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. ...

This charming story about a penguin colony in Antarctica illustrates key truths about how deal with the issue of change: handle the challenge well & you can prosper greatly; handle it poorly & you put yourself at risk. The penguins are living happily on their iceberg as they have done for many years. Then one curious penguin discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home
- & pretty much no one listens to him. The characters in this fable are like people we recognise even ourselves. Their story is one of resistance to change & heroic action confusion & insight seemingly intractable obstacles & the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. It is a story that is occuring in different forms around us today
- but the penguins handle change a great deal better than most of us. Based on John Kotter's pioneering work on how to make smart change happen faster & better the lessons you can learn from this short & easy-to-read book will serve you well in your job in your family & in your community. & these lessons are becoming ever more important as the world around us changes faster & faster.

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Just over a century ago Our Island Story entranced a nations children by telling their history in stories. Short simply written chapters packed with living characters & thrilling action
- & illustrated with vivid colour pictures
- illuminate all the main events from Britains earliest days to the end of Victorias reign. & its glorious fusion of myth & legend with sober fact
- Canute & King Arthur with Cromwell & the Indian Mutiny
- is as seductive now as it ever was. I was given H.E. Marshalls Our Island Story at Christmas 1936 & Ive still got that copy. It was a direct inspiration for me in my career as a historian Antonia Fraser Daily Telegraph



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Young children will love discovering why all these things & much more are needed in this delightful book by the author of the best-selling Dear Zoo". With lively illustrations engaging text & an amazing giant lift-the-flap pop-up fold-out finale this book is sure to become another classic." ...

Catherine Cookson is known & loved for her vibrant & earthy novels set in & around the North-East of England past & present. Her autobiography makes plain how it is she who knows her background & her characters so well. The Our Kate" of the title is not Catherine Cookson but her mother around whom the autobiography revolves. Despite her faults Kate emerges a warm & loveable human figure. " Our Kate" is an honest statement about living with hardship & poverty seen through the eyes of a highly sensitive child & woman whose zest for life & unquenchable sense of humour won through to make Catherine Cookson the warm engaging & human writer she is today." ...

It was on a Sunday night in 1928 that Billy Hopkins made his first appearance. Billy's tenement home on the outskirts of Manchester would be considered a slum today but he lived there happily with his large Catholic family hatching money-making schemes with his many friends. When war came & the Luftwaffe dominated the night sky Billy was evacuated to Blackpool. There he lived on a starvation diet while his own rations went to feed his landlady's children
- 'I might as well be in Strangeways!' But even the cruel blows that were to be dealt to the family on his return to Manchester would not destroy Billy's fighting spirit
- or his sense of humour.

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A remarkable book by the master. Reading it is a great experience". (Henning Mankell " Daily Telegraph"). An English couple Perry & Gail are taking an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula & a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb & wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London & its unholy alliance with Britains Intelligence Establishment. " Chilling & astute... In " Our Kind of Traitor" there is not a hair out of place...le Carre has done it again for our nasty new age". (" The Times"). "A compelling tale of deceit dialogue & the authors own despair... This is a story with frenzy at its heart". (James Naughtie " Telegraph"). " John le Carres bullet train of a new thriller is part vintage John le Carre & part Alfred Hitchcock... The authors most thrilling thriller in years". (" The New York Times")." ...

Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic & his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula & a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb & wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London & its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment. ...