From the historic to the hip, Berlin is a city of palpable creative energy with a healthy dose of cultural relevance.

Which cities offer the best quality of life? How do you build a good school? How do you run a city? Who makes the best coffee? And how do you start your own inspirational business? With chapters on the city, culture, travel, food, and work, the book also provides answers to some key questions. Works as a guide but also includes essays that explore what makes a great city, how to make a home and why culture is good for you

Hamburg is a historic but forward-thinking city, home to arbiters of tradition and avant-garde artists alike. Ready? It's time to pull up a chair and meet the lot of them.

Brussels may be the heart of the EU but unassuming Antwerp has long been one of Europe's most prosperous ports. Join us as we drop anchor at both cosmopolitan hubs - and dip in and out of a few of Belgium's smaller, canal-laced cities in between. It's a boon and burden to Belgium that Brussels is the capital of both the country and the rest of Europe. There are many benefits to hosting this lofty seat of power but the city can also fall victim to the associated red tape. An hour away by train, Antwerp is a more relaxed affair, where the creative and cultural scenes almost outshine the city's famous diamonds. For this travel guide we've toured both destinations and found plenty of gems throughout.

How to Make a Nation: A Monocle Guide reveals all you need to make a happy, vibrant and successful nation. From designing a better parliament, choosing a flag and creating social capital to taking care of your young and old, using culture to gain soft power and devising a national brand, this is a book for anyone who fancies a stint as PM, wants to be a more engaged citizen or just believes they deserve good government. This is a book about the small and big things that can make our nations work better for everyone who calls them home. Our 340-page guide features original photography and illustrations printed on a selection of great papers and bound with a linen cover. It is also available in a deluxe limited edition. Published by Gestalten.--

The Monocle team celebrates the endlessly fascinating and culturally rich country of Japan.

A parade through London's outposts of good food, design, retail, and more, this definitive travel guide will make you feel like a local no matter where you are from.

Monocle's latest book unpacks what makes a perfect shopping experience and offers tips on how to launch, design and run your own store. A must-have guide. The world of retail has never been so -challenged thanks to a mix of e-commerce, unimaginative brand owners and greedy landlords. Yet while many stores have -stumbled, a new generation of storekeepers and department store owners is arising. Is this the dawn of a new, independent age of bricks and mortar retail? Since launch the retail world has been one of the pillars of Monocle's editorial -coverage. On their travels around the world, the magazine's editors are constantly looking for well-designed fit-outs, the people setting new benchmarks in service and the stores offering the smartest product mix. At the heart of all this is an understanding that a memorable shopping experience relies on a delicate balance of an inviting space, a warm welcome and a sense of discovery (not to mention covetable products)--but an understanding, too, that shops and shopkeepers play an indispensable role in creating lively neighbourhoods and vibrant high streets. This new book from Monocle reveals the global media brand's 100 favourite shops worldwide, from the independent fashion boutique to the department store that takes up a city block. It also offers a few top tips and advice on how to launch and run your own retail venture, as well as a collection of sharp essays and snappy interviews. The Monocle Guide to Shops, Kiosks and Markets is a handbook for any aspiring shopkeeper, stocking a wealth of insight and inspiration.

In this joyful new book Monocle unpacks what makes a great city, whether you're looking for a new place to call home or need help fixing your own. How do we make better cities - places that work for people of all ages and backgrounds? How do we make cities that provide the obvious essentials - great transport, good places to work - as well as the softer elements that truly deliver quality of life, from urban swimming pools to rooftop clubs? Since its launch in 2007, Monocle has been passionate about making better places to live. Every year it publishes a Quality of Life Survey, which names the top 25 cities to call home. In addition, across the issues, it has interviewed the best mayors, looked at the metropolises putting pedestrians first and met the people creating the best parks, both pocket and grand. Discover how you too can have a High Line, create the most covetable housing or turn a dirty river into a summer asset. Packed with great images and intriguing reports, this is a book that takes the urbanism debate away from city hall and explains what's needed in ways that will inspire us all.

The Monocle team heads north in this celebration of all things Nordic. This heavily illustrated book from Monocle is a celebration of the Nordic region, featuring some surprises, quirks—and maybe a sauna or two— along the way. Monocle’s journalists, editors, and photographers have returned time and again to all corners of northern Europe for insights, inspiration, and ideas for living better. This book isn’t about hammering the overhyped hygge trend or fussing over foamy food. Much the opposite—it’s about a shared but distinct set of values that have helped these nations excel in quiet diplomacy, thoughtful design, and reasoned debate. Monocle looks beyond the clichés and uncovers the people, companies, and stories that help the Nordic region rank highly in everything from art and architecture to eating well. Far from lumping these different nations together, the Monocle team will highlight the people, places and products that show the Nordics in all their nuances: lessons we can all learn from makers in Norway’s high north or retailers reaching higher in Reykjavík; the firms building bridges in Denmark or selling Swedish soft power abroad. The world can learn a lot from these northern countries and The Monocle Book of the Nordics is the ideal place to start.