We love decorating our houses with candles, superb marble and wooden furniture and plants – but that finishing touch is needed for the consoles and tables and because we are huge fans of coffee table books, we have listed our top 10 which we think you should invest in!

Also, they make for excellent gifts (even for yourself!) – birthdays or house warming, no one frowns on being gifted a coffee table book.

Annie Leibovitz At Work

This takes us behind the scenes of the creative process of renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz  for anyone interested in seeing how the inner workings of her practice are revealed, and where Leibovitz addresses photojournalism, studio work, collaborating with dancers, athletes and writers, and transitioning from film to digital cameras. Originally a bestseller in 2008, this revised edition is eye-opening!

Kate by Mario Sorrenti

Before Calvin Klein’s Obsession campaign made Kate Moss a household name, her then-boyfriend Mario Sorrenti took 50 candid black-and-white photographs of the 17-year-old model in a space where was the most comfortable – at home. A beautiful series  is shown by capturing a remarkable young woman with raw tenderness, and is also a testament to Sorrenti’s brilliance. A reflective introductory essay written by the photographer adds to the intimacy of the entire collection of works itself.

Amy Winehouse by Blake Wood

“This is not the doom-and-gloom false narrative portrayed in the media. She was a brilliant, loving soul who made amazing personal triumphs, and these images capture that,” the photographer Blake Wood once said, of his never-before-seen pictures of his great friend Amy Winehouse, which form this collection. Documenting their moments together in London, Paris and Saint Lucia, it’s a unique portrait of a huge talent.

Dans les champs de Chanel, à Pégomas, en pays de Grasse

In Chanel’s fields in Pégomas, Grasse, this poetic collection leads readers into the Pégomas valley, just a stone’s throw from Grasse, where the Mul family has been growing precious flowers for Chanel’s N°5 and Coco Mademoiselle for generations. The story of how these flowers are grown and picked over the year, in the midst of rolling lavender fields, is told for the first time in these six booklets packaged in a chic case, each describing the house’s emblematic flowers. Flick through them when relaxing by the fire to immerse yourself in the world of Chanel’s perfumes and for an insight into the house’s olfactory history.

François Nars

With everything from shoots for the world’s biggest fashion magazines, to personal projects,right into a glimpse at his creative vision, the founder of Nars reveals his unique and ultra-modern aesthetic in a stunning new book from Rizzoli. Featuring Naomi Campbell, Steven Klein and Charlotte Rampling to Marc Jacobs and Tilda Swinton, an array of legendary faces show in the pages of this autobiography, unraveling over almost 500 retrospective shots from a man who has put his stamp on the global beauty industry.

Dior: The Art of Color

With Serge Lutens’s 40 shades of red in the New Look period, and Tyen’s iconic five-color palette in 1987, the Parisian house has celebrated vibrant color from the start! Through the perspective of three visionaries and Creative Directors, Serge Lutens, Tyen and Peter Philips, Dior: The Art of Color reveals Dior Beauty’s rich history through a series of highly pigmented looks, documented in stunning photographs.

Dior by Gianfranco Ferré

Ferré’s odes to the essence of Christian Dior ranges from his sense of architecture, love of feminine silhouettes, extravagance and opulence in bold color, sumptuous fabrics, and dynamic draping. Ferré has redefined the notion of “Dior” as a style, a code, a spirit in this beautiful book, reinterpreting Christian Dior’s elegant style for the 1990s and a new generation of clients and fashion observers. This book is the fourth volume from a series of books devoted to each designer of the house of Dior. Carefully conserved in the world’s great museums and institutions, these fashion treasures have been lovingly photographed by Laziz Hamani and exclusively compiled for this collection.

Eat Beautiful

Makeup artist Wendy Rowe is obsessed with perfect skin. Helping us out in her area of expertise, she has put together a book of recipes packed with the best vitamins, nutrients, glow-giving fatty acids and seasonal fruit and vegetables. What’s more, she also shares a series of homemade beauty concoctions, such as an ultra-nourishing mask, an exfoliating scrub to wake up your skin and various cleansers and toners. How fun!

Franca: Chaos & Creation

The QUEEN of fashion journalism reigned with a three-decade tenure as editor in chief of Vogue Italia, and brought an inimitable energy and voice to Fashion like never before. Not afraid to address the subjects other publications avoided, such as domestic violence, as well as drug abuse, and recovery, and famously remembered for the July 2008 Black Issue which featured only models of color, which still sells for $2,500 in the market today. This coffee table book however, features photos by Steven Meisel, Peter Lindbergh, and Bruce Weber from both the late Ms. Sozzani’s personal collection and the Vogue Italia archives with texts on her expansive work with couture, models, and provocation to family and joie de vivre to notes from dear friends on what she represented to them. This book is an unprecedented collection of fashion’s greatest works and talents participating all together for the first time. Franca: Chaos and Creation is a fabulous tribute to a visionnaire and her work during the most intensely creative period of the fashion magazine.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Complete Films

The name Alfred Hitchcock is synonymous with suspense―that is to say, masterful, spine-tingling, thrilling, suspense. From The Birds, Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho, Hitchcock (1899–1980) fashioned a new level of cinematic intrigue and fear through careful pacing, subtlety, and suggestiveness. This book traces Hitchcock’s life and career from his earliest silent films right through to his last in 1976, Family Plot. To accompany amazing images, the book also has detailed entries for each of Hitchcock’s 53 films, an essay that sheds light on his fear-inducing devices, photos of the master at work, and an illustrated list of each of his cameos, together adding up to a movie buff’s dream!