Gift Books - Page 1

The most comprehensive top-quality wine guide of the year, Larousse Wine is the definitive reference for wine lovers. As beautifully presented and thorough as Larousse Gastronomique - the equivalent guide for foodies - this lavish book is a great gift for both wine connoisseurs and relative novices. Full of beautiful colour illustrations and detailed sections on each of the world's wine-producing regions, complete with a short history and analysis of each area and its appellations, this vast hardback is an absolute mine of knowledge.

LEGO fanatics will love this! Learn all about the Masters of SpinJitzu, their weapons and their vehicles, not to mention the dragons and the exotic locations that can be found throughout the Ninjago universe. Your child will have hours of fun dipping into the LEGO Ninjago Character Encyclopedia and poring over the pictures. There's even an exclusive fully-armed Green Ninja ZX mini figure included!

The LEGO Ideas Book will inspire any LEGO fan to create and build a wide range of amazing models! Packed with tips from expert LEGO builders, the hardback book is divided into six themed chapters: transport, buildings, space, kingdoms, adventure and useful makes. With over 500 models and ideas for inspiration, this is the perfect book for LEGO fans of any age who want to make their models cool, fun and imaginative. Amongst the incredible models featured in the book are jet planes, fantastic fortresses and space shuttles!

Written by Debora Robertson, Gifts from the Garden: 100 Gorgeous Homegrown Presents has more than 100 projects that use the gardener's bounty throughout the seasons, ranging from the pretty to the practical. From a pizza herb window box to delicious treats to eat like toffee apples, herbal teas and chilli jams, this is a book to show you how to make a present to suit everyone! The projects are divided into Flowers, Herbs, Fruit and Vegetables and cover everything from Toffee Apples to Lavender, Rose and Chamomile Bubble Bath.

Taking inspiration from Italian cooking but also adding an Anglo twist, Nigellisima sees popular chef Nigella Lawson celebrate the best of Italian food. Over 100 recipes are included in this cookbook and all are fresh, tasty and unpretentious and this is reflected in how simple and speedy they are to prepare. From traditional fare to unfamiliar treats, the recipes will excite both your tastebuds and imagination, and among those on offer are Crustless Meatzza, Risotto and Sambucca kisses. The hardback cookbook is illustrated with beautiful photographs to showcase the delightful recipes and is a great accompaniment to the hit BBC series!

An entirely new compendium of bizarre facts, figures and features, 2013's Ripley's Believe It or Not! annual will delight anyone who loves the weird and wonderful. Among the extraordinary feats included are the largest crocodile ever captured, the village in China where 3 million snakes are bred every year and the national sport that uses a headless goat as a ball. The informative book also features jaw-dropping photography, as well as intriguing interviews with some of the astonishing individuals who feature. There are also fascinating archive photographs, as well as submissions from Ripley fans from all over the world!

Please be aware this title features images that some people may find disturbing.

With mind-blowing photographs and hundreds of astonishing facts that showcase our incredible planet, Discover the Awesome World is a great read that shows just how special the Earth is. Produced in association with the Discovery Channel, the book covers a wide range of important reference subjects - from Earth's majestic features to nature's greatest events - to provide an awe-inspiring read that will appeal to the entire family.

An accompaniment to the hit Channel 4 series, popular presenter Kirstie Allsopp will help you transform your home from shabby to chic in Kirstie's Vintage Home. In the book, Kirstie looks to the past for inspiration and creates handmade things that are truly unique and beautiful. Reusing, restoring and upcycling, she shows how to transform vintage fabrics, furniture and other everyday things into modern-day treasures using a range of crafting skills. Packed with practical techniques that can be adapted to suit your own objects and furniture, all the information you need is in here to create a vintage look for your own home.

Featuring lavish and delicious food without a hint of pretence the Hix Oyster & Chop House cookbook features some of the gorgeous dishes that have lit up the restaurant’s menu over the past year. Well set out, making each of the 100 mouth-watering recipes easy to follow, this book is a great gift for passionate food lovers. Going into great detail to ensure that you are able to recreate the fine oyster and meaty dishes that Hix’s restaurant is so well known for, this lavish guide is likely to be in constant use in any kitchen.

One half of the Two Greedy Italians, Antonio Carluccio has established his place as the leading proponent of Italian cookery and this book is the seminal work that every home cook interested in Italian food should follow. Beautifully simple and bursting with flavour, Antonio has collected his favourite recipes from seven of his bestselling cookbooks into one stunning volume that should definitely take pride of place in your kitchen. With easy-to-follow recipes, this unique culinary journey covers every aspect of the Italian meal from antipasti to dolci and features mouth-watering dishes from each of Italy's distinct regions. It is packed with stunning photographs and infused with Antonio's characteristic voice and style.

All fans of rock music will appreciate David Roberts' Rock Chronicles: The Essential Guide to the Greatest 250 Rock Acts of All Time, a large encyclopedia covering some of music's most legendary acts. The hardback features 250 of the world's best-known, and most important, groups from the past 50 years and charts their evolving line-ups, sounds, label and achievements. The book features photography that chronicles their ever-changing looks and also contains detailed family trees of the best bands from each decade, all interlinked by influences and band members. This is a peerless work of reference for any music fan.

A charming, lavish and keepsake book, Where My Wellies Take Me tells the story of young Pippa, a girl who loves staying with her Aunt Peggy. Pippa loves going for walks, whether it's in the sun or the cold. The book sees Pippa go into the beautiful countryside and focuses on the wonderful wildlife, animals and people she comes across. All of these encounters are complemented by relevant poems from famous authors, all personally chosen by War Horse and Private Peaceful author Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare. The book is part poetry anthology and also recalls memories of a child's scrapbook, and is sure to instil a love of language in young children. It is beautifully illustrated by the artist Olivia Lomenech Gill.

Award-winning food writer Annie Bell's Baking Bible is a beautifully illustrated book that features over 200 triple-tested recipes that you'll want to make over and over again. In the baking book, Annie explains how to produce perfect results every time, whether you're baking sponge cakes, biscuits, brownies, muffins or meringues. With sweet treats and easy-to-follow recipes for all occasions - from kids' parties to Christmas celebrations - this is a book that will prove essential when it comes to baking!

John Sugden's Nelson: The Sword of Albion is a comprehensive and intimate biography that encompasses the high dramas of the Battles of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. In the biography, Sugden brilliantly interweaves graphic accounts of these famous battles with lesser-known yet equally gripping campaigns to liberate Italian states from French domination. It also reveals how behind his military prowess was a man riven with paradoxes and schisms at the very heart of his personal life. The life of Nelson is fully exploited here in a richly detailed narrative that teems with a glittering array of sailors and civilians, heroes and villains, husbands, wives and lovers.

From Mike Pannett, a former Metropolitan Police officer and the author of Not on my Patch, Lad, Up Beat and Down Dale takes a look at the life and crimes that occur in the Yorkshire countryside. Pannett polices one of the largest rural beats in England and in this fascinating book, he investigates a series of burglaries in remote farmhouses and calls out a full-scale search in dreadful weather for a missing man. There's also a night-time operation in an empty museum and the harrowing challenge of taking three children into care against their mother's wishes. This is an insightful biographical read from the 'James Herriot' of policing!

Gifted, charismatic and a genuinely world-class footballer, at the top of his career Thierry Henry was a hero for both his club and his country. But who is the real Thierry Henry? Award-winning author Philippe Auclair aims to answer this question in Thierry Henry: Lonely at the Top. Drawing from numerous interviews and impeccable sources, this is the most complete portrait of the Arsenal and France legend ever written. Thorough, lyrical and passionately argued, this hardback offers a raw, shocking and thought-provoking celebration of Henry's undoubted flair and talent. The ideal gift for any Gunners fan!

Fans of Paul Auster, the bestselling American author of Sunset Park and the New York Trilogy, will not be disappointed by this incredibly powerful portrayal of his early life, told in part through the relationship with his mother. Written in the second person with uncommon power and grace, the journal advances from one autobiographical fragment to the next, jumping backwards and forwards in time. A deeply personal book, Auster takes readers from his childhood through to the brink of old age, covering all the pleasure and pain he's lived through along the way. It especially focuses on the abandonment of his family by his father. 30 years after publishing his first book of prose, The Invention of Solitude, this second memoir looks straight into the heart of what it means to be alive.