This is a hilarious picture book based on the classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm & retold for younger children. When a frog rescues Princess Poppy's treasured golden ball she is revolted that to return the favour she has to let him live in the palace with her. But could there be more to this frog than meets the eye? It features illustrations taken from the popular Young Reading" series." ...

After the Princess kissed the frog he turned into a handsome prince & they lived happily ever after... or did they?" The Princess can't stand the Prince's froggy habits
- the way he hops around on the furniture or sneaks off to the lily pond. The Prince is unhappy too & decides that it would be best if he were changed back to a frog. But finding a witch who will do the job is harder than he expects. They all seem to have other spells in mind..."
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Life didnt hold much promise for ordinary little Angie. With few jobs around bland food & cold weather the best that Angie could hope for was a job at the local Findus factory. Her family didnt have it easy. Her baby brother was a cot death & the tragedy caused her mother to turn to the Jehovahs Witness faith. Their poverty now combined with an austere belief system meant no Christmas no birthdays & little joy. But aged 16 Angie decided that she was destined for bigger things. After seeing a TV advertisement she entered a beauty pageant. & won. She went on to take 25 titles including Miss Leeds & her home town title Miss Cleethorpes giving her the opportunity to model while travelling the world. Just as Angie felt that life couldnt get any better she got engaged to a man who trapped her in a terrifying cycle of domestic violence. When she eventually escaped him she had lost all of her money & self-esteem. She was on the bottom rung of the ladder yet again. But Angie picked herself up turned her talents to event management & grafted her way to becoming Director of Miss Engl&. Evoking the magical lost world of the 1970s beauty pageant Angies story is a real life fairytale with heart & humour. ...

A miscellany of fascinating animal facts & figures: the weird the wonderful & the downright unbelievable. Since time immemorial people have been fascinated by what animals do & how they relate to us & these enigmatic beasts have never failed to surprise us. Did you know that songbirds can be scared to death literally? That parrots can talk because they use their tongues in the same way as humans & that humpback whales catch fish in nets made by blowing bubbles? This delightful book is full of entertaining surprises revelations & unusual information. Nowadays we study them (and eat them & pollute them into oblivion) but whatever we do to them somehow most of these amazing creatures keep bouncing back. This miscellany of animal facts & figures offers some reasons why. ...

Marrying deft social commentary to a rich earthy comedy the three comedies collected in Aristophanes' The Frogs & Other Plays" offers a unique insight into one of the most turbulent periods in Ancient Greek history. This " Penguin Classics" edition is translated by David Barrett with revisions an introduction & notes by Shomit Dutta. The master of ancient Greek comic drama Aristophanes combined slapstick humour & cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. In " The Frogs" written during the Peloponnesian War Dionysus descends to the Underworld to bring back a poet who can help Athens in its darkest hour & stages a great debate to help him decide between the traditional wisdom of Aeschylus & the brilliant modernity of Euripides. The clash of generations & values is also the object of Aristophanes' satire in Wasps in which an old-fashioned father & his loose-living son come to blows & end up in court. & in " Women at the Thesmophoria" the famous Greek tragedian Euripides accused of misogyny persuades a relative to infiltrate an all-women festival to find out whether revenge is being plotted against him. Shomit Dutta's introduction discusses Aristophanes' life the cultural context of his work & conventions of Greek comedy. This updated version of David Barrett's translation also

Includes:: extensive notes & a preface for each play. Aristophanes (c.445-386 BC) was probably born in Athens. Little is known about his life but there is a portrait of him in " Plato's Symposium". He was twice threatened with prosecution for his outspoken attacks on the prominent politician Cleon but in 405 he was publicly honoured & crowned for promoting Athenian civic unity in " The Frogs". Aristophanes had his first comedy produced when he was about twenty-one & wrote forty plays in all. The eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes are published in the " Penguin Classics" series as " The Birds & Other Plays" " Lysistrata & Other Plays" " The Wasps & Other Plays" & " The Frogs & Other Plays". If you enjoyed " The Frogs & Other Plays" you might like Aristophanes' " Lysistrata & Other Plays" also available in " Penguin Classics"."

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On the August bank holiday weekend in 1979 14-year-old Timothy Knatchbull went out on a boat trip off the shore of Mullaghmore in County Sligo Irel&. It was a trip that would cost four lives
- & change his own for ever. The IRA bomb that exploded in their boat killed Knatchbull's grandfather Lord Mountbatten his grandmother Lady Brabourne his twin brother Nicholas & local teenager Paul Maxwell. In telling this story for the first time Knatchbull is not only revisiting the terrible events he & his family lived through but also writing an intensely personal account of human triumph over tragedy. For thirty years Knatchbull has lived with the echoes of that day: the death of the twin from whom he had been inseparable; the loss of his adored grandparents whose funerals along with his twin's he & his parents were too injured to attend; the recovery from physical wounds; & the emotional legacy that proved harder to endure. In From A Clear Blue Sky" Timothy Knatchbull delves into his past present & future & reveals a story of courage & fortitude as he his family & their English & Irish friends dealt with the shocking assassinations & their aftermath. Taking place in Ireland at the height of the Troubles it gives a compelling insight into that period of Irish history. But more importantly it brings home that although tragedy can strike at any moment the human spirit is able to recover & evolve over time. This book about truth & reconciliation unflinching in its detail asks searching questions about why human beings inflict misery on others & holds lessons about how we can learn to forgive to heal & to move on. It will resonate with readers the world over."
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Drawn to the exoticism & mystery of names on a map of Iran
- Isfahan Shiraz Meshed Kerman Khorassan
- Michael Carroll embarked

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Barbara Hulanicki tells the story of the rise & fall of the tiny chaotic boutique that grew into a vast emporium & epitomised Swinging London. The Biba store was to become an icon of hip 60s & 70s London & a hangout for artists film stars & rock musicians including the Rolling Stones David Bowie Twiggy Brigitte Bardot & Marianne Faithful. But in the early 1970s Hulanicki & her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon lost control after a series of bitter boardroom struggles & for Barbara Biba was lost. This lively autobiography evokes the adventurous spirit of the 1960s & describes an extraordinary life with clarity & wit. ...

Thinking of starting a business? Chances are you will be excited by your ideas but daunted by what might lie ahead. Most start-up guides make that feeling worse by overloading you with complex yet missing out the essentials that you really need to focus on to succeed. From Acorns is a different kind of book. Free from jargon & full of practical tips from countless entrepreneurs its the only guide that tells you exactly what you need to know no frills no complications. In its second edition this bestselling book now

Includes:: information not only for small start-ups but for those with ambitious growth plans who need to plan big financial pitches initiate & nurture large scale expansions & eventually sell & move on to the next venture. From Acorns is the no nonsense guide to starting a business whether your plans or modest or on a grand scale this book helps you get it right first time around.

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This book looks at visual images as an alternative & undervalued source of evidence for ideas about the Scottish Gaidhealtachd in the period 1700
- 1880. Illustrated with 100 plates it brings together many little known & previously unrelated images. Addressing the textual bias inherent in Scottish historical studies the book examines a broad range of maps plans paintings drawings sketches & printed images arguing that the concept of antiquity was the single most powerful influence driving the visual representation of the Highlands & Islands from 1700 to 1880 & indeed beyond. Successive chapters look at archaeological ethnological & geological motives for visualising the Highlands & at the bias in favour of antiquity which resulted from the spread of these intellectual influences into the fine arts. The book concludes that the shadow of time which hallmarked visual representations of the region resulted in a preservationist mentality which has had powerful repercussions for approaches to Highland issues down to the present day. The book will appeal to historians art historians cultural geographers & the general reader interested in Highland history & culture.
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