Michael Morpurgo is a master storyteller former Childrens Laureate & multi-award winner. This is a fresh reissue of a much-loved story with a beautiful new cover. Toby Jenkins hates going to Redlands Boarding School
- he gets called Jinks & thinks hell never make the top rugby team. But then he meets Christopher who claims to have powers. Christopher promises Toby a miracle. When Toby goes fishing he crosses to the other side even though he knows it belongs to the villagers. The village boys catch Toby & beat him up injuring his ear. Thus the war of Jenkins ear begins with all-out sticks & stones battles. Will Christopher be able to provide much-needed miracle?
...

The year is 1900 & China is plunged into barbaric chaos. The Boxers a cult of young peasants who blame the foreign barbarians living in their country particularly the missionaries for the nations ills are rampaging through the country killing foreigners. Chinas Dowager Empress The Dragon Lady secretly encourages them into this maelstrom land Simon Alice & Jenkins as they are enroute to visit Alices uncle a country missionary. Threatened by the Boxers the three escort the missionary & his family to the safety of Peking. En route the party is attacked by the red-bannered Boxers & the missionary is killed. The survivors reach Peking only to find that the capital is no sanctuary. The Legations of the foreign ministers within the city is surrounded & the Siege of Peking begins. Fonthill Jenkins & Chang the missionarys adopted son volunteer to slip through the enemy lines to bring help. It proves to be Fonthills most dangerous mission... ...

The dwarves have gone to battle & they have been victorious. But outside the realm dark forces are working.. .A secret army of Orcs made immortal by the hidden powers of the Black Water now marches towards Girdlegard set to unleash its fury upon the kingdom. Sooner than they realise Tungdil & his comrades will need to summon all their courage to do battle against this bloodthirsty horde. The Orcs are not the only threat. An unspeakable new power is growing & threatens the very existence of the dwarves. But both enemies have forgotten one very important truth: a dwarf is never more dangerous than when total obliteration seems inevitable.. . ...

The second of two companion volumes which documents the later writing of The Silmarillion Tolkiens epic tale of war. In The War of the Jewels Christopher Tolkien takes up his account of the later history of The Silmarillion from the point where it was left in Morgoths Ring. The story now returns to Middle-earth & the ruinous conflict of the High Elves & the Men who were their allies with the power fothe Dark Lord. With the publication in this book of all J.R.R. Tolkiens later narrative writing concerned with the last centuries of the First Age the long history of The Silmarillion from its beginning in The Book of Lost Tales is completed; & the enigmatic state of the work at his death can be understood. This book contains the full text of the Grey Annals the primary record of The War of the Jewels & a major story of Middle-earth now published for the first time: the tale of the disaster that overtook the forest people of Brethil when Hurin the Steadfast came among them after his release from long years of captivity in Angband the fortress of Morgoth. ...

The third part of The History of The Lord of the Rings an enthralling account of the writing of the Book of the Century which contains many additional scenes &

Includes:: the unpublished Epilogue in its entirety. The War of the Ring takes up the story of The Lord of the Rings with the Battle of Helms Deep & the drowning of Isengard by the Ents continues with the journey of Frodo Sam & Gollum to the Pass of Cirith Ungol describes the war in Gondor & ends with the parley between Gandalf & the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. The book is illustrated with plans & drawings of the changing conceptions of Orthanc Dunharrow Minas Tirith & the tunnels of Shelobs Lair. This series of fascinating books has now been repackaged to complement the distinctive & classic style of the black cover A-format paperbacks of The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings The Silmarillion & Unfinished Tales.

...

Niall Ferguson's The War of the World: History's Age of Hatred" re-tells the story of history's most savage century as a continual war that raged for 100 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century globalizing booming economies married to technological breakthroughs seemed to promise a better world for most people. Instead the 20th century proved to be overwhelmingly the most violent frightening & brutalized in history with fanatical often genocidal warfare engulfing most societies between the outbreak of the First World War & the end of the Cold War. What turned it into a bloodbath? From the plains of Poland to the killing fields of Cambodia Niall Ferguson reveals how economic boom-&-bust decaying empires &
- above all
- poisonous ideas of race led men to treat each other as aliens. It was an age of hatred that ended with the twilight not the triumph of the West. & he warns it could happen all over again. "A heartbreaking serious & thoughtful survey of human evil that is utterly fascinating & dramatic". (Simon Sebag Montefiore " The New York Times"). " Unputdownable controversial compelling". (" Independent on Sunday"). "A big bold & brilliantly belligerent book". (" Sunday Telegraph"). " Hums with energy "able insights & pithy summaries". (" Observer"). " Gripping". (Tristram Hunt). Niall Ferguson is one of Britain's most renowned historians. He is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College Oxford & a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution Stanford University. He is the bestselling author of " Paper & Iron" " The House of Rothschild" " The Pity of War" " The Cash Nexus" " Empire" " Colossus" " The War of the World" & " The Ascent of Money"."

...

But planet Earth was not only being watched
- soon it would be invaded by monstrous creatures from Mars who strode about the land
...

This is the Penguin English Library Edition" of " The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells. ' Death!' I shouted. ' Death is coming! Death!' In this pioneering shocking & nightmarish tale naive suburban Londoners investigate a strange cylinder from space but are instantly incinerated by an all-destroying heat-ray. Soon gigantic killing machines that chase & feed on human prey are threatening the whole of humanity. A pioneering work of alien invasion fiction " The War of the World's" journalistic style contrasts disturbingly with its horrifying visions of the human race under siege. " The Penguin English Library"
- 100 editions of the best fiction in English from the eighteenth century & the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War."
...

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly & closely by intelligences greater than mans... So begins H. G. Wells classic novel in which Martian lifeforms take over planet Earth. As the Martians emerge they construct giant killing machines
- armed with heatrays
- that are impervious to attack. Advancing upon London they destroy everything in their path. Everything except the few humans they collect in metal traps. Victorian England is a place in which the steam engine is state-of-the-art technology & powered flight is just a dream. Mankind is helpless against the killing machines from Mars & soon the survivors are left living in a new stone age.

...

Following the blockbuster film this version of the classic story is ideal for younger readers in an easy to read abridged format. Classic Starts[trademark]" is in its 5th printing
- with more than half a million copies sold! It is aimed at children aged 7 to 9 years old. Hot on the heels of the blockbuster film comes a version of H.G. Wells chilling tale of alien invasion that every child can enjoy. It begins as the sky lights up with bright cylinders from Mars that look like falling stars
- & continues as the Martians emerge from their vessels with machines of fire & deadly smoke. Wellss depiction of a city in panic
- written in 1898
- still remains shockingly contemporary."



...