This is the story of how private foreign enterprise in the form of Swedish Lloyd & Swedish America Line who formed a British company called Hoverlloyd galvanised the British Government in to supporting this new concept in transport through the formation of a British Rail subsidiary called Seaspeed. It is a story told by those who were there of how young adventurous men & women most of whom were in their twenties & early thirties took on the exciting challenge of getting an operation in which they all believed had a great future off the ground. It tells of the difficulties & near disasters through lack of experience that nearly wrote off the industry in the early days; the clashes of cultures between the free enterprise & Government operations; & why after so much early promise the great adventure with the giant car & passenger carrying hovercraft came to an end. The story begins with the history of Saunders Roe & their involvement as a result of the discovery by Christopher Cockerell in 1953 that big weights could be supported on a cushion of low pressure air & that the concept could be practically applied. Much has already been written about Christopher Cockerell later Sir Christopher & the development of the hovercraft by Saunders Roe as well as the hovercraft industry to the present day. Those relevant parts showing the frustrations & disappointments they too suffered are repeated in this book together with new material that has come to light to provide a comprehensive narrative of the hovercraft industry & the giant SR.N4 cross-Channel operations. ...

On a chill frosty night the stars are shining brightly. A husky puppy dreams of life as a sleigh dog a young goose learns how to navigate the sky at night an arctic fox discovers he is afraid of the dark during the polar night & a lost narwhal catches a magical falling star upon his spiral tusk. This is a sparkling addition to our hugely successful range of anthologies with delightful illustrations from Alison Edgson & featuring all-new stories from a host of best-loved authors including Penny Dolan Michael Broad & Holly Webb. ...

Where are all the exciting men in London? After spending years in the glittering ballrooms of the town Amanda Cynster is utterly bored by the current crop of bland suitors. Determined to take matters into her own hands one night she shockingly goes where no respectable lady ever should but where many an intriguing gentleman might be found. But titillating excitement quickly turns to panic when Amanda discovers shes quite out of her depth. She looks around for help
- & is unexpectedly rescued by the Earl of Dexter. Lean sensuous & mysterious he has delayed re-entering society preferring instead a more interesting existence on its fringes. Hes the epitome of the boldly passionate gentleman Amanda has been searching for but although his very touch makes it clear hes willing to educate her in the art of love Amanda has to wonder if such a masterful rake can be sufficiently tamed into the ways of marriage.
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One cold Christmas night a shepherd recounts the magical story of how he came to be the first visitor to the newborn Christ child
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Zadie Smiths On Beauty" is a funny powerful & moving story about love & family. Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set in New England mainly & London partly " On Beauty" concerns a pair of feuding families
- the Belseys & the Kipps
- & a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals & asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys & the Kipps the confusions
- both personal & political
- of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family. " The novel I didnt want to finish I was enjoying it so much". (John Sutherland " Evening Standard"). " Thrums with intellectual sass & know-how". (" Literary Review"). " Delightfully entertaining.. .filled with humour generosity & contemporary sparkle". (Alex Clark " Daily Telegraph"). " My novel of the year.. . Delicious". (Liz Jones " Evening Standard"). " Satirical wise & sexy". (" Washington Post"). " Heartstopping". (" The Times Literary Supplement"). "A triumph Smiths comedy shines". (" Daily Mail"). " Ambitious hugely impressive beautifully observed". (" Guardian"). Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. Her debut novel " White Teeth" won the Whitbread First Novel Award the Guardian First Book Award the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction & the Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize & was included in TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Her second novel " On Beauty" was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize & won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has written two further novels " The Autograph Man" & "NW" a collection of essays " Changing My Mind" & also edited a short-story anthology " The Book of Other People"."



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Hill is an instinctive & complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift Frances Fyfield Mail on Sunday They moved everyone that long hot summer fifteen years ago. They needed a new reservoir & an old community seemed a cheap price to pay. They even dug up the dead & moved them too. But four inhabitants of the valley they couldnt move for nobody knew where they were. Three little girls had gone missing & the prime suspect in their disappearance Benny Lightfoot This was Andy Dalziels worst case & now fifteen years on he looks set to relive it. Its another long hot summer. A child goes missing in the next valley & old fears arise as someone sprays the deadly message on the wall of Danby: BENNYS BACK! Music & myth mingle as the Mid-Yorkshire team delve into their pasts & into their own reserves of experience & endurance in search of answers which threaten to bring more pain than they resolve. ...

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF IRON MAIDEN. IRON MAIDEN are a global phenomenon. On board their customised Boeing 757 plane named ED FORCE ONE & piloted by lead singer & Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson the band crew & 12 tonnes of equipment traversed the planet & broke the mould of traditional touring forever by playing concerts in every continent except Antarctica! Setting off in early 2008 on the Somewhere Back In Time World Tour through to the epic Final Frontier tour which included an Around The World In 66 Days jaunt between February-April 2011 Maiden finally came in to land in August with two sold-out shows in their native London at the O2 Arena. The Final Frontier Tour celebrates their 15th & most successful studio album to date hitting the No 1 spot in at least 28 countries. Throughout this mammoth & ground-breaking undertaking the band's official photographer John Mc Murtrie accompanied them & the exciting results of his fly-on-the-wall coverage are represented here in this unique pictorial odyssey. John's unrestricted access has allowed him to capture exclusive images & moments both onstage & off in over 600 spectacular photographs annotated with individual insights & anecdotes. With a personal foreword by Captain Bruce Dickinson ON BOARD FLIGHT 666 takes you up close with IRON MAIDEN as they circumnavigate the globe playing to their loyal legions of fans & provides an unprecedented insight into one of the most adventurous rock tours ever undertaken; & into what makes this band so special. ...

In 1971 Henry Kissinger took the historic step of reopening relations between China & the West & since then has been more intimately connected with the country at the highest level than any other western figure. This book distils his unique experience examining Chinas history from the classical era to the present day describing the essence of its millennia-old approach to diplomacy strategy & negotiation & reflecting on these attitudes for our own uncertain future. ...

Denial anger bargaining depression & acceptance. The five stages of grief first formulated in this hugely influential work forty years ago are now part of our common understanding of bereavement. The five stages were first identified by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her work with dying patients at the University of Chicago & were considered phases that all or most people went through when faced with the prospect of their own death. They are now often accepted as a response to any major life change. However in spite of these terms being in general use the subject of death is still surrounded by conventional attitudes & reticence that offer only fragile comfort because they evade the real issues. This groundbreaking book is still relevant
- giving a voice to dying people & exploring what impending death means to them often in their own words. People speak about their experience of dying their relief in expressing their fear & anger & being able to move forward to a state of acceptance & peace. Ideal for all those with an interest in bereavement or the five stages of grief this book contains a new extended introduction from Professor Allan Kellehear. This additional chapter re-examines On Death & Dying looking at how it has influenced contemporary thought & practice.
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On Deception presents the highlights of Houdinis writings on illusions revealing him to have been a remarkably prescient champion of rationalism & an ardent opponent of the duping of susceptible individuals. Throughout his life the worlds most famous escapologist strove to expose the methods & tricks of illusionists & sham spiritualists. Studying entertainers & criminals alike Houdini investigates the tricks of the mind & sleights of hand that have deceived people throughout history. The magicians writings caused a public sensation; legend has it that The Right Way to do Wrong was bought in bulk by burglars in an attempt to guard the tricks of their trade. This collection also

Includes:: Houdinis revelations about the methods behind some of his own most famous tricks & articles he wrote to expose his imitators demonstrating him to be unarguably the master of his craft.

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