Whether he’s a wine boff, wanders round with his headphones on, is honing a ratpack vibe or addicted to sharp tailoring we think we’ve got it covered. Our books team have a finely tuned library here at The Shop at Bluebird, come and browse or simply let us help you…
Fine Wines, Assouline, £40.00
International wine expert Michel Dovaz identifies the finest wines of our time, and recounts how they came about. Includes a pricing guide.
Michel Dovaz is the author of more than a dozen books about wine, including Bordeaux, a Legendary Wine (Abbeville Press) and Chateau Latour (Assouline).
Michael Broadbent, author of the introduction, is founder and senior consultant of Christie’s international wine department.
Def Jam, Rizzoli, £30
“This is the story of Def Jam in the words of its artists and top executives, taken from interviews and seamlessly told as a narrative of no-holds barred recollections and anecdotes, made even more compelling by the fact that Def Jam is one of the last great record labels to enjoy the widespread cultural influence that it does, in light of the increasing digitization of music. Def Jam celebrates a label that defined hip-hop and whose impact extends beyond its incredible roster of recording artists to all areas of culture–fashion, lifestyle, cinema, art–impacting the music business and pop culture forever.”
Artists LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Rihanna and Kanye West are all featured, amongst others, alongside memorabilia from the archives and photos by the likes of Albert Watson, Glen E. Friedman, Jonathan Mannion and Annie Leibovitz. Furthermore, the book was designed by Cey Adams, Def Jam’s founding creative director.
Rat Pack, Reel Art Press, £400
The Rat Pack is the definitive book on Frank, Dean, Sammy and co. tearing up Hollywood and Las Vegas with an extended cast including Marilyn Monroe and JFK. Fifty years on from the year many refer to as The Year of the Rat Pack, 1960, and their influence endures. Shooting Ocean’s 11 by day, performing at the Sands by night and sweating out the sour mash in the sauna in between, The Rat Pack includes behind the scenes footage at the JFK Presidential Inauguration and house parties with Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe.
Hollwood and the Ivy League, Reel Art Press, £45
Reel Art Press delivers a pictorial celebration of the look and attitude of ‘Ivy’. Exhaustively compiled over 288 pages and featuring many previously unreleased images, Hollywood And The Ivy Look is the first large format coffee table book to take an in-depth look at how ‘Ivy’ established itself as the epitome of 1960s Hollywood style, gained a new democratic global following and a place in history as the look of modern America.
Also featured are on and off-screen stills from some of the classic movies and television series that helped to make ‘Ivy’ so popular around the world, such as Mission Impossible and The Fugitive. Hollywood And The Ivy Look also offers a rare glimpse behind-the-scenes at the making of many of these fashionable movies, including unseen shots on the set of Psycho, The Graduate, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.
