Sophie Bramly lived in New York in the early 1980s and became firmly embedded in the emergent hip hop scene. The book features many stunning, intimate images of a star-studded roll call of legendary hip hop figures, all of whom were only just getting known or in their ascendency.

Bramly knew that hip hop was becoming a cultural force rather than just a musical fashion, and spent many hours photographing the four essential elements of this new world: the emcees, the deejays, the graffiti artists and the break dancers.

So aside from the many stars of hip-hop you will also see legendary graffiti artists captured at work and play, such as Keith Haring, Dondi, Futura, Phase One, Zephyr and Lady Pink, as well as breakdancers including members of Magnificent Force, Dynamic Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew.

This book features many stunning and intimate images of a star-studded roll call of legendary hip-hop figures, many of whom were just relatively known at the time, and while all in their ascendency – including Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer DST, Jazzy Jay, Red Alert, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, Lisa Lee, the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys & many more.

In 1984, Bramly returned to France where she became deeply involved in bringing Hip-Hop to Europe, continuing to photograph and document this culture. In 1987 Bramly presented and hosted Yo! MTV Raps, the first ever hip-hop show on the channel.

“During the early 80s, on Saturday nights at the Roxy in downtown Manhattan and at the Bronx River Center, acts like Run-D.M.C., Afrika Bambaataa and Fab 5 Freddy created a totally new scene in New York. French photojournalist Sophie Bramly moved to New York in 1981, when she was just 21, and began photographing it all – when no one else was paying attention”. – I-D

“All these photos speak for a time that is so special, is never coming back and changed the world. It’s pretty much this experience that changed everything for ever. What makes it amazing, is that you hear stories about superheroes that changed the world, and that was us.” – Grand Mixer D. St

Luxuriate in the pages of The Antiquarian Sticker Book: Bibliophilia, a compendium of thousands of gorgeous stickers for lovers of beauty and books. Here, quotes from classic pieces of literature are illuminated in sticker form. Adorn your collage or junk journal with a quote or sticker to add another dimension to your project. Peel and decorate or browse and feast on the beauty of this lush sticker book unlike any other.

A treasure trove of authentic historical prints from the ornate Victorian era can live on its own, be used on stationary and wrapping, or create an amazing collage. Featuring beautiful, recognizable, wacky, odd, and inspiring quote stickers from many beloved authors, The Antiquarian Sticker Book: Bibliophilia has something for everyone.

 The long awaited second volume in Stuart Macintyre’s definitive history of the Communist Party of Australia.

Communism was unlike any other political movement Australia has ever seen. At its peak in the 1940s, unions led by communists could call a strike that paralysed the nation, and communists influenced the highest level of government, and commanded the unswerving loyalty of thousands. It showed working men and women they could have a better life, and gave them the tools to achieve it.

Stuart Macintyre reveals how sources of strength in the party’s heyday became the undoing of the party over the following two decades. Unconditional support for the Soviet model broke down as the horrors of Stalinism were revealed. Public support for the party eroded during a series of strikes, and hostility from mainstream politics and security services took a toll. But for those who remained, the comradeship and intense political engagement are the strongest memories.

The Party is the second volume of Stuart Macintyre’s masterful history of Australian communism.

‘Rich and compelling stories of activists, idealists, militants, internationalists and anti-racists who believed they were on the side of history – until they weren’t.’ – Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University

‘Stuart Macintyre is the great historian of post-war Australia – and this book is no exception. Macintyre’s attention to detail is coupled with a lively writing style that holds the reader’s attention.’ – Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Member for Sydney

A deal with the devil, reimagined as the clash between pagan and Puritan as only Brom can tell it, set against the backdrop of colonial America.

Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector. The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil. To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help. Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake. “If it is a devil you seek, then it is a devil you shall have!” This terrifying tale of bewitchery features more than two dozen of Brom’s haunting paintings, fully immersing readers in this wild and unforgiving world.

Over the past few decades, acclaimed dark fantasy artist Brom has lent his distinctive vision to all facets of the creative industries, from novels and games to comics and film. He is the author of The Child Thief, Krampus, The Lost Gods, and the award-winning, illustrated horror novels The Plucker and The Devil’s Rose. Brom is currently kept in a dank cellar just outside Seattle.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2021

‘Lush, gripping and ferocious, MATRIX is animated with sensual detail on every page.’ – MADELINE MILLER

‘A thrillingly vivid, adventurous story about women and power that will blow readers’ minds. Left me gasping.’ – EMMA DONOGHUE

We’ve been reading Matrix by Lauren Groff. Sharon, Kiara, and Luka all loved this historical fiction novel from the bestselling author of Fates and Furies. Here’s what Luka had to say about it:

“Matrix was an extraordinary surprise. It didn’t occur to me that the protagonist—hardy, ungainly, wild Marie—was a re-imagining of the 12^th-century poet, Marie de France. Don’t be dissuaded, though, as I often am when it comes to historical fiction. Matrix feels contemporary, entirely original.

Seventeen-year-old Marie is thrown to the dogs one winter night, expelled from the royal court to become prioress of an impoverished abbey. Born last of a long line of women warriors and crusaders, Marie carves a new destiny, determined to bring her sisters and her abbey out of darkness, into power.

Told with bold, poetic prose, Matrix is a visionary delight of a novel, exploring faith, sexuality, divinity, and powerful love. Reading it made me want to travel (on horseback, of course) through cold, distant French moors… or become a 12^th-century nun.” – Luka

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment, arguably the first modern exploration of psychological realism, is not only a gem of Russian literature but an internationally renowned classic. Now this masterpiece has been vividly transformed by the powerful illustrations of renowned graphic artist Dave McKean, whose multimedia paintings are shrouded with the specters and shadows of Raskolnikov’s fever dreams. It features over one hundred full-page paintings, spot illustrations and illuminated letters, and housed in an elaborately die-cut and embossed slipcase.

This is an heirloom edition designed as a work of art in its own right.

In 1972, George Seddon wrote Sense of Place, a landmark environmental study of the Swan Coastal Plain. The book introduced the ground-breaking phrase ‘sense of place’ into the fields of landscape and environmental design, inspiring a new generation of researchers, academics and enthusiasts to closely consider the dynamic between human land use and the natural environment.

Containing detailed information on the landforms, climate, drainage geology, wetlands, offshore islands and flora of this region, the book constructs a picture of the region before European settlement. The volume also depicts land use by Aboriginal custodians and colonial settlers, as well as outlining the major environmental resources of the region.

With a new Preface by environmental historian Andrea Gaynor (UWA) and an Introduction by writer, artist and professor of urban design (RMIT) Paul Carter, readers will get an insight into the complex sensibility of George Seddon, who was a connoisseur of landscapes, from the rugged Snowy Mountains to the humble domestic backyard. He was an innovator in urban planning, landscape architecture and environmental conservation who, although originally born and raised in country towns in Victoria, called Western Australia home over various periods, settling in Fremantle for the last years of his life.

A rigorous and celebratory journey through the history of pop music, from the former New York Times music critic.

From his own adolescence, when his allegiance was to punk rock, to his work as one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture at the New York Times and the New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh has made a deep study of how our popular music unites and divides us, the tribes it forms, and how its genres, shape-shifting across the years, give us a way to track larger forces and concerns.

Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn’t transcendent: it expresses our grudges as well as our hopes, and it is motivated by greed as well as inspiration.

Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there’s always been a ‘Black’ audience and a ‘white’ audience, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there is Black music and white music (and some very white music), and a whole lot of confusing of the issue, if not to say expropriation.

This is a book to shock and awe the deepest music nerd, and at the same time to work as a heady gateway drug for the uninitiated.

An epic story of love, war, and redemption, set against the backdrop of the Korean independence movement.

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected, a chance encounter that will shape both of their lives for over half a century.

Meanwhile, in the north of Korea, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver’s courtesan school in the glamorous city of Pyongyang. When she befriends an orphan boy named JungHo, they form a deep friendship. But before long, JungHo will be swept up in the revolutionary fight for independence, while Jade becomes a celebrated performer pursued by a wealthy romantic prospect.

From the perfumed chambers of a courtesan school in Pyongyang to the glamorous cafes of a modernizing Seoul and the boreal forests of Manchuria, Juhea Kim’s unforgettable characters forge their own destinies as they shape the future of their nation. Immersive and elegant, Beasts of a Little Land unveils a world where friends become enemies, enemies become saviours, and beasts take many shapes.

Epic, beautifully crafted . . . Gripping from start to finish. DAILY TELEGRAPH

From Isabel Allende, the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea, this is the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father’s prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

In a letter to someone she loves above all others, Violeta recounts devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy, and a life shaped by some of the most important events of history- the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics. Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humour will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

One extraordinary woman.
One hundred years of history.
One unforgettable story.