Michael Katakis has spent his life travelling with a camera and writing a journal. This is the resulting book. For the past 25 years he has collaborated with the social anthropologist Kris Hardin in work spanning continents and cultures. With an introduction by Michael Palin.

One of the most celebrated medieval manuscripts, the Book of Kells is assessed here as a liturgical document. Focusing on the possible meaning and function of its illustrations and decoration in the context of early Western liturgies, the author analyzes the decorative articulation of its text.

Display maps have had a significant impact throughout history. This book takes the best surviving examples to re-establish manuscript, painted and mural maps as a major cultural medium particularly in early modern Europe by illustrating the settings in which they were displayed and discussing the background and purpose of individual examples.

Via the protagonist, John Smith, a 50-year-old man confined to his room by an attack of gout, the author sets down his thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects - literature, science, religion, war, education - with no detectable shyness or diffidence, full of bravado in the face of little professional success at that time.

As a companion set to its existing surveys of British and American poetry and literature, the British Library is releasing a 3CD collection devoted to Irish poets and writers.

From simple charms to complex and subversive rituals to summon demons, diverse forms of magic were practiced in the Middle Ages. With numerous fascinating illustrations from the British Library's rich medieval collection, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts explores the place of magic in the medieval world.

This is a book of book lists. From Bin Laden's bookshelf to the books most frequently left in hotels, from prisoners' favourite books to MPs' most borrowed books, these lists are proof that a person's bookcase tells you everything you need to know about them, and sometimes more besides.