Jean-Jacques Sempé

Phaidon Press has just released four new translations of the brilliant French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé's work: 'Nothing is Simple', 'Everything is Complicated', 'Sunny Spells' and 'Mixed Messages.' The translator, Anthea Bell, has written a loving essay on his work for the Telegraph, too -- read it here.

If you're lucky enough to be in London on October 6, Sempé will be in conversation with the equally brilliant illustrator Quentin Blake at the Institut Français. More info on that here.

Bookshelf: Color

I'm presently reading an excellent book by Victoria Finlay called "Color: A Natural History of the Palette." It's a bit hard to describe, but her basic premise was to take a paintbox and then research the history of each color that was in it, in the process traveling all over the world and discovering a lot of fascinating history. Highly recommended, and will make you look at your paintbox (and paint tubes) in a whole new way, too. More info on the book can be found on the Random House website, too.