Jonathan Cape Ways of Life. Jim Ede and the Kettle's Yard Artists Freeman Laura

It takes a whole universe to make one small black bird • The bestselling author of Crow Country and writer of The Guardian's Country Diary tells the story of all life on Earth through a single day spent in the company of swifts • Swifts are among the most extraordinary of all birds. Their migrations span continents and their twelve-week stopover, when they pause to breed in European rooftops, is the very definition of summer. They may nest in our homes but much about their lives passes over our heads. No birds are more wreathed in mystery. Captivated, Mark Cocker sets out to capture their essence • Over the course of one day in midsummer he devotes himself to his beloved black birds as they spiral overhead. Yet this is also a book about so much more

Five Artists. Five Styles. All Written by One Author • On 13 August 2013 graphic novelist Karrie Fransman invited four old friends from university to an isolated cottage on the misty moors of the Peak District to join her for a week of hedonism and creativity. Like Shelley and Byron before them, they would use the retreat to tell stories. Except these would be comics, collected together in this very book. The theme? The Death of the Artist • None of the five friends realised how appropriate this theme would become • The book weaves a single narrative across watercolour, digital art, photography, collage and illustration, exploring the themes of creation, destruction, and how we kill our inner artists as we grow up. It takes the graphic novel into entirely new realms

'When someone looks back and writes a history of this summer, two people they will almost certainly leave out are Sue and Daniel Bagnold...' • So begins Joff Winterhart's sublimely funny and perceptive graphic novel, Days of the Bagnold Summer. Sue, 52, works in a library. Daniel, 15, is still at school. This was the summer holidays Daniel was due to spend with his father and his father's pregnant new wife in Florida. When they cancel his trip, Sue and Daniel face six long weeks together • Joff Winterhart perfectly captures the ennui, the tension, the pathos and yes, the affection of this mother-son relationship. Already well-known for his animated films like Violet and Turquoise, he here shows himself to be a comics author of extraordinary talent

The magical world of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts meets the real-world experts of the world-famous Natural History Museum, in an awe-inspiring exhibition devoted to the wonders of nature, science and adventure – and their fictional counterparts from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature is the official book inspired by the spectacular exhibition, shining a light on beasts in all their fantastic forms. Taking inspiration from Newt Scamander, this gorgeous colour gift book invites the whole family to explore the inspiration and links between the magic of J.K. Rowling's creatures and the astonishing real-world wildlife that has roamed the earth, seas and skies of our planet throughout history • Prepare to pore over ancient maps of sea monsters; naturalists' field notes crammed with intricately painted chameleons and caterpillars; and dinosaurs such as the mighty Dracorex Hogwartsia, the 'Dragon King of Hogwarts'

The magical world of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts meets the real-world experts of the world-famous Natural History Museum, in an awe-inspiring exhibition devoted to the wonders of nature, science and adventure – and their fictional counterparts from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. A perfect present! • Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature is the official book inspired by the spectacular exhibition, shining a light on beasts in all their fantastic forms. Taking inspiration from Newt Scamander, this gorgeous colour gift book invites the whole family to explore the inspiration and links between the magic of J.K. Rowling's creatures and the astonishing real-world wildlife that has roamed the earth, seas and skies of our planet throughout history

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood perilously close to invasion. One by one, the nations of Europe had fallen to the unstoppable German Blitzkrieg, and Hitler’s sights were set on the English coast. And yet, following the success of the Battle of Britain, the promised invasion never came. The prospect of German jackboots landing on British soil retreated into the realm of collective nightmares. But the spectre of what might have been is one that has haunted us down the decades, finding expression in counterfactual history and outlandish fictions. What would a British occupation have looked like? • The answer lies closer to home than we think, in the experiences of the Channel Islanders – the only British people to bear the full brunt of German Occupation

"Амелия Фанг и неприятности с жабами" - совершенно новое приключение в популярной серии Лауры Андерсон "Амелия Фанг"! • Когда младший брат Амелии Фанг, Винсент, случайно попадает в таинственную страну - место, куда попадают все раздавленные жабы, - Амелии приходится пуститься в смелое приключение, чтобы спасти его • Но даже если Амелия и ее друзья действительно найдут Винсента, смогут ли они найти дорогу домой? Или они навсегда останутся запертыми в загробной жизни жаб? • Книга на английском языке • A brand-new adventure in the bestselling and much-loved Amelia Fang series! • Perfect lockdown reading for little vampires of 7+ and all fans of Isadora Moon and The Worst Witch • When Amelia Fang's baby brother, Vincent, accidentally enters a mysterious land - the place where all squished toads go - Amelia has to embark on a daring adventure to rescue him

"Амелия Фанг и праздник полумесяца" - совершенно новая книга в великолепно готической и злобно смешной серии Лауры Андерсон "Амелия Фанг" • Познакомься с Амелией Фанг • Самый храбрый маленький вампир в королевстве • Это праздник полумесяца в мрачной Ноктюрнии, а это значит, что Амелия и ее друзья не пойдут в школу! Вместо этого они собираются провести его со своим отрядом рейнджеров Радуги (во главе с единорогами Рикки и Грэмом), зарабатывая значки на острове Сахарная вата • Но во время исследования Амелия и ее банда натыкаются на древнее проклятие - и уменьшаются до размеров жуков! Как они смогут совершить леденяще БОЛЬШОЕ путешествие, чтобы снять проклятие, если все они такие крошечные? • Книга на английском языке • A brand new title in the bestselling gorgeously gothic and wickedly funny Amelia Fang series - perfect for readers of 7+ • Meet Amelia Fang • The bravest little vampire in the kingdom • It's the half-moon holiday in gloomy Nocturnia which means no school for Amelia and her friends! Instead they are going to spend it with their Rainbow Rangers troop, (led by unicorns Ricky and Graham) earning badges on Sugarplum Island

Daringly innovative when it opened in 1848, the Palm House in Kew Gardens remains one of the most beautiful glass buildings in the world today • Seemingly weightless, vast and yet light, the Palm House floats free from architectural convention, at once monumental and ethereal. From a distance, the crowns of the palms within are silhouetted in the central dome; close to, banana leaves thrust themselves against the glass. To enter it is to enter a tropical fantasy. The body is assaulted by heat, light and the smell of damp vegetation • In Palace of Palms, Kate Teltscher tells the extraordinary story of its creation and of the Victorians' obsession with the palms that filled it. It is a story of breathtaking ambition, of scientific discovery and, crucially, of the remarkable men whose vision it was

What do our possessions say about us? Why do we project such meaning onto them? What becomes of the things we leave behind? • Only after her mother's death does Susannah Walker discover how much of a hoarder she had become. Over the following months, Susannah has to sort through a dilapidated house filled to the brim with rubbish and treasures - filling bag after bag with possessions. But what she's really in search of is a woman she'd never really known or understood in life. This is her last chance to piece together her mother's story and make sense of their troubled relationship • What emerges from the mess of scattered papers, discarded photographs and an extraordinary amount of stuff is the history of a sad and fractured family, haunted by dead children, divorce and alcohol

This is the secret history of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland • Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self, Lewis Carroll, was a storyteller, innovator and avid collector of "child-friends". Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell, his "dream-child", a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up • This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice. It is a history of love and loss, innocence and ambiguity. It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world

A ground-breaking new study brings us a very different picture of the Second World War, asking fundamental questions about ethical commitments • Accounts of the Second World War usually involve tales of bravery in battle, or stoicism on the home front, as the British public stood together against Fascism. However, the war looks very different when seen through the eyes of the 60,000 conscientious objectors who refused to take up arms and whose stories, unlike those of the First World War, have been almost entirely forgotten • Tobias Kelly invites us to spend the war five of these individuals: Roy Ridgway, a factory clerk from Liverpool; Tom Burns, a teacher from east London; Stella St John, who trained as a vet and ended up in jail; Ronald Duncan, who set up a collective farm; and Fred Urquhart, a working-class Scottish socialist and writer