"The Race to Space: From Sputnik to the Moon Landing and Beyond" by Clife Gifford and Paul Daviz (Words and Pictures)

We're continuing our celebration of all things Spacey with the run-up to the 50th Anniversary of the first moon landing - this time with a book that not only looks at that monumental space mission, but begins way back in the early days of the space race as the USA and USSR put their scientific might behind exploring space for the first time.

In "The Race to Space" by Clive Gifford and Paul Daviz, this absolutely gorgeously presented book presents a potted but thoroughly detailed history of the space race, beginning with Russia's first man-made satellite in space (Sputnik), right through to what may happen in the future as once again the world gears up to take the next steps towards exploring the rest of the Solar System and beyond.

Straight off the bat, this book is so eye catching, with Paul Daviz coming up with some absolutely stunning illustrations drawing on influences ranging from Russian 'Space Propaganda' posters, right through to NASA's amazing conceptual art. With Clive's thorough and precise facts and anecdotes detailing the early missions, the unmanned launches, animals in space, and of course the first humans to be launched into space and successfully returned to earth, it's a riveting read even if you feel you're relatively well informed about space exploration.

Utterly superb in every way.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fact-filled and brilliantly presented book encompassing a huge chunk of space exploration history, and looking forwards to what we may achieve in space next.

"The Race to Space" by Clive Gifford and Paul Daviz is out now, published by Words and Pictures (kindly supplied for review).