Notable undiscovered architects, like undiscovered composers, are implausible, yet Frances Xavier Velarde OBE, 1897-1960, could be just such a person hiding in plain sight. A stylish architect who took a road less travelled then died as he was getting into his stride. There have been no followers. Yet whenever enthusiasts gather to discuss modern church architecture his name will be mentioned. He was no earnest modernist; instead he loved patterns, bold colour and gold. The Catholic churches he built in Liverpool and London are closer to European Expressionism than International Modernism; many of them have a toy like quality and come with a campanile like a rocket. Today his buildings seem fresh and playful, but also poignant as they evoke the 1950s, brightening the drab parts in which they are to be found and serving to make both spiritually and architecturally aware those who visit. Many are threatened and have been published here for the first time. Dominic Wilkinson and Andrew Crompton have combined Velarde's papers with interviews and archive images, including many by his friend and famous photographer Edward Chambre Hardman. Their book, lavishly illustrated with new photography by Historic England, is a must for architects, students and connoisseurs wanting to discover a different route that modernism could have taken.

Laws of Form is a seminal work in foundations of logic, mathematics and philosophy published by G Spencer-Brown in 1969. The book provides a new point of view on form and the role of distinction, markedness and the absence of distinction (the unmarked state) in the construction of any universe. A conference was held August 8-10, 2019 at the Old Library, Liverpool University, 19 Abercromby Square, L697ZN, UK to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Laws of Form and to remember George Spencer-Brown, its author. The book is a collection of papers introducing and extending Laws of Form written primarily by people who attended the conference in 2019.