Dispatched to America in the early ’60s, the golden age of illustrative reportage, Ronald Searle spent several years covering everything―in the form of drawings in his trademark satirical and virtuosic style―from sports to politics, for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and TV Guide. Topics included Palm Springs, Las Vegas, the Presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon―as seen through the eyes of a caustic Englishman.

As any, even vaguely addicted book collector will have swiftly learned, most booksellers' catalogues are written in a parallel language that can fool anyone but the 'cognoscenti' and which makes the mysteries of the Rosetta stone, or Linear B, look like something out of Enid Blython. Without a smattering of inside information, the baffled but hopelessly-bitten book buyer is drifting unarmed and unprepared into a minefield whose perilous complexities will usually only be made plain when an eagerly awaited parcel of dream volumes arrives and mangled contents are revealed in all their deceptive glory.... But all is not lost. Help is at hand! After a lifetime of avidly scanning the frequently poisonously-tinted pages of innumerable book catalogues, Ronald Searle has become expert in the art of decoding those esoteric, poetic and usually approximate, descriptions of literary come-ons. Now, licking his wounds, he publishes his hard-earned findings in this fully illustrated pioneer guide, designed to foil the devious machinations of scheming and wicked booksellers for ever more. No longer will the innocent book collector need to puzzle over the finer meaning of 'old half road', 'good working copy', blind tooled', or 'tail-edged shaved'. The unvarnished truth is here exposed at last, both in the shocking explicit drawings and in the devastatingly frank glossary whose revelations will startle even the most battle-scarred of bibliophiles. The result is one of the funniest, most entertaining books to have emerged from the brilliantly perceptive pen of the master. No book collector, and certainly no bookseller, can afford to be without it - even the wicked ones.

Illustrated in Searle's inimitable style are the ancient noble ceremony of slashing the trockenbeerenauslese, the inauguration of the first authentic denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, and the vinolympics. For wine lovers who have never tasted ptolemy nouveau or watched the uncorking of the kangarouge, these experiences are related with warmth and humor. The many ways to open a bottle of wine are illustrated, and the rituals and delights of wine around the world are described.

A wild romp around London as the Queen loses her hat! From Steve Antony, the author and illustrator of PLEASE, MR. PANDA and BETTY GOES BANANAS!A sudden gust of wind sets off a marvelous adventure for the Queen, lots of Queen's men, and one very special hat. Just where will that hat land? Following a hysterical, epic hat chase, the Queen is reunited with her hat -- and the royal baby!Young children will love the search-and-find fun of the story, the hysterical mayhem that breaks loose, and Steve Antony's winning art style. THE QUEEN'S HAT shows some of London's most famous sites, and back matter explains their significance.

Offers a collection of full-page cat portraits that document the most adorable, or repulsive, facets of feline personality while, at the same time, depicting that trait in its human manifestation

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy.