In the four decades since his first book appeared in print Terry Pratchett has become one of the worlds best-selling & best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories & other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen" charts the course of Pratchetts long writing career: from his school days through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press & the origins of his debut novel " The Carpet People"; & on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series. Here are characters both familiar & yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds & others still expanding; adventure chickens death disco & actually some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt illustrations by the late Josh Kirby & drawings by the author himself this is a book to treasure." ...

In the four decades since his first book appeared in print Terry Pratchett has become one of the worlds best-selling & best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories & other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen" charts the course of Pratchetts long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press ; to the origins of his debut novel " The Carpet People"; & on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful " Discworld" series. Here are characters both familiar & yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds & others still expanding; adventure chickens death disco & actually some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt illustrations by the late Josh Kirby & drawings by the author himself this is a book to treasure." ...

West is a high school senior who has everything going for him
- until an accident leaves him paralysed. Strapped down in his hospital
...

Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk to take dancing steps on & off the pavement to bowl a hoop to throw something up in the air & catch it again or to stand still & laugh at
- nothing
- at nothing simply. Katherine Mansfields perceptive & resonant writing helped to define the modern short story observing apparently trivial incidents to create quietly devastating revelations of inner lives. In these three tales aglow with light & colour Mansfield describes an exultant epiphany fading memories & the unspoken half-understood emotions that make up everyday existence. This book

Includes:: Bliss" " The Daughters of the Late Colonel" & " The Dolls House"."



...

When novelist Charles Condomine invites a medium into his house in order to learn about the occult for his new book the last thing he or his second wife dream is that the seance will bring back his first wife Elvira who wants Charles all to herself! Things are further complicated by the fact that only Charles can see her which results in some hilarious exchanges & misunderstandings. Elvira's plots to get him to 'the other side' do not go to plan however & instead of Charles dying in her contrived 'accident' his new wife does. Many consider this to be one of Coward's best & most unusual farces. ...

Its May 1941: over 43 000 civilians had been killed & over a million houses destroyed following endless nights of bombing raids. Yet London & other cities that had been targeted survived their spirit undaunted their people resilient. Revisionist historians have sought to dampen the notion of the Blitz spirit but the writings & surviving records all point to a resilience that would remain unbroken despite the death toll rising to almost 52 000 from bombing alone. Illustrated with archive photographs & other materials & illuminated by first hand recollections of the Blitz" this human history of the bombing raids on Britain is the perfect introduction to this dark episode in British history." ...

As the Second World War loomed everyone expected it would bring a new kind of conflict to Britain. Raids by airships in the First World War & the attack on Guernica in the Spanish Civil War had given a terrifying taste of what was to come. So when war was declared in September 1939 massive air raids against civilians were anticipated. Cities & strategic ports were the first to be hit. London was a major target throughout the war. But it was not only the capital that suffered: on 8 November 1940 30 000 incendiary bombs rained down on Coventry laying waste to the city including famously its cathedral. Port cities such as Plymouth Bristol & Liverpool also suffered especially badly. In Blitz Diary" historian Carol Harris has collected together a remarkable series of accounts from the war's darkest days with heart-warming stories of survival perseverance solidarity & bravery the preservation of which becomes increasingly important as the Blitz fades from living memory." ...

From the dangers of London streets during the Blitz to working on the high seas in the Merchant Navy during the Atlantic Convoy children were on the frontline of battle during the Second World War. In Sean Longdens gripping retelling of the conflict he explores how the war impacted upon a whole generation who lost their innocence at home & abroad on the battlefield & the home front. Through extensive interviews & research Longden uncovers previously untold stories of heroism & courage: the eleven year old boy who was sunk on the SS Benares & left in frozen water for two days; the teenage Girl Guide awarded the George Medal for bravery; the merchant seaman sunk three times by the age of seventeen; the fourteen year old who signed up for the army three times before finally seeing action in the Normandy campaign; the fourteen year old Boy Buglers of the Royal Marines on active service onboard battleships; as well as the harrowing experiences of the boy who was survived the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster; the horrors of being a child captive in the German Po W camps. Blitz Kids" will change forever the way one sees the relationship between the Second World War & the generation
- our grandparents & great grandparents- who bravely faced the challenge of Nazism. Allowing them to tell their stories in their own words Sean Longden brings both the horrors & the humour of young lives lived in troubled times. The book

Includes:: stories of: the seventeen year old boy who signed up 4 times before he made it onto the beaches at Normandy; the Girl Guide who saved a family during the blitz; the teenage merchant seaman who was sunk three times; & what it was like to be a teenage POW after the disasters of Dunkirk."


...

This volume covers the first year of World War II the period from phoney war to total war: September 3rd 1939 to September 6th 1940. Beginning with endless air raid warnings & a sense of unreality it was a phase which was to culminate in Hitler threatening to raze Britains cities to the ground. As a direct source of the day-to-day effects of Luftwaffe operations over Britain at the time the book utilizes extracts from the 24-hour log compiled by the Ministry of Home Security & this provides a contemporary diary of events as they affected the Home Front. These entries ideally form the setting for a detailed record of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe over Britain & within sight of land: a barometer of the air war showing clearly the changing climate of hostilities. Every German crash on land is listed with its crew & footnotes are included on all the crash sites which are known to have been investigated or excavated since the end of the war together with photographs of some interesting discoveries. Also featured are articles by historians & eyewitnesses that interspace the daily happenings. ...

She made her way down the cliff & on to the beach. At the edge of the waves she stopped shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person but far far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of uncrossable sea. She led the way to safety out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry. People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went she changed lives... From her beginning to her end she never wavered. She was the Blitzcat. Westalls writing has always been strong & vivid but he has rarely written as confidently as this."
- " Times Literary Supplement"."
...