Its 1895 & after the death of her mother 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence a proper boarding school in Engl&. Lonely guilt-ridden & prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true Gemmas reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse shes being followed by a mysterious young Indian man a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? & what will her entanglement with Spences most powerful girls
- & their foray into the spiritual world
- lead to?

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This is the first major biography for a generation of a truly formidable king. Edward I is familiar to millions as Longshanks conqueror of Scotland & nemesis of Sir William Wallace (Braveheart). Edward was born to rule England but believed that it was his right to rule all of Britain. His reign was one of the most dramatic of the entire Middle Ages leading to war & conquest on an unprecedented scale & leaving a legacy of division that has lasted from his day to our own. In his astonishingly action-packed life Edward defeated & killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled across Europe to the Holy Land on crusade; conquered Wales extinguishing forever its native rulers & constructed
- at Conwy Harlech Beaumaris & Caernarfon
- the most magnificent chain of castles ever created. After the death of his first wife he erected the Eleanor Crosses
- the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.


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In The Great & the Good Irelands leading football pundit & legend of the game John Giles looks back on more than fifty years of football at developments in the game from the post-War period to the present day the great players who drove it forward the visionary managers & their teams & the age-old question of what makes a player good & what makes one great. From his earliest days John Giles can recall pondering the subject. Youd hear about certain great" players such as Stanley Matthews but no one would ever explain why they were great. & its a thing that has always frustrated me: trying to define what makes a player great & what separates the great from the good. Now the man himself brings us the answers & celebrates the great ones from Stanley Matthews Tom Finney Dave Mackay John Charles Johnny Haynes & Jimmy Greaves to Pele Franz Beckenbauer John Robertson Diego Maradona Marco van Basten Lionel Messi Paul Scholes & many more. It will include a section on Irish players including detailed analysis of such greats as Roy Keane Liam Brady & Paul Mc Grath. & finally Giles names the player he considers the greatest of them all." ...

Two brilliant stories about Anna her brother Tom & their neighbours Suzanne & Joe-down-the-road as they investigate two mysterious pet problems... Anna & her brother Tom have pestered Mum so much for a pet that she finally gives in & buys them a pair of hamsters. But their happiness soon turns to horror when they discover the hamsters slaughtered in their cage. Can they solve the case of the Great Hamster Massacre? Joe has gone to live with his Dad leaving behind his beloved pet rabbit. When the rabbit becomes ill Anna & Suzanne are convinced it's because it's missing Joe. Now Joe is sick too. Can Anna Tom & Suzanne pull off the Great Rabbit Rescue in time? ...

Bernie Krause is the worlds leading expert in natural sound. He has spent the last 40 years recording ecological soundscapes & has archived the sounds of over 15 000 species
- half of the wild soundscapes he has on tape dont exist anymore because of human actions. Krause divides natural sound into three categories. Biophony is the sound made by animals & plants like the shrimp that makes noises underwater equivalent to 165 decibels; geophony is natural sound like wind water & rain which led different tribes to have different musical scales; & anthrophony is human-generated sound which affects animals as it changes for example causing disoriented whales to become beached. In The Great Animal Orchestra he invites us to listen through his ears to all three as he showcases singing trees contrasting coasts & the roar of the modern world. Just as streetlights engulf the stars Krause argues that human noise is drowning out the sounds of nature but that our focus on the visual today is blinding us to this. The Great Animal Orchestra shows why it is critical to preserve what remaining soundscapes we have & will make you hear the world entirely differently.
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When artist Simon Dykes wakes after a late night of routine debauchery he discovers that his world has changed beyond recognition. His girlfriend Sarah has turned into a chimpanzee. & to Simons appalled surprise so has the rest of humanity. Simon under the bizarre delusion that he is human is confined to an emergency psychiatric ward. There he becomes of considerable interest to eminent psychologist & chimp Dr Zack Busner. For with this fascinating case Busner thinks may finally make his reputation as a truly great ape. ...

The Golden Age of Liner travel was from the early 1900s to the 1950s a period dominated by black & white photography with little colour views. William H Miller & Anton Logvinenko show off colour views if the magnificent ships from the Mauretania & Lusitania to the German four stackers as well as Olympic & Titanic & the crack liners of the 1920s & 1930s including Paris Normandie & Queen Mary. Experience the glamour of liner travel as it was for the Edwardians & through the 1920s & 1930s in colour as never seen before. The great transatlantic liners were often photographed in their home ports as well as at sea & the images here give an idea of the splendour that was ocean liner travel in the golden age of shipping. ...

An irreverent celebration of the great Australian barbecue this superb collection of recipes shows you how to make the most ...

It's the early 1980s & rookie fireman Malcolm Castle is set to take on the biggest challenge of his life. After three years bouncing around in the back of the country fire-engine he's about to start driving it! At just 22-years-old
- less than half the age of many of his colleagues
- he's set to thunder through the narrow streets of one of England's most beautiful medieval towns & speed out across the glorious Shropshire countryside. But while his responsibilities are changing fast almost everything else in Malcolm's life stays the same. Despite facing his fair share of car accidents house & farm fires he still seems to spend an awful lot of time answering a string of unlikely & unexpected emergency calls. He rescues shortsighted dogs from frozen lakes newborn lambs from flooded golf-courses a pair of angry cows from a busy dual carriageway
- & even a hot-footed hamster from a burning cage. Backed up by a heartwarming cast of fellow firemen Malcolm's enthusiasm for his job & his life are as infectious as ever. So whether it is cats up trees or trees on cars follow Malcolm as he takes to the wheel for another crazy year in the country fire brigade. Told with the same gentle humour as his first book ALL FIRED UP & full of even more extraordinary real-life anecdotes Shropshire's longest-serving fireman is back
- a little older a little wiser & even more convinced he has the best job in the world.



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The Great Barrier Reef really is like nowhere else on earth. For many of us the thought of it conjures up images of beautiful azure waters teeming with colourful fish against a background of coral of every shape colour & form imaginable. Yet there is so much more to the Great Barrier Reef than this. It is a massive complex ecosystem & one that has gone through enormous changes throughout the history & evolution of our planet. Produced in partnership with the BBC's The Great Barrier Reef television series the book takes you on a journey along 2 300 km of Australia's north-eastern coastline through the diverse range of habitats that make up this extraordinary water world. Along the way discover how the Great Barrier Reef was formed learn about life on the Reef & meet the plants & animals that inhabit it. The Great Barrier Reef also looks at the environmental challenges facing this incredibly delicate ecosystem & what the future may hold. Illustrated in spectacular full-colour photography throughout The Great Barrier Reef also features hints & tips on how to make the most out of any trip to the Reef making it the ultimate guide to one of the most treasured natural wonders of the world. ...