Look out, here comes trouble! Croc has stopped at Old MacDonald's farm for a snack... E-I-E-I-O Uh-oh! Providing a unique, alternative spin on a familiar song, this delightfully silly story is contemporary, quirky and playful – kids will love to follow Croc’s antics and sing along with him as he roams Old MacDonald's farm  A bright, bold and bonkers reimagining of the familiar song Old MacDonald Had a Farm, starring a cheeky crocodile, this book will have children and adults singing along and laughing out loud as they follow along with this hilarious story.  

This funny, witty and whimsical title is the latest installment from the Blue Badger series, following the lovable badger and his sometimes awkward attempts to navigate life. Life is good for Badger, bumbling about and eating berries day and night. His friends accept him, Dog's favourite ball has been recovered, and he is finally master of his own destiny. Until another badger turns up and takes a liking to his berries... Can Badger learn to share? Is there more to life than berries? Every new friend is a new adventure... This fun, colourfully illustrated and witty picture book will delight children and adults alike with its charmingly-told story. This is the third book in the Blur Badger series, following on from Blue Badger and Blue Badger and the Big Breakfast.

Meet one incredibly hungry crocodile in this delightfully silly reimagining of the Twelve Days of Christmas The world's largest crocodile likes to eat... but feeding time is getting out of control. As the zoo clock ticks towards midnight, Croc is growing bigger and bigger... 5 DOUGHNUT RINGS...! 4 pumpkin pies 3 french fries 2 pots of tea and a mountain of macaroni. A bright, bold and bonkers reimagining of the familiar festive song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, starring a very hungry crocodile.

A charmingly illustrated book that takes readers on a field trip to Antarctica and beyond to discover the secret life of penguins. In this entertaining and highly informative book, polar-explorer Huw Lewis Jones and nature illustrator Sam Caldwell take readers on an intrepid field trip to Antarctica and beyond to discover the secret life of penguins. Journeying throughout the Southern Hemisphere to incredible locations including Argentina, Australia, Chile, the Galápagos Islands, Namibia, New Zealand, Peru and South Africa, Do Penguins Like the Cold? introduces readers to the 18 species of penguin and the conservation work underway to protect them and their habitats.

Imagining the Arctic explores the culture and politics of polar exploration and the making of its heroes. Leading explorers, the celebrity figures of their day, went to great lengths to convince their contemporaries of the merits of polar voyages. Much of exploration was in fact theatre: a series of performances to capture public attention and persuade governments to finance ambitious proposals. The achievements of explorers were promoted, celebrated, and manipulated, whilst explorers themselves became the subject of huge attention. Huw Lewis-Jones draws upon recovered texts and striking images, many reproduced for the first time since the nineteenth century, to show how exploration was projected through a series of spectacular visuals, helping us to reconstruct the ways that heroes and the wilderness were imagined. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Imagining the Arctic offers original insights into our understanding of exploration and its pull on the public imagination.

Who’s ever heard of a penguin that doesn't like the cold? Surrounded by the same old snow day in day out and always bloomin’ freezing, Clive Penguin wishes he was somewhere else. SOMEONE else. But, with an epic discovery just around the corner, the solution might be easier than he thinks . . .   From real life polar-exploring adventurer Huw Lewis Jones and award-winning illustrator Ben Sanders comes a quirky story about getting what you need, rather than what you want. Readers will hoot with laughter at the hilariously deadpan Clive Penguin – a unique voice that’s perfect for fans of Jon Klassen, Oliver Jeffers and Morag Hood. Featuring edgy illustrations complete with orange neon ink. Oh, and penguins. 

The latest addition to the laugh-out-loud series of picture books by award-winning author Huw Lewis Jones and illustrator Ben Sanders, in which the naughty antics of a truly terrible piece of fruit, Bad Apple, prove deliciously entertaining. In this festive edition, Bad Apple faces his greatest challenge yet: it’s Christmas day and everyone is just so ... jolly. Granny Smith’s carol singing and Pineapple’s incessant dancing are grating to say the least, but it’s the cheery arrival of Pea and his extended family that pushes Bad Apple over the edge. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ... but how long can the Peas last?

In this specially-commissioned anthology, sixty accomplished authors share secrets and insights into their writing lives: on their inspirations, methods, wild ideas and daily routines; on the pleasure and the pain in achieving their literary goals; on how they started out and how they hope to continue. They outline some golden rules for staying on track and talk candidly about what goes wrong as well as right. We hear from novelists, poets, biographers, and children's writers; illustrators, campaigners, teachers, mothers, husbands, an entrepreneur turned surfboard shaper, a quantum physicist, an opera librettist, and a Laureate who loves dragons. All writers. We have emerging talents in our team alongside much-loved authors whose books have sold in millions. Each reflects in their own way on the creative process and the compulsion to write. How to find inspiration? How to get the words right? How to cope with writer's block? How to handle bad reviews? How to become a better reader? Pencil or computer? Inside or out? And where do the good ideas really come from? Swallowed by a Whale includes contributions from: Kwame Alexander, Anthony Browne, Cressida Cowell, Isabelle Dupuy, Inua Ellams, Lev Grossman, Joanne Harris, Catherine Johnson, Thomas Keneally, Neal Layton, David Mitchell, Beverley Naidoo, Chibundu Onuzo, Chris Riddell, Francesca Simon, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Raynor Winn and many more.

For adventurous readers of all ages... a book of nonsense, old and new... a playful text, like a game to share, a challenge... an absurd-word wrangle-mangle, a story-stew... This beautifully presented and fully illustrated new collection presents many English-language favourites, some old and some newly made, to try twisting your tongue to. Dip in and out, or attempt to read all the way to the end in one sitting. The word gatherings get harder as the book goes on, but each gets easier, of course, once you have a go... Read these words carefully and out loud. Follow the book's path as it turns and twists, as it stoops and stumbles. Keep up as it baffles your brain and shifts your senses. Try saying them as fast as you can. Delight in the confusion and test yourself. You'll soon get the hang of it. Can you read this book? We look forward to finding out.

The sea has been an endless source of fascination, at once both alluring and mysterious, a place of wonder and terror. The Sea Journal contains first-hand records by a great range of travellers of their encounters with strange creatures and new lands, full of dangers and delights, pleasures and perils. In this remarkable gathering of private journals, log books, letters and diaries, we follow the voyages of intrepid sailors, from the frozen polar wastes to South Seas paradise islands, as they set down their immediate impressions of all they saw. They capture their experiences while at sea, giving us a precious view of the oceans and the creatures that live in them as they were when they were scarcely known and right up to the present day. In a series of biographical portraits, we meet officers and ordinary sailors, cooks and whalers, surgeons and artists, explorers and adventurers. A handful of contemporary mariners provide their thoughts on how art remains integral to their voyaging lives. Often still bearing the traces of their nautical past, the intriguing and enchanting sketches and drawings in this book brilliantly capture the spirit of the oceans and the magic of the sea.

Field guide Huw Lewis Jones takes readers out into the wild to discover all there is to know and love about the eight different species of bears. Do you know your panda from your polar bear? Or can you spot the difference between a sun bear and a sloth bear? Follow your expert field guide as we travel deep into the woods to learn all the 'bear' necessities. Bears are familiar to us all, but what you might not realise is that behind their big, grizzly image are wild animals who really need our help. So put on your walking boots, grab your binoculars and come along on a journey to see the eight incredible bear species in the wild. Not only will you discover why bears poop so much, you'll also find out how to avoid getting eaten by one, and what we can do to protect them.

A compelling visual anthology of one of photography’s most popular subjects, reframing our understanding of why we photograph animals and why photographing them matters to us and the planet.

A visual overview of the history and future of animal photography, Why We Photograph Animals encourages us to think and rethink the way we have looked at - and used - animals and to consider our future relationships with non-human species.

Multi-stranded, this book features the work of more than 100 photographers supported by thematic essays that provide historical context; interviews with and contributions by leading contemporary photographers that explore their influences, methods and motivations; and dazzling visual collections that present the very best animal photography from its inception to the present day. The result is a book that will engage those with an interest in wildlife photography and the natural world, but also those with a concern for the future of the planet.

Huw Lewis-Jones’s expert authorship and curation celebrates extraordinary images by brilliant photographers, but also allows us to understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. Why We Photograph Animals is deliberately not a conventional history of wildlife photography. It’s an exploration of the animal in photography. It speaks to our ongoing desire to look at animals; to understand, misunderstand and appreciate them; to use and abuse them; to neglect or come to value and protect them.

A lavish account of pioneering polar photography and modern portraiture, "Face to Face: Polar Portraits" brings together in a single volume both rare, unpublished treasures from the historic collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), University of Cambridge, 'face to face' with cutting-edge modern imagery from expedition photographer Martin Hartley.This unique book by Huw Lewis-Jones is the first to examine the history and role of polar exploration photography, and showcases the very first polar photographs of 1845 through to images from the present day. It features the first portraits of explorers, some of the earliest photographs of the Inuit, the first polar photographs to appear in a book, and rare images never before published from many of the Heroic-Age Antarctic expeditions. Almost all the historic imagery - daguerreotypes, magic lantern slides, glass plate negatives and images from private albums - that have been rediscovered during research for this book have never been before the public eye.Set within a 'gallery' of 100 double page-spreads are 50 of the world's finest historic polar portraits from the SPRI collection alternated with 50 modern-day images by Martin Hartley, who has captured men and women of many nations, exploring, working, and living in the Polar Regions today. Each gallery spread, dedicated to a single individual, gives a sense of the isolation and intense personal experience each 'face' has had in living or travelling through the polar wilderness, whether they be one of the world's greatest explorers, or a humble cook.In addition to this remarkable collection is a foreword written by Sir Ranulph Fiennes; a fascinating exploration into 'photography then' - the history of photography and its role in shaping our vision of the polar hero by historian and curator of art at SPRI, Dr Huw Lewis-Jones; a discussion between Dr Lewis-Jones and Martin Hartley about 'photography now', focusing on the essential role that photography plays in modern polar adventuring; and an afterword entitled 'The Boundaries of Light' by the best-selling author Hugh Brody.Does an explorer need to appear frostbitten and adventurous to be seen as heroic, and do we need faces like these to imagine their achievement?Sir John Franklin is the first. The sun is high. He adjusts his cocked hat, bound with black silk, and gathers up his telescope. He shifts uncomfortably in his chair, positioned on the deck of the stout ship Erebus, as she wallows at her moorings in the London docks. It is 1845. The photographer, Richard Beard, urges the explorer to stay still for just a moment longer. He removes the lens cap, he waits, another minute, and then swiftly slots it back in place. The first polar photographic portrait is secured.Other senior officers of the exploration ships Erebus and Terror had their photographs taken that day, optimistic and ever hopeful. They appear to us now as if frozen in time. So too they followed Sir John Franklin as he led them in search of a navigable northwest passage, into the maze of islands and straits which forms the Canadian Arctic.'Mr Beard, at Franklin's request, supplied the expedition with a complete photographic apparatus, which was safely stowed aboard the well-stocked ship alongside other technological marvels: portable barrel-organs, tinned meat and soups, scientific equipment, the twenty-horse-power engines loaned from the Greenwich railway, and a library of over twelve hundred volumes. The camera now formed part of the kit thought essential to travel to the limits of the known world. Weighed down with stores, yet buoyant with Victorian confidence, the expedition sailed from the Thames on 19 May. The ships were last seen in late July, making their way northward in Baffin Bay, before vanishing without a trace - Huw Lewis-Jones,from the essay 'Photography Then' in "Face to Face".This title is available in both hardback and soft-cover. It features placement: photography, exploration, travel. It contains 288 pages in full-colour, including images that have never before been published. The South Pole was an awful place to be on 18 January 1912. Captain Scott and his four companions - Wilson, Bowers, Oates, and Evans - had just found that the Norwegian explorer Amundsen had beaten them to the prize one month earlier. The photograph that the men took that day speaks volumes for their achievement, of course, but there could be no truer record of their total disappointment. The men look absolutely broken; a photograph on top of everything else seems like a punishment. They are utterly devastated. A life's ambition has been snatched from their grasp. Now 800 miles from their base, they dragged themselves northward into the mouth of a raging blizzard. Their photographs and letters home, recovered with their bodies some time later, tell the sad tale of their sacrifice - Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Featuring beautiful, emotive illustrations, this is the first story in a series of picture books about a befuddled, lovable Badger and his search for happiness, friends and love. Who am I? White and black. Day and night. Badger doesn't feel quite right... ...and to make matters worse, he now has a blue bottom. Badger is feeling sad. He can't sleep. He asks the other animals one by one: 'Am I white and black, or black and white?' Can he find an answer? Is anyone listening? Does anyone care? Can he find a friend? He speaks to several other animals, from zebra to panda to penguin to skunk, as he tries to find out who he is, but along his journey he discovers that it doesn't matter whether he is black or white, just as long as he is kind. Featuring wry wit, deadpan humour and a heartwarming ending, Blue Badger will endear himself to readers big and small, while touching gently on themes of sadness and identity.

We are delighted to announce the publication, in partnership with The RNLI, of a special, Limited Edition of The Lifeboat: Courage on our Coasts. This edition is bound in real cloth and quarter-bound by hand using the yellow fabric from the over-jacket or trouser of the all-weather waterproofs used by the RNLI. The book is presented in a unique pouch which is handmade in the UK from the distinctive red fabric and reflective badge from a decommissioned RNLI inshore lifejacket. The Limited Edition book and pouch are presented in a Lifeboat display box bound in navy cloth. Only 350 Limited Editions have been produced and each is signed and numbered by Nigel Millard. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is the charity that saves lives at sea. For nearly two hundred years its volunteers have shown courage and selflessness in facing storm and shipwreck to offer assistance. Never taken for granted, these qualities of service transcend the centuries to ring as true now as in the earliest days of the lifeboats. This unprecedented new book is a photographic celebration of everyday bravery, compassion, and outstanding commitment in the toughest of conditions. From the Cornish coasts to the Shetland Isles, we join crewman and photographer Nigel Millard as he travels the length of Britain and Ireland, living and working with his fellow lifeboatmen and accompanying them on their rescue missions. For those Limited Editions purchased through Bloomsbury, a minimum of 20% of the purchase price will be paid in support of the RNLI.

The third title in the laugh-out-loud series of picture books starring Bad Apple, a truly terrible piece of fruit. It's Granny Smith's birthday party and all the apples are invited. There's face painting, a pinata, a pile of presents and one of Snake's finest cakes... Bad Apple can't wait to spoil the fun! But it looks like this party pooper's luck might have run out. Pineapple has had enough of Apple's bad behaviour and is ready to teach him a lesson. In the third instalment of Huw Lewis Jones's hilarious series of picture books, a truly terrible piece of fruit is once more wreaking havoc far beyond the rim of the fruit bowl. Illustrated in a deadpan, painterly style by Ben Sanders, Party Pooper will entertain the entire family.

LIFE ON THE LINE began as a project by London-based photographer Cristian Barnett. Over a number of years he aimed to make a number of journeys to the Arctic Circle, an invisible line of latitude 66 degrees and 33 minutes north of the Equator. The line intersects eight countries and is home to a rich diversity of peoples for whom the sun never sets in high summer, nor rises in deepest winter. All the photographs were taken on film within 35 miles of the Arctic Circle.LIFE ON THE LINE celebrates the variety of existence in the circumpolar Arctic, in the face of overwhelming environmental and cultural change. "This is not a book about history, either of the North or photography. The journey of these photographs is through the modernity of life as it is lived along the Arctic Circle. Much is startling to those who live in the south, since for us it as an extreme world that we see here. But much is familiar. Everywhere people live with what the modern world has to offer, even if at times, and for profound reasons, they prefer or need to step into territories, of landscape, culture or the human imagination, that is outside and beyond modernity.As we look at these northern people looking out at us, we see both a welcome and fascination. This is the power and authority of these images, the remarkable achievement of a remarkable photographer." - Hugh Brody.

The second title in the laugh-out-loud series of picture books starring Bad Apple, a truly terrible piece of fruit. Bad Apple is back and grumpier than ever after his run-in with Snake, who graciously spat him out with just a warning. Granny Smith and her posse of golden apples step in to teach him a lesson. But Bad Apple stoops to a new low and seals them up in a delicious apple crumble... In the second instalment of Huw Lewis Jones's hilarious new series of picture books, a truly terrible piece of fruit is once more wreaking havoc far beyond the rim of the fruit bowl. Bad Apple's behaviour is so outrageous, even his own Granny Smith gangs up on him. Illustrated in a deadpan, painterly style by Ben Sanders, Apple Grumble will entertain the entire family.

In this hilarious story about a really bad apple by award-winning author and polar explorer Huw Lewis Jones, a series of simple rhymes is transformed into a sequence of events that will have readers splitting their sides with laughter. As one silly scenario unfolds after the other, a common piece of fruit shows readers what he's really made of by making life miserable for Pear, Pea, Cat, Spud and Spoon, among others. In a very dark twist at the end, he receives his comeuppance...

The second story in this series of witty picture books, in this story Badger is no longer feeling blue, but now his friends are sad! Badger is feeling happy these days... ...even though he still has a blue bottom. Life is good when you're eating berries. But now Dog is sad. What can Badger do to help his friend? Badger is enjoying a big blueberry breakfast - his favourite food! But as he says good morning to his friends, he learns that Dog is very sad! He has lost the ball that he loves to play with. But will Badger be able to help? Featuring bold and characterful illustrations from award winning illustrator Ben Sanders this funny title will bring smiles to the faces of readers of any age. Blue Badger & The Big Breakfast is the second story in the Blue Badger series of picture books about a befuddled, lovable Badger and his search for happiness, friends and love. Featuring wry wit and deadpan humour, Blue Badger & The Big Breakfast is suitable for readers big and small.

Maps can transport us, they are filled with wonder, the possibility of real adventure and travels of the mind. This is an atlas of the journeys that writers make, encompassing not only the maps that actually appear in their books, but also the many maps that have inspired them and the sketches that they use in writing. For some, making a map is absolutely central to the craft of shaping and telling their tale. A writer s map might mean also the geographies they describe, the worlds inside books that rise from the page, mapped or unmapped, and the realms that authors inhabit as they write. Philip Pullman recounts a map he drew for an early novel; Robert Macfarlane reflects on his cartophilia, set off by Robert Louis Stevenson and his map of Treasure Island; Joanne Harris tells of her fascination with Norse maps of the universe; Reif Larsen writes about our dependence on GPS and the impulse to map our experience; Daniel Reeve describes drawing maps and charts for The Hobbit trilogy of films; Miraphora Mina recalls creating The Marauder s Map for the Harry Potter films; David Mitchell leads us to the Mappa Mundi by way of Cloud Atlas and his own sketch maps. And there s much more besides.

Amidst a cornucopia of images, there are maps of the world as envisaged in medieval times, as well as maps of adventure, sci-fi and fantasy, maps from nursery stories, literary classics, collectible comics a vast range of genres.

This hilarious picture book tells the story of when the Queen gets a Quokka all the way from Australia for her birthday, and this small new arrival helps her discover the joy of giving gifts! It's the Queen's birthday and the last gift to arrive has come all the way from Australia. They say good things come in small packages! Well this party is about to get wild... it's a Quokka for the the Queen! The Quokka quickly makes an impression and the Queen decides to do things differently - with the help of Quokka she decides she will give the presents. Soon they are creating an elaborate gift list for everyone they can think of: "What shall we give the chambermaid?" asked the Queen. "A chihuahua for the chambermaid," said the Quokka. "A chihuahua for the chambermaid, and chipmunks for the chef." "Charming," said the Queen. But what present will the Queen give to Quokka? This incredibly funny and rather silly story is full of the joy of giving presents and making people happy! The text's witty alliteration coupled with an array of lively characters will amuse readers big and small... and even royalty!

'Think of this atlas as the beginning of a journey and a kind of island guidebook, a rough guide to far-flung places, a Baedeker of make-believe, and a new page waiting to be filled. The cycle of Crusoes continues' Huw Lewis-Jones A new atlas of imaginary islands conjured up by an international gathering of illustrators, including work by Coralie Bickford-Smith, Bill Bragg, Marion Deuchars, Chris Riddell, Maisie Paradise Shearring, Herve Tullet, Ausra Kiudulaite and more. Islomania is a recognized affliction. But what is it about islands that is so alluring, and why do so many people find these self-contained worlds completely irresistible? Utopia and Atlantis were islands, and islands have captured the imaginations of writers and artists for centuries. Venetian sailors were the first to make collections of them by drawing maps of those they visited in their isolari - literally the 'island books'. Then in 1719 Daniel Defoe published his tale of a castaway on a desert island, Robinson Crusoe, one of the first great novels in the history of literature and an instant bestseller. Defoe's tale combined the real and the imagined and transformed them into a compelling creative landscape, establishing a whole literary genre and unleashing the power of an island for storytelling. To celebrate the tercentenary of Robinson Crusoe's publication, a truly international range of leading illustrators imagine they too have been washed up on their own remote island. In a specially created map they visualize what it looks like, what it's called and what can be found on its mythical shores. In a panoply of astonishingly creative and often surprising responses, we are invited to explore a curious and fabulous archipelago of islands of invention that will beguile illustrators, cartographers and dreamers alike.

29 May 2013 is the sixtieth anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest. The allure of Everest remains undimmed, and the publication of this unique book celebrates this most majestic of mountains, with exclusive access to the photographic imagery and private archives of celebrated climber and photographer George Lowe, the last surviving member of that triumphant expedition. Not only the anniversary of the first ascent, 2013 sees other significant Everest anniversaries: 50 years since the first American ascent; 35 years since the first ascent without supplementary oxygen; and 25 years since the first ascent by a route up the South Buttress on the eastern Kangshung Face. An outstanding team of mountaineers and distinguished contributors associated with Everest provide their reflections and tributes, helping to create a remarkable visual and personal testimony to this historic event and to a mountain like no other.

Imagining the Arctic explores the culture and politics of polar exploration and the making of its heroes. Leading explorers, the celebrity figures of their day, went to great lengths to convince their contemporaries of the merits of polar voyages. Much of exploration was in fact theatre: a series of performances to capture public attention and persuade governments to finance ambitious proposals. The achievements of explorers were promoted, celebrated, and manipulated, whilst explorers themselves became the subject of huge attention. Huw Lewis-Jones draws upon recovered texts and striking images, many reproduced for the first time since the nineteenth century, to show how exploration was projected through a series of spectacular visuals, helping us to reconstruct the ways that heroes and the wilderness were imagined. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Imagining the Arctic offers original insights into our understanding of exploration and its pull on the public imagination.