Walking through the streets of London provides a glorious miscellany of history and design, past shops that have stood for centuries and those that popped up just last week. This book is a visual celebration of the capital’s most interesting stores: a vibrant compendium filled with original photography and fascinating write-ups. It explores the artistry behind each façade’s unique signage, delves into the sites’ past lives and includes personal stories of ingenuity, community and resilience from London’s shopkeepers. For shops are no longer just somewhere we buy things – you can do that online, these days – but places to connect with others, browse creative objects and gather inspiration.

Ancient adventurers have often spoken of a mystical land of perfect harmony and eternal bliss nestled in the forbidding remoteness of the Tibetan Plateau – the legendary Shangri La. No one has managed to pinpoint its exact location on a map. In the local belief system, Shangri La may well not be a place at all but rather the mental state of a pure and exalted body, speech and mind. Fascinated by this concept, the photographer and author Mahendra Singh set out on his quest. Most of it currently occupied by China, the Tibetan Plateau has been significantly distorted over time under state pressure. Therefore, the author traveled through some of the last surviving remnants of authentic Tibetan life found in the valleys of Ladakh and Spiti; often and justifiably referred to as ‘Little Tibet’. He traveled through remote valleys, ventured across stark landscapes and visited the improbable green oases of human habitation, culture and religion, to bring together this comprehensive portrait of the region through his vivid photographs and meticulously researched text. This book aims to take the readers on a journey of discovery and reflection, and hopefully, a little further along the path to finding their own Shangri La.

Over his long and successful career David Remfry MBE RA RWS has achieved a mastery of watercolor that few have matched. Unusually for the medium, he works on a large scale and often focuses on people, exploring the dance hall and the nightclub in breathtaking images that are at once beautiful and edgy.

This book is the first full-length monograph devoted to the artist’s watercolors. Its author, James Russell, is well known for his writing on 20th-century British artists. Russell brings his scholarship, humor and fascination for people and their lives to his study of Remfry’s career, tracing the evolution of a remarkable talent, looking in depth at the most significant works and placing Remfry in the context of both the British watercolor tradition and international contemporary painting. This is at once a glorious art book and an intimate portrait of city life.

Having spent 20 years living and working at the legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York, Remfry has a following on both sides of the Atlantic. New Yorkers – often in party mode – feature in many of his watercolors, and his recollections of people and places add color to the text.