In six roll-up-your-sleeves chapters Sally McGraw from Already Pretty illustrates how cultivating personal style can foster self-love and self-respect. Exercises and tutorials help you to determine both your current and aspirational style, evaluate existing pieces in your closet, identify wardrobe holes, shop for new, key items, and learn about the fundamentals of figure flattery. Valuable tools to help you dress for the woman you are right now and create a style that is unique and truly your own.

From flapper dresses, feathers and beaded evening frocks for dancing the Charleston to sporty outfits and chic ensembles designed for luxury travel, fashion exploded during the Roaring Twenties, when clothes became a symbol of a more liberated lifestyle. This compact book focusses on the art deco fashions of the 1920’s, and uses sketches, outfit and jewellery photos, images from fashion magazines and evocative illustrations from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s dress collection to recreate this glamorous era.

Director Wong Kar-Wai’s poetic film set in 1962 Hong Kong tells the story of newspaper editor Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and secretary Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) who move into neighbouring apartments on the same day. Soon they discover their spouses are having an affair. “Hurt and angry they find comfort in their growing friendship”, but while trying to piece together the circumstances behind the affair, they realize they now need to come to terms with their own mutual attraction.

Louise Canova is insecure about her appearance and style choices, unhappy with her life and empty marriage. She needs help… and she finds it in a second-hand copy of A Guide to Elegance. This slim volume by formidable French fashion expert Madame Dariaux promises to transform even the plainest of women into creatures of poise and grace. Louise vows to take the advice in this ABC of fashion and etiquette to heart, and gets to work straightaway – determined to become the woman she has always wanted to be.

It’s the early 1970s, the Cold War is in full swing, and MI6 has reason to believe there is a Soviet mole in the highest echelon of the British Secret Intelligence Service. His treachery has already blown some of their vital operations and their best networks. “Brought out of retirement to expose the potential mole, veteran spy George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is the only one who can be trusted to expose one of their own. Or can he? As the emotional and physical stress take their toll on the high-ranking suspects, Smiley is forced into the ultimate international spy game where everyone’s motives are in question.”