William Dalrymple
Flamingo, £9.99 or £6.90 on Amazon

This rich account of a quietly remarkable perambulation sees Dalrymple retrace the steps of two sixth century pilgrims – John Moschos and Sophronius the Sophist. Their pursuit of Christian wisdom took them from the Bosphorus across modern-day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel to Egypt. Along the way they stayed in remote hermitages, monasteries and caves, and recorded the thoughts of those they met, including the powerful pronouncements of pillar-dwelling stylites – the towering intellects of their time. Published in 1998, Dalrymple's journey reveals much about the state of contemporary Christian culture in the east, from the embattled monks of eastern Turkey to the persecuted Copts of Egypt. Lines of continuity and consistency emerge between the major faiths, which makes the violence done between different groups seem both tragic and absurd. Without bravado or fuss, Dalrymple carries us into this contested and dangerous territory. Military roadblocks punctuate the narrative, the photogenically armoured walls of remote monasteries take on a functional quality, and a thick weave of massacres, expulsions, revenge and flight emerges. At the same time, there's great beauty in this book, not least Dalrymple's considered, elegant prose.   Tim Rich

Buy on Amazon: From the Holy Mountain

Theresa Sauer
Mark Batty, £38 or £21.22 on Amazon

A book of bizarre and beautiful alternative systems for scoring music drawn from the work of composers like Stockhausen, Reich and Cage (and about a 100 others). No idea if any of them actually work, but plenty of the illustrations would make great posters. Think of them as sublime examples of aural information design. Would grace any coffee table.   Roger Horberry

Buy on Amazon: Notations 21

Peter Carey
Faber, £18.99 or £11.38 on Amazon

In which a not-very-disguised Alexis de Tocqueville is thrown together with an itinerant, rebellious printer / spy / mimic / stenographer, and together they set out for the new world. As you might expect from another Carey coupling, the two are rife with oddities galore, to offset their verbal felicities. And yet you get drawn in by the way they come to depend on each other as they sally forth through American adventures, likely and not. And all the while, Carey’s passion for his adopted homeland shines forth. It’s a love letter of a novel; an extremely convoluted one.   Rishi Dastidar

Buy on Amazon: Parrot and Olivier in America

Dan Ariely
Harper Collins £8.99 or £5.04 on Amazon

A terrible accident led a young Dan Ariely to question how people make assumptions and to pick apart the holes in everyday logic. Now a behavioural economist of international regard, Ariely has collected some of his experiments in Predictably Irrational to show how we make flawed choices all the time - and how we fail to learn from them too. Accessible and easy to understand, always entertaining, always revealing.   James Hogwood

Buy on Amazon: Predictably Irrational

English National Opera

A friend sent me an email recently, asking if I wanted to see a three-hour Philip Glass opera about Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, sung in ancient Sanskrit. He said he’d be performing “with a motley bunch of assorted misfits creating visual images out of bits of old newspaper, wicker baskets and sticky tape”. How could I resist? The opera is about Gandhi’s concept of non-violent protest, or 'satyagraha', and according to The Times “this show burns with white-hot conviction”. It runs until 26 March and is on at the English National Opera, London WC2.    Fiona Thompson

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Oliver Postgate
Canongate, £16.99 or £10.53 on Amazon

Oliver died last year. Millions of people who'd grown up with his characters, or brought their children up with them, felt terribly sad. But Oliver wouldn't want that. He left behind a joyful legacy of stories and invented worlds where Noggin, the Clangers and Bagpuss lived and still live in films and books. In this memoir, Oliver's charming, idealistic, lovable and a storyteller through and through. Later in life, as artist-in-residence at an Australian university, he sat fuming in an academic lecture: a semiotic analysis of filmmaking. Unable to contain himself any longer, Oliver exploded and raged for the creative instinct. That was Oliver. He was always for things, for life.   John Simmons

Buy on Amazon: Seeing Things

The Guardian

This list of writing tips from 28 authors appeared in the Review section of The Guardian on 20 February. Most of what we write for clients is fabricated, so it contains useful pointers. Highlights include "Leave out the part that readers tend to skip" (Elmore Leonard), "If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings" (Geoff Dyer) and "Don't drink and write at the same time" (Richard Ford).   Tom Lynham

Full list here

Simon Heys
Free download

Let’s face it… if you’re a member of 26, the chances are that numbers are not your forté. For me, they’re just confusing marks best left to bookkeepers and accountants. I’m actually beginning to think I suffer from a mild form of number dyslexia, often transposing digits and being perennially useless with PIN numbers and phone numbers. So Word Clock, by the ingenious digital designer Simon Heys (currently working at the Times), is a welcome antidote to the number fascism of time. It’s a rather beautiful screen saver (for Mac, PC or iPhone), which tells you the time in written out words, which change… well… every second. You can set it as a full screen of words or a rather elegant spiral, you can change the colours or the typeface. It’s wonderfully mesmerising watching time click by in words. Get yours here. You won't regret it.   Jim Davies