Books with author Ace Bentley

For almost a century, W. A. Bentley caught and photographed thousands of snowflakes in his workshop at Jericho, Vermont, and made available to scientists and art instructors samples of his remarkable work. His painstakingly prepared images were remarkable revelations of nature's diversity in uniformity: no two snowflakes are exactly alike, but all are based on a common hexagon.In 1931, the American Meteorological Society gathered the best of Bentley's photos and had them published; that work has long been available in a Dover reprint edition. The present volume includes a selection of 72 of the best plates (containing over 850 royalty-free, black-and-white photographs), carefully selected from that larger collection.An inexhaustible source of design inspiration for artists, designers, and craftspeople, these graceful patterns are ideal for use in textile and wallpaper design, as well as a host of other creative projects. These images will also appeal to anyone intrigued by the intricacy and beauty of design in the natural world.

It’s September 1929, the gilded end of the Roaring Twenties. Hemlines are high, jazz bands play and flappers dance the Charleston. Newly returned from Darkest Africa and eager to join in the fun, young colonial officer Wilfred Carstairs is heading for the party of the year. But even as he races a mysterious rival in his beloved sports car, something unimaginably faster is plunging towards him out of the blackness of space. Soon his life and the lives of his friends will be changed forever as they are transported to a world of ceaseless danger, merciless evil and remarkably revealing female apparel — a waking nightmare from which there seems no escape. Can our intrepid hero save the girl of his dreams? What is the butler’s shocking secret? And will they ever beat the aliens at cricket? Share their roller-coaster adventure and find out . . .Author’s note:At around the time of the First World War, there began to be novels set on other worlds. Posterity has labelled these tales “science fiction,” but in truth there was little or no science in them. Rather they were an extension of the “lost world” genre of adventure stories, often set in Africa or central Asia, such as those by Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice-Burroughs. It was, indeed, Rice-Burroughs who first moved into space (at least, in the English-speaking world) with his long series of Mars novels. I have always thought it a pity that nothing similar was published in the UK until much later – all those great gags wasted – so I decided to write a thoroughly English version, sticking, as closely as possible, to the style and vocabulary of the 1920s. How to go about it? It seemed natural to feature the upper classes. They are intrinsically funny, it’s okay to take the piss out of them, and they somehow typify the interwar years. They are caricatures of course, my characters, but I’ve tried to make them rounded ones! There’s class arrogance, a general contempt for Johnny Foreigner and a distressing (to most of us) obsession with huntin’ and shootin,’ but there’s also loyalty, humour in adversity, self-deprecating heroism, and a touching wish to “do the right thing.” I became quite fond of them. There remained only to add an abundance of fast-paced action, romance, tragedy, suspense, a thoroughly nasty ‘baddy,’ and a generous supply of exotic Venusian wildlife, and the job was done! It was all huge fun, and I hope you will find it so too.

Learn about 20 endangered animals in this relaxing and beautiful scratch art book. Read fascinating facts about the challenges these creatures face, the habitats they live in, and see if you can guess which creature is being described as you scratch away the metallic coating to reveal 20 beautiful animal portraits by the arist, Anne Bentley. Each of the amazing animal portraits are on perforated pages, ready to tear out and display! Some of the creatures you'll learn about and create scratch art of include: -Black rhino -Orangutan -Elephant -Plains Bison -Bengal Tiger -Gorilla -Bonobos -Chimpanzees -Polar Bears -Red Panda -Giant Panda -Galapagos Penguin -Sea Lions -Leopard -Blue Whale

Learn about 20 Amazing Women as you read their bios and reveal beautiful, full-color portraits by Anne Bentley. Perfect for inspiring young girls to achieve great things, they will scratch away each page's metallic coating with the special stylus to reveal the portrait beneath. Let your creativity and senses develop as you are inspired by their fascinating stories. Each sheet is perforated, ready to tear out and display! Featured women include: Maya Angelou Cleopatra Marie Curie Amelia Earhart Anne Frank Indira Gandhi Jane Goodall Billie Holiday Joan of Arc Frida Kahlo Yayoi Kusama Wangari Maathai Maria Montessori Florence Nightingale Eva Perón Eleanor Roosevelt Murasaki Shikibu Nina Simone Sonia Sotomayor Malala Yousafzai