An enchanting take on the legend of King Arthur from War Horse author & former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo There stood before me an ancient man swathed in a dark & tattered fleece his long hair & beard matted with filth his face grey with grief & age Holding the sword out in front of me I backed away until I felt the sink behind me & I could go no further His eyes followed me all the way' When Bun Bendle is struck blind he feels like he is drowning in blackness But the discovery of an ancient tomb & a strangely familiar sword changes him forever The Sleeping Sword weaves a contemporary tale with Arthurian legend in a way that is utterly spellbinding A gripping children's adventure from the master storyteller of An Eagle in the Snow Listen to the Moon Shadow Arthur High King of Britain & An Elephant in the Garden ------Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction He is one of the most successful children's authors in the country loved by children teachers & parents alike Michael has written more than forty books for children including the global hit War Horse which was made into a Hollywood film by Steven Spielberg in 2011 Several of his other stories have been adapted for screen & stage including My Friend Walter Why the Whales Came & Kensuke's Kingdom Michael has won the Whitbread Award the Smarties Award the Circle of Gold Award the Children's Book Award & has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times He started the charity Farms for City Children in 1976 with his wife Clare aimed at relieving the poverty of experience many young children feel in inner city & urban areas Michael is also a patron of over a dozen other charities Living in Devon listening to Mozart & working with children have provided Michael with the ideas & incentive to write his stories He spends half his life mucking out sheds with the children feeding sheep or milking cows; the other half he spends dreaming up & writing stories for children For me the greater part of writing is daydreaming dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out
- the writing down of it I always find hard But I love finishing it then holding the book in my hand & sharing my dream with my readers Michael received an OBE in December 2006 for his services to literature
...

Dulce Chacon's book has had an immense success in Spain no doubt because the novelist speaks with a just & powerful voice & because she has allowed women
- the most anonymous the most suppressed the most silenced
- to speak out Le Monde It is 1939 In the Ventas prison in Madrid a group of women have been incarcerated Their crime is to have supported or fought on the Republican side in Spain's cruel & devastating Civil War Chief among them are Hortensia who fought with the militia & is pregnant by her husband Felipe
- a man still at large & fighting against Franco's dictatorship
- & who lives with the knowledge that she will be shot after she gives birth; sixteen-year-old Elvira who tried to leave Spain with her mother but was arrested by the Falangists while she was boarding their ship; Tomasa whose husband four sons & daughter-in-law were thrown off a bridge; & Pepita Hortensia's sister who from outside the prison acts as messenger between her & her husband Dulce Chacon's deeply moving novel is based on the actual testimonies of a number of women who survived the Spanish Civil War & suffered imprisonment under the France regime as well as on accounts of others who died fighting for freedom A bestseller in Spain where it was voted ' Book of the year' The Sleeping Voice is remarkable for its combination of dramatic intensity & historical authenticity



...

The pacy sensitive & formidably argued history of the causes of the First World War from acclaimed historian & author Christopher Clark FINANCIAL TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014SUNDAY TIMES & INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2012 Winner of the Los Angeles Times History Book Prize 2014 The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car & shoot dead Franz Ferdinand & his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency it fulfilled its every aim it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule & it created a powerful new Serbia but it also brought down four great empires killed millions of men & destroyed a civilization What made a seemingly prosperous & complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination? In The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War & its causes Above all it shows how the failure to understand the seriousness of the chaotic near genocidal fighting in the Balkans would drag Europe into catastrophe Reviews' Formidable one of the most impressive & stimulating studies of the period ever published' Max Hastings Sunday Times' Easily the best book ever written on the subject A work of rare beauty that combines meticulous research with sensitive analysis & elegant prose The enormous weight of its quality inspires amazement & awe Academics should take note Good history can still be a good story' Washington Post'A lovingly researched work of the highest scholarship It is hard to believe we will ever see a better narrative of what was perhaps the biggest collective blunder in the history of international relations' Niall Ferguson' Reading The Sleepwalkers it is as if a light had been turned on a half-darkened stage of shadowy characters cursing among themselves without reason Clark demolishes the standard view The brilliance of Clark's far-reaching history is that we are able to discern how the past was genuinely prologue In conception steely scholarship & piercing insights his book is a masterpiece' Harold Evans New York Times Book Review' Impeccably researched provocatively argued & elegantly written a model of scholarship' Sunday Times Books of the Year' Superb effectively consigns the old historical consensus to the bin It's not often that one has the privilege of reading a book that reforges our understanding of one of the seminal events of world history' Mail Online'A monumental new volume Revelatory even revolutionary Clark has done a masterful job explaining the inexplicable' Boston Globe' Superb One of the great mysteries of history is how Europe's great powers could have stumbled into World War I This is the single best book I have read on this important topic' Fareed Zakaria'A meticulously researched superbly organized & handsomely written account Military History Clark is a masterly historian His account vividly reconstructs key decision points while deftly sketching the context driving them A magisterial work' Wall Street Journal' This compelling examination of the causes of World War I deserves to become the new standard one-volume account of that contentious subject' Foreign Affairs'A brilliant contribution' Times Higher Education' Clark is fully alive to the challenges of the subject He provides vivid portraits of leading figures He also gives a rich sense of what contemporaries believed was at stake in the crises leading up to the war' Irish Times' In recent decades many analysts had tended to put most blame for the disaster of the First World War on Germany Clark strongly renews an older interpretation which sees the statesmen of many countries as blundering blindly together into war' Stephen Howe Independent Books of the Year About the author Christopher Clark is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge & a Fellow of St Catharine's College He is the author of The Politics of Conversion Kaiser Wilhelm II & Iron Kingdom Widely praised around the world Iron Kingdom became a major bestseller He has been awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany ...

Arthur Koestler's extraordinary history of humanity's changing vision of the universe In this masterly synthesis Arthur Koestler cuts through the sterile distinction between 'sciences' & 'humanities' to bring to life the whole history of cosmology from the Babylonians to Newton He shows how the tragic split between science & religion arose & how in particular the modern world-view replaced the medieval world-view in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century He also provides vivid & judicious pen-portraits of a string of great scientists & makes clear the role that political bias & unconscious prejudice played in their creativity ...

The year was 1893 & the night before Christmas Eve On the country estate of Lord & Lady Harrington tradition dictated it was also the night of the annual Christmas Ball given in thanks to the considerable workforce it took to run such a large estate This story is about one of those workers Drummond No-one ever knew his full name He was only ever referred to as Drummond He stood six foot six with hands the size of tractor seats which belied his profession as a master-crafstman of such skill & expertise that any Carriage Buggy or Sleigh that carried his mark would have been one of the finest in England & much sought after But now a broken fence a faulty drive belt on a threshing machine or a cracked chimney stack were the new employers of his skills But Drummond was content in his new role & the solitude it afforded him He avoided socialising within the community of the estate & was quite happy to be left alone & get on with the work assigned to him by Stephan the Estate manager As his oldest friend Stephan was one of the few people to know of Drummonds daily struggle coping with a sad & tragic past It was during spring the following year that Stephan introduced Drummond to a young stable lad called William who'd been employed at the request of Lady Harrington William was someone Stephan thought would be the perfect assistant to help ease Drummonds considerable workload for the forthcoming winter months William was a young orphan boy a stray but who seemed to possess a rare & magical gift Animals became calm in his presence & people felt at ease & happy whenever he was around Even Drummond had to concede there was something special about this scrawny little lad & so agreed to take him on as his apprentice regardless of his previous dictum of always working alone The other workers on the estate felt this to be an odd partnership & one sure to fail given Drummonds morose disposition & reticence to social participation But this happy little boy was about to prove them all wrong & have a very dramatic effect on his new teacher & mentor in the most surprising way ...

Number one bestselling author David Walliams presents his first picture book for children of 3 & up illustrated by artistic genius Tony Ross What's big blue bossy & turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant of course! Introducing a magnificently warm & funny picture book from two remarkable talents Adopt your copy today! ...

Number one bestselling author David Walliams presents his very first picture book for children of 3 & up Illustrated by artistic genius Tony Ross this book & CD edition comes with audio hilariously read by the author himself What's big blue bossy & turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant of course! Introducing a magnificently warm & funny picture book from two incredible talents & read aloud by the author himself
- this is one that will enchant your eyes & ears alike! Adopt your copy today!
...

Most books on teaching ask teachers to be inspirational to operate at 100 miles an hour with creativity oozing out of every pore Dominic Salles says that's unsustainable But you can get brilliant results using some simple practices taken from the myriad of educational research on classroom practices It isn't a guide to all the extra stuff you should do to become cool & awesome It is a book that will get you to forget about teaching & think about learning another way of saying it will help you to stop stressing about what you do & get the students to work harder & smarter at what they do Dominic Salles believes that every teacher can be slightly awesome & here he shows you how ...

Over 30 gloopy gooey colourful diy slime recipes will mesmerise youngsters by showing them how to make slime Play poke push pull & pop awesome easy-to-follow slime recipes all of which use inexpensive accessible & safe everyday products Create Monster Slime with googly eyes tuck in to some yummy edible chocolate slime & see the rainbow with unicorn slime! All projects in The Slime Book are shown with clear step-by-step images & a vibrant final image of the slimy stuff Learn the science behind these slime creations with amazing fact boxes & carry on the fun with recipe variations The latest addictive kids' activity making your own slime is the ultimate sticky & squidgy fun
- are you ready to create slime? Then get goo-ing! All slime recipes are borax-free
...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play The Slipper & the Rose is Brian Forbes& classic Oscar-nominated musical that re-tells the much-loved story of Cinderella & features a wonderful score by the renowned Sherman Brothers whose numerous credits include Mary Poppins Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & The Jungle Book Richard Chamberlain plays Prince Edward the heir to the throne of Euphrania who is expected to find a wife His parents the King & Queen plan a Royal Ball to which all the princesses in the land will be invited so that he can find his bride Meanwhile Cinderella lives in misery her father has died & her wicked stepmother & awful sisters have made her the house servant But with the arrival of her fairy Godmother comes three wishes & the chance for Cinderella to go to the ball ...