in his parents' garden shed for years producing artistic forgeries which were good enough to fool some of the world's great museums and galleries.
At the time of the trial, the breadth of his forging operation shocked the art world. However, what no-one realised was how much more of his story was yet to be told. He had been successfully passing off everything from Leonardo drawings to Lowry paintings and Hepworth sculptures to Anglo-Saxon jewellery, He wrote this book while he was in prison.
A Forger's Tale: The Memoir of One of Britain's Most Successful and Infamous Art Forgers
by Shaun Greenhalgh
By all accounts, it is a witty, charming, honest memoir which will fascinate the reader and throughout which the author's genuine love of art shines.
What kind of book?
You must have had the odd occasion when you have picked up a book and wondered why on earth anyone thought it was worth writing. You must have looked at titles or subject matter and marvelled at the writer who thought anyone would read it. Well, here is another one for you:
Puppetry of the Penis: The Ancient Australian Art of Genital Origami
by Simon Morley & David Friend
It has to be seen to be believed!
Istanbul
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
by Bettany Hughes
This book is a biography of what used to be called Byzantium, then Constantinople and now Istanbul. It is a historical journey through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities. It is peopled by emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans along with the hundreds of thousands of nameless men and women who have continuously populated Istanbul for so many centuries.
As the gateway between East, West, North and South, it has served as the capital of the Late Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. It has been visited by fire, siege, battle, invader, conqueror, friend, foe, crusader, plague, war and just about every religion under the sun. Its culture, art, architecture and history is beyond compare.
Bettany Hughes takes the reader on a dazzling journey filled with history, colour, imagination, life and romance through the many incarnations of this amazing city.
Quotations
Guess who:
I hate housework. You make the beds, you do the dishes, and six months later, you have to start all over again.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
- Is your husband religious?
- Oh yes. He thinks he's God Almighty.
Wagner has some wonderful moments but awful quarter-hours.
A classic is a book that everybody is assumed to have read and often think they have.
If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
You need The Funniest Thing You Never Said: The Ultimate Collection of Humorous Quotations by Rosemarie Jarski (ed)
Answers: Joan Rivers / Mark Twain / Mrs David Frost / Rossini / Alan Bennett /
Philip Larkin / Douglas Adams
Short Stories
Everyone loves short stories, especially good ones! And because everyone does, we have a dedicated short-story section which is easy and pleasant to browse. As well as the books in the shop, we also have a huge selection of short story collections in our on-line stock.
For a long time, the short story was a rather badly treated poor relation and was not given the attention or acclaim it deserved. However, for some time now, it has been recognised as a valuable genre in its own right and has many enthusiastic and critical supporters. If you are not yet one of the fans, now is a good time to give it a go. For a start, it is nowhere near as daunting as deciding to read all the Russian greats or Proust's Remembrance of Things Past!
You could start off from a nationality point of view with collections of French, German, Latin American, New Zealand or Nigerian short stories or you could try a selection of a particular author such as Somerset Maugham or Owen Marshall. It doesn't matter where or how you start, just that you do. Maybe I am preaching to the converted!
