' These were the days that made us & these are the day trips to find them. Should we do a flask? & are you sure you'll be warm enough in that coat?' In Hope & Glory" Stuart Maconie goes in search of the places people & events that have shaped modern Britain. Starting with the death of Queen Victoria to the Battle of the Somme & the General Strike & on to the docking of the Empire Windrush & Bobby Moore raising the Jules Rimet trophy he chooses a defining moment in our nation's story from each decade of the last century & explores its legacy today. Some were glorious days some were tragic or even shameful but each has played its part in making us who we are as a nation. From pop stars to politicians Suffragettes to punks this is a journey around Britain in search of who we are." ...

Where innocence deceit & love collide Anand is a Bangalore success story: successful well-married rich. At least thats how he appears. But if his little factory is to grow he needs land & money & in the New India neither of these is easy to find. Kamala Anands familys maid lives perilously close to the edge of disaster. She & her clever teenage son have almost nothing & their small hopes for self-betterment depend on the contentment of Anands wife: a woman to whom whims come easily. But Kamalas son keeps bad company. Anands marriage is in trouble. & the murky world where crime & wealth & politics meet is a dangerous place for good men & those who rely on them ...

Hope Street may be just an ordinary terraced street in Leeds but its the world to Maggie Fish. & when her father returns home from the war the whole family looks forward to happier times. But then Maggies mother dies giving birth to a little boy leaving Johnnie Fish a bitter widower. He can never look at his son without remembering that this child caused his wifes death. By contrast Maggie can do no wrong in her fathers eyes & he pushes her forward to sing at Hope Street Working Mens Club. Fifteen-year-old Maggie has her first taste of show-business
- & she wants more. With the help of Charlie Chipperfield a talented piano-player new vaudeville act
- Fish & Chipperfield
- is born. But the clubs in Yorkshire only offer them a limited audience & musical tastes are changing. It may spell the end for their double act but for Maggie the road to fame & fortune is only just the beginning.. .


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' When you read Hope Street you are uplifted exhilarated excited at the profound truths that shine through. This radiant book will bring great comfort healing & hope to all who are blessed by reading it.' Patricia Scanlan This is the true story of a family with a spiritual gift which has always lived in the heart of one of the traditional working class communities of the North. Their triumphs & tragedies unfolded in the cobbled streets working men's cottages terraced houses & council houses of Horwich near Manchester. Hope Street North had more than their fair share of loss & heartbreak. A young girl was run over & killed by a horse & cart & another died of diphtheria. There were affairs a secret pregnancy an elopement & a double suicide. Every family has its secrets & tragedies but this family had this unique psychic gift passed down from generation to generation: the women of the family were able to communicate with the Spirit worlds. Hope Street begins with Pamela's own Spiritualist childhood. One of her earliest memories dating from when she was about five is of watching as Spiritualist friends arrived for one of her mother's sittings. She was a medium & the children would wait expectantly for the deep silence that preceded their mother's trances & for the different voices of the spirits & other paranormal phenomena that spoke through her. Her father told her how on one occasion a carnation real to the touch & bejewelled with dew materialized in mid air. Pamela would see her mother gradually & starting from her head down disappeared before her very eyes. Hope Street continues with the saga of Pamela's family. She traces the way Spirit worked through generation after generation culminating in her own remarkable mother. It was after her mother's death when Pamela was in the depths of despair that she found her own spiritual gift. Guided by the spirit of her mother she finally understood the prophecy & message of hope for humanity that Spirit had been working to bring to the world. Introduction by Patricia Scanlan. ...

Travelling around the Hope Valley has always been a challenge & usually involved rudimentary tracks or just paths to individual farms. Even by the late seventeenth century most of the roads were impassable because of snow in the winter & in spring they were subject to flooding as the snow melted. Transport was by horse & packhorse & was often easier on the high dry ground than on the lower mires & bogs of the Hope Valley. Agriculture has been crucial for the area for many centuries. As well as arable farming Yorkshire drovers brought their cattle to this area every May & kept them in the hills north of Castleton for the summer. Other industries included lead mining corn milling lime burning cotton weaving needle making candle making & rope & twine making. Liam Clarke takes an affectionate look at this unique part of the British Isles. ...

Solomon Kugel wishes for nothing more than to be nowhere to be in a place with no past no history no wars no genocides. The rural town of Stockton New York is famous for nothing: No one was born there no one died there nothing of any import has ever happened there which is exactly why Kugel decided to move his family there. To begin again. To start anew. But it isnt quite working out that way. His ailing mother stubbornly holds on to life & wont stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she never actually suffered through. To complicate matters further some lunatic is burning down farmhouses just like the one he bought & he fears his is next. & when one night Kugel discovers history -- a living breathing thought-to-be-dead specimen of history -- hiding in his attic bad very quickly becomes worse. Like nothing youve read before the critically acclaimed Shalom Auslanders debut novel is a hilarious & disquieting examination of the burdens & abuse of history propelled with unstoppable rhythm & filled with existential musings & mordant wit. Scabrous & determinedly iconoclastic.. .one of the funniest & most thought-provoking novels youll read all year Sunday Times A wonderful twisted trangressive heartbreaking true & hugely funny book. It will make very many people angry. It will also make very many people very happy. A. L. Kennedy author of Day Auslander writes like some contemporary comedic Jeremiah thundering warnings of disaster & retribution. What makes him so terrifyingly funny is that he isnt joking. Howard Jacobson author of The Finkler Question winner of the Man Booker Prize Can the darkest events of the twentieth century & of all human history be used to show the folly of hope? & can the result be so funny that you burst out laughing again & again? If you doubt this is possible read Hope: A Tragedy. You wont regret it. John Gray author of Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans & Other Animals ...

The humour at times can leave you gasping.. .comic brilliance Sunday Times Solomon Kugel has had enough of the past & its burdens. So in the hope of starting afresh he moved his family to a small rural town where nothing of import has ever happened. Sadly Kugels life isnt that simple. His family soon find themselves threatened by a local arsonist & his ailing mother wont stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she didnt actually suffer through. & when one night Kugel discovers a living breathing thought-to-be-dead specimen of history hiding in his attic bad very quickly becomes worse. Singularly inventive & superbly shocking.. .nothing short of genius Scotland on Sunday He will make you laugh until your heart breaks New York Times Book Review ...

Ellie works really hard at the stables. Her only comforts are her beautiful horse Spirit & the friendship of her cousin Joe. When it looks like both might be taken away from her will Ellie have the strength she needs to survive? & will her magical bond with Spirit be unbreakable
- or not? This is a beautifully tender story that will enrapture girls with a passion for horses or a taste for romance.
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Hoppers is a peg solitaire jumping game. Set the frogs on the pond then start jumping until only the red frog is left.



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Play peekaboo with your baby & hear them giggle in delight as springtime animals are revealed! Read together & lift the flaps to reveal delightful springtime animals; then explore the soft shiny & bumpy textures. Where has bunny rabbit gone? Is she behind the pretty flower petals? & who will you discover behind the big daisy? Find them all as they are waiting to say Peekaboo! This is an award-winning series for babies perfect for developing imagination early-thinking & memory skills. ...