Below are some book recommendations that I think you might enjoy. All of these titles have – in one way or another – helped to shape this site. If you're interested in expanding or enriching your appreciation for illustration, art or design then I recommend you check these out.

You can also find versions of this list on Bookshop.org – an online shop that supports local bookstores and allows this site earn a small commission on every book it shares. You can find a UK Store here and a US Store here.

Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World

Monte Beauchamp

🌐 WorldCat / 🇺🇸 USA

Ways of Seeing

John Berger

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

Power to Imagination: Artists, Posters and Politics

Jürgen Döring

🌐 WorldCat / 🇺🇸 USA

The Story of Art

E. H. Gombrich

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

Illustration: A Visual History

Steven Heller & Seymour Chwast

🌐 WorldCat

The Art of Caricature

Edward Lucie-Smith

🌐 WorldCat

Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective

Alan Male

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power

Victor S. Navasky

🌐 WorldCat

Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling

Martin Salisbury & Morag Styles

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

100 Great Children's Picture Books

Martin Salisbury

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK

The Illustration Handbook: A Guide to the World's Greatest Illustrators

Nick Souter & Tessa Souter

🌐 WorldCat

Fifty Years of Illustration

Lawrence Zeegen & Caroline Roberts

🌐 WorldCat


If you have enjoyed a specific essays on this site and would like to read more then some of these books may be of interest:

Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras

Duncan Tonatiuh

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: José Guadalupe Posada: Skulls, Skeletons and Macabre Mischief

Toulouse-Lautrec

Matthias Arnold

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: A Hedonistic Pilgrimage to the Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec

Steinweiss. The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover

Kevin Reagan & Steven Heller

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: Alex Steinweiss and the World's First Record Cover

Making of Pink Floyd’s The Wall

Gerald Scarfe

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK

If you enjoyed: How Gerald Scarfe and Pink Floyd Built 'The Wall'

The Bird Man: The Extraordinary Story of John Gould

Isabella Tree

🌐 WorldCat

If you enjoyed: Swansong of a Bird Man: John Gould’s Ornithological Illustrations

The Bird: The Great Age of Avian Illustration

Philip Kennedy

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: Swansong of a Bird Man: John Gould’s Ornithological Illustrations

Bonzo: The Life and Work of George Studdy

Paul Babb & Gay Owen

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: George Studdy's Bonzo Bonanza: Tales of a Superstar Dog

The Story of Ferdinand

Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: A Subversive Bull: Robert Lawson and The Story of Ferdinand

The Enormous Crocodile

Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl and the Enormous Success of a Crocodile

Quentin Blake: In the Theatre of the Imagination

Ghislaine Kenyon

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl and the Enormous Success of a Crocodile

Beyond the Page

Quentin Blake

🌐 WorldCat / 🇬🇧 UK

If you enjoyed: Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl and the Enormous Success of a Crocodile

The Passion of a German Artist: Käthe Kollwitz

Klemens von Klemperer

🌐 WorldCat

If you enjoyed: War and Compassion: The Art of Käthe Kollwitz

James Montgomery Flagg

Susan E. Meyer

🌐 WorldCat

If you enjoyed: “I Want YOU!” – The Story of James Montgomery Flagg's Iconic Poster

Recording Britain: A Pictorial Domesday of Pre-war Britain

David Mellor, Gill Saunders & Patrick Wright

🌐 WorldCat / 🇺🇸 USA

If you enjoyed: Illustrating the Lost Landscapes of Pre-war Britain

To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945

Ronald Searle

🌐 WorldCat

If you enjoyed: The War Drawings of Ronald Searle

The Falklands War: A Visual Diary

Linda Kitson

🌐 WorldCat

If you enjoyed: Linda Kitson's Falklands War