BOOKS
READ YOUR WAY AROUND THE WORLD WITH THESE EXQUISITELY ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL BOOKS AND PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS
A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World
Journey to the wind-blown edges of existence with this book by Spanish writer and graphic designer José Luis González Macías, featuring more than 30 illustrated stories of lighthouses and their guardians. Meet a blind lighthouse-keeper in the Arctic Circle, share the plight of a crew cut off from society for 40 days and learn how these isolated beacons of life have inspired writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Virginia Woolf. Picador, £20
London Shopfronts
Indulge in window-shopping with this illustrated guide to London’s independent outlets, and find out about the traders and families behind them. Your guides — Wes Anderson-inspired illustrator Joel Holland and Time Out London journalist Rosie Hewitson — lead you through a landscape of bookshops, thrift stores, jazz bars and more, from the baroque Richmond florist Bramble & Moss to Lisboa Patisserie, which has been supplying Ladbroke Grove with pasteis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts) since the 1980s. Prestel, £19.99
Devotion
Philadelphia-born and award-winning National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry’s five-decade mission to explore spirituality in all its diversity and beauty is captured in Devotion. From a mosque in Afghanistan to the Golden Rock in Burma, and from an Easter offering in Paraguay to evangelicals in America’s heartland, the book travels to all corners of the globe, capturing intimate moments of loyalty, faith and dedication, and documenting the universal desire to find meaning in everyday life. Prestel, £50
Painted Travels
Take a watercolour tour of the world with painter SJ Axelby. This insider’s guide to classic, cool and quirky locations around the globe takes in iconic hotels, historical houses, cosy pubs, organic farms and, even, a shell grotto. An artist with an appreciation of fine detail, SJ’s trademark brightly hewn pictures come with fascinating tales from the past, insight into architecture and design and — rather pleasingl
