The Selfie Book!

The Selfie Book! (subtitled Taking & Making The Best Selfies, Belfies, Photobombs, & More...), by Carrie Barclay and Malcolm Croft, is a brief guide to selfie culture. Full of lists, celebrities, and exclamation marks, it feels like a cross between BuzzFeed and Heat magazine. It has novelty value as the first compilation of famous selfies (posted on Instagram by Kim Kardashian et al.), though the photos are mostly undated and overall it's nothing more than a stocking-filler book.

"Types of Selfie", the book's taxonomy chapter, shows how pervasive selfies and smartphones have become: there are 'celfies' (celebrity selfies), 'belfies' (bum selfies), 'welfies' (workout selfies), 'telfies' (toilet selfies), 'felfies' (farm animal selfies), 'sheepies' (sheep selfies), 'pelfies' (pet selfies), 'drelfies' (drunk selfies), and 'fullies' (full-body selfies). Examples of all of these are included, along with headline-grabbing selfies such as Bradley Cooper's group portrait ("The world's most popular selfie... retweeted more than two million times") from 2014.

Out Of Print

Out Of Print, by George Brock, examines the past, present, and future(s) of journalism. Despite its subtitle (Journalism, & The Business Of News In The Digital Age), the book begins with a history of print journalism since the 1600s. This historical primer provides useful context, though at eighty pages it feels too long in a book ostensibly about digital news, and too short to outline 400 years of news media. (For more background, see Anthony Smith's Newspapers: An International History.)

In his introduction ("from ink to link"), Brock emphasises that "I have tried to ensure that my analysis and argument here is not too Anglocentric", though he does focus extensively on UK media. This contradicts his stated intention, though it makes the book all the more interesting, as Britain has particularly vibrant national newspapers and online news outlets (for example, BBC News, the Financial Times, The Guardian, and MailOnline). This also makes Out Of Print a useful companion to David Folkenflik's Page One, which examines digital journalism from a largely American perspective.

Brock summarises the sometimes unethical practices of tabloid journalism, and the conclusions of the Leveson Inquiry (both of which are also covered by Nick Davies in Hack Attack). Most importantly, he provides an excellent overview of developments in contemporary journalism, including the decline of display advertising, news aggregators (such as Google News), monetisation via paywalls, and the rise of digital-native media companies (including BuzzFeed and Gawker).

As he recognises, these trends are "at risk of being overtaken by events, for we are looking at a fast-moving picture." The book was written in 2013, and since then Gawker has filed for bankruptcy (following Hulk Hogan's privacy lawsuit), The Sun has cancelled its paywall, and Facebook has launched Instant Articles (further blurring the distinction between the technology and media industries).

A Designer's Art

A Designer's Art, by Paul Rand, was first published in 1985, and has been reprinted this month. It features essays written by Rand throughout his life (including material from Thoughts On Design, which was also reprinted recently), and reproductions of his most acclaimed graphic designs (such as his Eye-Bee-M poster from 1981).

The new edition includes an afterword in which Steven Heller argues that it "reopened a genre of graphic design manifesto-monographs that had not existed since the 1930s". Heller (who has also written a comprehensive book on Rand) notes that A Designer's Art not only served as the portfolio of a legendary career, but also paved the way for later designers such as Stefan Sagmeister (Made You Look) to produce their own monographs.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Aperture's slim monograph on Henri Cartier-Bresson, first published in 1976, has been reprinted in a second edition. As before, the book features forty-two black-and-white photographs (selected by Cartier-Bresson himself), including Derriere La Gare St Lazare, which "perfectly illustrates the notion of the "decisive moment" in Henri Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre". Each full-page image is accompanied by a single paragraph of analysis.

There are far more extensive Cartier-Bresson books available (of which The Man, The Image, & The World is the most comprehensive), though this is an effective introduction to the master photographer. The text was written by Clement Cheroux, author of Here & Now and a booklet accompanying the reprint of The Decisive Moment. (Cheroux also edited Paparazzi!)

Thoughts On Design

Paul Rand, one of the greatest designers of the last century, was almost single-handedly responsible for the development of corporate branding as a branch of graphic design. His book Thoughts On Design was as influential as Le Corbusier's Towards A New Architecture and Jan Tschichold's The New Typography.

The first and second editions of Thoughts On Design (hardbacks published in 1947 and 1951 respectively) were printed in three languages (English, French, and Spanish), and their black-and-white illustrations were supplemented by eight colour plates. The third edition (a paperback published in 1970) was printed only in English, and its illustrations were all in black-and-white.

The paperback version has been reprinted as a fourth edition, with a new foreword describing Thoughts on Design as "a manifesto, a call to arms and a ringing definition of what makes good design good." Unfortunately, the colour plates from the first two editions have not been reinstated, though Rand's later book A Designer's Art (also recently reprinted) includes plenty of colour images.

All Out War:The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class

There are other books on the Brexit campaign, from the perspectives of either leavers or remainers, though Tim Shipman’s All Out War is the only account of both the campaign and its aftermath, and the only attempt to tell the story from both sides. As the Financial Times wrote in its review last weekend, Shipman “has spoken to every key individual to produce the definitive first draft of history, a comprehensive yet impartial study of how Brexit won.”

The book (subtitled The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class) begins with David Cameron’s prophecy that a referendum on the UK’s EU membership “could unleash demons of which ye know not.” As Shipman explains, plenty of demons were unleashed: “The demons were the forces of Euroscepticism that had been growing in the Conservative Party for three decades... Cameron also believed in the demons of economic disaster in the event of a Leave vote, the upsurge in nativist sentiment during the campaign, even the willingness of campaigners on both sides to stretch the truth to make their point during the campaign.”

Cameron’s decision to hold a once-and-for-all referendum to appease his own backbenchers (labelled “Palaeosceptics” by Shipman, “a term I hope describes their longevity without implying that they were old-fashioned”) ultimately resulted in Brexit, the resignation of a socially liberal leader (Cameron), and the appointment of his more conservative successor (Theresa May). Shipman’s account of these events is supported by his exclusive access to emails, text messages, and other private documents (notably, Boris Johnson’s unpublished pro-EU editorial and Cameron’s undelivered victory speech.)

The pre-referendum negotiations with other EU members were destined to produce insubstantial results: “media coverage had focused on what rabbit Cameron might pull from his hat to boost the deal. In the event, it emerged sick with myxomatosis.” This led to Boris Johnson joining the leave campaign, an announcement that Johnson calls “an imperial goatfuck”. Shipman notes Johnson’s history of Euroscepticism (“Johnson invented the ‘straight bananas’ school of reporting from Brussels”), and describes Michael Gove’s extraordinary betrayal of Johnson, who had been almost certain to assume the Tory leadership, as “the most remarkable moment in British politics since May 1940”.

The ‘Stronger In’ campaign was undone partly by its pessimistic forecasts, such as Barack Obama’s counter-productive intervention. Shipman doesn’t conclusively determine whose idea Obama’s comment was—“There are conflicting accounts of how the words ‘back of the queue’ found their way into Obama’s mouth”—though he attributes it largely to George Osborne. The spurious prediction that Brexit would cost £4,300 per household per year was another example of negativity backfiring: “voters did not believe anything they were told by the Treasury, including the £4,300 per household figure.”

In contrast, the anti-EU campaigners had a simple slogan (“Let’s take back control”), and a misleading though effective statistic. Their campaign bus was plastered with the message “We send the EU £350 million a week”, and even when it was exposed as a grossly exaggerated figure, it still worked in their favour: “Every time there was a row about the size of the cost to taxpayers of EU membership, it simply reinforced in voters’ minds that there was a high cost.”

Shipman cites immigration as the determining factor in the ‘out’ vote: “If we have to pinpoint a day when Vote Leave gained the upper hand it is undoubtedly... the day the latest immigration figures were published.” In this ‘post-truth’ era, the overwhelming benefit that EU migrants provide for the UK economy (£2.5 billion per year in net tax contributions) was overlooked in favour of an emotional appeal to nationalism, stoked by xenophobic tabloids. It was clear from the final debate that the leavers had a strong chance of success: “The last word... went to Boris Johnson. The final line of his peroration took the roof off: ‘I believe this Thursday can be our country’s Independence Day.’”

Cameron at Ten (by Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon) and In It Together (by Matthew d’Ancona) cover Cameron’s first term as PM, before the Brexit campaign. (Shipman suggests that d’Ancona’s book—particularly comments from one of its sources, George Osborne—was one of the reasons that Iain Duncan Smith resigned from the government.) All Out War is as thorough and well-sourced as those earlier accounts, though it has no index. Its author is the political editor of The Sunday Times.

Czech New Wave Month

Bangkok's Jam Cafe is hosting a Czech New Wave season this month, starting tomorrow. Czech New Wave Month includes Milos Forman's Loves Of A Blonde, showing on 9th November. Jam's previous seasons have included Seduction Month, Dreams Month, Forking Paths Month, Resizing Month, Banned Month, Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.

Fashion

Fashion: A History From The 18th To The 20th Century was first published (by Taschen) in 2002. It has since been reprinted, both as a two-volume set (Volume I: 18th & 19th Century; Volume II: 20th Century) and a single-volume edition. The capsule biographies of designers have been updated, though there have been no other changes since the first edition.

The book features 500 photographs of garments from the Kyoto Costume Institute, and was edited by the Institute's director, Akiko Fukai. The featured clothes are all from a single collection, though they're supplemented by illustrations of paintings and vintage magazines. There is only minimal coverage of menswear. (The three-volume Encyclopedia Of Clothing & Fashion, edited by Valerie Steel, is a more comprehensive guide to all aspects of fashion.)

Nevertheless, the book is significant for its historical scope and its photography. Whereas most fashion histories (such as Fashion 150 and the excellent The History Of Modern Fashion) begin with Charles Worth in the 1850s, Fashion starts in the Rococo period. The book is also exceptional for its emphasis on photographs of actual clothes, displayed on mannequins, as opposed to the catwalk photos or drawings found in many histories of fashion and costume.

The Exorcist

Last Halloween, Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse screened Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. This year, their Halloween highlight is The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s classic horror film, on 30th October. Also, Bangkok Open Air Cinema Club will be showing John Carpenter’s Halloween on 19th November (postponed from 15th October, following the death of King Bhumibol).

Gemstone/Art

Gemstone/Art: Renaissance To The Present Day examines the use of precious stones in decorative art, liturgical objects, and sculpture. It includes a chapter on the history of gemmoglyptics (stone-carving), and a portfolio of work by lapidary artists ("the first comprehensive view of the many contemporary artists who have devoted themselves to gem-stones as material").

The book is written in both German and English (its German title being Edelstein/Kunst), and many of its illustrations (including some magnificent medieval and Renaissance objects) depict works by German artists or artefacts from German museum collections. Editor Wilhelm Lindemann is also the author of the extensive historical section, much of which is not covered in books on jewellery design. There are detailed notes, though no bibliography or index.

Yingluck Shinawatra:“I will use every channel available to fight this...”

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been fined the equivalent of $1 billion after an investigation into her government’s rice subsidy scheme, and her assets are liable for seizure by the Legal Execution Department. Yingluck announced that she will appeal against the verdict, saying: “it is not right and it is not just. I will use every channel available to fight this.”

In 2011, Yingluck’s Pheu Thai government agreed to pay farmers up to 50% above the market rate for their rice, intending to withhold it from the world market and thus drive up the price. The result, however, was that other countries in the region increased their rice exports, leaving the government with vast stockpiles that it could not sell.

Yingluck is the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, whose assets were frozen in 2007 and finally confiscated in 2010. She was elected in 2011, though the People’s Democratic Reform Committee organised protests against her government. She called an election in 2014, though it was boycotted by the opposition and sabotaged by the PDRC. She was removed from office shortly before a military coup, and was retroactively impeached last year.

1001 MoviesYou Must See Before You Die

Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has been updated for 2016. The 2013 edition was substantially revised, though this year's edition (as in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015) substitutes only a handful of very recent films.

There are ten new entries this year: Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, Straight Outta Compton, The Big Short, Bridge Of Spies, Tangerine, The Revenant, Son Of Saul, Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, and The Look Of Silence. Therefore, ten films have also been deleted: Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, Amour, Django Unchained, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Drive, The Act Of Killing, Senna, Citizenfour, Guardians Of The Galaxy, and The Theory Of Everything.

501 Must-See Movies

The fifth edition of 501 Must-See Movies contains eleven new entries, and therefore eleven deletions. The new films are Bridesmaids, Frozen, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Help, Zero Dark Thirty, Dallas Buyers Club, Twelve Years A Slave, Boyhood, The Revenant, Gravity, and American Sniper. The deleted titles are The Vikings; The Charge Of The Light Brigade; The Mission; A Cock & Bull Story; Knocked Up; Hello, Dolly!; Once; High School Musical III; Green Card; Naked Lunch; and AI: Artificial Intelligence.

There is no editor credited in this edition, though of the six authors, only one (Rob Hill) contributes to every chapter. The third and fourth editions also contained only minor changes, though the second edition was revised more extensively. The first edition was published in 2004.

"Programming will return shortly..."

King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on Thursday after a seventy-year reign, marking the end of an era in the modern history of Thailand, and extensive tributes to him have appeared in both Thai and international media. There have also been profiles of his heir, the Crown Prince, including a 14th October article in The Guardian.

Thailand's lèse-majesté law has been enforced particularly strictly by the current military government, leading to increasing self-censorship by journalists within the country. TrueVisions, the cable TV monopoly, is interrupting BBC World News whenever the channel broadcasts sensitive content, replacing the signal with a euphemistic caption: "Programming will return shortly."

The Financial Times has a correspondent based in Bangkok, though his recent reports have not been bylined. The Economist doesn't distribute editions with sensitive content in Thailand. The New York Times (which ceased printing in Bangkok last year) has published sensitive pieces only by writers outside Thailand.

The Self-Portrait

The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History, by James Hall, analyses the evolution of the self-portrait over the past millennium. As Hall writes in his introduction, "This is the first history of self-portraiture to celebrate - unapologetically - the Middle Ages." He cites a fascinating example of a miniature self-portrait, signed Rufillus, appearing within the initial letter 'R' of a medieval illuminated manuscript. (Christopher de Hamel describes a similar example, by Hugo Pictor, in Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts.)

It's an impressively wide-ranging survey, from canonical masterpieces like Las Meninas ("the most ambitious statement about the status of easel painting that had been made") to divisive artists such as the Viennese Actionists ("deliberately shocking and shamanistic, involving a Dionysian disembowelling of animals, immersion in blood and entrails, and self-mutilation"). The book also includes "the first ever caricatural self-portrait," a sketch by Michelangelo in which the artist depicts himself painting the Sistine Chapel fresco.

There have been surprisingly few histories of self-portraiture, and most were written in the past decade. The most comprehensive is the lavishly illustrated Artists' Self-Portraits, by Omar Calabrese, which is thematically organised in contrast to Hall's chronological structure.

Akira YoshizawaJapan's Greatest Origami Master

Origami has been documented in Japan for over 200 years, according to John Smith's booklet Notes On The History Of Origami. However, it was Akira Yoshizawa who was almost single-handedly responsible for the modern revival of origami in Japan and elsewhere. (Robert Harbin, whose book Paper Magic popularised origami in the UK, quotes a description of Yoshizawa as "far and away the greatest folder in the world".)

Akira Yoshizawa: Japan's Greatest Origami Master "is the first comprehensive survey in English of the work of Akira Yoshizawa, who is widely acknowledged as the father of modern origami." Published this month, it describes Yoshizawa as "a bridge between the past and the present, between the ancient Japanese craft and the development of origami into a modern art form, both in terms of inventing new techniques and in preserving the traditional forms of origami. Above all, he elevated origami to the status of an art form around the world."

The book (first published in French as Akira Yoshizawa: Origami d'Exception) features more than 1,000 of Yoshizawa's drawings (reproduced from his books Utsukushii Origami and Yasashii Origami), and photographs of his origami models (in situ at the 2014 exhibition Akira Yoshizawa: The World Of Creative Origami). It includes a link to an online Yoshizawa documentary (Origami Sono Uchu), though the video has already been deleted.

The New York Times

Yesterday's edition of the International New York Times was the final issue published under that title: today, it was relaunched as the International Edition of The New York Times. The rebranding (which was not announced in advance) comes almost exactly three years after the International New York Times replaced the International Herald Tribune.

The newspaper has also been redesigned, with a focus on "deep reporting and analysis", according to a letter by publisher Arthur Sulzberger. There are no news-in-brief items, the sport section has been shortened, the opinion and editorial section has been expanded (including a new front-page opinion column), and four pages have been added. In summary, the paper feels more like its weekend edition.

The Book Of Books

The Book Of Books: 500 Years Of Graphic Innovation, edited by Mathieu Lommen, reproduces pages from 125 books published over the past 500 years, spanning the entire history of printing. Published by Thames & Hudson, it was translated from the Dutch edition, Het Boek Van Het Gedrukte Boek.

The featured books range from incunabula such as the Nuremberg Chronicle (Hartmann Schedel, 1493) to Modernist publications including Jan Tschichold's Foto-Auge (1929) and contemporary design monographs like Made You Look (Stefan Sagmeister, 2001). Renaissance masterpieces such as De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Andreas Vesalius, 1543) are included, as are classic works of the Enlightenment such as Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie (1751). A 1521 edition of De Architectura (Marcus Vitruvius) is followed by Geoffrey Tory's Champ Fleury (1529), which includes illustrations inspired by Leonardo's Vitruvian Man.

The book was published to accompany an exhibition at the University of Amsterdam, The Printed Book: A Visual History, and all of the featured books are from the University library's collection. (The first illustration, a page from the Gutenberg Bible, is the sole exception.) The 17th century was a golden age of Dutch printing, and the book includes examples such as a 1664 edition of Joan Blau's Atlas Maior, "the biggest and most expensive atlas internationally available at that time."

The Book Of Books includes a comprehensive bibliography. A History Of Graphic Design (Philip B Meggs), The Book: A Global History (Michael F Suarez and HR Woudhuysen), and 500 Years Of Printing (SH Steinberg) also cover the history of printed books; Printing Types (Daniel Updike; in two volumes) is the standard history of typography.

Betrayal

Betrayal: The Crisis In The Catholic Church was first published in 2002, after The Boston Globe's Spotlight investigations team exposed the abuse of children by Catholic priests. That case has been compared to The Washington Post's Watergate investigation, and it inspired the film Spotlight.

The updated edition, released alongside the film, has a preface by Spotlight's director and screenwriter: "We hope that our movie, along with the rerelease of this incredible documentation of the Globe Spotlight Team's reporting, might help further the argument for traditional investigative journalism". It also has a new afterword analysing the repercussions of the investigation: "The crisis seeped deep into American popular culture, transforming how Catholicism was viewed and treated."

Like All The President's Men (and No Expenses Spared), Betrayal was written by the investigative journalists themselves (namely Matt Carroll, Kevin Cullen, Thomas Farragher, Stephen Kurkjian, Michael Paulson, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes, and Walter V Robinson). It includes copies of the documents obtained during the investigation, and detailed notes.

"We stand by our journalism..."

Yesterday, Cliff Richard formally launched a legal action against South Yorkshire Police and the BBC. He filed a lawsuit at the High Court in London after the BBC broadcast coverage of a police search of his property. South Yorkshire Police gave the BBC advance notice that the search would take place on 14th August 2014, giving the broadcaster the opportunity to position a helicopter above the building in time to film the police arriving and departing.

The BBC released a statement saying: "we are very sorry that Sir Cliff has suffered distress but we have a duty to report on matters of public interest and we stand by our journalism." Richard was named by the BBC and other media organisations after an investigation into allegations of sexual assault was initiated. He was one of several public figures (including Alistair McAlpine) investigated as part of 'Operation Yewtree'.

Ultimately, no charges were brought against him, though he argues that his reputation was damaged by the BBC's coverage of the investigation. (On the other hand, media coverage after the initial police search was largely sympathetic, with the tabloids reporting the investigation as an ordeal for Richard and presupposing that he was innocent.)

Citizen Reporters

Thailand’s public-service television station Thai PBS is facing a ฿50 million lawsuit from mining company Tungkum. The company is suing for defamation following a report broadcast on 15th September last year. (Defamation, like lèse-majesté, is a criminal offence in Thailand.)

The report, part of a series titled Citizen Reporters (นักข่าวพลเมือง), alleged that a recently-opened gold mine in Loei, northern Thailand, has caused water pollution and other environmental damage. The segment was presented by a local schoolgirl, Wanphen Khunna, who is being sued along with several Thai PBS journalists.

The Daily Telegraph

After PJS, NEJ, and RA, another privacy injunction was broken last month, and has been partially lifted as a result. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney, Australia, revealed that a former BBC children's television presenter and her partner were involved in a custody dispute over their young son: "Ben Alcott will appear in London's High Court on Wednesday claiming that ex partner and former CBeebies performer Katy Ashworth snatched their son, Charlie, from his Redfern home this year."

The article was published on 19th September, accompanied by a large photograph of the family in question. Based on this coverage, two UK newspapers (The Sun and The Times) applied for the removal of the injunction preventing publication of the names of those involved. The judge lifted the injunction in relation to the boy's parents, though their son's identity remains protected, and he can be identified only as D by UK media organisations.

In his judgement, the judge noted The Daily Telegraph's unusually privileged access to the details of the case: "articles appeared in this jurisdiction in The Times, Daily Mail and The Sun. In these the parties' identities were not revealed. However an article also appeared in the Daily Telegraph of Sydney, together with an accompanying photograph, in which the parties and D were named. It is difficult to understand how that newspaper obtained the details for that story".

As in the case of the National Enquirer, The Daily Telegraph's publication of D's identity provided a convenient defence for the UK newspapers, as they could argue that the injunction had already been broken elsewhere and that it would, therefore, be ineffective to maintain it in the UK. This explanation is plausible as The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and The Sun all have the same proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.

Selfie Series

Chumpol Kamwanna's Selfie Series (เซลฟี่ ซีรีย์) exibition opened yeaterday at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, and runs until 30th October. Chumpol's paitings recreate news photographs of the 6th October 1976 massacre, though he has added his own image to each one, posed while using his smartphone to take a selfie. The painting that appears on the exhibition poster is a parody of photojournalist Kraipit Phanvut's image of police colonel Watcharin Niamvanichkul aiming his gun while nonchalently smoking a ciragette.

Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts

Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts is a remarkable book. According to the dust jacket, "Christopher de Hamel has handled and catalogued more illuminated manuscripts and over a wider range than any person alive, and possibly more than any individual has ever done." He is, therefore, the ideal guide to the stories behind a dozen of the world's greatest manuscripts.

As de Hamel explains in his introduction, his aim is "to invite the reader to accompany the author on a private journey to see, handle and interview some of the finest illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages." The word 'interview' has an element of anthropomorphism, which de Hamel readily acknowledges: "The life of every manuscript, like that of every person, is different, and all have stories to divulge."

Twelve manuscripts are featured, each with its own chapter. The selection is diverse and representative: "I have singled out volumes which seemed to me characteristic of each century, from the sixth to the sixteenth." In each case, de Hamel provides a detailed analysis of the manuscript's text and illuminations, with photographs of sample pages. He also gives thorough commentaries on provenance, collation, and restoration.

In addition to the manuscripts themselves, de Hamel also describes the various libraries in which they're kept. The Long Room of Trinity College, Dublin, for example, is a "magnificent polished wooden cathedral of books". He sets the scene with incidental details about each institution, from the officious St Petersberg National Library ("No, she informed me firmly: no printed books were allowed in the reading room. I begged and pleaded to no avail") to the laissez-faire Leiden University ("There was no nonsense about wearing gloves. I can see why everyone likes the Dutch").

The most remarkable of the twelve Remarkable Manuscripts is undoubtedly the Book of Kells. In fact, de Hamel calls it "probably the most famous and perhaps the most emotively charged medieval book of any kind." Surprisingly, he bluntly criticises the illustrations in the Book of Kells, describing a portrait of the Virgin Mary as "dreadfully ugly." Of the Book's text pages, on the other hand, he has the highest praise: "Every sentence opens with a complex calligraphic initial filled with polychromic artistry, like enamel-encrusted jewellery."

The illustrations in the Book of Kells are not technically illuminations, as they do not include gold decoration. The Copenhagen Psalter, which does contain gold illuminations, is "one of the most beautifully illustrated books in the world." This Psalter is described in terms almost as superlative as the Book of Kells: "Every page shimmers with burnished gold and splendid ornament. The script is calligraphically magnificent." (The original owner of this Psalter, Valdemar I of Denmark, is one of several new discoveries de Hamel makes as he examines the manuscripts.)

Another highlight is the Leiden Aratea, which includes a planetarium that was duplicated in the Harmonia Macrocosmica. Incredibly, de Hamel notes that modern astronomers have used the positions of the planets as depicted in the planetarium to calculate the precise date of its composition: 18th March 816.

This is a fascinating introduction to twelve otherwise inaccessible manuscripts, written by the world's leading authority: de Hamel's earlier book A History Of Illuminated Manuscripts has become the standard text on the subject. (He also wrote a chapter of The Book: A Global History.)

Meetings With Manuscripts includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography, though there are a few other manuscript histories that are worth highlighting: Illuminated Manuscripts by JA Herbert (from the Connoisseur's Library series), Codices Illustres by Ingo F Walther and Norbert Wolf (with superb illustrations), A History Of Book Illustration by David Bland (a concise global survey), and (although de Hamel has previously dismissed it) The Illuminated Book by David Diringer.

Alex Steinweiss

Alex Steinweiss, written by Kevin Reagan and published by Taschen, is a comprehensive monograph devoted to the man who was, as the subtitle puts it, The Inventor Of The Modern Album Cover. The book (whose cover and endpapers resemble a 78rpm record sleeve) was written with Steinweiss' full collaboration, and it was published just a few months before he died.

Steinweiss was working for Columbia Records when he designed an illustrated cover for their 1940 Richard Rogers album Smash Song Hits. In The Art Of The Album Cover, Richard Evans calls Steinweiss "the inventor of the individual album cover," and Nick de Ville's more comprehensive book on the same subject, Album, notes that the 1940 Steinweiss sleeve "resulted in the launch of illustrated covers for albums".

Taschen's book is the definitive study of Steinweiss and his work, with many full-page reproductions of his record covers and other examples of graphic design. (His 1942 Beethoven's Emperor concerto cover "may well have inspired" Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon.) It also includes a lengthy essay by Steven Heller, Visualizing Music. (An earlier book on Steinweiss, For The Record by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz, also has an introduction by Heller.)

Radio Times Guide To Films 2017

The comprehensive film guide is a concept that unfortunately seems antiquated in the age of the IMDb. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide ceased publication in 2014. The Time Out Film Guide ended in 2012. Halliwell's Film Guide died an undignified death in 2008 as The Movies That Matter. The Virgin Film Guide finished in 2005. That leaves the Radio Times Guide To Films as the last remaining film guide, and its 2017 edition was published this month. (VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever is also published annually, though it's restricted to films released on video formats.)

The Radio Times Guide To Films 2017, edited by Sue Robinson, follows the same format as its recent editions, with a vintage cover photograph (in this case, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial) presumably chosen to appeal to its older target demographic. (The traditional Barry Norman endorsement on the cover is an even more clear indication that the intended audience is 'of a certain age'.) It's increasingly surprising that there remains a market for the Radio Times Guide To Films, especially as longer versions of its capsule reviews are available on the Radio Times website, though long may it continue.

This year's edition has 1,712 pages, exactly the same number as last year's edition. 24,039 film reviews are included, slightly more than last year's 24,017. There are 504 new entries (including more than 90 previews), meaning that many older titles have been deleted in order to maintain the same pagination. The total number of reviews is creeping up each year: there were 23,068 in 2012, 23,077 in 2013, and 23,099 in 2014.

New reviews this year include The Hateful Eight ("an immoral western frontier explodes in typical Tarantino, blood-spattered fashion"), The Jungle Book ("finds magic and wonder in the CGI-enabled action"), Independence Day: Resurgence ("the story runs out of steam"), Listen To Me Marlon ("a terrific tapestry of a great star's life"), and Hitchcock/Truffaut ("too much awe and not enough insight"). The book is impressively up-to-date, with reviews of films such as Bridget Jones's Baby that are still on general release.

100 Diagrams That Changed The World

100 Diagrams That Changed The World, by Scott Christianson, features 100 diagrams, drawings, and charts from the Chauvet Caves to the iPod patent. Each diagram is reproduced as a full-page illustration, alongside a single-page summary of its history and significance. The book has no references or bibliography, though it's interesting because it includes examples of patent diagrams and other technical drawings that are missing from conventional histories of design.

The 100 diagrams include Renaissance icons such as Copernicus' heliocentric representation of the solar system, Leonardo's Vitruvian Man ("one of the most widely reproduced artistic images"), and an anatomical drawing from Andreas Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica ("one of the great achievements in the history of printing"). The book also includes the first examples of bar charts and line graphs (both created by William Playfair), Venn diagrams (John Venn), tree diagrams (Porphyry), flow charts (Frank and Lillian Gilbreth), pictograms (Michael George Mulhall), and emoticons (Puck magazine).

The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, by Edward R Tufte, is the standard text on graph and chart design; Tufte praises Joseph Minard's representation of Napoleon's Russian campaign as "the best statistical graphic ever drawn," though it's not included in 100 Diagrams. The Book Of Trees is a history of tree diagrams. Cartographies Of Time is a comprehensive history of timelines. Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 has the most extensive selection of Leonardo's drawings. The Story Of Emoji discusses the development of emoticons. Pictograms, Icons, & Signs traces the evolution of pictograms. Information Graphics and Understanding The World feature contemporary and historical infographics. The BBC4 series The Beauty Of Diagrams profiled six influential diagrams, all of which are included in this book.

Twentieth-Century Jewellery

Twentieth-Century Jewellery: From Art Nouveau To Contemporary Design In Europe & The United States, by Alba Cappellieri, surveys jewellery from the 1890s to the first decade of the 21st century. Its plates section features 300 colour photographs (with many full-page images) of jewellery from museums and private collections, including masterpieces such as Faberge's Imperial Coronation Egg and Cartier's Panthere brooch. An extensive bibliography lists jewellery books published since 1923.

The book begins with a fifty-page essay on the development of jewellery design since 1900, which focuses on Europe (especially Italy; it was published in Italian as Gioielli Del Novocento) and America, though also briefly mentions Russia and Japan. Cappellieri cites the pave secret, serti mysterieux technique of Van Cleef & Arpels as "one of the most important innovations in the history of twentieth-century jewellery".

Cappellieri also discusses "the transitions between jewellery and the arts: design, architecture and fashion". This cultural context is sometimes excessive (for example, a full-page reproduction of a Giacomo Balla painting "that beautifully sums up the period between 1929 and the end of the Second World War. On 24 October 1929, which was a Thursday, the Dow Jones index crashed...").

Nevertheless, Twentieth-Century Jewellery is a comprehensive survey of modern jewellery, featuring jewels from a wider range of sources than other books on the subject. H Clifford Smith wrote Jewellery, the first comprehensive jewellery history, in 1908. A History Of Jewellery 1100-1870 (Joan Evans, 1953) is the other standard work. Modern Jewellery: An International Survey 1890-1963 (Graham Hughes, 1963) was the first guide to modern jewellery design. 7,000 Years Of Jewellery (Hugh Tait, 1986) is the most comprehensive international history of jewellery.

Allergic Realities

An exhibition of new works by Kosit Juntaratip opened last weekend in Bangkok. Allergic Realities features eighteen paintings of iconic news photographs, replicating the grainy printing process traditionally used by newspapers. Kosit has used his own blood to paint the halftone dots.

One of the paintings (Thammasat Hanging) is based on the notorious Neal Ulevich photograph of a public lynching following the 1976 Thammasat University protest. The photo was also appropriated by Manit Sriwanichpoom for Horror In Pink (ปีศาจสีชมพู), featuring Manit's trademark 'Pink Man' as an incongruous spectator. Vasan Sitthiket's Blue October (ตุลาลัย) series included a version of the photograph painted in mournful blue, with gold leaf to honour the hanged man, and the sarcastic title This Is the Buddhism Country (นี่แหละหนอเมืองพระพุทธศาสนา). The two central figures appear in silhouette in Sitthiphorn Anthawonksa's Death of Book (ศพหนังสือ), shown at the Art for Freedom (ศิลปะเพื่อเสรีภาพ) exhibition at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in 2013. Sutee Kunavichayanont carved it into a wooden desk for his History Class (ห้องเรียนประวัติศาสตร์) installation. The image even featured on the cover of Holiday in Cambodia, a single by the Dead Kennedys (ironically, given the song's title).

Another Thai artist, Pornprasert Yamazaki, has also painted with blood; his work was shown at the Swallow, Currency Crisis, and Suicide Mind exhibitions. Manit Sriwanichpoom soaked autopsy photographs in blood for Died On 6th October 1976. UDD protesters painted a banner in blood at Democracy Monument, and Kristian von Hornsleth collected Thai blood samples for his Deep Storage Art Project.

Kosit previously painted with blood during performances in the 1990s (as documented in Thailand Eye), and he has also used other bodily fluids as a medium: his painting Copulate With Love (at MAIIAM) is labelled "Ejaculation on canvas (Kosit's spermatozoa)". Allergic Realities opened at Bangkok University Gallery on 17th September, and runs until 30th October.