Former children`s laureate Michael Morpurgo remembers the post-war Britain of his childhood in this unflinching & deeply poignant tale of the physical & mental scars of war. From a young age, Michael is both fascinated by & afraid of his grandfather. Grandpa`s ship was torpedoed during the Second World War, leaving him with terrible burns. Every time he comes to stay, Michael is warned by his mother that he must not stare, he must not make too much noise, he must not ask Grandpa any questions about his past. As he grows older, Michael stays with his grandfather during the summer holidays, & as he finally learns the story behind his injuries, he gets to know the real man behind the solemn figure from his childhood. Michael begins to see beyond the burns, & this gives him the power to begin healing some of the scars that have divided his family for so long. ...

Charming & talented Alex dreams of becoming a professional saxophonist while working long hours in the family bakery. Detlef, lonely, repressed, & a small-time Stasi informer, develops an obsessive love for him. But Alex has eyes only for Nicky, an English woman visiting East Berlin as an au pair. With no natural outlet for his feelings, Detlef`s passion becomes destructive, his need for approval enmeshed with the latent homophobia of the regime. As Alex`s band becomes more successful, he moves closer to influences considered subversive by a state that has eyes & ears everywhere, & Detlef`s passions threaten to endanger all of them all. ...

Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy`s struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches. You can`t read, can`t write, but you heal fast, even for a witch. You get sick if you stay indoors after dark. You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one. You`ve been kept in a cage since you were fourteen. All you`ve got to do is escape & find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. & do that before your seventeenth birthday. Easy. ”A book about witches with no owls & not a pair of round spectacles in sight. The new Hunger Games, I suspect... Brilliant & utterly compelling
- I loved it”. (Kate Atkinson, author of Life after Life & Behind the Scenes of the Museum). ” Teens rejoice: the inheritor to Stephenie Meyer`s crown has arrived”. (Fiona Wilson, The Times). ” Edgy, arresting & brilliantly written, Half Bad grips you from the first page & doesn`t let go”. (Michael Grant, author of Gone). ”A brilliant debut that is both deeply unique & unsettling, one that chilled me to the bone & broke my heart even as I sped through its pages. This will haunt you”. (Marie Lu, author of Legend).” Take our word for it, this book is going to be huge”. (Stylist). ” Brilliantly paced with more than a few nasty surprises, Half Bad is a wickedly addictive read that will capture the imagination of any fan of YA fiction”. (Starburst). ” Not since the Harry Potter books
- yes, I said it!
- have I felt so fully immersed in an author`s creation...I couldn`t be more stoked over Half Bad, & this launch novel of a trilogy truly deserves all the hype surrounding it
- & much more...” (Amanda Hurley, Inkwood Books). Sally Green lives in north-west Engl&. She has had jobs (paid & unpaid) & even a profession but at last has found the time to write down the stories she used to only be able to daydream about. She likes to read, walk in the country & would like to drink less coffee. Half Bad is her first novel.



...

This is a new part of an old story: 1930s Berlin, the threat of imprisonment & the powerful desire to make something beautiful despite the horror. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil. But it's been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe & never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. & he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate & the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty & the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. & they just might tell it wrong... ...

From Weimar Berlin to the fall of Paris, & on to the present day, danger, jealousy & inspiration combine to tempt a man to a secret betrayal. Now a ” Radio 4 Book at Bedtime” scheduled for 27th June
- 8th July. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don`t you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe & never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. & he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero`s bandmate & the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there`s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero`s fate was settled. In ” Half Blood Blues”, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty & the possibility that, if you don`t tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. & they just might tell it wrong...
...

Perfect for a classic or modern interior, this floor lamp is sure to draw the eye. The authentic Models SL040 Half Mile Ray ...

Half Moon presents the ‘ Your Country Needs You’ range, a series of gift items using prints "es inspired by the famous enlistment campaign of WWI. The collection

Includes:: stationery, games, bags & kitchen ware. The imagery has been applied to contemporary designs to appeal & withstand a modern lifestyle. Beautifully made these items are sturdy & they are original gift ideas for anyone who loves history or likes ‘nostalgia’ products.

...

Half Moon presents the Shackleton Expedition range, a series of gift items using prints "es inspired by the historic voyage. The collection

Includes:: stationery, games, bags & kitchen ware. The imagery has been applied to contemporary designs to appeal & withstand modern lifestyle. Beautifully made, these items are sturdy & they are original gift ideas for anyone who loves history or ‘nostalgia’ products.

...

Half of a Yellow Sun is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s second novel; set in 1960s Nigeria, a time of vicious civil war when well over a million people died. Her three main characters are each drawn into this violent world
- a poor young boy is employed at a university lecturer’s home, a young middle-class woman faces the reality of her relatives’ massacre, & a white writer living in Nigeria falls in love with the woman’s sister, a distant & perplexing figure. Their lives overlap while they struggle to understand the unfolding political situation. Adichie has the reader consider moral responsibility, the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiance, class & race, & the prospect of love complicating everything.
...

WINNER OF THE BAILEYS PRIZE BEST OF THE BEST Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. & Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna`s enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together & pulled apart in ways they had never imagined. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie`s masterpiece, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, is a novel about Africa in a wider sense: about the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class & race
- & about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.
...