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The 2013 Winners are In!



Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Florence

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  The Italians by Luigi Barzini

  £10.99 Price: £9.89    Add to Basket

  A prominent Italian journalist of 1950s and '60s, Barzini here paints a wittily anecdotal and critically insightful portrait of his compatriots, marshalling the broad sweep of history with great skill. Published in 1964 it of course lacks commentary on recent decades, but his universal truths of Italian morals and manners still resonate today.

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  The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione

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  Written in the early 16th century, Castiglione attempts to describe the ultimate virtues of the courtier. A charming description of Renaissance manners.

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  Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda

  £9.99 Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  An acclaimed, utterly engrossing life of an orphan who grew up to be one of the most important figures in European history. Mother to three kings of France and heir to a vast fortune, Catherine's life was blighted, in her own words, by 'passion, hatred and vengeance'. Bringing this sumptuously vicious era vividly to life, Frieda's book is an exemplary work of biography.

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  The Lost Battles by Jonathan Jones

  £25.00 Price: £22.50    Add to Basket

  No one has ever documented the bitter relationship between these two masters and Jones, one of the best contemporary art writers and art critic for the Guardian, brings his considerable knowledge, painstaking research and gloriously vivid style to this excellent book.

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  Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral of Florence by Ross King

  £8.99 Price: £8.09    Add to Basket

  King uncovers deftly and compellingly the extraordinary labour, ingenious design and bitter personal strife that lies behind the facade of one of the world's most startlingly beautiful cathedrals.

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  The Stones of Florence / Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy

  £8.99 Price: £8.09    Add to Basket

  Two fantastically rich portraits of two great cities, in which the considerable artistic and architectural splendours of the past persist in the daily spectacle of carnival and commerce. The quality of McCarthy's writing is astonishing - utterly hypnotic - and it cannot be recommended highly enough.

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  Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl

  £10.99 Price: £9.89    Add to Basket

  It is a brave biographer who tackles a subject as enigmatic and revered as Leonardo. Thankfully Nicholl - who has recently published an equally brilliant study of Shakespeare, 'The Lodger' - is more than up to the task, combining voracious and scholarly research with a keen eye for captivating detail. Peppered with high-quality images, this is must for every bookshelf.

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  The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance by Paul Strathern

  £9.99 Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  A remarkable story of money, power and ambition. From humble beginnings to dominance of Florence, the Medici family were at the heart of the Italian Renaissance - bankers who had dealings with Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Donatello and others. Strathern writes well with great narrative drive, crafting a highly enjoyable piece of work.