Four young people are lost in the woods on midsummers night. Will they find each other & true love or will Pucks meddling leave them broken-hearted & alone? A band of players prepares to entertain the Duke of Athens. But now that the fairies have made a donkey out of their leading man will Quince & the others ever get to play their parts? Is there time to put everything right before this magical night is over? ...

The entire Shakespeare play
- unabridged! The course of true love never did run smooth;" With its mix of real people who stumble
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The course of true love never did run smooth...A magical retelling of Hermia Helen Demetrius & Lysander's classic story
- & of
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The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series with Romeo & Juliet Henry V & The Merchant of Venice as its inaugural volumes presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. Its lyricism comedy (both broad & subtle) & magical transformations have long made A Midsummer Night's Dream one of the most popular of Shakespeare's works. The supernatural & the mundane the illusory & the substantial are all shimmeringly blended. Love is treated as tragic poignant absurd & farcical. ' Lord what fools these mortals be!' jeers Robin Goodfellow; but the joke may be on him & on his master Oberon when Bottom the weaver his head transformed into that of an ass is embraced by the voluptuously amorous Titania. Recent stage-productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream have emphasised the enchanting spectacular ambiguous & erotically joyous aspects of this magical drama which culminates in a multiple celebration of marriage. ...

This new edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream is part of the established Cambridge School Shakespeare series & has been substantially updated with new & revised activities throughout. Remaining faithful to the series' active approach it treats the play as a script to be acted explored & enjoyed. As well as the complete script of A Midsummer Night's Dream you will find a variety of classroom-tested activities an eight-page colour section & an enlarged selection of notes including information on characters performance history & language. ...

In less than one day the might of the Imperial Japanese Navy was destroyed & four of her great aircraft carriers sank burning into the dark depths of the Pacific. Utilizing the latest research & detailed combat maps this book tells the dramatic story of the Japanese assault on Midway Island & the American ambush that changed the face of the Pacific war. With sections on commanders opposing forces & a blow-by-blow account of the action this volume gives a complete understanding of the strategy the tactics & the human drama that made up the Midway campaign & its place as the turning point in the Pacific war. ...

In the sleepy English village of Midwich a mysterious silver object appears & all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone & everyone awakens unharmed
- except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant. The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast & their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others & brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside. The Midwich Cuckoos" is the classic tale of aliens in our midst exploring how we respond when confronted by those who are innately superior to us in every conceivable way."
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At midnight the dogs cats & rats rule Venice. The Ponte di Ghetto Nuovo the bridge that leads to the ghetto trembles under the weight of sacks of rotting vegetables rancid fat & vermin. Seeping refuse on the streets renders the pavement slick & the walking treacherous. It was on such a night that the men came for Hannah. Hannah Levi is famed throughout Venice for her skills as a midwife but as a Jew the law forbids her from attending a Christian woman. However when the Conte appears at her door in the dead of night Hannahs compassion is sorely tested. & with the handsome reward he is offering she could ransom back her husband currently imprisoned on the island of Malta. But if she fails in her endeavours to save mother & child will she be able to save herself let alone her husband? ...

Agnes Light trained as a nurse in the 1960s & went on to become a midwife
- helping to bring new lives into the world for over
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A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. The new novel from Orange Prize listed author Patricia Ferguson is a deeply moving tale about two sisters & the young black orphan who changes their lives
- for anyone who loves Call the Midwife or Andrea Levy. violet Dimond" the " Holy Terror" has delivered many of the town children
- & often their children
- in her capacity as handywoman. But violet's calling is dying out as with medicine's advances the good old ways are no longer good enough. Grace violet's adopted daughter is a symbol of change herself. In the place where she has grown up & everyone knows her she is accepted though most of the locals never before saw a girl with skin that colour. For violet & Grace the coming war will bring more upheaval into their lives: can they endure it or will they like so many be swept aside by history's tide? A moving tale of prejudice struggle love tragedy bravery & the changing lives of women in the twentieth century " The Midwife's Daughter" grips the reader all the way to its heartstopping conclusion. Praise for Patricia Ferguson: " Strong affecting vividly depicted... It is a pure pleasure to read". (Lionel Shriver " Telegraph" (on Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson)). " One of the most brilliant novelists around...funny gripping wonderfully shrewd". (" Independent"). Patricia Ferguson trained in nursing & midwifery & her first book " Family Myths & Legends" won the Betty Trask David Higham & Somerset Maugham awards. Her most recent books " It So Happens" & " Peripheral Vision" were both longlisted for the Orange Prize. She lives in Bristol."


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