The autumn 2002 publication of Ruby Wax's memoirs was greeted with shock
- & delighted acclaim. In the tradition of the best memoirs
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How does a yo-yo climb back up its string? Why does a boomerang come back to you? & how does a kaleidoscope work? These & other mind-bending questions are answered in this explanation text about how toys work. * Gold/ Band 9 fiction books offer developing readers literary language & stories with distinctive characters. * Text type
- An explanation text. * A table on pages 20 & 21 summarises what makes each toy featured in the book work for example magnets friction or gravity. The book

Includes:: a glossary & an index on pages 22 & 23. Both provide lots of opportunities to check comprehension & stimulate work outside the reading session. * Curriculum links
- Art & design: Investigate materials; Science: Forces & movement.



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Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours" is packed with astonishing facts & wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; & they were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots. For readers of Paxman's " The English" Bryson's " Notes on a Small Island" & Fox's " Watching the English" this intriguing & witty book explains how our national characteristics
- our sense of humour our hobbies our favourite foods & our behaviour with the opposite sex
- are all defined by our nation's extraordinary geography geology climate & weather. You will learn how we would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that make England too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones; that precise English mix of air temperature smell & light that hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry Mount: " Highly readable encyclopeadic marvellous illuminating. Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography geology history & weather". (" Independent"). " Fascinating. Mount's an intelligent funny & always interesting companion". (" Daily Mail"). " Charming & nerdily fact-stuffed". (" Guardian"). Harry Mount is the author of " Amo Amas Amat & All That" his best-selling book on Latin & "A Lust for Window Sills
- A Guide to British Buildings". A journalist for many newspapers & magazines he has been a New York correspondent & a leader writer for the " Daily Telegraph". He studied classics & history at Oxford & architectural history at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London."


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Every day seemingly intelligent & successful companies make headline news for poor decisions that can cause their business to stumble & make many of us scratch our heads in wonder. Why would such a successful business make that" strategic decision? Neil Smith with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale performance improvements reveals the hidden barriers that limit excellent companies from reaching their potential & cause even the smartest managers & leaders to falter. During his experience transforming some of the top global businesses Smith has identified 8 barriers that exist in every organization & prevent them from implementing literally thousands of ideas to improve the way they work: Avoiding Controversy Poor Use of Time Reluctance to Change Organizational Silos Management Blockers Incorrect Information & Bad Assumptions Size Matters Existing Processes Rich with anecdotes & case studies Smith identifies the ways in each of these barriers interrupt your own business. He then outlines a fast & proven process in which 12 principles of business transformation can break down the processes that hold companies back. What Smith offers his readers is the same thing he offers every day to the major companies he works with A PROMISE that by following his insights the company will be able to increase communication simplicity & profit to levels never before attainable. Throughout the book Dr. Richard Levak has contributed personality & organizational insights that shed light on why an individual or an organization behaves in contrary ways giving you a better sense of why these internal walls exist & how to be aware of your actions in your day to day life." ...

It has been slowly dawning on me over many years that there is a fundamental problem deep at the heart of Christian faith & practice as I have known it
- we have all forgotten what the four gospels are about. With this surprising & radical assertion highly respected theologian Tom Wright launches a ground-breaking work.
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How Hard Can it Be?" is the fourth hilarious volume in Jeremy Clarksons " The World According to Clarkson" series. How hard can it be... To build a power station without upsetting the eco-mentalists? To seek world domination if youve been hit the ugly stick? For the Met Office to get yesterdays weather right? In volume four of " The World According to Clarkson" Jeremy Clarkson pours scorn on the nonsensical the dumb the idiotic & the plain foolish in his continuing quest to discover where exactly weve all gone wrong. Along the way he ponders: Whether conquering France might solve the immigration problem. What happened when you ignore proper warning labels? What would happen if we turned the internet off? Often controversial frequently scathing but always funnier than James May Jeremy Clarkson shows us how we could so easily make the world a better place. Praise for Jeremy Clarkson: " Brilliant...laugh-out-loud". (" Daily Telegraph"). " Outrageously funny...will have you in stitches". (" Time Out"). Number-one bestseller Jeremy Clarkson writes on cars current affairs & anything else that annoys him in his sharp & funny collections. " Born To Be Riled" " Clarkson On Cars" " Dont Stop Me Now" " Driven To Distraction" " Round the Bend" " Motorworld & "I Know You Got Soul" are also available as " Penguin" paperbacks; the Penguin App "i Clarkson: The Book of Cars" can be downloaded on the App Store. Jeremy Clarkson because his writing career on the Rotherham Advertiser. Since then he has written for " The Sun" & " The Sunday Times". Today he is the tallest person working in British television & is the presenter of the hugely popular " Top Gear"." ...

A brilliant read raw in its emotions & a real eye-opener. Martina Cole From a young age Chyna saw people all around her in gangs. They had the status the look & the money. So when girls from a rival school started to bully Chyna & her friends they decided to take control in the only way they knew how. But the deeper Chyna got into this world as she became involved with boys & fell in love the more she discovered the darker side
- the vicious drug dealers the beatings the guns. It would take a devastating tragedy
- one that ripped apart from her world
- before Chyna found the courage to leave gangland behind once & for all.PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN TRADE PAPERBACK AS FAM Rich & dazzling The Sunday Times This emotional story of a girl born on a tough London estate provides a shocking eye-opener on gang culture.. .gritty & hard-hitting.. . Written in London slang the story has a real spirit which really shines through. News of the World A scary insight into the lives of youngsters born into poverty in Britain. Sun This isnt an expose to ease middle-class guilt. Were not asked to pity Chyna. Nor does FAM seek to glamourise the horrors of gang life. It is simply crudely an account of a side of London you probably know absolutely nothing about & about which very little is written (aside from social care reports). These are the intimidating girls at the back of the bus the kids storming through shopping centres the ones who mug you for your phone & purse the names in the newspaper your eyes sip over following yet another stabbing on a council estate. Time Out


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Experience how it feels to be the subject of a blasphemy prosecution! Find out why 'wool' is a funny word! See how jokes work their inner mechanisms revealed before your astonished face! In 2001 after over a decade in the business Stewart Lee quit st&-up disillusioned & drained & went off to direct a loss-making opera about Jerry Springer. How I Escaped My Certain Fate" details his return to live performance & the journey that took him from an early retirement to his position as the most critically acclaimed st&-up in Britain. Here is Stewart Lee's own account of his remarkable comeback told through transcripts of the three legendary full-length shows that sealed his reputation. Astonishingly frank & detailed in-depth notes reveal the inspiration & inner workings of his act. With unprecedented access to a leading comedian's creative process this book tell us just what it was like to write these shows develop the performance & take them on tour. " How I Escaped My Certain Fate" is everything we have come to expect from Stewart Lee: fiercely intelligent unsparingly honest & very funny." ...

In 1979 Sean Bull a bright nine-year-old lives an untroubled childhood with his extended family in the heart of the industrial Midlands. His dad & granddad role models work hard at the local steel foundries while his young uncle dabbles in politics & painting. Sean enjoys his school & football & caravan holidays in Wales but cant help listening in to the increasingly worrying conversation of the adults around him. When Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister she slowly begins to take away everything Sean loves. He decides that someones got to stop her. This sad comic novel captures the intensity of early 1980s Britain through the eyes of an unusual Black Country boy & offers an English twist on the most Latin American of genres the Dictator novel. ...

How I Live Now is an original & poignant book by Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now is the powerful & engaging story of Daisy the precocious New Yorker & her English cousin Edmond torn apart as war breaks out in London from the multi award-winning Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now has been adapted for the big screen by Kevin Macdonald starring Saoirse Ronan as Daisy & releases in 2013. Fifteen-year-old Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her & now her dad has sent her away for the summer to live in the English countryside with cousins she's never even met. There she'll discover what real love is: something violent mysterious & wonderful. There her world will be turned upside down & a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces. How will Daisy live then? Fresh honest rude funny. I put it down with tears on my face". (Julie Myerson Guardian). " Assured powerful engaging.. .you will want to read everything that Rosoff is capable of writing". (Observer). " An unforgettable adventure". (Sunday Times). Bestselling author Meg Rosoff has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her first novel How I Live Now (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). Her other novels Just in Case (winner of the 2007 Carnegie Medal) The Bride's Farewell & What I Was which was described by The Times as ' Samuel Beckett on ecstasy' are also available from Puffin. Follow Meg on Twitter @megrosoff. Also by Meg Rosoff: How I Live Now; Just In Case; What I Was; The Bride's Farewell; & There is No Dog." ...