Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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Jean-Paul Kauffmann

Near the end of his life, the great Romantic artist Eug-ne Delacroix (1798-1863) painted one of the most enigmatic episodes from the Bible: Jacob wrestling with the angel. This painting, which decorates the wall of the Chapel of the Holy Angels in the Paris church of Saint-Sulpice, is Delacroix's "spiritual testament". But Sain-Sulpice is a mysterious church where everything happens behind the scenes. A fan of Inspector Maigret, Jean-Paul Kauffmann investigates the painting and the church, paying particular attention to its hidden history. He searches for clues in a bar in Dieppe, a castle in Quercy, a village in the Argonne, an oak tree in the forest at S-nart, even a golf course in the Loiret. The trail leads him to an art critic, a lecturer at the Louvre, and a sculptor who has a studio in the attic of Saint-Sulpice itself. All these intertwining threads finally come together in a central motif in which Kauffmann himself is involved. There comes a time in which everyone must wrestle with the angel.

Wrestling With The Angel

Mr Bingo

'Gorgeous and funny! Like a labrador doing stand-up' Noel Fielding 
 
The brainchild of a late night and one too many drinks, Hate Mail began with self-styled 'Master of Pens', Mr. Bingo, sending a single tweet off into the pipes of the internet. It read: 'I will send a postcard with an offensive message on to the first person who replies to this'. Then, the replies came in. 
 
Over 1000 abusive postcards later, Mr. Bingo has become the world's hate mailist par excellence, verbally and visually abusing people the world over, all eager to receive their own bespoke piece of personalised spite. 
 
Irreverent and insidiously inspired, Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection, is the ultimate celebration of Mr. Bingo's Hate Mail project.

Hate Mail

THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION

Philippa Rice

Philippa Rice's relatable comic strips that prove true love isn't always about the big romantic gestures make the perfect gift this Valentine's day. 
 
 Sometimes it's about sympathising with someone whose tea has gone cold, watching TV and sharing a quilt, or allowing your partner to order take-away pizza again. When two people move in together, it soon becomes apparent that the little things mean an awful lot. The throwaway moments in life become meaningful when you spend them in the company of someone you love. 
 
 Soppy is Philippa Rice's collection of comics based on real-life moments with her boyfriend. From grocery shopping to silly arguments and snuggling in front of the television, Soppy captures the universal experience of sharing a life together. 
 
 'Intimate, sweet, and oh so relatable' Metro

Soppy

Valerie Lester

'Phiz' - Hablot Knight Browne - was the great illustrator of Dickens' fiction. For over twenty-three years they worked together, and Phiz's drawings brought to life a galaxy of much-loved characters, from Mr Pickwick, Nicholas Nickleby and Mr Micawber, to Little Nell and David Copperfield. But, from the mystery of his birth onwards, Phiz himself led a life as rich as any novel. 
 
In this vivid, lively memoir - the first full biography, long-awaited by Victorian scholars - his great-great-granddaughter Valerie Browne Lester tracks the struggles of the abandoned Browne family and follows Phiz's path to marriage and fame, his travels around England and Ireland and work with Dickens, Lever, Trollope and others, and his colourful private life. 
 
Based on a mass of unpublished material, this enchanting book, packed with surprising and delicious illustrations, is a perfect present for all who love Dickens and enjoy the hidden byways of Victorian life.

Phiz

The Man Who Drew Dickens

Jonathan Tulloch

Spring 2008. The art world is awash with money, and Piers Guest is getting his share. Celebrated art mogul, critic, impresario and 'adviser' with a client list ranging from the wealthiest of individual collectors to an international merchant bank, he is a bona fide member of the glitterati. Graced with his own beauty, he gallivants through London's galleries, cafés and hotels, playground for multi-millionaire artists, financiers and infidelity, while still enjoying a Chelsea mansion with his wife and daughter. Until a mysterious meeting about a newly discovered masterpiece begins a hunt that will lead him onto an altogether different terrain... 
 
1933. Under the shadow of the newly elected Nazi party, Helga and Ernst Mann bring a disabled child into the world. While her husband Ernst, a folklorist, drifts near the baleful influence of the Third Reich, Helga will stop at nothing to keep her child safe. 
 
1890. Vincent Van Gogh is living out his last few weeks in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Tormented by illness and regret, his only companions are the melancholy Dr Gachet, the ghosts of his own past, and the group of disturbed but engaging patients being treated by Gachet. Taking up his brush, he paints the picture that will draw so many disparate lives together. 
 
From the troubled genius of Vincent Van Gogh to the wartime birch forests of Ukraine, from the scintillating labyrinths of contemporary art and commerce to a mother's desperate journey across Germany into the teeth of the Red Army, Jonathan Tulloch's novel examines madness and creativity, love and destruction, the painting of a picture and the lust to own.

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