Best Gardening Coffee Table Books

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This year has seen a raft of marvellous design books published, and they couldn't be more welcome in a year when we're mostly confined to our own houses.

This selection of coffee table books make brilliant sources of inspiration from some of the greatest designers, gardeners and artists in the world. Once read, their beautiful covers double as decorative pieces, brightening up dark corners or sitting prettily atop a table. For the design lover or home renovator in your life, these coffee table books are ideal for Christmas gifts too.

Scroll on for House & Garden's edit of the best coffee table books to buy now.

Home Farm Cooking by John Pawson (Phaidon Press, £23.79)

Based in the heart of England's countryside, Home Farm is both a beautiful home and the source of inspiration for this book. Packed full of recipes to delight and tantalise, John and Catherine Pawson share their 100 favourite dishes.

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Petersham Nurseries by The Boglione Family (Petersham Nurseries, £22.99)

Situated about ten miles to the southwest of London, in a neat spot between Ham and Richmond, lies Petersham. The place itself has neither a high street, nor much else and, if you didn't know what to look for, it is entirely possible you would simply drive straight past. Yet this is where Petersham Nurseries sits and this book recounts its story.
Owned by Francesco and Gael Boglione, the nursery has blossomed over the past 20 years to become one of the most popular restaurants, café, nursery and shop in London. Charting the couple's travels in Afghanistan, India and Nepal and Gael's career as a model prior to opening, the book also tells the tale of Petersham's stratospheric success.

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Design Secrets: Adding Character and Style to an Interior to Make it Your Own by Kit Kemp (Hardie Grant, £22.99)

In Design Secrets, Kit Kemp offers up a masterclass in all her do's and don't's when embarking on a creative project. These include how to hang art, how to find and use fabrics and many more gems.
Kemp is known for her bold and bright interiors in the Firmdale's hotel chain and her signature look has spawn one thousand trends. The book even includes a colouring-in book to test and trial colour combinations.

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Beata Heuman: Every Room Should Sing, by Beata Heuman (Rizzoli, £29.25)

London-based, Swedish born interior designer Beata Heuman set up her own studio after working for Nicky Haslam for nearly a decade. Since her eponymous company started in 2013, she has garnered a cult-like following of people who find joy in her bold and lively interiors. Heuman has been lauded for her quirky take on homewares whilst staying true to Scandinavian simplicity. This volume is Heuman's first and offers a fresh take on decorating a home.

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William Morris's Flowers by Rowan Bain (Thames & Hudson, £14.95)

The designs of William Morris have hardly wavered in popularity. He was a pioneer of Arts and Crafts ideas in the late 19th century and yet his motifs can be seen today on everything from wallpapers to toiletries. Produced in association with the V&A (an institution supported by Morris in his lifetime), this is a gentle guide to his life and work, focusing on his flower motifs. The 104 pages dedicated to his patterns offer a pleasing sense of his ability to distil the essence of the British countryside into ordered design.

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Francis Sultana: Designs & Interiors, edited by Bronwyn Cosgrave (Vendome, £50)

Francis Sultana is no shrinking violet – and nor are his clients, from the look of his projects. This monograph celebrating his career highlights the various influences that feed into the creation of his distinctive style. The most fascinating section of the book showcases Francis's own homes in his native Malta and London, exemplifying how art, an appreciation of craftmanship, religious buildings and iconography, and Malta's rocky coastline have all inspired him.

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The Timeless Home by Dominic Bradbury (Lund Humphries, £49.95)

Contemporary architecture is a minefield – especially on the home front – but the architect James Gorst has negotiated it better than many. He started out as a neoclassicist, but decided (as he says in his enjoyably grumpy foreword) there was 'no profit in making a life of its replication – although, as it turns out, that is where the profit is'. This book features houses James has built since, which balance the contemporary and the traditional – and are very handsome, too.

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The Making of Marthe Armitage: Artist & Patternmaker edited by Alison Harley (Graphical House, £30-£200)

This year, Marthe Armitage will turn 90. Born to Dutch parents and raised in wartime London, the artist, pattern designer and printmaker spent almost all her life living on the same road – a little strip of wildness in the city called Strand on the Green. At 21, she married the son of the man from whom her parents rented, who had also grown up on the street, just a few doors down.

Marthe's home – beautifully captured in charming photographs: water almost up to the door and illustrations arrayed on the walls – is a major character in the book. Her three children were raised there and she created her first designs for the house because, she says, 'The walls were bare, and the children were at school… and there was no money to buy wallpaper.' She bought a printing press – an offset lithographic proofer, redundant and weighing a tonne – disassembled it and rebuilt it inside the house, where it served for decades.

This book sometimes feels less like a design tome (perhaps thankfully) and more like the photo album of an extraordinary and loving family. The memories always give way, however, to sensitive images of Marthe's energetic and intimately observed wallpapers, described by her daughter, Jo Broadhurst, as the 'magical, beautiful, outrageous and surprising pattern that no one else could even have imagined'.

Marthe's papers have flowed in and out of fashion but, in 2001, wallpaper company Hamilton Weston's request to display her designs in its Richmond showroom gave a late boost to her popularity – and to her creativity. Marthe produced her most recent design, 'Poppy', in 2018, at the age of 88. As the art historian Alan Powers writes in one chapter, 'Like plants coming out of the ground every springtime or the tide on the Thames rising and falling twice a day, patterns can never be absent for long.'

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Wild at Heart: For the Love of Pets and Beautiful Homes by Magali Elali and Bart Kiggen (Luster, £29.95)

A sweet reflection on how we live with pets, as writer Magali Elali and her photographer husband Bart Kiggen trek across Europe visiting their coolest friends and their animal companions. The people are hip, the pets unconventional – a Dutch couple pose with their guinea pigs, for example. What is more, for every intimate moment captured between owner and pet, there is an equally charming shot of a fascinating home such as designer Jean-Philippe Demeyer's 13th-century manor in Belgium.

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Lucian Freud Herbarium by Giovanni Aloi (Prestel, £39.99)

He is best known for his portraiture, but this book offers a fresh perspective on Lucian Freud's artistic career, instead considering his works featuring plants. Stepping away from the portraits also allows the author Giovanni Aloi to put the artist's tumultuous personal life in the background – the focus is on the art, its heritage (there is a section on the history of plants in art) and influences. He describes how Freud found painting plants to be meditative, inviting the reader to peruse the book's stunning visuals with a similar slower pace.

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Modern Plant Hunters by Dr Sandy Primrose (Pimpernel, £30)

As biologist Dr Sandy Primrose states in his introduction, one might be forgiven for thinking that plant hunting – or at least the golden age of discovery – has long since disappeared. Considered in a historical context, in Modern Plant Hunters, Sandy sets out to dispel this idea. Driven by increasing rates of extinction, there have apparently been more discoveries of species in the past 30 years than ever before. Accompanied by stunning photography, the book conjures up a spirit of adventure, combined with the fascinating finer points of botany.

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Pierre Yovanovitch: Interior Architecture by Pierre Yovanovitch and Olivier Gabet (Rizzoli, £50)

A minor scandal erupted on Instagram a few months ago, with accusations that one interior designer had copied another. In the normally genteel world of decoration, this was practically up there with Watergate. To be honest, I can see how easy it might be for someone to take inspiration from the work of the interior designer in question – the talented Pierre Yovanovitch. You could argue it is a pity that more do not.

There is a wonderful wonkiness to the work of the French interior designer, who set up his studio in 2001, having pre-viously worked in fashion as a menswear designer. Pierre has a unique way of using colour and texture to change the nature of architecturally sober spaces, and then filling them with curved, asymmetrical or abstract furniture. Well, not quite filling, because Pierre's interiors are very considered and curated spaces. He refers to these juxtapositions as architectural oxymorons. 'They represent movement,' he writes. 'I use them to create interiors where strong gestures defined by sharp contours are the underlying feature.'

We see 14 of these projects in this beautiful book, each with a short introduction revealing Pierre's voice as well as his vision. We learn he is a designer striving for originality. About an apartment in Tel Aviv, he writes of 'not wanting to engage in a style exercise à la Bauhaus'. For an Arts and Crafts house in London, he was 'not keen on reproducing things that had already been done, often with great skill'.
I am not normally a fan of interior designer monographs, which often serve the egos of the subjects more than the reader. But this one rises above most. Great decorators and designers do not come along every day, so when they do, it is important to have a record of their work.

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Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers by Erin Benzakein (Chronicle Books, £21.99)

Essentially a recipe book for creating seasonal bouquets, this covers everything from sourcing to arranging. Erin Benzakein founded Floret Farm in 2008 after relocating to Washington state and this book is imbued with a sense of the charmed life the author's family enjoys there. The section about tools and materials is a checklist of what is needed to take your arrangements to the next level, but those seeking advice on producing flowers from soil to vase be warned – the subject is touched upon only briefly.

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Australian Designers at Home by Jenny Rose-Innes (Thames & Hudson, £29.95)

It is easy to think of Australian interiors as predominantly light, whitewashed, pared-back contemporary spaces with an abundance of glass, steel and timber (often accompanied by sweeping views of blue sky and sea). However, in her new book, South African author Jenny Rose-Innes (who now lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales) reveals that Antipodean decoration isn't always just about celebrating the new.

Here, she showcases the homes of 20 of Australia's most sought-after interior designers. In the mix are old-school decorators such as Michael Love and Ros Palmer; colour fanatics Briony Fitzgerald (the sister of Skye Gyngell and designer of her London restaurant, Spring) and Anna Spiro (whose guest cottage was in House & Garden in May 2019); modernists Christian Lyon and Iain Halliday; and the likes of American-born, Sydney-based Thomas Hamel and Blainey North (who also has an office in London), known for mixing casual chic with contemporary glamour.

Jenny reveals how deeply the roots of Australian interior design are still tied to European and Far East Asian history, while providing inspiration for a British audience. Many of the rooms are intimate and inviting, proportionally in the same scale as the Victorian ones people inhabit in the UK. Eighteenth-century antiques and ceramics, exquisite silks and linens, bergère chairs and tapestries play a vital role in rooms, as much as the use of vibrant contemporary Australian artworks, bold colours and dynamic tribal prints. Most of all, the author – herself a passionate serial house renovator – loved spending time with the designers in their own homes. 'I was able to begin to understand the essence of their work and their whole way of thinking,' she writes enthusiastically.

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A Wandering Eye by Miguel Flores-Vianna (Vendome Press, £30)

Gathering 250 iPhone snapshots into a book may seem an unusual choice in the age of Instagram. But for revered Argentinian interiors photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna, the site offers an alternative mode of expression for his remarkable eye, and the images he posts there are worth treasuring. Struck by wanderlust at an early age, the Haute Bohemians author has travelled widely, smartphone in hand. Presented with few captions, the pictures speak for themselves: from patterned tiles to a shimmering reflection of the Taj Mahal.

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Bedtime by Celia Forner (Vendome Press, £50)

Celia Forner has distilled a broad history of a specific topic into a wonderful book that celebrates the bedroom. She has been careful not to get too bogged down in the details of design and function, ensuring the text is more anecdotal than academic. As well as visits to historic bedchambers, there is a sprinkle of celebrity, with many a Hollywood starlet populating a sumptuous boudoir. The later part of the book charts the rise of the professional decorator, with rooms by the likes of Alidad and Bunny Williams rounding off this amusing potted history.

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Fringe, Frog & Tassel, by Annabel Westman (Philip Wilson Publishers, £50)

Why is it that I have to fight fits of the giggles at the very mention of tie-backs and trimmings, frills and furbelows, ruffles and ric-rac braid? Could it be their deliriously daffy names? Or could it be more to do with the basic pointlessness of passementerie, at least from a strictly practical point of view: does anyone really need satin tassels or velvet pom-poms? The answer, of course, is no, but the world of interior decoration would be a much duller place without them, as this fascinating new book makes clear. Part of the National Trust Series, it is the first proper history of passementerie in Britain and Ireland, starting with the earliest evidence from around 1320 and taking us almost up to the present day.

Passementerie was always a luxury, and vast sums were expended on what most people would consider the icing on the decorative cake – in 1678 an astonishing £439 11s 6d (roughly equivalent to £65,000 today) was spent on just a few yards of fringing for the Queen's bed at Windsor Castle. It was also, at least in its earlier history, one of the few commercial areas in which women (such as the wonderfully named Isabel Bally-Otes-Frowyk, who supplied silk fringe to the Mercers' Company in 1415) were allowed to compete with men.

A textile scholar and executive director of The Attingham Trust for the study of historic houses and collections, Annabel Westman was spurred on to write the book after realising how little was known about the trimmings of the past. The result is a triumph of research, textual and visual, with a sustained attention to detail. Richly illustrated and packed with information, it looks set to become the standard text in its field, while helping the rest of us sort out our gimp from our galloons.

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The Tile Book by Terry Bloxham, (Thames & Hudson, £19.95)

Taking the form of a petite square volume, this is a visual history of tile design and manufacturing from the Middle Ages to the present day, with gloriously colourful pictures accompanied by brief explanatory notes. One can enjoy mapping how different styles move in and out of fashion – boldly patterned hand-painted tiles from the Victorian era would not seem out of place in a chic kitchen or bathroom today. Pleasingly tile-shaped, this book is also an excellent sourcebook for anyone carrying out period restoration work.

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Bricks & Brownstone by Charles Lockwood and Patrick W Ciccone with Jonathan D Taylor (Rizzoli, £65)

The first edition of Bricks and Brownstone, published in 1972, became a seminal work, known as The Brownstone Bible. Alongside updated original sections, it features several new chapters and has been almost entirely rephotographed by Dylan Chandler. With its engaging chronological narrative, this book is a love letter to the historic architecture of New York, charting the city's social and cultural history through the romance of these beautiful buildings.

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The Patterned Interior by Greg Natale (Rizzoli, £42.50)

'Pattern is in my DNA,' writes interior decorator Greg Natale in the introduction to his latest book, recalling the eclectic mix of tiles in his childhood home in Sydney. Entering the design world in 2001, when minimalism was all the rage, Greg looked instead to the provocatively patterned interiors of David Hicks and Verner Panton. Anson Smart has photographed 12 of Greg's projects, each a celebration of his fearless approach. Look out for his interplay of geometric and organic prints in a Manhattan apartment.

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Soviet Design by Kristina Krasnyanskaya and Alexander Semenov (Scheidegger & Spiess, £65)

In the West, there is a great deal of fascination with Soviet propaganda posters and brutalist architecture, but much of the creative oeuvre of the USSR is unknown. Here, a gallerist and an academic shine a light on the subject, presenting the most impressive feats within their political context from the Twenties to the late Eighties. Packed with striking images, including textiles by the avant-garde artist Lyubov Popova, this is a whistle-stop tour of the much-overlooked output from the East.

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Green by Ula Maria (Mitchell Beazley, £20)

The first book from rising star Ula Maria (who was profiled in the April issue of House & Garden) tackles the perennial challenge of how to create a garden in a small space. Taking us through 22 designs, including two of her own, she shows how clever use of scale, colour, texture, materials, scent, light and shadow can achieve excitingly different effects and bring character to your plot. Whether you dream of a Mediterranean oasis, a rose-filled retreat or a tropical jungle, Green will help you to make the most of your space, proving that small can indeed be beautiful.

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Kelly Wearstler: Evocative Style by Kelly Wearstler (Rizzoli, £42)

Decorators are often tethered to a certain style, but not Kelly Wearstler. The US interior designer defies genre, deftly weaving periods, colours and patterns together in rule-breaking, historically conversant whimsy. Kelly's fifth book, a collaboration with writer Rima Suqi, is a testament to her singular panache in creating amusing, glamorous spaces.

The book does not dwell on biography, but rather on what informs Kelly's style today. Lush double-page spreads with illuminating captions take us from a Central Park Beaux Arts townhouse to a California bungalow that is now an Ettore Sottsass-inflected modernist fun house. A sample of her interiors for the new Proper Hotel in San Francisco – including a Wiener Werkstätte-reminiscent café – rounds out her recent body of work.

While no two projects are alike, there are some common threads. The influence of Jean Prouvé is hinted at throughout, as well as the playful colours and shapes of the Memphis Group. Many of the brightest young things of American design surface, too, reading like a roster from New York gallery The Future Perfect (thefutureperfect.com). Brutalist vigour mingles with sensual forms, while nuanced colours demand attention. Semi-precious stones and marbles, geodesic patterns and trompe l'oeil abound.
Set like a jewel among her projects is Kelly's own Twenties Spanish-Colonial-turned-Georgian house in LA. A black and white palette dominates and the furniture and art are as architectural as the rooms themselves. Kelly writes that the house 'remains true to my belief in mixing styles, eras and mediums, bringing together the stars of the past with today's emerging artists to create environments that are at once inviting, comfortable and evocative'.

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Voysey's Birds and Animals by Karen Livingstone (Thames & Hudson, £14.95)

Animals and birds are frequent motifs in wallpapers and fabrics by the Arts and Crafts designer Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, who sketched from nature at zoos and museums. However, as he told a magazine in 1893, 'a literal transcript will not result in good ornament'. He distilled his drawings into repeatable forms that capture the spirit of creatures ranging from owls to octopuses. Produced in association with the V&A, this book presents 73 sketches and patterns that reveal Voysey as a pioneer of print design.

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The Art of Earth Architecture by Jean Dethier (Thames & Hudson, £98)

As the construction industry begins to reckon with the environmental cost of producing concrete, cement and bricks, the Belgian architect Jean Dethier proposes a radical reassessment of raw earth as an abundant, sustainable building material. His book traces vernacular architectural traditions across five continents – from ancient times to the present day. Luxurious adobe villas in Marrakech and a Japanese-inspired meditation centre near Prague demonstrate the expressive potential of an often overlooked resource.

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A Place Called Home by Cath Kidston (Pavilion, £30)

It takes a special house to fill an entire book. Cath Kidston's Cotswold manor – a charming architectural amalgam dating back to the 17th century, located in a private valley and glorying in the name of Paradise – offers enough visual delight to spread across 250 pages. Photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes, and text by Cath herself, lead us on a full tour from the entrance hall to the attic bedrooms, and then out into the garden, where a huge paved terrace melts into lawn and steps lead down to mown paths that wind through lush, lightly wooded meadows.

Along the way, Cath describes her thought process behind the decoration, explaining why she has chosen certain colours and furnishings, and the effects she was intending to achieve. The words 'friendly', 'cheerful', 'fun', 'comfort' and 'welcoming' all pop up more than once. As well as visual inspiration, there is plenty of practical guidance, such as how to protect wallpaper using shoe-guard waterproofing spray.

Throughout the text, there are repeated references to decorative details Cath remembers from childhood – whether Formica, for which she admits to having 'a thing', or panelling a bath in glass, or her love of fresh flowers. She explains that she uses 'modern pictures to prevent it all looking too nostalgic'.

Like Laura Ashley before her, Cath Kidston created a household brand super-charged by nostalgia. Too big a dose of it can be cloying but, in her own home, she demonstrates how to mix it up, tempering all those nursery colours and pretty, vintage prints with robust ethnic rugs, contemporary artworks and unexpected touches like the bunch of oversized paper globe lanterns that hang over the staircase, or a bookcase painted tomato red.

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The Perfect Kitchen by Barbara Sallick (Rizzoli, £40)

In this follow-up to 2016's The Perfect Bath, Waterworks' co-founder Barbara Sallick turns her focus to the busiest room of the house. Before addressing all the practical aspects – from cabinets and hardware to the kitchen sink – she invites you to consider: 'What kind of experience do I want to create?' Your answer will guide you through the entire process. Pictures of a huge array of examples, and essays by food writers about how they have adapted their kitchens to meet their needs, offer plenty of inspiration as you embark on your own project.

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House of Print by Molly Mahon (Pavilion, £16.99)

Acting as a creative call to arms, this book by designer Molly Mahon is a love letter to block print. The ancient art of applying pattern onto fabric and paper celebrates simplicity and imperfection, and sits at the heart of Molly's joyful homeware brand. Her extraordinary energy jumps off every page and defies you not to reach for the poster paint. On a pictorial journey leading from the indigo wells of India to the woodlands of Sussex, Molly provides lots of answers for those curious about creative inspiration and how to channel it.

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Bold British Design by Emilio Pimentel-Reid (Quadrille, £30)

You would be forgiven for thinking a glossy coffee-table book with the words 'British' and 'design' in the title would be another lofty tome featuring eye-wateringly grand country houses and lots of chintzy sofas. But in Bold British Design, the writer and stylist Emilio Pimentel-Reid has moved the spotlight firmly onto the next generation of tastemakers.

While the book visits the living and working spaces of established names such as Sebastian Cox, Bethan Gray and Zoffany's lead designer Peter Gomez, readers can also check out the Kensington eyrie of artist and interior designer Minnie Kemp, daughter of Kit, and the vibrant, rural bolthole of the colour expert Ruth Mottershead, whose father, David, is managing director of Little Greene.

The spaces are humble and ambitious in equal parts. Interior designer Georgia Collett's council-estate maisonette with views of Regent's Park butts up against sculptor Hal Messel's converted Methodist chapel and a Regency flat in the heart of Bath. The latter is Emilio's own home – its smart sitting room is painted a bespoke shade of pink, which, he says, complements his skin tone.

And while the intimate interiors photography by House & Garden contributor Sarah Hogan captures the quirky details and idiosyncrasies of each space, it is the portraits of the homeowners that hold the eye. The neutral studio of Wedgwood's artist-in-residence, ceramicist Hitomi Hosono contrasts with the riotously colourful workshop of lampshade maker Melina Blaxland-Horne, yet each reveals the personality of its owner. Emilio's interviews are far-reaching and honest, with a common philosophy: when creating your private space, there are no rules. It feels like a good rule to design by.

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André Fu by Catherine Shaw (Thames & Hudson, £48)

Since the opening of The Upper House hotel in Hong Kong in 2009, André Fu has become one of Asia's leading interior designers. He is known for bringing together Eastern and Western culture, especially in hotels and restaurants, and for his aesthetic of relaxed elegance. Here, 18 projects are presented in his own words, as told to author Catherine Shaw. They include hotels in Provence, Bangkok and London, as well as his own home in Hong Kong. Exquisite photography is supplemented by André's characterful drawings.

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The Gardener's Book of Patterns by Jack Wallington (Thames & Hudson, £19.95)

Whether abstract, symmetrical, repetitive or colour-led, patterns are the very fabric of the natural world and, indeed, our gardens. This visually enticing book by a rising star of British garden design draws attention to the patterns that occur both naturally and artificially, in plants themselves, in hard landscaping, and in outdoor furniture or art. With a cornucopia of images of planting combinations and layouts, this book shows that a unifying pattern can give your garden the continuity and integrity it needs.

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Eileen Gray edited by Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine (Yale, £45)

This essay collection – produced by the Bard Graduate Center in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris – explores the prolific career of a celebrated Irish modernist. Each facet of Gray's work is covered in depth, including her fascination with Japanese lacquerware and her experiments in weaving. An absorbing chapter is devoted to E-1027, the French villa Gray designed with (and for) her fellow architect Jean Badovici. She encountered many other friends and colleagues on her travels, which took her to Paris, the States, Mexico and beyond.

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Summer to Summer: Houses by the Sea by Jennifer Ash Rudick (vendome, £60)

In her introduction to this salt-and-sun-inflected book, Jennifer Ash Rudick recalls her first encounter with the use of the word 'summer' as a verb on a visit to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The idea that place can have a proprietary relationship over a season is the essence of Summer to Summer. Tria Giovan's photographs take the reader up and down the New England coast, into 26 ocean-front homes tucked away from view. It offers escapism both visual and emotional.The platonic ideal of a summer house is unfussy and time-worn, suggesting an unintentional approach to decorating: faded chintz, wicker chairs and helter-skelter book collections. A house named Will O'Dale on Fishers Island is at turns threadbare and refined, with walls in Pompeiian red and cerulean blue, and filled with badminton sets, wicker hats and Venetian glass. To this off-handed end, nothing can rival the Maine island house of Apple Bartlett, the daughter of Sister Parish, who maintains her mother's allegiance to whimsy and comfort with rag rugs and sun-washed textiles.

Jennifer combines the traditional with the modern, such as the Forties glass and birch house on Mount Desert Island, Maine, designed by Isamu Noguchi and Wallace K Harrison to echo the 'sinuous lines' of the coast. In Martha's Vineyard, architect Lord Foster's minimal pool house is a contemporary answer to the vernacular, wood-framed main building: 'Modest, elegant, economic, and practical… the pool house is not a copy of that tradition but, two centuries later, is in the same spirit.'

While she celebrates the particular appeal of the summer house in this book, Jennifer touches on a perennial truth, 'When decor is personal and practical, it will most likely be beautiful, and its charm will endure.'

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The Tastemakers, by Diana Davis (Getty, £50)

Art historian Diana Davis makes the case that, after the French Revolution, antique dealers in Britain reinvented the furniture and objets of the ancien régime for a new market. 'Acting as makers, retailers, and decorators,' she explains, 'dealers created a sumptuous new decorative style.' Modern notions of authenticity had yet to emerge; 18th-century French originals could coexist happily with 19th-century British imitations. The enterprising dealers who made or sourced these pieces were curating interiors in which 'Frenchness was as much an imagined reality as a material one'.

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Splendor of Marble, by Karen Pearse (Rizzoli, £59.95)

Every slab of marble is unique, and stone specialist Karen Pearse has travelled all over the world seeking out unusual specimens for leading architects and interior designers. 'Somewhere on the planet there is a perfect block of stone for your vision and a fitting technique to bring it to life,' she writes. Here, Karen has brought together dramatic foyers, smart sitting rooms and glamorous bathrooms by the likes of Kelly Wearstler, Robert Kime and Steven Gambrel, which show off the full range of marble colours, patterns and finishes.

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Hydrangeas, by Naomi Slade (Pavillion, £25)

Mophead, lacecap and panicle are the wonderfully evocative terms for the flower forms of this underrated shrub, which is enjoying a much deserved renaissance. Naomi Slade focuses on over 50 varieties – from faithful favourites to enchanting newcomers. Whether making a stylish statement in a border or showcased in a container display or bridal bouquet, the hydrangea is a most versatile plant. Georgianna Lane's photographs capture its heavenly hues, from snowy white to a glorious spectrum of pinks and blues. Sections on growing and care make this a practical guide.

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Be My Guest, By Pierre Sauvage (Flammarion, £55)

There are many beautiful books celebrating house interiors, but in Be My Guest: At Home with the Tastemakers, the spotlight is on the dining table. We are invited into the homes of 20 creatives and author Pierre Sauvage, director of the Parisian homeware brand Casa Lopez, offers an intimate insight into how guests are entertained and signature recipes served.

At Christian Louboutin's limewashed Portuguese holiday cottage overlooking the Atlantic coast, guests dine on the designer's lemon mousse under a canopy of wildflowers woven into the straw roof of a pergola. Martina Mondadori, founder of Cabana magazine, mixes Murano glasses, Transylvanian ceramics and vintage fabrics from India to create eclectic tablescapes in her South Kensington townhouse.

Through beautiful photographs by Ambroise Tézenas, the reader visits seaside villas, country estates and city apartments. Diane de Yturbe invites friends to Anet, her family's chateau in Normandy, where they begin with 'drinks on the terrace looking out over the grand canal to the formal garden' before feasting on chicken with morels in the tapestried dining room. Carolina Irving has transformed a Portuguese fisherman's cottage and decorates her table with Indian block prints and textiles from her own range, and cooks local clams with pasta.

Catherine and Manuel Canovas frequently entertain in their 17th-century French manor house, but the key is to keep it simple. Catherine uses produce from her kitchen garden and local ingredients to inspire her menus – her recipe for tarte tatin with salted butter epitomises la cuisine Normande. And Stéphanie Busuttil-Janssen (an art collector, who is president of the César Baldaccini Foundation) entertains up to 40 guests – friends, artists and clients – with orechiette, fava beans and artichokes in her Brussels townhouse.

As a house reflects the personality of the host, the dishes that they cook recall family traditions. Aerin Lauder offers her grandmother Estée Lauder's recipe for Hungarian paprika chicken with fresh egg spätzle, which Aerin serves on contemporary floral plates, with antique crystal glasses for contrast.

Pierre says he selected these hosts for the way they 'share my love for a particular style of art de vivre and above all for the friendships that are forged through a passion for entertaining'.

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Ceramics Masterclass by Louisa Taylor (Thames & Hudson, £20)

Exploring the creative process behind 100 ceramic works, this is a fascinating read for those interested in the art form, as well as a useful sourcebook for practitioners. From a tall fluted vase by Lucie Rie to a raw clay temporary sculpture by Phoebe Cummings, each featured object is examined through informative text. Although this book claims not to be a how-to, there is plenty of instructive advice for beginners, including information about different clay types and glaze mixes.

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More Than Just a House by Alex Eagle (Rizzoli, £40)

Alex Eagle is best known as the curator of her eponymous lifestyle, fashion and interiors boutique in Soho. Here, she steps inside the homes of more than 30 collectors, including Duncan Campbell and Luke Edward Hall's colourful flat in Camden, Beata Heuman's west London house and interior designer Tamsin Johnson's art-filled bungalow in Sydney. Alex, a keen and experienced collector herself, shines a spotlight on her subjects' approach to gathering and presenting beautiful objects – paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics and more.

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Sarah Graham by Ruth Guilding (Ridinghouse, £35)

I have long been an admirer of artist Sarah Graham, and this clothbound book is as beautifully produced as her gloriously coloured, large-scale paintings and charcoals of flowers and insects. It features some wonderful images of Sarah's studio and of her finished works hanging in clients' houses. Ruth Guilding's evocative text details Sarah's journey to becoming an artist and vividly captures her working methods – including her use of HB and 2B pencils. 'I use four whole boxes of them for each drawing,' Sarah reveals. 'I need to achieve this sfumato, this tonal effect, this grisaille, this balance.'

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British Designers at Home by Jenny Rose-Innes (Hardie Grant, £30)

In this follow-up to her first book – Australian Designers at Home, published in February – Jenny Rose-Innes turns her attention to the big names of British interior design. She has interviewed 24 designers, discussing the varied paths that led them into the industry as well as the decoration of their own houses, where they have been photographed.

Jenny visits Robert Kime's London flat to see his maxim – 'every room starts with a rug' – put into practice. Self-taught designer Penny Morrison recalls how she drew bookcases on the walls of her house in Wales, then hired a local handyman to build them. And in his Georgian house near Hyde Park, Veere Grenney has covered the walls in fabric while leaving the floorboards bare. 'I love the luxury around the walls, and modesty of the floors,' he explains.

Not everything is immaculate, however. 'I've got the kitchen from hell, which I've never altered. One day, I'll do something about it,' says Wendy Nicholls, managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, of her country house. Of course, living in a Victorian vicarage with a 14th-century church next door is something most people can only dream of, but Wendy's words suggest that even great interior designers are not so different from the rest of us.

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De Gournay: Hand-Painted Interiors By Claud Cecil Gurney (Rizzoli, £59.95)

Over the past 30 years, de Gournay's paintbrushes have applied the firm's trademark chinoiserie murals to beautiful wallpapers for thousands of homes. Inspired by 18th-century originals, the intricate designs have ignited desire and envy worldwide. This book, written by founder Claud Cecil Gurney, is a compilation of de Gournay's work, demonstrating the extraordinary breadth of application and skill that have made it the most famous hand-painted wallpaper company in the world.

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