SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDThis is the secret history of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author & his subject Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self Lewis Carroll was a storyteller innovator & avid collector of child-friends' Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell his 'dream-child' a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice It is a history of love & loss innocence & ambiguity It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world ...

Exquisite cloth-bound edition of the classic art-history text
- the perfect gift for every art connoisseur & student For more than
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If you love elephants you will love Babar & Celeste writes A A Milne author of Winnie-the-Pooh in his preface to The Story of Babar & if you have never loved elephants you will love them now After his mother is killed by a hunter Babar avoids capture by escaping to the city where he is befriended by the kindly Old Lady He becomes educated & cultured & upon his return to the great forest is crowned King of the Elephants Jean de Brunhoff's tales of Babar have charmed readers around the world for 80 years His stories have followed the king of the elephants as he builds a city founds a family & even meets Father Christmas Tested by difficult trials
- from snakes to fire to runaway prams
- he always comes out on top with the help of patience determination & on one memorable occasion a flight of winged elephants One of the most iconic series of animal books in history Babar has become a household name both as a character in children's books & on TV Beautifully illustrated this edition is an ideal gift for children aged 3 & up Also look out for The Babar Collection & Babar the King Jean de Brunhoff is considered to be one of the greatest picture book authors in history Born in Paris de Brunhoff was the fourth & last child of a successful publisher He managed to produce a total of seven Babar books before his death at the age of 37 Since then millions & millions of Babar books have been sold all around the world

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This richly illustrated history explores the many challenges & triumphs faced by one of Britain's most fascinating cities The Story of Bath charts the long history of this important city from its beginnings in the Roman period through to the present day Its lively narrative takes in Bath's medieval reinvention as a health resort & focuses on its Georgian heyday when a new classical town was achieved as the elegant backdrop to the social round of polite society The rediscovery of the Roman Baths & growing industries led to Bath's expansion in the late nineteenth century while the Blitz & the consequent conservation battles of the Sack of Bath are highlighted in the twentieth century Accompanied by evocative archival images Cathryn Spence brings to life the many facets of this remarkable World Heritage Site ...

It's the most simple unassuming innocent-looking verb 'to be' Yet it is jam-packed with more different meanings forms & uses than any other English word As he reveals be's multiple incarnations David Crystal takes us to the heart of our flexible & changing language He tells the intriguing story in 26 chapters each linked to a particular usage We meet circumstantial be ('how are you?') numerical be ('two & two is four')"ative be ('so I was like "wow"') & ludic be ('oh no he isn't!') & a whole swarm of other meanings Bringing the ideas to life are a host of examples from sources as varied as Beowulf Jane Austen pantomime Hamlet (of course) & Star Wars with cartoons from Ed Mc Lachlan & Punch peppered throughout Full of fascinating nuggets of information it is a book to delight any lover of words & language ...

The fascinating history of chocolate from its origins in the rainforests of Central America to shops & factories everywhere Written as part of the Usborne Young Reading Programme designed for children just beginning to read ...

Read the stories of the amazing men & women who fought for equality during the US Civil Rights Movement including Martin Luther King Jr & the March on Washington & Rosa Parks & the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott Learn all about civil rights-what they are & why they're important This book covers the history of civil rights in the US including slavery & the abolition of slavery & segregation It discusses the momentous US Civil Rights Movement from sit-ins & protests to marches & inspirational speeches to legislation for equality There's also information about modern-day issues & how children can use their voices to become activists in their own communities Perfect for 7-9 year olds starting to read alone Level 3 Readers include in-depth information presented through more complex sentence structure with increasing amount of text to expand the reader's general knowledge & confidence in reading Additional information spreads are full of extra facts developing the topics through a range of nonfiction presentation styles such as"es lists & statistics ...

The main aim of detective stories is to entertain but the best cast a light on human behaviour & display both literary ambition & accomplishment Even unpretentious detective stories written for unashamedly commercial reasons can give us clues to the past & give us insight into a long-vanished world that for all its imperfections continues to fascinate This book written by award-winning crime writer & president of the Detection Club Martin Edwards serves as a companion to the British Library's internationally acclaimed series of Crime Classics Long-forgotten stories republished in the series have won a devoted new readership with several titles entering the bestseller charts & sales outstripping those of highly acclaimed contemporary thrillers ...

Why is green the colour of envy? Why is black &evil&? Why is white pure? Why do we &feel blue& or &see red&? Why do colours have different meanings for different cultures? When we look at or talk about a colour in a particular setting we are as likely to see its cultural or symbolic meaning as the shade itself Whysometimes our grasp of a colour relates to the random way we define it Light blue is called &blue& but over the last century or two light red has become pink whereas in Russia light blue & dark blue are separate colours Does language play a part in our perception of colours? In most cases the origins of why we view a colour in a certain way goes back hundreds if not thousands of years Blue was not always a boy&s colour; pink was not always a girl&s Indeed less than one hundred years ago in the West it was the other way round This book offers a lively anecdotal treatment of the cultural mysteries of colour & focuses on the way we respond to colours the significance we give them
- & how these things change over time & from place to place It tells the story of how we have come to view the world through lenses passed down to us by art science politics fashion sport & not least prejudice
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This is a new title in Young Reading Series Two which is aimed at children whose reading ability & confidence allows them to tackle longer & more complex stories It tells the story of Diwali the Indian festival of lights from its beginnings in Hindu & Sikh tradition to how it is celebrated in the modern day It is developed in consultation with Alison Kelly who is a senior lecturer in education & an early reading specialist from Roehampton University ...