I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine Jessica Vyes violent experience colours her schooldays & her reaction to the world around her- a confining world of Order Marks wartime restrictions viyella dresses nicely-restrained essays & dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is beyond all possible doubt a born writer. With her inability to conform her absolute compulsion to tell the truth & her dedication to accurately noting her experiences she knows this anyway. But what she doesnt know is that the experiences that sustain & enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new- & entirely unexpected- reality. ...

The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy. My new friends have begun to suspect that I havent told them the full story of my life. Why did you leave Sierra Leone?" " Because there is a war." " You mean you saw people running around with guns & shooting each other?" " Yes all the time." " Cool." I smile a little. " You should tell us about it sometime." " Yes sometime." This is how wars are fought now: by children hopped-up on drugs & wielding AK-47s. There are more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide & it is estimated there are some 300 000 child soldiers fighting. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists & novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell & survived. Ishmael Beah now twenty-five years old tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone he fled attacking rebels & wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen hed been picked up by the government army & Beah at heart a gentle boy found he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare & mesmerizing account told with real literary force & heartbreaking honesty." ...

Michael Morpurgo is a master storyteller former Childrens Laureate & multi-award winner. This is a fresh reissue of a much-loved story with a beautiful new cover. This is another summer another foster family. George has already made up his mind to run away back to the childrens home. None of the previous families have wanted him. Why should the Dyers be any different? But George begins to feel at ease with Tom Dyer & his sister Storme even happy & changes his mind. He could even feel at home with them
- couldnt he?
...

In a gorgeous quay-side hotel in Cornwall the long weekend is just beginning.. . Claire Marlowe owns ' The Townhouse by the Sea' with Luca the hotel's charismatic chef. She ensures everything runs smoothly
- until an unexpected arrival checks in & turns her whole world upside down. & the rest of the guests arrive with their own baggage. There's a couple looking for distraction from a family tragedy; a man trying to make amends for an affair he bitterly regrets.. .and the young woman who thinks the Cornish village might hold the key to her past. Here are affairs of the heart secrets lies & scandal
- all wrapped up in one long hot weekend.

...

This authoritative book is aimed particularly at those who participate in racing pigeons at distances of over five hundred miles but will also be of value to all pigeon fanciers. John Clements succeeds in making the reader view the humble pigeon in a different light & ensures that he or she gains a deeper appreciation of the enormous joy & satisfaction that can be gained from long-distance pigeon racing. ...

The Longest Climb" is the utterly compelling account of Dominic & his teams expedition from the Dead Sea to the peak of Everest. His team Everest Max were the first ever to make this extraordinary journey. Following an old Victorian route Dominic cycled through Jordan Syria Turkey Iran Pakistan & India on his way to Tibet & the bottom of the worlds highest mountain. From trying to find a wireless connection in Damascus & setting fire to the teams support vehicle in order to thaw the engine in Iran to deciding whether or not to share the little oxygen they had & risk their own lives in order to try to save another climber & beating their Austrian nemesis Gerry Winkler to the top " The Longest Climb" is a high-octane combination of the huge personal risk fascinating cultural insight & momentary farce that make up a major expedition. But " The Longest Climb" is not simply a memoir of an expedition. It is also the moving account of Dominics struggle to finally accept the heartbreaking loss of his father to cancer when Dominic was just six. As he fights illness broken equipment lack of money & the hardest season of Everest history to make the top Dominic also discusses what has driven him up this mountain. The answers are as affecting as they are extraordinary." ...

6 June 1944. 156 000 troops from 12 different countries 11 000 aircraft 7 000 naval vessels 24 hours. D-Day
- the beginning of
...

' Don't wait for the storm to pass; learn to dance in the rain…' Laura has been married to the man of her dreams for seven months. But a week before the wedding Matthew made a terrible mistake. Escaping the humiliation that is now her marriage Laura is whisked off to Florida's Key West by her best friend Marty. A carefree holiday full of cocktails & fun surrounded by gorgeous tanned men is exactly what the doctor ordered. Distraction comes in the form of sexy Cuban scuba diver Leo. Laura's instant attraction to him knocks her flying & she falls hard. As the end of the holiday approaches Laura doesn't want to go home. Is it time to face the music? Or is there more to Key West than a holiday romance? ...

On a 1100 Honda Gold Wing Scotto travelled from his native Argentina across the world: earthquakes in Mexico attacked by Sierra Leon cannibals blessed by the Pope given money by Muhammed Ali fleeing Somalia on a freighter crossing Checkpoint Charlie... This is a true-life adventure story unlike any you have ever read before: the ride of a lifetime! ...

In the last decade Americas priorities have changed. National security has become the primary concern for citizens & a top priority for government officials. Billions of dollars have been spent fighting the war on terror & millions more have been spent by private citizens around the globe trying to understand how we got here. Investigative journalist & bestselling author of Holy War Inc. & The Osama bin Laden I Know Peter Bergen is the authority who can answer that question. One of few Westerners to ever sit down with Osama bin Laden Bergen is renowned for his analysis of al Qaeda & its evolution over the last decade. Now he is breaking the story open in a way that readers have never seen before. Bergen picks up where Lawrence Wrights The Looming Tower leaves off. He reveals the details of how al Qaeda has evolved since the 9/11 attacks & tells the parallel story of how the U.S. government has changed its own course in response. Bergen has unprecedented insight that comes through many channels: internal documents from both al Qaeda & U.S. counterterrorism offices in person interviews with al Qaeda members of the highest & lowest ranks hundreds of interviews conducted with senior officials in the White House Pentagon CIA & the FBI & his own experiences on the ground in Afghanistan. A Very Long War will be the definitive account of the war on terror--its failures & successes the major players & its likely future. ...