Art & Design

Though fifty years have passed since the breakup of the Beatles, the fab four continue to occupy an utterly unique place in popular culture. Their ...

Rosa Bonheur was the very antithesis of the feminine ideal of 19th-century society. She was educated, she shunned traditional 'womanly' pursuits, s...

Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward met in the school playground when they were four. They became international stars, first as a trio, then, for almost...

One of the most important artists of the late twentieth century, Jean-Michel Basquiat explored the interplay of words and images throughout his car...

Cool, talented and transgressive, Jean-Michel Basquiat's life is just as fascinating as the work he produced.Delve into 1980s New York as this vivi...

Formed as a New York City hardcore band in 1981, Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip hop superstardom. Here is their story, told for...

Photographs by Terry O'Neill, Norman Parkinson, Michael Ward and Derek Bayes The Beatles ascended like no band before, hurtling to the dizzy height...

Bass player extraordinaire Charles Mingus, who died in 1979, is one of the essential composers in the history of jazz, and Beneath the Underdog, hi...

Three years before he died, David Bowie made a list of the one hundred books that had transformed his life - a list that formed something akin to a...

The first biography of America's greatest twentieth-century sculptor, Alexander Calder: an authoritative and revelatory achievement, based on a wea...

In 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn't play an instrument and she'd nev...

No other jazz musician has proved so inspirational and so fascinating as John Coltrane. Ben Ratliff, jazz critic for the New York Times, has writte...

A relentless innovator, scoring chart hits while simultaneously incorporating radical and ground-breaking elements into his work. As with all great...

Robert Wyatt started out as the drummer and singer for Soft Machine, who shared a residency at Middle Earth with Pink Floyd and toured America with...

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is a landmark celebration of the remarkable life and career of a country music and pop culture legend. ...

Elton John and iconic photographer Terry O'Neill worked together for many years, taking in excess of 5,000 photographs. From intimate backstage sho...

The women who shaped and were erased from our history. Forgotten Women is a series of books that uncover the lost herstories of influential women w...

In Girl in a Band Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and role model for a generation of women, tells her story. She writes frankly about he...

Keith Haring remains one of the most important and celebrated artists of his generation and beyond. Through his signature bold graphic line drawing...

High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, growing up in the heigh...

This enthralling book is the first biography in English of Bill Evans, one of the most influential of all jazz pianists. Peter Pettinger, himself a...

Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one ...

It's been said Janis Joplin was second only to Bob Dylan as the 'creator-recorder-embodiment of her generation's mythology'. But how did a middle-c...

Patti Smith's exquisite prose is generously illustrated in this full-color edition of her classic coming-of-age memoir, Just Kids. New York locatio...

From rural Japan to international icon - Yayoi Kusama has spent her remarkable life immersed in her art. Follow her incredible journey in this vivi...

Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimo...

Frida Kahlo was a colourful Mexican artist who endured great pain and hardship, but used her bright, vivid brushstrokes to express her emotions and...

Most famous as the painter who created the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci is also one of history's greatest geniuses - he was a mathematician, archit...

The fourth of five children, Aretha was born in Tennessee and took the stage at an early age in her father's church choir. She went on to become th...

Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota. As a teenager, he played in various bands and, over time, his interest in music deepened, with a particula...

Following the death of her mother, Coco spent her early life in an orphanage, where she was taught how to use a needle and thread. From there, she ...

As a child, young David had a head full of songs and ideas. He was inspired by the pop and mod scenes in Britain to pick up the saxophone. After ea...

Little Dolly grew up in Tennessee in a family 'as poor as dirt'. She started performing at an early age, singing on local radio and television. Aft...

Ella Fitzgerald grew up near Harlem, in New York, where she was surrounded by music and dance. After winning first prize in a talent competition at...

When Frida was a teenager, a terrible road accident changed her life forever. Unable to walk, she began painting from her bed. Her self-portraits, ...

As a child, little Georgia viewed the world differently from other people. She roamed outdoors with her sketch book, while other girls played. As a...

Jean-Michel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother and Haitian father. When he was eight and recovering from an accident in bed, ...

When Louise was a little girl, her mother died. She learned to express her feelings through drawing - and when she grew up, she turned these drawin...

When Vivienne was a young woman, she wasn't sure how a working class girl from England could make a living in the art world. But after discovering ...

Zaha Hadid grew up in Baghdad, Iraq surrounded by music. She was a curious and confident child, who designed her own modernist bedroom at nine year...

Spanning Tom Waits' extraordinary 40-year career, from Closing Time to Orphans, Lowside of the Road is Barney Hoskyns' unique take on one of rock's...

As he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were past. Anguished by the deat...

From the Yardbirds to Cream, Blind Faith to Derek and the Dominos, and a hugely-successful solo career, Eric Clapton's fifty years in the music bus...

Mozart’s music has enthralled listeners for centuries. In this brilliant biography, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson draws upon his expert knowledg...

There has never been a band like Pearl Jam. The Seattle quintet has recorded eleven studio albums; sold some 85 million records; played over a thou...

Michael Jackson: provocateur, icon, enigma. Who was he really? And how does his spectacular rise, his catastrophic fall, reflect upon those who mad...

No other pop group in recent history has faced fame with such intelligence, humour and shrewdness as the Pet Shop Boys. In 1991, the band toured No...

The Pet Shop Boys are one of the most successful and unusual bands of the last five decades. They are the pop duo that proves pop music can be mode...