In 1938, Tae Kwon Do began at the end of a wicked poker game in a tiny village in a remote corner of what is now North Korea. Today, the martial art is likely the most popular on the planet, an Olympic sport practised by an estimated 50-million students and known for its spectacular kicks. Few people, however, know about the art�s secret and violent past; there are good reasons for screams in the martial arts. The Art of Killing: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do is a nonfiction novel that takes readers into the lurid dynasties of two men and their disciples: Choi Hong-Hi, who began the martial art, and his nemesis, Kim Un-Yong, who developed the Olympic style and ... read more

DoP January 2010, NZ 640pp Softcover The latest edition of the acclaimed IRB World Rugby Yearbook. With 649 fully illustrated pages of features, stats and records from every major rugby playing nation, since being revived and revamped three years ago, the IRB World Rugby Yearbook has become a 'must have' book for rugby followers.

Nancy Mitford was witty, intelligent, often acerbic, a great tease and an acute observer of upper-class British idiosyncrasies. With the publication of "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate" (advised by Evelyn Waugh), she became a huge bestselling author and has remained a household name ever since. A few years before she died, she had started to collect material and letters to use for an autobiography. Her devastating illness prevented her from writing this memoir, but in 1974 Harold Acton, her close friend, completed her project on the basis of what she had collected in a work that is a witty tribute to her larger-than-life personality.

Spike Lee's oeuvre is not restricted to narrative films, however. His documentary "4 Little Girls" was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award in 1997; while "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts", documented the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans on 29th August 2005, in a style that is both moving and political in an activist sense. "Miracle at St. Anna" (2008), set out explicitly to highlight the contribution made by African-American soldiers during the Second World War, and by doing so redress the absence of African-Americans in the popular myths and images of that historic moment.

Every genius has a mother, and often a mother is an inspiration for genius. Over the last six hundred years, artists have found ways to work their mothers into their most famous paintings. "The Artist's Mother" is a collection of paintings by famous artists of their mothers. This beautiful full-colour book offers masterpieces from some of the greatest painters in history, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Mary Cassat, James McNeill Whistler, Vincent van Gogh, Archibald Motley, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Arshile Gorsky, Andy Warhol and many more. From the most famous works to forgotten masterpieces, "The Artist's Mother" is a meticulously compiled collection encompassing t... read more

Ever since the days of the Grand Tour, Tuscany has cast its spell over the British. Attracted by the perfect combination of history, art, architecture, superb natural beauty and weather - not to mention magnificent traditions of food and drink - British visitors and residents have been at times so numerous that the local word for foreigners was simply 'gli inglesi' - 'the English'. Currently over 10,000 Britons live there, not to mention the huge numbers who travel there for holidays. What is it that makes this exquisite part of Italy so seductive? To answer this question Alistair Moffat embarks on a journey into Tuscany's past. From the flowering of the Etruscan civil... read more

This wonderful and evocative book looks at the remarkable birth of the first ever modern democracy on a September day in 480 BC. When the Athenians lured the armada of King Xerxes of Persia into the narrow straits between the island of Salamis and the Greek mainland, their small navy inflicted a crushing defeat that became a key turning point for world history. "Lords of the Sea" narrates for the first time the definitive history of the epic battles, the swift and dangerous ships, the indomitable will of the Athenian people, and the stories of great leaders, from visionary strategists to seductive rogues, who established Athens' democratic rule and its astonishing supr... read more

DoP January 2010, Australia From the Linux logo to "The March of the Penguins", a certain tuxedo-wearing member of the animal kingdom has long captured our hearts and imaginations. Stephen Martin regales us here with the cultural and natural history of the penguin, revealing many fascinating and little-known facts about this beloved bird. More than twenty species of penguins can be found in the Galapagos Islands and New Zealand, as well as in Antarctica, and range from the Little Bee Penguin at about 1 kg to the imposing Emperor Penguin, which can weigh in at more than 34 kgs.Martin details the biological facts and natural history of each species, including their ev... read more

"Outsider Art" is work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by self-taught visionaries, spiritualists, eccentrics, recluses, psychiatric patients, criminals, and others beyond the perceived margins of society. Coined in 1972 the term is derived from 'art brut', which the artist Jean Dubuffet began promoting just after the Second World War. Both focus on the idea of a 'raw', untaught creativity, which is still a contentious and much-debated issue. Is this a natural phenomenon, requiring only the right circumstances (isolation or alienation) to be revealed; or is it more like a mirage projected by the very culture it is supposed to be escaping from? Behind the p... read more

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