Chapters & Verse

RENAISSANCE MAN
Frank Zöllner, Christof Thoenes, Thomas Pöpper
Michelangelo Complete Works
The work of Italy’s supreme polymath is captured in this comprehensive hardback volume. An extra-large-format coffee table book, from German publisher Taschen, it includes incredibe reproductions of major works by the sculptor, painter, draughtsman and architect — from St Peter’s basilica through to his worldfamous sculpture of King David.

Now playing
Hot Chip,
Made in the Dark
This five-piece electronic outfit might hail from London, but their off-kilter, lo-fidisco tunes sound just as at home on the beachfront of Barcelona or a sleek Berlin nightclub as they would in any grotty British dive. They’ve played at festivals in Spain, France and Sweden, and remixed the mighty German techno godfathers, Kraftwerk. Their new album, Made in the Dark, is rockier and faster than previous releases, yet maintains their uncanny disco edge. Listen out for it on continental dance floors as spring unfurls.

FRENCH LETTERS
Catherine Sanderson
Petite Anglaise
What does a yummy British mummy do if she’s bored in Paris? Well, if you’re the young English author, Catherine Sanderson, you blog your way into professional and marital crises, and onto the bookshelves. Petite Anglaise combines a real-life story of French romance with some sassy web-spun philosophy.

WEIGHTY READ
Shauna Reid
The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl
Unlike most diet books, Shauna Reid’s debut is neither a dry calorie counter, nor a faddy weight-loss guide. Instead, Aussie girl Reid has chronicled her 121/2 stone-drop odyssey — from a gym-fearing binge-eater through to a happy, svelte newly-wed — with remarkable wit and candor.

Travellers’ tales
St Andrews, 1773
“Saint Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and education, being situated in a populous, yet a cheap country, and exposing the minds and manners of young men neither to the levity and dissoluteness of a capital city, nor to the gross luxury of a town of commerce, places naturally unpropitious to learning; in one the desire of knowledge easily gives way to the love of pleasure, and in the other, is in danger of yielding to the love of money. The students however are represented as at this time not exceeding a hundred (1)… A student of the highest class may keep his annual session, or as the English call it, his term, which lasts seven months, for about fifteen pounds (2), and one of lower rank for less than ten; in which board, lodging, and instruction are all included.”

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