Cicada Books pride themselves on identifying new talent in all artistic fields, and have over the past few years worked with some particularly exciting young illustrators. Each of the three titles in this new series of illustrated journals covers a different subject matter and promotes a different young, female illustrator, who brings the subject matter alive with beautiful and distinctive hand drawings. The first in the series is Merlin Evans' Cooking Journal. Illustrated charts and diagrams show different meat cuts, seasonal fruit and veg, lettuce varieties and yeast compositions. Merlin's detailed pen and ink drawings bring to mind Victorian etchings, but have a warmth and humour which makes them distinctly contemporary. Plenty of space for notes, recipes and comments make this a lovely stationery product for the cooking enthusiast. The journals are elegantly packaged with exposed greyboard covers, fabric spines, and further effects. They are printed on a beautiful, creamy paper stock that begs to be written on. They follow on from the success of Cicada's recent Baby Journal, and also take inspiration from Nigel Peake's Bike Journal (Laurence King).