Lindsey Davis

P.D. James: The Private Patient
Uncompromising investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn has booked herself into the Chandler Powell private clinic in Dorset. She has decided to remove a disfiguring facial scar, and is looking forward to what she hopes will be a new life after the surgery. But Rhoda will not leave the clinical alive – she is killed. After her murder, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is summoned to investigate. As he begins to examine suspects, scene and motives, a second death occurs, and Dalgliesh finds himself faced with one of the most complex and challenging mysteries of his career.

Osbert Lancaster: Cartoons & Coronets
Osbert Lancaster was one of the most famous artistic personalities of his generation. National fame sprang from his invention of the pocket cartoon, which first appeared in 1939 in Beaverbrook's Daily Express. Over the next forty years, he created a cast of characters, headed by the straight talking Countess, Maudie Littlehampton, which, every day, kept the nation chuckling. Osbert's witty depictions of architectural styles, such as Stockbrokers' Tudor and Curzon Street Baroque brought him to prominence in the 1930s. After the war, he became one of the leading theatre and opera designers. He was also a brilliant illustrator working with friends and contemporaries such as Anthony Powell, John Piper and Nancy Mitford. This beautifully illustrated book covers the full range of his work and will be a revelation to those discovering his art and humour for the first time. Publication will coincide with a centenary exhibition, curated by James Knox, at the Wallace Collection in London.

Ray Laurence: Roman Passion
Immerse yourself in the sensual delights of Rome in all their guises. By the time of the emperors, the Romans had created the world's first global empire and plundered the provinces for produce to be eaten, planted or displayed as novelties. At the same time the aesthetics of the city of Rome was being transferred to the provinces, establishing towns with public buildings, baths and the Latin language. With these attributes of civilisation came other trappings of Roman culture: lavish entertainments, elaborate dinner parties and vice. The world of pleasure became a defining feature of the Romans and this book explores how they pursued sensual delights - from steamy bathhouses to stately country villas; the excesses of the festivals to the rich culture of music, dance and song and sex, as both unrestrained and puritanical.