' Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America...' So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore cafe. In this title, this speaker of immaculate English tells you his story, of how he embraced the Western dream
- & a Western woman
- & how both betrayed him.

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East-End London, 1858.

In London's twisting streets, it's hard to tell friend from foe. & for Katherine Martin,

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Somewhere in a Central Asian Republic, in an underground prison cell, an innocent man is facing imminent death. Harry Jones
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In the First World War, Ronald Skirth was an ordinary Tommy. His experiences were like those of many others: fighting in the trenches under constant bombardment, suffering under a cowardly commanding officer, enduring shell shock & finally, somehow, surviving. But Skirth's story is more extraordinary than that. For on the Flanders battlefield he had a moment of epiphany when he came across the dead body of a teenage German soldier. The boy was just like him. His corpse was bizarrely untouched, & in his hand was a photo of his girlfriend, who looked just like Skirth's own sweetheart, Ella. Afterwards Skirth resolved that he would never again help to take a human life. He altered the trajectory of guns so that they fired harmlessly, & embarked on other small acts of sabotage at huge risk to his own life. Under immense pressure from he authorities he suffered breakdowns & attacks of amnesia, but somehow Skirth maintained his campaign of active pacifism, lived out the war, & returned to marry Ella. Making use of Ronald Skirth's letters & postcards to Ella, his contemporary journals & the memoir he wrote in his retirement fifty years later, The Reluctant Tommy is the fascinating story of a man who stuck by his principles in impossible circumstances, & who had the courage to risk being shot as a 'coward'; an ordinary soldier with a truly remarkable story. ...

The perfect lighthearted summer read for 11
- 14 year olds. ' Geek Girl with a supernatural twist'
- The Observer Meet Mo Merrydrew
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International Superstar Chow Yun-Fat makes his Hollywood debut with Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino in this fierce & explosive action-thriller. After he betrays Mr. Wei, the ruthless crime boss who hired him to avenge his son's death, professional killer Jo ...

It is an early spring evening in 1943 when the air-raid sirens wail out over the East End of London. From every corner of Bethnal Green, people emerge from pubs, cinemas & houses & set off for the shelter of the tube station. But at the entrance steps, something goes badly wrong, the crowd panics, & 173 people are crushed to death. When an enquiry is called for, it falls to the local magistrate, Laurence Dunne, to find out what happened during those few, fatally confused minutes. But as Dunne gathers testimony from the guilt-stricken warden of the shelter, the priest struggling to bring comfort to his congregation, & the grieving mother who has lost her youngest daughter, the picture grows ever murkier. The more questions Dunne asks, the more difficult it becomes to disentangle truth from rumour
- & to decide just how much truth the damaged community can actually bear. It is only decades later, when the case is reopened by one of the children who survived, that the facts can finally be brought to light.. .
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Books Children's Fiction Books Bianca & Bernard, agents for The Prisoners' Aid Society of Mice, rescue prisoners & outwit villains in this enchanting story, made world-famous by the Walt Disney film. The Prisoners' Aid Society of Mice discusses the proposed rescue of a Norwegian poet from the terrible Black Castle. Miss Bianca, the pet white mouse belonging to the Ambassador's son, is sent to Norway on a mission to recruit the bravest Norwegian mouse she can find. She finds Nils, & brings him back triumphantly. Then she, Nils, & Bernard, a pantry mouse who falls in love with her, set off for the Black Castle. They set up home in a mousehole in the Chief Jailer's room, & narrowly avoid the jaws of Mamelouk the cruel Persian cat. Eventually they trick the cat & the jailer, & get into the prisoner's cell. A dramatic rescue via an underground river, & they are all free – & the Nils & Miss Bianca medal for bravery is struck in the mice's honour! Product Information:  •†ISBN:† 9780007364091 •†Author: Margery Sharp •†Publisher:†  Harper Collins Children’s Books •†Format:†  Paperback •†Pages:† 176 •†Dimensions:†12.9 x 1.1 x 19.8 cm ...

Weather patterns are changing
- earlier springs, record summer temperatures & erratic rainfall. & even when it is raining, we
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Alex Fox knows there are lots of things she should be.

She should be the perfect wife to her chronically ill husband Sam,

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