Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was a truly extraordinary Viking Hero. Warrior chieftain awesome sword-fighter & amateur naturalist he was known throughout Vikingdom as the Dragon Whisperer on account of his amazing power over these terrifying beasts. But it wasnt always like that. In fact in the beginning Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking youd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival Snotlout at Bashyball the number one school sport & Certainly not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet... ...

So begins Cressida Cowell's hilarious book about a little Viking who cannot fit in. Unlike his dad Stoick the Vast Hiccup is tiny thoughtful & polite & scared of almost everything
- especially of going to sea for the very first time. But go he must... So who will save the day when everything goes disgustingly wrong aboard ship & all the big Vikings lose their cool? This wonderfully witty fable will delight all those who have ever faced up to their worse fears.
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Hickmans Farriery" was first published in 1977 & has since been completely revised & updated to bring it into line with the latest developments in this field. The new edition demonstrates how traditional skills can be combined with modern science to benefit the welfare soundness & performance of the horse. The book begins with a short history of horseshoeing tracing its origins to pre-Christian times. The authors then move on to explain the underlying structure of the horses front & hind legs so that farriers can better understand the scientific principles of their craft. The tools used on the foot & at the anvil are described in detail as are the various types of horseshoe that can be applied. The chapter on shoemaking

Includes:: numerous practical exercises each one illustrated with specially taken step-by-step photographic principles of their craft. Further chapters examine the care of the feet in shod & unshod horses including youngstock; methods of preventing slipping; & the use of pads. The final chapter looks at injuries caused by shoes & abnormalities of gait the shoeing of defective feet & surgical shoes."

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There's more than petty theft going on in a London youth hostel... An outbreak of kleptomania at a student hostel was not normally the sort of crime that aroused Hercule Poirot's interest. But when he saw the list of stolen & vandalized items
- including a stethoscope some old flannel trousers a box of chocolates a slashed rucksack & a diamond ring found in a bowl of soup
- he congratulated the warden Mrs Hubbard on a 'unique & beautiful problem'. The list made absolutely no sense at all. But reasoned Poirot if this was merely a petty thief at work why was everyone at the hostel so frightened?

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A classic Poirot mystery read by Hugh Fraser. Beautifully re-packaged with stunning new cover illustrations & design that rival ...

From the Sunday Times & New York Times bestselling author comes the poignant & shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour & polite manners hide a terrible past. Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police but he is calm polite & very well spoken & not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history but apart from his name & age it is blank. Tayo has no past. Tayo is an 'invisible' child kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria & brought illegally to the UK by his drink & drugs dependent prostitute mother where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury & is no longer earning he is cast out. When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months often being left alone. Tayo lies & manipulates situations to his own advantage & Cathy has to be continually on guard. Tayo's social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo
- he has only attended school for 3 terms & has never seen a doctor. He & his mother have been evading the authorities by living 'underground'. With his mother recently released from prison Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria but no one can track him down or even prove that he exists.
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I'd known it before we saw the fire trucks & the smoke. I'd known all hell had broken loose at the House of Night the moment it had been proven beyond all doubt that Neferet was on the side of Darkness. Only now I had a terrible feeling that outing Neferet would serve more to free her than to force her to pay the consequences for her lies & betrayals. At last Zoey has what she wanted: the truth is out. Neferet's evil has been exposed & the High Council is no longer on her side
- but she's far from done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world. With the seeds of distrust sown & Darkness breeding chaos at the House of Night everyone must band together
- but that's proving to be more difficult than ever before. The twins are barely speaking & the House of Night's former enemy Kalona has now become their warrior pushing their trust to the limits. To top it all off Zoey is pretty darn sure she might be losing her mind
- she saw something when she looked at Neferet's minion Aurox through the Seer Stone that she can hardly explain to herself let alone her friends. Zoey knows that following her instincts might be just what they need to defeat evil...but if she's wrong it could cause the destruction of those closest to her. With the tension at a breaking point & friendships on the line can the nerd herd come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it's too late?


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In this the long-awaited conclusion to the saga of Abbey & Caspian readers finally learn the truth about Kristens death the dark destiny that links Abbey to Caspian & the hard choices that Abbey must make if she is to accept Caspians love & their unexpected fate. ...

Aberdeen is rich in history much of it hidden. Now in Hidden Aberdeen Dr Fiona-Jane Brown explores the city through new eyes revealing new stories from the past & bringing the modern city to life. There's the last resting place of Robert Hitchens who was at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck an iceberg; Royal connections including James Ill's night on the town before he was crowned; the brutal murder of a monk by so-called reformers & the strange nineteenth-century animal cruelty case against the city's Jewish community. There's also the city's odd connection with Millwall FC & the place where medieval criminals were hanged. This fascinating book will open your eyes to the hidden the forgotten & the abandoned which lie under your feet as you walk round the city today. ...

The model for this volume is the enormously successful vintage original Distant Voices" (93 000 copies sold to date). It will gather together essays on a range of subjects including Burma Fleet Street East Timor Vietnam today the media & UK politics. " Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s.. . The Truth in his hands is a weapon to be picked up & brandished & used in the struggle against evil & injustice"
- " Guardian"."
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