The kimono is an iconic garment with a history as rich and colourful as the textiles from which it is crafted. Deeply associated with Japanese culture both past and present, it has often been thought of as a highly gendered, rigidly traditional and unchanging national costume. This book challenges that perception, revealing the nuanced meanings and messages behind the kimono from the point of view of its wearers and producers, many of whom – both men and women – see the garment as a vehicl...

“In Yumi’s world, what seems out of reach becomes reality.”(from: Dress Talk by Sarah Oba)“Yumi Katsura: Behind the Scenes” tells the story of Japan’s number one bridal designer who managed to revolutionize the Japanese perception of weddings.Seven women with various backgrounds came together and met Yumi at her iconic Bridal House café to talk about her beginnings, her success story and the influence she had on Japanese wedding culture.For the first time in En...

A cosy, heartwarming Christmas read about the growing friendship between a young journalist and an old woman who lives in a house teetering on the edge of the Devon cliffs, by the bestselling author of The Vets of Hope Green and The Petshop on Pennycombe BayCliff's End Cottage is a local landmark. Perched on the South Devon coast, its garden has begun slowly toppling into the sea, yet the elderly and infamously stubborn owner Stella refuses to lea...

" I scraped off the wet clay with mounting excitement. There was no mistaking what I saw."What Mary Anning found in the cliffs in 1811, when she was 13, was the first complete fossil of an ichthyosaurus, a marine dinosaur. She hunted and sold fossils to save her family from poverty after her father died when she was 11 years old. Despite social disapproval of her unfeminine occupation, Mary persisted and became a leading fossilist who made valuable contributions to science...

A cosy, heartwarming Christmas read about the growing friendship between a young journalist and an old woman who lives in a house teetering on the edge of the Devon cliffs, by the bestselling author of The Vets of Hope Green and The Petshop on Pennycombe BayCliff's End Cottage is a local landmark. Perched on the South Devon coast, its garden has begun slowly toppling into the sea, yet the elderly and infamously stubborn owner Stella refuses to lea...