The wild childhood of a Glasgow tenement urchin Born during the Second World War in Glasgow Christine Fraser was her mother's eighth child. Growing up with her siblings in a tiny flat learning to avoid her hardworking hard-drinking one-eyed father making a menace of herself in the streets along with the other urchins Christine lived an impoverished life but never once cared until she was struck down by a terrible illness. Suddenly her wild days of childhood were over. A long spell in hospital completely changed her life. Now she found herself dependent on others for so many of her needs. & on top of that her mother & father died. Yet Christine was always resourceful & never once looked down. She knew that always there if you looked hard enough was some blue up above the chimneys. ...

The Blue Afternoon" is a classic prize-winning novel by bestseller William Boyd. It is winner of the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. Los Angeles 1936. Kay Fischer a young ambitious architect is shadowed by Salvador Carriscant an enigmatic stranger claiming to be her father. Within weeks of their first meeting Kay will join him for an extraordinary journey into the old man's past initially in search of a murderer but finally in celebration of a glorious undying love. " The Blue Afternoon" will be enjoyed by fans of " Any Human Heart" & readers of Ben Macintyre Sebastian Faulks Nick Hornby & Hilary Mantel as well as lovers of the finest fiction around the world. William Boyd has always been described as a great storyteller..." Here he creates a world both elegiac & hopeful & achingly memorable". (" The Times"). "A brilliant achievement.. .has a sense of place & storytelling which you rarely find these days in British novels". (" Time Out"). " Richly entertaining... Boyd has organized his narrative into one elegant & almost seamless weave". (" Independent"). William Boyd was born in Ghana where his father was a doctor & was educated thereand in Scotl&. His first novel "A Good Man in Africa" won both the Whitbread First Novel & Somerset Maugham Prizes & his subsequent novels have gone onto win many awards. His books include: " On the Yankee Station & Other Stories" " An Ice-Cream War" " Stars & Bars" " School Ties" " The New Confessions" " Brazzaville Beach" " The Destiny of Natalie 'X' & Other Stories" " Armadillo" " Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960" " Any Human Heart" " Restless" " The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth" " Ordinary Thunderstorms" " Fascination" " Bamboo" & " Waiting for Sunrise". He divides his time between London & south-west France." ...

Mallory Dale doesnt like surprises. At least that was the case. When her boyfriend takes her to a burlesque club for her twenty-fifth birthday all she wants to do is go home & get under her bedcovers. So when she is pulled up on stage by one of the dancers & stripped down to her bra in front of a roaring crowd
- surprisingly she loves every second of it. Over time Mallory begins to devote herself to the world of burlesque. It awakens new-found sensual pleasures & reveals her true sexual nature. But she risks losing Alec in the process
- or can she really have it all?

...

Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning with Master & Commander these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the twentieth book in the series. ' If we had only two or three of Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series we would count ourselves lucky; with six or seven the author would be safely among the greats of historical fiction... This is great writing by an undiminished talent. Now on to Volume Twenty & the liberation of Chile.' WILLIAM WALDEGRAVE Literary Review This is the twentieth book in Patrick O' Brian's highly acclaimed bestselling series chronicling the adventures of lucky Jack Aubrey & his best friend Stephen Maturin part ship's doctor part secret agent. The novel's stirring action follows on from that of The Hundred Days. Napoleon's hundred days of freedom & his renewed threat to Europe have ended at Waterloo & Aubrey has finally as the title suggests become a blue level admiral. He & Maturin have
- at last
- set sail on their much postponed mission to Chile. Vivid with the salty tang of life at sea O' Brian's writing is as powerful as ever whether he writes of naval hierarchies night-actions or the most celebrated fictional friendship since that of Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson. Blue at the Mizzen also brings alive the sights & sounds of revolutionary South America in a story as exciting as any O' Brian has written.

...

Ten years after it was first published THE BLUE BALLOON is now a celebrated classic which continues to delight millions of children. Kipper has found a soggy blue balloon in the garden. At first it seems like an ordinary balloon but it's not. It's full of fun & magic. This is a book to be treasured loved read time & time again with fantastic fold out pages. ...

The big bedroom was lovely: all pale blue & white satin & muslin cool & airy the windows looking out over the garden to the creek. But to fourteen-year-old Emily beautiful though it was it was all wrong. Her stepmother's bedroom now: everything changed since her own mother had died. & stretched out on the bed: Stephanie very white & pained. The new baby on its way a month early. All of a sudden with her father away on business Emily had to take charge keep calm ring for the doctor & the ambulance. The time for looking back had gone. The Blue Bedroom is just one of Rosamunde Pilcher's magical collection of stories. Stories that will enchant everyone who has read & loved The Shell Seekers. ...

They're Young Fabulous & Fanged... And they rule Manhattan from the trendy uptown clubs to the downtown boutiques. Fifteen-year-old Schuyler Van Alen has never quite fit in at her exclusive prep school
- she's more of a vintage than a Versace girl
- but all that's about to change... Because Schuyler has just found out she's a Blue Blood. The Blue Bloods are the city's glamorous
- & secret
- vampire elite. They're young beautiful & powerful. But now they're being murdered. & Schuyler must find out who
- or what
- is behind it before she's next.





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The Blue Book of Grammar & Punctuation is filled with easy-to-understand rules real-world examples dozens of reproducible exercises & pre- & post-tests. This handy workbook is ideal for teachers students in middle school through college ESL students homeschoolers & professionals. Valuable for anyone who takes tests or writes reports letters Web pages e-mails or blogs The Blue Book offers instant answers to everyday English usage questions. ...

Recently widowed Stella Rothchild is no stranger to the ghosts of the past but the move from Michigan back to her roots near Memphis Tennessee is supposed to be about the future. Her two energetic young sons are thriving in their new school. Stella's got a great job managing successful nursery ' In the Garden' & an interesting boss & landlady in local legend Roz Harper. She even has a new friend in Hayley Phillips the feisty young pregnant woman who turns up at Harper House Stella's new home looking for a job. More than that Stella feels an instant attraction to ' In the Garden's' landscaper Logan Kitridge who gets under her skin & makes her feel truly alive for the first time in years. But there is someone at Harper House who isn't happy about Stella's growing feelings for Logan
- the Harper Bride an unidentified woman whose grief & rage have kept her spirit alive long past the death of her body. Love & loss broke her mind & in her madness she will stop at nothing to destroy the new passion that Logan & Stella have found.
...

Since the end of its crippling 27-year civil war over a decade ago Angola has changed almost beyond recognition. An oil-fuelled bonanza has brought about massive foreign investment & a fabulously wealthy new elite making its capital Luanda the second most expensive city in the world. Today fortunes are being made & lost overnight & rich Angolans are eagerly buying up the assets of its former coloniser Portugal. Fascinated by this complex nation perched at the forefront of a resurgent Africa writer Daniel Metcalfe travelled to Angola to explore the country for himself. Ebullient & proud & often unwilling to dwell on its past Angola has a large army a hunger for wealth & a need to prove itself on the continent. But as Metcalfe also discovers it has some of the most grinding poverty in Africa as few Angolans have reaped the rewards of the peace. Nonetheless amid Angola's brash reality Metcalfe finds there is a place for a traveller who isn't there to make a quick buck. Crossing the country as ordinary Angolans do talking to tribal elders oil workers mine clearers & street children he encounters a place of extremes where cynicism & excess go h&-in-hand with great hospitality & ingenuity. Metcalfe also reveals a colourful history of pirates & slave traders capuchin monks syncretic Christian cults & elaborate spirit masks. This is an Angola that symbolises nothing less than a broader turning point between the continents the repositioning of the rich developed world versus Africa. It is a land that until now few outsiders have managed to unlock. ...