There cannot be many people under the age of 50 whose lives have not been in some way touched by the careers of Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The couple formed their hugely creative partnership in 1975, wi

Best books… Roy Foster The emeritus professor of ...

Francesca Tancini Walter Crane Books in colour 856pp (two volumes). Yale University Press. £250 (US $325). “Nothing is dearer to the heart of a commercial age than a label”, Walter Crane declared towa

LS Lowry is arguably England’s greatest artist. He painted a subject area that no one had ever painted before, the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, and became popular with the general public to

Broadcaster and biographer Humphrey Burton became familiar to millions of television viewers in the early 1980s as the genial presenter of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year, the programme he launch

Unlike some of the gardeners and scientists of his time, George Maw isn’t a household name today. A passionate botanist, geologist, ceramicist and artist, Maw corresponded with the likes of Charles Da