One morning Mr Gaskitt puts on all his clothes Mrs Gaskitt picks up a robber in her taxi Gus & Gloria have trouble with a teacher Horace the cat goes to a friends house to watch TV & the car radio gets things wrong. What happens next is an action-packed farcical romp that interweaves all the different plots & ends in a thrilling car chase with Mr Gaskitt saving the day! ...

In June 1805 a 56-year-old Italian immigrant disembarked in Philadelphia carrying only a violin. Before dying in New York 23 years later he would find New World respectability as the first Professor of Italian at Columbia University. For now he set up shop as a grocer. There was always an air of mystery about the Abbe Lorenzo da Ponte. A scholarly poet teacher & priest with a devoted wife he also had a reputation as a womanizer. Da Ponte charmed all he met pioneering the place of Italian music in American life. But his self-assurance also excited mistrust. When the first Italian opera was performed in New York in 1825 he had the nerve to claim he had written it. Like the memoirs he had recently written to pay off more debts the old man was so full of tall stories... The many lives of Lorenzo da Ponte
- librettist of Mozarts three great operas The Marriage of Figaro Don Giovanni & Cosi Fan Tutte
- begin in Venice linger in Vienna & London & ends in New York where today he lies buried in an unmarked grave in the worlds largest cemetery.

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Sam is an ordinary person who wears an ordinary suit & ordinary shoes. He works in an ordinary neat office writing down figures all day & underlining them. But Sams mother is definitely not an ordinary woman Sams mother is a pirate & she wants to sweep him away to sea... Written by a best-selling author this is a lively & enchanting tale with wonderfully exuberant illustrations to match. ...

Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing & reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. Sam has an ordinary life
- but his mother used to be a pirate! One day at breakfast they decide to go to sea & an amazing adventure begins. A brand new Early Reader edition of this hilarious story.
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A beautifully produced paperback edition of the literary art book hailed as one of the best & most continually fascinating books about painting in recent memory. Lucian Freud (1922-2011) spent seven months painting a portrait of the art critic Martin Gayford. Gayford describes the process chronologically from the day he arrived for the first sitting through to his meeting with the couple who bought the finished painting. As Freud creates a portrait of Gayford so the art critic produces his own portrait of the notoriously private artist recounting their wide-ranging conversations & giving a rare insight into Freuds working practice. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs by David Dawson of Freud at work with paintings by Freud from the 1940s to the present & images by other artists discussed by Freud with Gayford. The result vividly conveys what it is like to be on the inside of the process of creating a painting by a great artist. It will be read as long as Freuds work is admired". (" The Sunday Times"). " If it is Freud who dominates this book it is Gayfords achievement to bring him out & to do so with wit & humor as well as acute intelligence. " Man with a Blue Scarf" is literally inimitable no one else is going to get this opportunity. It's the real deal". (" The Guardian"). "A journal an act of confession a character study of Freud a piecemeal survey of art history & an investigation into the practicalities of portraiture". (" The Spectator"). " Gayfords observations & Dawsons photos provide a unique insight into the working habits of the greatest painter of the human frame in all its infinite variety". (" New Statesman"). " Freud is vividly surprising potent & dynamic a portrait of an anarchic painter with views on everything from Leonardos failings to Princess Margarets voice". (" The Observer")." ...

From Shanklys day to the modern era the Reds have regularly broken transfer fee records & paid top wages to maintain their position at the summit of the English game. During that time trusted money man Arthur Lowe was closely involved in the handling of the clubs finances. His early days learning the ropes saw him acting as a part-time chauffeur for Shankly before rising through the ranks to become Chief Accountant a position he held for 27 years. As part of the clubs inner circle Arthur worked closely with Anfield managers & directors developing friendships & close working relationships with Bob Paisley Kenny Dalglish Gerard Houllier & Rafa Benitez among others. From Bruce Grobbelaar in 1981 to Fernando Torres in 2007 he witnessed every new Kop signing put pen to paper registering his name on some of the most important documents in the clubs history. His autobiography provides a rare insight behind the scenes at Anfield during a period when the emergence of agents & foreign stars saw football turned into a multi-million pound business. Arthur provides a unique perspective on all the big LFC talking points. He gives his inside view on the Steven Gerrard Chelsea saga & the Souness years as well as the Athens ticket fiasco & the ill-fated 2006 takeover. He also reveals more about a shock GBP40 000 fraud why Liverpool signed two keepers on the same day & how Roy Evans had a pet...alligator! If youre a Liverpool fan wanting a glimpse of what really makes the club tick The Man With The Keys To The Bank Of Anfield will be money well spent. ...

It is an intriguing collection where most of the stories concern relationships sports & household pets & interestingly does not feature any of Wodehouses regular characters; one however Extricating Young Gussie" is remarkable as the first appearance of some of Wodehouses most well-known & beloved characters Jeeves & his master Bertie Wooster (although here Berties surname appears to be Mannering-Phipps & Jeeves role is very small) along with Berties fearsome Aunt Agatha." ...

Handpicked in 1999 by the Family surrounding an ailing & increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin with very little governmental or administrative experience beyond having served as deputy mayor of St Petersburg seemed like the perfect choice in the eyes of an oligarchy bent on moulding the presidents successor to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had scrapped his way through post-war Leningrad schoolyards dreaming of ruling the world was a public figure & his popularity soared. Russia & an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams even as with ruthless efficiency Putin dismantled the countrys media wrested control & wealth from the countrys burgeoning business class & decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy. Within a few brief years virtually every obstacle to his unbridled control was removed & every opposing voice silenced with political rivals & critics driven into exile or to the grave. As a journalist living in Moscow Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand & for The Man Without a Face she has drawn on information & sources no other writer has tapped. Her horrifying & spellbinding account of how this faceless man manoeuvred his way into absolute
- & absolutely corrupt
- power will stand as a classic of narrative non-fiction.

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When Vladimir Putin an unimportant low-level KGB operative was rushed to power by a group of Oligarchs in 1999 he was a man without a history. Within a few brief years Putin had dismantled the country's media wrested control & wealth from the country's burgeoning business class & decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy. Virtually every obstacle to his unbridled control was removed & every opposing voice silenced with political rivals & critics driven into exile or to the grave. Drawing on information & sources no other writer has tapped Masha Gessen's fearless account charts Putin's rise from the boy who had scrapped his way through post-war Leningrad schoolyards to the 'faceless' man who manoeuvred his way into absolute
- & absolutely corrupt
- power.

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It is winter 1943. Bernie Gunther has left the Criminal Police & is working for the German War Crimes Bureau based in Berlin. Reports have been circulating of a mass grave hidden in a wood near Smolensk. The grave's whereabouts are uncertain until deep in the Katyn Forest a wolf digs up some human remains. Rumour has it that the grave is full of Polish officers murdered by the Russians
- a war crime that is perfect propaganda for Germany. But it needs a detective of subtle skill to investigate this horrific discovery. Cue Bernie Gunther...
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