Its a snowy Christmas Eve & Detective Alex Cross is at home celebrating with his family. Nana Mamas famous pecan pie is in the oven & the kids are hanging their favourite ornaments on the tree. Just as Alexs wife Bree emerges from the kitchen with a bowl of homemade eggnog his phone rings with news that shatters the night: at a nearby home a family has been taken hostage
- & the situation is spiralling out of control fast. Alex rushes to the scene & confronts the unthinkable: a father is threatening to murder his own children & his ex-wife. Then just as the insanity peaks a second horrific situation explodes
- one that no one could have foreseen & that puts millions of people at risk. This is a red alert of the darkest kind & Alex is forced to make a decision that could end as many lives as it saves
- including his own. Merry Christmas Alex Cross" is James Pattersons most shocking " Alex Cross" novel yet: a breakneck-paced & heart-pounding adrenaline rush of a thriller."


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READ BY JOANNA LUMLEY. A Christmas themed best seller about Lily & her beloved Blue Kangaroo! READ BY JOANNA LUMLEY. Its Christmas Eve & Lily is excitedly wondering if Father Christmas will come. She has made cards for everyone helped to decorate the house & put presents under the tree. This one is just for you Blue Kangaroo!" she says. " Just for me!" thinks Blue Kangaroo. But Blue Kangaroo doesnt have a present for Lily & he lies awake worrying. Is there anyone who might be able to help?" ...

HE HAD THE POWER TO ASSUME A PLEASING SHAPE BUT WOULD HE TAKE TO THE STAGE? The audience was merry indeed when a third devilish imp bounded onstage to join the two that had been written into the script. But backstage all was uproar. The third demon seemed too much like the real thing. Even Nicholas Bracewell the company mainstay was shaken when next time the play was given only one devil appeared. The second poor fellow was now only a little red heap under the stage. Dead. Before the curtain rose again Lord Westfield's Men would suffer the sermons of a Puritan fanatic the enchantment of passion the terror of a London madhouse prophecies of a famous alchemist & danger as they'd never known it before.. . ...

An absorbing novel about family love & friendship from the bestselling author of Last Christmas. With four children a Christmas cookbook to write & her mum suffering from dementia Cat Tinsall has plenty to juggle. When her eldest daughter Mel starts going off the rails Cat has even more on her plate. Pippa Holliday adores her family although often finds her hands full. When Dan is involved in a terrible accident Pippas world is suddenly turned upside down. Balancing her job as a school teacher with twins & her step-son Steven isnt easy for Marianne North. With her husbands ex causing trouble life is getting even trickier. As Cat Pippa & Marianne help each other through a difficult year theyre all hoping for a much brighter Christmas. ...

The fourth meerkat story in the hilarious Awesome Animals series
- awesome adventures with the wildest wildlife. Told in Ian Whybrows
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In need of money the fat & foolish Falstaff devises a scheme to seduce two married women & steal their husbands wealth. By talking to each other however the wives soon discover his plan & begin to plot their own revenge. Relentlessly inventive this comic humiliation of a foolish would-be seducer is a lively compelling & ultimately joyous celebration of the all-conquering power of laughter. This book

Includes:: a general introduction to Shakespeares life & the Elizabethan theatre a separate introduction to Merry Wives of Windsor a chronology suggestions for further reading an essay discussing performance options on both stage & screen & a commentary.

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A Mersey ferry was recorded in the Domesday Book & for around a thousand years they have plied between Birkenhead & Wallasey on the Wirral & Liverpool. The sail & man-powered craft gave way to steam ferries in 1815. In this book Ian Collard tells the story of the Mersey ferries concentrating on the steam & diesel powered eras from 1815 to the present day & including such famous ferries as Iris & Daffodil which were involved in the Zeebrugge Raid of 1918. The Mersey ferries have been immortalized in song & even today with the various tunnels under the Mersey the three survivors of today Snowdrop Royal Iris of the Mersey & Royal Daffodil are still being used by locals & tourists alike. Using around 160 old & new images he tells the story of the Ferries across the Mersey showing a river that was once teeming with ships but is now much quieter. ...

The Mersey Sound" is an attempt to introduce contemporary poetry to the general reader by publishing representative work by each of three modern poets in a single volume in each case the selection has been made to illustrate the poets characteristics in style & form. With this modest brief " The Mersey Sound" was conceived & first published in 1967. An anthology which features Roger Mc Goughs work alongside that of Brian Patten & Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets) it went on to sell over half a million copies & to become the bestselling poetry anthology of all time." ...

At the age of 45 Lucy Henshaw has finally left home. Her decision to go has been reached neither lightly nor suddenly since her marriage has been broken for some eighteen years. However as the mother of twin sons & a daughter Lucy has felt it her duty to stay as a couple in the family house she was born in near Bolton giving her children the security she knows they need. Now that her family is grown content in the knowledge that she loves them Lucy decides she is free to leave. She secretly purchases a beautiful house overlooking the Mersey near Liverpool & there she plans to start afresh. Within hours she has met some characters: her new neighbour Moira who is disabled & dying & sees Lucy as the ideal new companion for her husband Richard; Shirley Bishop built like a battleship & a cleaner extraordinaire towing her several-inches-shorter husband as a handy gardener behind her; & Dr David Vincent who is grieving for the loss of his young son. It is soon apparent that Lucy need have no anxieties about being lonely. It is these new friends too who come to Lucy's rescue when her husband Alan falls ill. Always a wastrel & fraudster who has tried to control her his illness only seems to offer him another opportunity to complicate Lucy's life all over again. Mersey View" is a compelling & gritty novel set in Liverpool & is a wonderful story rich with warmth & humour by a much-loved storyteller at the height of her powers." ...

With its strategic shipping ports & factories the towns & cities dotted along the River Mersey soon became some of Hitlers most heavily targeted sites during the Second World War. In August 1940 the German Luftwaffe attacked Birkenhead in what was to be the first of over 300 such bombing raids Merseyside sustained that year. Almost 4 000 people perished & many more were seriously injured as the streets & buildings of Liverpool & Wirral were destroyed & their residents left in turmoil. Featuring 45 vistas of bomb-damaged suburbia & city centre carnage alongside 45 photographs of the area as it is today Merseyside War Years: Then & Now sensitively documents the changes & developments that have taken place in Merseyside since those dark days of war demonstrating both architectural progress & Britains resilience & in the face of adversity. ...