Some books are works of love, and this is clearly one of them. In the past, leading interior designer and restaurateur Terence Conran has funnelled some of the profits from his chain of Habitat stores and raft of influential London restaurants into projects such as the Design Museum on London’s Thames – we suspect that the publication of this sumptuously illustrated and beautifully designed book is another such quasi-charitable enterprise. Opening with eight essays introducing how design has forged its place in modern cultural history, the book moves onto 200+ pages of A–Z listings summarising the highlights of 20th-century design organised by name of designers and design movements. Mackintosh and Miyake, Eames and Ergonomics, Ikea and International Style – this book has them all. Give this as a Christmas gift and you’ll be as popular as Jacobsen’s.