Concentrating on just one aspect of artist David Hockney’s work, Marco Livingstone and Kay Heymer’s Hockney’s Portraits and People nevertheless contains a huge amount of variety. Of the 246 illustrations, 233 are in colour. Some of the works are well known, but others are published here for the first time. Some depict the famous, such as Christopher Isherwood, W.H. Auden, and Andy Warhol, as well as Henry Geldzahler and Celia Birtwell, both great friends of Hockney. Portraits of lovers and family members also make up a considerable part of the works reproduced in the book, and there are quite a few self-portraits.

Hockney began making portraits and self-portraits at the age of sixteen, and he feels that “Faces are the most interesting things we see.”

Kay Heymer, Marco Livingstone

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The title Simply Beautiful Photographs is of course self-explanatory. This book is a National Geographic publication, a hardcover book containing superb images printed on high quality paper. It is just asking to be consumed, but there is of course no way anyone could take in all of its images at once. It is the kind of book to dip into every so often, and every time you do you are bound to come across an image that surprises or delights you and is totally different from the ones you poured over on the previous occasion.

Simply Beautiful Photographs begins with a foreword by Maura Mulvihill and a seven-page introduction, after which it is divided into six sections entitled Light, Composition, Moment, Time, Palette and Wonder.

Annie Griffiths

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A picture book containing six chapters might sound rather too much for young children. But Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs A Bit More Bert is full of illustrations and has just a little text on each page. The chapters have a title page and then another three pages, except for Chapter 5 which has seven pages. Each chapter is actually more like a mini story, so if a child has a very short attention span, you wouldn’t have to read the whole book at once. We read about Bert and his dog, who is also called Bert, we give Bert a haircut, and then we see how Bert is constantly nagged by his mother (named Grandma Bert).

Allan Ahlberg, Raymond Briggs

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Cats can be such independent pets, yet they are bound to need proper care just like any other living creature, especially now that they seem to be living longer lives. Nearly ten years ago I adopted a sixteen-year-old cat when I moved into her house, and she lived for another four years. When I eventually had to have her put to sleep, I was horrified to be told by the vet that one of her kidneys was only the size of a baked bean. Not long after that I acquired a rescue kitten, and I decided that it would be a good idea to buy a book about cat care as I had realised how little I knew. The Catlopaedia is a slim volume, but its 206 pages are crammed with information covering everything from breeds to diseases.

J.M. Evans, Kay White

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John Landis, writer and director of films such as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “An American Werewolf in London,” among many others, has put together this superb tome that gives a guide to a huge range of monsters from the world of film. Lovers of vampires, zombies and ghosts can feast their eyes on these fantastical creatures in the images, principally from the Kobal Collection, that are reproduced here. In his introduction, Landis describes the book as “a pictorial overview of monsters from the movies” that he thinks are “cool.” He aims to be entertaining rather than scholarly.

John Landis

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Landscape Photographer of the Year is the publication that features the winners and other commended entries from renowned photographer Charlie Waite’s Take a View competition. The contest is run in collaboration with the AA, who publish this book. Both amateur and professional photographers may enter, and they do not have to be UK residents. All photographs submitted, however, must be taken in the British Isles. There is a separate section entitled Youth Class for photographs taken by children under the age of sixteen.

The competition gives photographers the opportunity to enter all or some of four categories. First is the “classic view,” which should demonstrate the ‘beauty and variety’ of the British landscape.

photography

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“How Do Dinosaurs Learn Colours and Numbers?” is a picture book divided into two sections, predictably for numbers and colours. The first section covers all the primary and secondary colours plus brown and pink one at a time, as well as white and black together. It ends with a double-page spread on rainbows. The second section introduces the numbers one to ten in order and ends saying that the dinosaur will count again. It isn’t the most thrilling ending to a book.

Jane Yolen’s text for the book is in a very clear, large font on a white background; there is no problem reading it. Perhaps one of the book’s strongest points is that the text is in rhyming verse, for example:

“a purple towel
left on the floor,
a green sign taped
to the bedroom door.”

Jane Yolen, Mark Teague

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Since the beginning of the twentieth century fashion has undergone some remarkable changes, affected in part by a recession, two world wars, a huge increase in consumerism and more recently the influence of the Internet. In their study “Fashion since 1900”, Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye trace these changes, focusing on hairstyles, accessories and makeup as well as clothes. Whether you want to know which celebrities were setting the trends, which designers were most influential or how international events were changing the way people dressed, you will find something to interest you here.

The book is divided into ten chapters that are arranged chronologically, going from “1900-1913: Undulations and Exotica” in Chapter 1 up to “2000-: Planet Fashion” in the final chapter.

Amy de la Haye, Valerie Mendes

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2010 was the fifth year for the BBC National Short Story Award, one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for the genre. The book includes the winning short story, the runner-up and three others. The stories are presented in alphabetical order of the authors, and by coincidence the first one is also the winning one. The authors are all British, but one of the stories is set in Africa. They concern love affairs, family relationships and the plight of a man living alone in an unusual situation.

The collection opens with David Constantine’s “Tea at the Midland”, the winning entry. James Naughtie praises it in part for its brevity; the story is in fact only just over seven pages long, and within these seven pages are just ten paragraphs. I can understand why this was the winner of the ward, even though it wasn’t a story that I personally enjoyed.

Aminatta Forna, David Constantine, Helen Oyeyemi, Jon McGregor, Sarah Hall

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Technology never stops advancing and offering new possibilities that make processes more straightforward, including those needed by artists and designers. Sometimes, however, we react against highly professional, faultless work and yearn for a return to arts and crafts that have a more natural feel to them, that look as though a human hand actually made the artwork. “Handwritten” is a book that shows us one aspect of the world of art where designers are in fact shunning the perfection of technology. It presents handwritten typographics from advertising campaigns, mainstream culture, record covers and other types of artwork from all over the world.

Mirko Ilic, Steven Heller

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When I made the transition from a compact digital camera to a digital SLR last summer, I knew there was going to be a lot to learn. The instruction manual that came with the camera did not give enough information, and I have since been looking at books that could help me to take better quality photographs. Perhaps the best I have looked at so far is Michael Freeman’s “101 Top Digital Photography Tips”. The quality of the paper and the superb design of the book immediately draw you to it, but as you start to leaf through the pages you realise that there is much more to it than the look and feel. It delivers on information for all levels of photography, whether you just point and shoot or you are a professional.

Michael Freeman, photography

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