Kulturalis, 14 Old Queen Street, London (2026)

22/09/2026

📚🇦🇪 Kulturalis at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

Last week, our MD Neil Titman and Middle East Sales Director Sherif Dhaimish attended the 35th annual Abu Dhabi International Book Fair at the ADNEC Centre – a packed few days of events, meetings and exciting new connections.

With the generous support of the German stand, Neil and business partner Charlotte Kramer – President of facsimile publisher Müller + Schindler and creator of the Universal Art Group – presented Qismah & Naseeb, our first title for younger readers and their families, by Saudi author and illustrator Halla Bint Khalid. Halla made the trip from Riyadh and participated in a vibrant Q&A session about her work and its inspirations – a highlight of the Fair for us.

Away from the Fair, Neil, Charlotte and Müller + Schindler Vice President Alexander Wilhelm had exciting discussions with Dr Hamad Abdulla Al-Mutairi, Executive Director of the UAE National Library and Archives الأرشيف والمكتبة الوطنية, about his vision for the Library and its publishing programme for the coming years.

Sherif and Neil also visited the spectacular Zayed National Museum Zayed National Museum, where Senior English Editor Maureen Gannon gave them an absorbing tour of the Museum’s permanent collection.

And finally, towards the end of the week, Neil and Sherif made the trip from one end of the Emirates to the other to meet the مؤسسة الشيخ سعود بن صقر in Ras al-Khaimah. The Foundation, which organises the longest-running art fair in the UAE, is our newest partner – and we look forward to what lies ahead with great excitement.

A busy, rewarding and inspiring week in the Emirates.

19/09/2026

📖✨ Announcing Born in the Clay: Master Ceramists of Uzbekistan – publishing March 2027

We are thrilled to announce our next collaboration with Dinara Dultaeva and Rolando Montecalvo – the team behind Miniature Painting in Uzbekistan: Strokes of Wisdom – and this time, the subject is one of Uzbekistan’s oldest and most celebrated art forms: ceramics.

In 2023, Uzbek ceramic art was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Born in the Clay introduces this extraordinary tradition to new audiences across the world, through engaging accounts of current ceramists working across the country and beautiful new photography of these artists and their finest work.

The book takes readers on a cultural tour – from the capital, Tashkent, through the Fergana Valley, Bukhara, Khorezm, Samarkand and Andijan – presenting an enlightening and accessible account of the history, techniques and living practitioners of Uzbek ceramics. It is the definitive guide to a uniquely vibrant and distinctive artistic tradition.

We are proud to be continuing our partnership with Dinara and Rolando, and to be playing a part in bringing Uzbekistan’s remarkable cultural heritage to the world.

📖 Born in the Clay publishes March 2027. Stay tuned.

17/09/2026

📖✨ The Pilgrims’ Companion – the illustrations

In the third post of our series exploring The Pilgrims’ Companion, we turn to what makes this manuscript truly exceptional – its illustrations.

The Anīs al-Ḥujjāj contains 20 illustrations that are unlike anything else from this period. They are not conventional Mughal court paintings – they are vivid, detailed visual documents of a world rarely captured in art: life at sea, sacred rituals, bustling ports and the extraordinary spectacle of pilgrim caravans arriving from across the Muslim world.

We are sharing five of the most striking here. From two vividly coloured ships crossing the Sea of Oman with marine creatures populating the waters below, to the only known illustration of its kind depicting the gathering of pebbles for the Jamarat at Muzdalifah – a ritual that has never been visualised in this way in any other manuscript.

From the colourful encampment of pilgrims arriving from the Maghreb, to the Egyptian Amīr al-Ḥajj departing Mecca in luminous gold attire accompanied by the ceremonial maḥmal of Sultan Mehmed IV.

And finally, the port of Jeddah – the Gateway to Mecca – one of the most important maritime hubs in the Muslim world.

As Qaisra M. Khan writes, these illustrations go far beyond simply complementing the text – they offer an insight into social structure, ritual, trade, architecture, landscape and material life in the 17th-century Muslim world.

📖 Stay tuned for the final post in our series.

The Pilgrims’ Companion is available via ACC Art Books – link in bio.

15/09/2026

🎨✨ The page that stopped us – Divine Light by Janet Gough

The East Window at Carlisle Cathedral, depicting the Last Judgement, 1359.

Of all the extraordinary windows featured in Divine Light, this one holds a special distinction – it was voted the nation’s favourite window by the public. And looking at it, it is easy to see why.

Created over 650 years ago, it is a work of astonishing ambition and scale – a depiction of the Last Judgement that has survived centuries of history, conflict and restoration to remain one of the most powerful and moving works of stained glass in England.

It is exactly the kind of discovery that makes Divine Light such a remarkable book. Janet brings these windows to life in a way that makes you want to see them for yourself.

And if you would like to hear Janet speak, she will be giving a public lecture followed by a reception and book signing at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island on 22 September, 6:00pm. Tickets are available via Redwood Library & Athenaeum website: https://redwoodlibrary.org/events/divine-light-the-stained-glass-of-englands-cathedrals-with-janet-gough/

📖 Divine Light is available via ACC Art Books – link in bio.

12/09/2026

✨ Justice for All launched at the Old Bailey

Earlier this week, we were delighted to launch our latest publication – Justice for All and Why it Makes Economic Sense – at the Judges’ Dining Room at the Old Bailey, London’s historic Central Criminal Court.

The book, edited by Alderman and Sheriff Robert Hughes-Penney, has been published to support the Justice for All series – a programme of panel events hosted over the last 12 months at the Old Bailey, championing principles of fairness and inclusivity as the essential foundation of effective civic institutions.

At the launch, Robert paid tribute to the remarkable range of eminent speakers who contributed to the events and to the book, including Lord Neuberger, Sir David Gauke, Julie Etchingham, Lord Timpson and many more.

We are proud to have been selected as the publishing partner for the Justice for All series – a project that has expanded our subject range into economic, legal and social history and policy, and one that we have found deeply rewarding to work on.

Our MD Neil Titman, Art Director Matt Wilson, Finance Director Sara Callard and Publishing Consultant Julian Platt – who brought the project to Kulturalis – were all in attendance. A very special evening in a truly extraordinary setting.

We look forward to promoting this important publication at the upcoming book fairs in Abu Dhabi and Frankfurt.

Justice for All is available now: https://www.accartbooks.com/uk/book/justice-for-all/

City of London Corporation Rathbones RAND

10/09/2026

📖✨ The Pilgrims’ Companion – meet the author and translator

In the second post of our series exploring The Pilgrims’ Companion, we introduce the two remarkable people who brought this manuscript to life for contemporary readers: curator Qaisra Khan and translator Michael Burns.

Qaisra is a curator of Islamic art who has specialised in the arts of pilgrimage for over 15 years. She first encountered the Khalili Anīs al-Ḥujjāj in 2008 and was immediately captivated by its illustrations. What began as a fascination with the images gradually became a much deeper exploration of the manuscript, its author and the world of pilgrimage that it records.

As Qaisra puts it: “It has been a long journey, but the gems hidden within the work have made it well worth the effort.” This is her third book in a series of works devoted to the Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage Collection, and it is the culmination of over a decade of research.

Michael is a translator of Arabic and Persian who was drawn to the manuscript by its descriptions of life aboard ships sailing across the Indian Ocean. In his own words: “That thousands of people undertook this daring journey every year for pilgrimage, full of hope and peril, makes this epic odyssey at once extraordinary and part of the ordinary.”

The translation is Michael’s first full-length published work – and the care and sensitivity he has brought to Safi b. Vali’s ornate Persian and Arabic prose is evident on every page.

We are deeply grateful to both Qaisra and Michael for the years of scholarship, dedication and passion they have poured into this project. Without them, the stories of this extraordinary manuscript would still be waiting to be heard.

📖 Stay tuned for the next post in our series.

The Pilgrims’ Companion is available via ACC Art Books: https://www.accartbooks.com/uk/book/the-pilgrims-companion/

08/09/2026

✨🇺🇸 Divine Light heads to America

We are thrilled to share that our author is taking Divine Light: The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals across the Atlantic, with a special public lecture and book signing at the historic Redwood Library & Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island on 22 September at 6pm.

In this short video, filmed inside the magnificent Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, Janet gives us a taste of spectacular US cathedral glass. The cathedral’s west end, designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram from 1911 in the Gothic Revival style, features a stunning rose window by the famous American Gothic Revival designer Charles Connick – a powerful reminder of the deep transatlantic connections between English and American stained-glass traditions that Janet will be exploring in her lecture.

The talk will take audiences on a richly illustrated journey through 900 years of exceptional stained glass in England’s cathedrals, from the remarkable medieval windows of Canterbury, through the Reformation and the Gothic Revival, to the Pre-Raphaelites, post-war Coventry and the innovative commissions of the present day.

There are fascinating transatlantic connections, too, including a window by the great American stained-glass artist John La Farge at Southwark Cathedral, memorialising John Harvard, who was born and baptised in Southwark and whose legacy gave his name to Harvard University.

The lecture will be followed by a reception and book signing.

🎟️ Tickets are $20 – book via the Redwood Library website. Link in bio.

📖 Divine Light is available via .

05/09/2026

⚖️🖨️ Justice for All on the press

There is nothing quite like seeing a book come to life on the press, and this one feels particularly special.

Justice for All, edited by Alderman and Sheriff Robert Hughes-Penney, is now in production, and we are giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the printing process.

After five powerful lectures at the Grand Hall of the Old Bailey, the conversations, voices and ideas from across the series are about to become something you can hold in your hands.

We cannot wait to share the finished book with you.

📖 Justice for All publishes September 2026 – pre-order your copy now. Link in bio.

 

03/09/2026

📖✨ The Pilgrims’ Companion – the manuscript and the journey

This is the first in a series of posts exploring The Pilgrims’ Companion: The Khalili Anīs al-Ḥujjāj – a publication we are enormously proud to have brought into the world.

We are starting with where it all began: the manuscript itself.

In the year 1676, Princess Zeb un-Nisa – eldest daughter of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, accomplished poet and celebrated patron of the arts – commissioned a unique manuscript. She chose as its author Safi b. Vali al-Qazvini, a scholar and traveller, and tasked him with documenting something remarkable: an entire year-long pilgrimage from Mughal India to Mecca and Medina, via the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

To understand the world in which this manuscript was created, we are sharing two extraordinary works from The Khalili Collections – a group portrait of the Mughal dynasty, with Emperor Aurangzeb himself among its subjects, and a Qur’an written in the hand of Zeb un-Nisa’s younger sister, Zinat un-Nisa, in beautiful naskh script against clouds of burnished gold. Both offer a glimpse into the remarkable cultural and intellectual life of the Mughal court from which the Anīs al-Ḥujjāj emerged.

The result of Zeb un-Nisa’s commission was extraordinary. Part travelogue, part devotional guide, part practical manual, Safi b. Vali recorded everything – from which ships to select and the best foods to consume, to the rituals to observe, the people one might encounter and the ports and cities along the way. We have mapped his route for you here.

For centuries, this manuscript was never fully translated into English. Michael Burns’s landmark translation – the first ever – changes that, while Qaisra M. Khan’s scholarly introduction provides the context and depth this manuscript deserves. Together, they bring the Anīs al-Ḥujjāj to contemporary readers for the very first time.

📖 Stay tuned for the next post in our series.

The Pilgrims’ Companion is available via ACC Art Books – link in bio.

01/09/2026

🎉📚 And the winners are…

Thank you to everyone who entered our Grace and Fire giveaway. We were delighted by the response and so pleased to see such enthusiasm for Gerard Uferas breathtaking photographic portrait of the arts.

After using a verified randomiser, we are excited to announce that our five winners are:

✨ sisukas.xo ✨ plccmo77 ✨ gypsyxyz ✨ antonia.saidou ✨ claire_decleves

Congratulations! We will be in touch with you directly to arrange delivery of your copy of Grace and Fire.

For those who didn’t win this time, don’t worry – more books and more giveaways are on the way. In the meantime, Grace and Fire is available worldwide via ACC Art Books – link in bio.

Thank you again for taking part and for supporting cultural publishing.

Kulturalis

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