Mary Ann is illegitimate & life in 1905 is hard. It rapidly becomes worse when her new stepfather begins to interfere with her. Sent away at fifteen to bear his child she meets Gabriel Clough who helps her escape to Blackpool after the birth. The Great War brings Mary Ann many new opportunities & brings Gabriel back into her life. But circumstances mean they can never be together. It is not until her mother dies that Mary Ann returns to Lancashire determined to uncover the secrets of her past. Then danger threatens both her & the child she thought shed lost forever.. . Will history repeat itself or will Mary Anns courage win her the happiness she deserves? ...

Our Mutual Friend Dickens last complete novel gives one of his most comprehensive & penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives but through its apparently incidental characters & scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his fathers heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances
- a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters & incidents
- the faded aristocrats & parvenus gathered at the Veneerings dinner table Betty Higden & her terror of the workhouse & the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.

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Our Necessary Shadow is the first attempt in a generation to explain the whole subject of psychiatry from the UK's leading expert Tom Burns A lot is written about psychiatry & the things it deals with but very little that describes psychiatry itself. Why should there be such a need? There isn't a raft of books explaining all the other branches of medicine. But for good or ill psychiatry is a polemical battleground critcised on the one hand as an instrument of social control or a barbaric practice while on the other the latest developments in neuroscience are trumpeted as offering lasting solutions to mental illness. Which of these strikingly contrasting positions should we believe? This is the first attempt in a generation to explain the whole subject of psychiatry. In this deeply thoughtful descriptive & sympathetic book Tom Burns reviews the historical development of psychiatry the places where there is much agreement on treatment & where there is not throughout alert to where psychiatry helps & where it is imperfect. What is clear is that mental illnesses are intimately tied to what makes us human in the first place. & the drive to relieve the suffering they cause is even more human. Psychiatry for all its flaws currently represents our best attempts to discharge this most human of impulses. It is not something we can just ignore. It is our necessary shadow. Tom Burns is Professor of Social Psychiatry at Oxford University. From the late 1980s he has conducted research in addition his clinical & teaching work & has produced nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles. ...

An inventive interactive book that shows how a baby grows inside its mother's tummy over the nine months of pregnancy. Each of the 9 months is explored over a double-page section using an ingenious half-page flap to reveal what is going on inside a mum's tum & clearly showing how a baby develops. The lively but detailed illustrations the clear friendly text & the gentle humour make this book perfect to share with a child to explore where they came from or to discuss what is happening when a new baby is on its way. ...

Cleve West is one of Britain's top garden designers with six RHS gold medals to his name & a high profile Daily Telegraph sponsored garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2011. He is also a true allotmenteer heading off to his plot whenever he can to get his hands dirty find peace & contemplate life & nature. His book is a joy to read humorous & humble full of practical commonsense & a belief in the values of community & sustainable living. There is plenty of advice here for plot holders
- often of the what-not-to-do sort & written from sorry experience
- & plenty of inspiration too in the creative ways that Cleve & his partner Christine make the most of their plot & enjoy the company of their fellow allotmenteers. There are easy to follow sections on Vegetables & Herbs Flowers & Fruit with recipes & troubleshooting tips as well as chapters on Community Creativity & Children. Amply illustrated with Cleve's own beautiful photographs fantastical drawings by Cleve & Christine & shots of the two of them at work taken by Cleve's cousin the garden photographer Derek St Romaine Our Plot is also a visual cornucopia. To watch a video of the launch of Our Plot click here

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Little Billy is the light of Pollys life
- its for her sons sake that she puts up with an unkind mother-in-law & an isolated farm.
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Create a lasting memento of those precious puppy moments! A puppy quickly squirms his wobbly way into your heart. You cant watch a puppy discovering his world bounding across the yard or sleeping oh so innocently without smiling. The ultimate keepsake for every puppy owner Our Puppys Baby Book" preserves those precious puppy moments. This updated edition of the 1961 Howell classic records your new ones first year
- with lots of space for snapshots of your new best friend. Accompanied by Robert Pilgrims timeless enchanting illustrations this one-of-a- kind tribute is essential for new puppy parents."
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The inside story of a thoroughly modern monarch told by the maker of ITV's upcoming documentary on Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee. This bestselling acclaimed biography of our Queen contains new material exclusive to the paperback edition. History has known no monarch like her. She has travelled farther than all her predecessors put together & lived longer than any of them. She has known more historic figures than anyone alive
- from Churchill to Mandela de Gaulle to Obama. Now the distinguished royal writer Robert Hardman has been granted rare & privileged access to the world of Queen Elizabeth II to produce this enthralling new portrait of one of the most popular public figures on Earth. ' So much has changed around the Queen yet she has remained utterly true to herself ' says Hardman. ' There is this timeless quality about her. The more you talk to Her Majesty's family & to her people the more you look at her life the more impressive the scale of her achievement becomes.' Here is the inside story.
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History has known no monarch like her. She has travelled farther than all her predecessors put together & lived longer than any of them. She has known more historic figures than anyone alive
- from Churchill to Mandela de Gaulle to Obama. Now the distinguished royal writer Robert Hardman has been granted rare & privileged access to the world of Queen Elizabeth II to produce this enthralling new portrait of one of the most popular public figures on Earth. Only one other monarch
- Victoria
- has celebrated a diamond jubilee. As our Queen marks sixty years on the throne Hardman travels with her around the country & the world. He meets Her Majesty's family her closest advisers & her prime ministers past & present. He follows the devoted team around her from her Lord Chamberlain to her footmen. Not only has Elizabeth II reigned through Britain's transformation from an imperial power to a multicultural multimedia nation but she has steered the Monarchy through more reforms in the last 25 years than in the previous century. Staff who would once have lived an existence straight out of Upstairs Downstairs or Downton Abbey now find themselves working in a surprisingly young & dynamic environment
- with some interesting perks. ' So much has changed around the Queen yet she has remained utterly true to herself ' says Hardman. ' There is this timeless quality about her. The more you talk to Her Majesty's family & to her people the more you look at her life the more impressive the scale of her achievement becomes.' Our Queen sits at the head of an ancient institution which remains simultaneously popular regal inclusive & relevant in a twenty-first-century world. It is neither down to luck nor longevity. It is down to the shrewd judgement of a thoroughly modern monarch with no small assistance from the longest-serving consort in history. Here is the inside story.



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In this beautiful follow-up to 2012's hit Our Garden Birds street artist Matt Sewell offers more watercolours & quirky descriptions of British songbirds. In Matt's world the peewit sings the blues & the bittern fills his neck 'like a tweed pair of bellows'. Distinctive & enchanting with a songbird for each week of the year this delightful gift book will appeal to birders children & adults & art & design fans alike. ...