In this touching novel for ages 10+ Lucy Christopher explores the remarkable bond between a young girl a boy & a damaged wild bird
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The Consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile & successful flying boat/amphibian ever built serving not just with the US Army Air Force Navy & Coast Guard during the Second World War but also with the air forces of Britain Canada Australia & New Zealand with the Danes Free French & Norwegians as well as Brazil Chile Indonesia & elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity & endurance this long-range twin-engine aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment & still return home after flights lasting an entire day & covering thousands of miles. It was employed as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft as a bomber & torpedo-bomber as an anti-submarine weapon as a mine-layer as a special operations machine & as a search & rescue craft by day & night. It ferried stores mail & people
- many of them sick & injured
- across all the worlds oceans & is rightly held in the deepest respect by all who had anything to do with them flying or being flown. In this book Andrew Hendrie tells the whole amazing story of the Flying Cats of their exploits & achievements of the heroism of many of their crews & the problems they had to endure. With numerous photographs as well as appendices listing technical data & individual aircraft histories this is the definitive history of the Catalina & its operations world-wide.

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When Teddy's grandpa makes Teddy & his best friend Ruby some toy diggers they don't realise how special they are.. .until they start to play with them & the diggers transform into magic flying diggers & swoop the children off for a fantastic jungle adventure. The author of Harry & the Bucketful of Dinosaurs & the ilustrator of The Kiss That Missed join forces once again to bring you a dynamic & engaging book for boys. ...

Shipley Manor is ready to set sail but how will Polly & Tom fare on her maiden voyage? Harry Hopper Hawkins has set them off on a special mission but its hard work helping the world Get the Fizzle. What with interfering billionaires icebergs in the Caribbean flying alligators & armies of child-slaves things are getting pretty tricky. To top it off their old adversary Venetia Pike is back this time with even darker & more twisted ideas. Can Tom figure out her plot in order to save him & Polly & the very future of the Fizzle itself? ...

In an age of colourless bureaucrats Nigel Farage is a politician who is impossible to ignore provoking controversy & admiration in equal measure. A fun-loving iconoclast whose motto is work hard & play harder A Farages charismatic leadership & determination to battle the forces of anti-libertarianism have made him a Robin Hood figure to many & propelled his party UKIP into a position of real power in the country. Never one for a quiet life this paperback edition

Includes:: the story of Nigels extraordinary escape from death in a plane crash on the eve of the 2010 general election (the light aircraft he was flying in got caught up in a UKIP banner it was towing & crashed shortly after take-off badly injuring Farage & his pilot) his recovery & return to the leadership of UKIP in November 2010. Featuring sometimes hilarious & often terrifying encounters with a stellar supporting cast including Tony Blair Gordon Brown Nicolas Sarkozy Jose Manuel Barroso & UKIPs short-lived silver-gilt masco Robert Kilroy-Silk
- & told with Farages customary wit & humour Fighting Bull is a candid colourful life story by a fascinating & controversial character. It also shows that one fearless determined individual can still make a difference."


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The incredible biography of the most famous steam locomotive in the world. Think of the Golden Age of Steam & one train leaps to mind above all others: the Flying Scotsman Nigel Gresleys elegant masterpiece of a locomotive. She broke the world speed record in 1934 & has enthralled millions with her beauty & power. Uniquely her post-war career has been even more varied & exciting than her early triumphs. Now Andrew Roden tells the Scotsmans remarkable story from her construction & the glory days between the wars through the decline of steam & her rollercoaster fortunes in the subsequent years: nearly abandoned on a tour of the United States after the money ran out crossing the Australian interior then put up for sale yet again when the company that owned her went bankrupt in 2003. A massive public campaign saved her for the nation & the Flying Scotsmans restoration began in 2005 at the National Railway Museum. With the aid of numerous interviews with those involved with the Scotsman over the years Roden brings her story memorably to life. Above all he asks: why do grown men risk their life savings to own her? Why do thousands of people still line the trackside when shes due to race past? & just what is the eternal appeal of the Flying Scotsman? ...

The Flying Scotsman is probably the most famous railway locomotive in the world. It first caused a sensation for its beauty & its speed in 1923 & it soon became a national icon. The fastest & most comfortable way of travelling between London & Scotland The Flying Scotsman only got faster & more luxurious as competition from other routes airlines & the motor car threatened. From 1928 it began running non-stop an achievement that earned it yet more attention. This superbly illustrated book celebrates the much-loved locomotive the train that shared its name the route it took & how it captured the imagination of the nation. ...

Deeply moving. His determination & single-mindedness was & still is a true inspiration to me". (Sir Chris Hoy). " This is a book that must have taken great courage to write is a harrowing reminder of how little the public know about sportsmen no matter how brightly the spotlight shines on them." (The Guardian Number 10 in Cycle Sports Best 50 Cycling Books of All Time). It

Includes:: a foreword by Sir Chris Hoy. Graeme Obrees story begins with a tough upbringing in the Ayrshire valleys where he found his escape by taking to the roads on his bike. He would emerge from total obscurity to smash Francesco Mosers World Hour Record controversy hard at his heels for his unique riding style & pioneering construction techniques
- famously using parts from a washing machine to build his bike Old Faithful. But amidst the record attempts media feeding frenzy & thrilling head-to-head duels with Chris Boardman Graeme was fighting another battle. With searing honesty he recounts his biggest battle against depression which drove him to attempt suicide."


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This is a funny super-girly story with a vampire bite to it. Sink your teeth into Olivia & Ivys eleventh fright-time adventure. Were still double trouble! The twins are apart but life is as batty as ever... Ivys settling in to Wallachia Academy but the schools strict rules are a real pain in the neck. Back in Franklin Grove Olivias begun dressing like Ivy
- to get in to a vampire rock concert! Its bound to cause a coffin-load of chaos.
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Australian aviators Charles Kingsford Smith & Charles Ulm made the first trans-Pacific flight in 1928 in an aircraft constructed largely of timber & fabric the Southern Cross. With Americans Jim Warner as radio operator & Harry Lyon as navigator they made the trip from Oakland California in nine days facing electrical storms torrential rain equipment breakdowns fuel shortages & the ever-present fear of engine failure. In Flying the Southern Cross Michael Molkentin uses logbook entries the airmens memoirs contemporary newspaper accounts & official documents supplemented by a range of historic photographs to give a gripping account of that epoch-making flight & its aftermath. He takes readers into the Southern Cross a place where courage skill & endurance could with luck outweigh the fearful risks of a long air journey. Above all he brings to life the airmen themselves four very different men who made aviation history. ...