For most people in England today the church is simply the empty building at the end of the road visited for the first time if at all when dead. It offers its sacraments to a population that lives without rites of passage & which regards the National Health Service rather than the National Church as its true spiritual guardian. In Our Church Scruton argues that the Anglican Church is the forlorn trustee of an architectural & artistic inheritance that remains one of the treasures of European civilization. He contends that it is a still point in the centre of English culture & that its defining texts the King James Bible & the Book of Common Prayer are the sources from which much of our national identity derives. At once an elegy to a vanishing world & a clarion call to recognize Anglicanisms continuing relevance Our Church is a graceful & persuasive book. ...

Australia 1789. A young married lieutenant is directing rehearsals of the first play ever to be staged in that country. With only two copies of the text a cast of convicts & one leading lady who may be about to be hanged conditions are hardly ideal... Winner of the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award in 1988 & many other major awards Our Country's Good premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London in 1988 & opened on Broadway in 1991. ' Rarely has the redemptive transcendental power of theatre been argued with such eloquence & passion.' Georgina Brown Independent Methuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern & classic repertoires. As well as the complete text of the play itself the volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life & work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations; & notes on individual words & phrases in the text. ...

The Heinemann Plays" series offers contemporary drama & classic plays in durable classroom editions. Many have large casts & an equal mix of boy & girl parts. The television play " Our Day Out" asks what can a group of back-street kids from Liverpool expect from life beyond a rare "day out"?" ...

* Where learning is an adventure! Welcome to Our Discovery Island a six-level primary series that engages children in 21st century learning. Children uncover clues & solve mysteries as they learn English. * Whole learner: Adventures on themed islands develop cognitive emotional & social skills. * Authenticity: Children are safe absorbed & happy playing & practising in the online world * Repetition: Songs chants & games reinforce essential vocabulary & grammar practice * Motivation: Stories characters & activities engage learners. Our Discovery Island is a groundbreaking new course that makes learning English an exciting & engaging experience. www.pearson ELT.com/ourdiscoveryisland ...

Eva Kershaw thought she would never marry & is happy living a quiet life with her dear friend Alice. But Alice is ill & her nephew has thrust himself into their household. Alices dearest wish is that Eva should not make the same mistakes she did & she alters her will so that Eva & Gus are strongly compelled to marry. Eva obliges to fulfil her dead friends wishes. But Gus is not all he seems to be: he is not Alices kind nephew but a robber confidence trickster & not even Gus Blake. & Eva is in terrible danger... ...

Maggie Smith-Bendell was born on the edge of a pea field near Bridgwater in Somerset in 1941. She & her family are Romani Gypsies & as she grew up Maggie learned the old crafts & customs of the Gypsies traditional way of life. Her family travelled the length & breadth of the countryside eking a living from the woods & hedgerows catching rabbits pheasants & wild duck. They did all manner of fieldwork for farmers including picking peas beans & hops
- & as soon as Maggie was old enough she contributed to the familys labour. Ever since they arrived in Europe centuries ago the Gypsies have been persecuted for their outsider status but the last sixty years or so have perhaps seen the greatest threats to their culture to the extent that their traditional way of life is in danger of disappearing altogether: changes in the law changes in agriculture many things have undermined the Gypsies freedom to live as they wish. In this wonderful memoir full of the language & lore of the Gypsies Maggie Smith-Bendell gives us a true insight into a way of life that has more or less vanished: driven by the seasons with an extraordinary closeness to nature she & her family faced numerous hardships including the deaths of beloved family members. As well as telling the story of her familys ups & downs in the course of their yearly journeys to the pea-fields of Somerset & the hop-gardens of Herefordshire Maggie recounts her own journey to become a prominent campaigner for Gypsy rights. An autobiography told straight from the heart Our Forgotten Years" is both moving & inspiring."
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Key Words with Peter & Jane" uses the most frequently met words in the English language as a starting point for learning to read successfully & confidently. The Key Words reading scheme is scientifically researched & world renowned. In book 6a Peter & Jane meet lots of different people in 52 new words including 'baby' 'because' 'teacher' & 'much'. Once this book has been completed the child moves on to book 6b. " The Key Words with Peter & Jane Books" work because each of the key words is introduced gradually & repeated frequently. This builds confidence in children when they recognize these key words on sight (also known as the 'look & say' method of learning). Examples of key words are: the one two he. There are 12 levels each with 3 books: a b & c. " Series a" gradually introduces new words. " Series b" provides further practise of words featured in " The 'a' Series". " Series c" links reading with writing & phonics. All the words that have been introduced in each 'a' & 'b' book are also reinforced in the 'c' books." ...

Ever since the 1920s the popular legend of the French Foreign Legion has been formed by P.C. Wrens novel BEAU GESTE
- a world of
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For all the strange worlds borne of his vast & vivid imagination Philip K. Dick was largely concerned with humanitys most achingly familiar heartaches & struggles. In Our Friends From Frolix 8 he clashes private dreams against public battles in a fast-paced & provocative tale that ultimately addresses our salvation both as individuals & a whole. Nick Appleton is a menial laborer whose life is a series of endless frustrations. Willis Gram is the despotic oligarch of a planet ruled by big-brained elites. When they both fall in love with Charlotte Boyer a feisty black marketer of revolutionary propaganda Nick seems destined for doom. But everything takes a decidedly unpredictable turn when the revolutions leader Thors Provoni returns from ten years of intergalactic hiding with a ninety-ton protoplasmic slime that is bent on creating a new world order. ...

In this beautiful collectible new volume street artist Matt Sewell offers his own unique take on 52 of our favourite British garden birds. Since its first appearance in July 2009 Matt's ' Bird of the Week' feature for the Caught by the River website has quickly become a cult hit. His pop-art watercolours are distinctive & enchanting as are his innovative descriptions which see great tits 'bossing the other birds around' the 'playful yet shy buoyancy' of bullfinches & the 'improbable' nature of the waxwing ('like a computer-generated samurai finch'). With 52 birds one for each week of the year this delightful gift book will appeal to bird watching enthusiasts children & adults & art & illustration fans alike. ...