Books published by Unicorn Publishing Group

, In 1997 sixty-two containers fell off the cargo ship Tokio Express after it was hit by a rogue wave off the coast of Cornwall, including one container filled with nearly five million pieces of Lego, much of it sea themed. In the months that followed, beachcombers started to find Lego washed up on beaches across the south west coast. Among the pieces they discovered were octopuses, sea grass, spear guns, life rafts, scuba tanks, cutlasses, flippers and dragons. The pieces are still washing up today.,

This is the story of Cornish fisherman-turned-artist Alfred Wallis, whose paintings of boats from his past inspired the future of British modern art. Told from Wallis’ perspective - inspired by his crudely written letters to Jim Ede - this book takes the reader through his remarkable life; his early sailing days, his late arrival to painting, his encounters with ‘proper’ artists and his battle with mental health. Wallis’ naïve yet poignant work has captured the imagination of many. His paintings are a portal into Wallis’ world of ships, boats and the sea; and his deep concern for preserving ‘what used to be’.

The first book of its kind to be published on this subject

St Petersburg, 1825. Imperial Russia still basks in the glory of victory over Napoleon, but in the army and elsewhere resentment is growing against serfdom and autocracy.Vasily, a pleasure loving, privileged young man, returns home from abroad expecting to embark on a glittering career. Having become entangled in an impossible love affair, he joins a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Threatened by exile to Siberia or death, he is forced to flee the Tsar's vengeance.Vasily hopes to rebuild his life in a distant provincial town. But he cannot forget his lost love, and now finds himself pursued by a rival who aims to destroy him.

Throughout LondonΓÇÖs two-thousand-year history, architecture has expressed the identity of the cityΓÇÖs diverse communities. From Franciscan friars to merchant bankers, royal dynasties to grocers and tailors, the ideals and wealth of these groups have been reflected in magnificent buildings and public spaces. Gilded City tells the fascinating history of London through its medieval and early modern architecture, and discusses how the powers these buildings and spaces represent have shaped the capital. As well as exploring famous landmarks, smaller-scale civic gems are revealed. Over eighty photographs are included, with maps and guides of nine recommended walking tours.

, Cameron Mackintosh is London's West End's leading theatrical producer of musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. He is also a significant theatre owner and has completed a two-decade campaign of refurbishment and rebuilding of eight London theatres, at his own personal cost of £250m, that has set the tempo for maintaining one of Britain's greatest cultural heritages for the next century, the West End theatre in the heart of the nation's artistic life.Master of the House charts the histories of these eight iconic London buildings; their origins, their stories, the iconic shows and productions, the stars and the glamour. Lavishly illustrated with images from the Delfont Mackintosh archive, the book also contains original architect plans and drawings, specially-commissioned photographs of the refurbishment, show posters and other theatre ephemera, and many sweeping panoramas of the exquisitely finished spaces.,

These are my memoirs, which reflect the momentous changes that have taken place over the last 100 years, through the prism of my own experiences.

, What happens when great writers meet great buildings.,

The book is an illustrated collection of projects carried out in silver and gold reflecting the many interesting personal stories that combine people with a place of significance portrayed in miniature for a special event in their lives.This is the story of forty years of making architecturally-based silverware, from small domes and columns on stud earrings to larger bespoke presentation pieces. The author charts her development from student days to acquisitions by the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts amongst others. Her insights into how to render buildings such as the Pantheon in Rome, the Sydney Opera House or OxfordΓÇÖs Sheldonian Theatre into a brooch, a ring or a box make fascinating reading.

, Legend has it that if a star leaps from the sky to the earth, and if it can accurately leap into the sea, it will turn into a very large fish. There is such a pair of twin stars in the sky and younger brother wanted to embark the journey to oceans on earth. During the journey Crossbow realised that true dreams and freedom also contain love and responsibility..,

, A Thousand Fates explores the afterlife of medieval monasticism in England and Wales, a thousand years monasticism in England and Wales came to an abrupt end in the mid-sixteenth century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. At its peak two hundred years earlier, many people chose the contemplative life, while the rich sought salvation through the foundation or embellishment of religious houses. Much of the nation's wealth was locked into these complexes through elaborate rebuilding, gifts of precious objects, property donations and flourishing libraries of rare books. Then in just four years all of the eight hundred plus houses were closed and ten thousand people dispersed with the monastic fortune liquidated and passed to the crown. Today we are left with echoes of a time dominated by an enclosed elite, their homes repurposed or derelict or obliterated. Some of these foundations still thrive as churches, schools, homes or tourist attractions. Others though have left little physical trace, the casual viewer ignorant of their existence. This book is not an account of why the monasteries closed or what happened to the people displaced. Instead it focuses on the monastic buildings and their numerous fates and brings life to their stories,

A Black Cat Abroad is the untold WWII story of a 'Terrier' nicknamed 'Oscar' R.E.H. Hadingham (1915-2004), CBE, MC & Bar TD, better known as 'Buzzer', who was later chairman of Slazenger's and then the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Beginning with his work in London and Territorial Army training, it describes life in Wimbledon under the cloud of impending war. On 29th July 1939, Buzzer was commissioned into 167 Brigade, 67th (East Surrey) Anti-Tank Regiment R.A. T.A., the 'Black Cats'. Three years later he embarked from Liverpool, carrying a sun-helmet, destination unknown. Momentous challenges followed, not least a 3-year separation from his family. Here are fresh aspects of an epic 3,000-mile journey from Iraq to action in North Africa, before conflicts in Italy: Salerno, Anzio, and the lesser-known 'Monte Cassino of the Adriatic' Gemmano. Leading toward the 80th Anniversary of the Italian Campaign (1943-1945), relevant historic anecdotes and key operational recollections reveal a young, energetic 303 Anti-Tank Battery Commander's personal perspectives, and the first officer in his Territorial Regiment to receive a batt le honour. This remarkable, first-hand account by the 'poet of Wimbledon' is intended as a special tribute to all brave men who served in the 'Black Cats' - and as a commemoration of the fallen

, Told in his own words, in response to questions from the writer and art critic Andrew Lambirth, this book chronicles Andrew Logan's life and work through expressive anecdote and factual recollection. Reflections is a look back, but also a look at the present and a look forward: it is about the meaning of Andrew's world and the sculpture he has made to fill it, and about his approach to art, to friendship and to living in London and Wales. The Alternative Miss World, founded by Andrew in 1972, is at the heart of his philosophy, not just the world's greatest drag act (though it is this too), but an exhilarating celebration of the transformative power of the imagination. Andrew's work, which is all about joy and beauty, is inspiring and uplifting. This book, based upon discursive interviews dealing with all periods of his career, explains and contextualises it fully for the first time.,

Born in 1852 in a small coastal town in Scotland, Helen D'Oyly Carte, through academic brilliance and an incredible talent for 'managing chaos', developed and ran the world's foremost top entertainment and hospitality organisation with her husband, Richard D'Oyly Carte (known as D'Oyly). By the age of 30, she was running five Gilbert & Sullivan companies for the Savoy Group in the United States, crossing the Atlantic thirty times, and for the next three decades she ran the Savoy Theatre, the Savoy Hotel, Claridges and Simpson's-in-the-Strand. She was the only one trusted by the prickly, brilliant William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, to keep them from breaking apart, as they so regularly wanted to do. From a conventional upbringing, she chose to remain in London after the emigration of her family to Australia, first as an actress, then working alongside D'Oyly - she took over the reins as he became ill in the late 1880s. Until her death in 1913, she flourished and was famous, interviewed and admired, in a competitive, vibrant London that was the centre of world power and commerce. Queen of The Savoy charts Helen's course from Wigtown to the West End, where running a company with hundreds of employees, led to her fame and fortune. The artists Whistler and Sickert were friends and immortalised her in portraits. She was known in her time as the true founder of the Gilbert and Sullivan franchise and this biography will bring to light, some 110 years after her death, the extraordinary role that she played in one of Britain's greatest success stories.

A woman lies unconscious on the carpet of a smart Westminster apartment, one red high-heeled shoe has fallen off... A younger woman lies with her eyes closed, half-hidden under a drinks cabinet... Her fingers clutch an empty bottle... What happens when a mother withholds her love? When she has no love to withhold? When she sees her three daughters as obstacles to her own formidable career? This is the story of three sisters, Millie, Di and Cleo. They are the war babies. Growing up in a world still in turmoil, hungover from war, the sisters struggle to leave behind their mother and build their own lives. Each sister is lost in her own world where extreme need leads to extreme behaviour. Then a tragic event forces Cleo, the youngest and wildest, to become the catalyst to smash the pattern. Who will adapt and survive in this new world? Who will find peace? From London to New York and to Vietnam, the focus shifts from one sister to the next, putting human nature, its flaws and its virtues, under the spotlight. With elements of a psychological thriller, Rachel Billington observes her characters with clinical detachment, but also with wit and understanding. Yet there is hope at the heart of this story which will leave the reader wondering long after the final twist is revealed.

In 1903, after a fire completely destroyed her family home in Norfolk, UK, the 27- year-old Constance helped her mother redesign their house and recreate the garden. It was an experience from which she never looked back, going on to become an internationally recognised garden expert and connoisseur. A rich woman herself, she was attracted to the most spectacular and extravagant gardens in the world. From Shalimar Bagh, Lahore, to Nishat Bagh, Srinagar, to La Granja near Madrid, Constance earned her reputation studying Mughal and Moorish gardens as well as those in Great Britain, France, Italy and northern Europe. Between 1910 and 1955 she wrote about them, painted and photographed them and lectured on them. She produced two successful illustrated books, and numerous articles for magazines, including Country Life, Vogue, The Burlington Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, and The Times. When she died in 1966, she left paintings, photographs, diaries, press cuttings and scrapbooks to her grandchildren. It is upon this fascinating and hitherto unseen archive of memorabilia that 'Constance Villiers Stuart: In Pursuit of Paradise' is based --

Anarchy in the Art Gallery is a humorous and thought provoking illustrated book, a re-imagined and irreverent trip through western art and cultural history.

In 'Is That Really True, Sir?', the artist, barrister, schoolmaster, musician, journalist and explorer Michael Aubrey negotiates a succession of improbable events and narrow escapes. Starting with a vivid account of his wartime childhood, Aubrey shares the joys, hazards, surprises and often hilarious disasters of his colourful experiences in many countries, encountering a range of unusual people along the way. With a comic lightness of touch, he revels in life's absurdities at the same time as celebrating the beauty and harmony of the various worlds which he has inhabited.The memoir is lavishly illustrated, including over eighty of the author's vibrant watercolours. His acute eye for the ridiculous, keen observation of character, lyrical accounts of unfamiliar places and illuminating insights make this a joyous book, one to lift the spirits even on the dullest of days.

A romance inspired by true events, Maria and her sisters are thrust into the heady pre-war atmosphere of Brussels in 1815 and encounter love, scandal and drama whilst bearing witness to the most important battle of the 19th Century.

In 1976, Argentina is governed by a military junta bankrolled by former Nazis. It is the anniversary of a mysterious village fire in the jungle. The lone survivor, a Guarani boy, is now a Jesuit priest. A Jewish journalist, Ariel Guzman, interviews him at his mission. The man claims Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin with Eva Braun and made a secret camp near the Iguacu Falls. The Fuhrer ordered the village's destruction, but the priest refuses to say why. He mentions the codename Edelweiss and will only reveal the person's identity if he dies. Argentina's most powerful man is billionaire and Waffen-SS veteran Tiago Hecht. He is searching for Edelweiss so that he can establish a Fourth Reich. Hecht now has confirmation Hitler's son is alive. But so does the Mossad and they have sent an agent to eliminate him. The only sanctuary for 'Edelweiss' is at the Vatican, but time is running out. The hunt is on...

The Poverty Alleviation Series Volume Three - Red, Red Azalea