This book tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades showing for the first time how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern. From salmonella in eggs to BSE from the Millennium Bug to bird flu from DDT to passive smoking from asbestos to global warming scares have become one of the most conspicuous & damaging features of our modern world. It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the media & lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; & finally by the politicians & aofficials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response leaving us all to pay a colossal price which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds. The book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval witch craze describing our time as a new age of superstition. ...

Late one night after a strange tube journey to Whitechapel in East London Paul makes a new friend John Redman
- daring & enigmatic
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A dark psychological thriller featuring Diane Fry & Ben Cooper in which a small community is ripped apart by arson & murder. ' Ingenious plotting & richly atmospheric' -- Reginald Hill. An assassination in the night -- an open window & three bullets from the darkness -- the victim a harmless middle-aged woman. But can she really be quite as innocent as she seems? The death of Rose Shepherd swarms with questions -- unlike the deaths of a woman & her two children in a house fire. A tragedy yes but an everyday one. Then DS Fry discovers a link between the two cases a link that crosses the borders between nations between right & wrong between madness & sanity. She & Ben Cooper discover why some people are scared to live -- & others are fated to die! ...

TWO WOMEN DEAD It was a vicious calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station followed her home on the tube strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time killed in the same way a second body is discovered at the back of Kings Cross station. & this grisly event eerily echoes the murder of two other women stabbed to death months before on the same day. TWO KILLERS WORKING TOGETHER It is DI Tom Thorne who sees the link & comes to the horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer the police are up against. This is two of them
- & two killers are way more deadly than one.. .
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The fourth hilarious story about Splat the Cat the irresistible character from Rob Scotton bestselling creator of Russell the Sheep Its Halloween & Splat is determined to be the scariest cat in the class. Unfortunately hes just too much of a scaredy-cat. Hes afraid of a little spider & everyone says his costume looks more silly than scary. & when the teacher tells a ghost story in the dark Splat gets so frightened that he tips over his pumpkin jack-o-lantern. But when the lights go back on the entire class is scared silly by a small black furry creature with a big pumpkin head. Whoooo could it be? ...

Cathy Scarlet & Tom Feather have decided to create the best catering company in Dublin. They have the perfect premises heaps of talent & even a few contacts but not everyone seems as pleased by the idea of Scarlet Feather as they are. Toms parents are disappointed that he has turned his back on the family business. Cathys husband buries himself in work becoming ever more distant whilst his mother thinks Cathy should stay at home to look after him. & Toms relationship with his beautiful ambitious girlfriend becomes fraught as she struggles to realise her dream of becoming a model. As Cathy & Tom strive to maintain their emotional ties amidst catering triumphs & disasters they are supported & undermined by an enchanting cast of classic Binchy characters. ...

This is a troubling story of crime sin guilt punishment & expiation set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New Engl&. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However it is not so much her harsh sentence but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book's poignant climax. ...

Hester Prynne is a beautiful young woman. She is also an outcast. In the eyes of her neighbours she has committed an unforgivable sin. Everyone knows that her little daughter Pearl is the product of an illicit affair but no one knows the identity of Pearl's father. Hester's refusal to name him brings more condemnation upon her. But she stands strong in the face of public scorn even when she is forced to wear the sign of her shame sewn onto her clothes: the scarlet letter 'A' for ' Adulteress' ...

This is an exquisite leatherbound edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical study of guilt & sin. This version of the landmark of American literature features a satin-ribbon bookmark distinctive stained edging & decorative marbled endpapers. In seventeenth-century Boston Hester Prynne shoulders the scorn of her fellow Puritan townsfolk for bearing a child out of wedlock. For her refusal to name the father of her daughter Pearl Hester is made to wear a scarlet 'A' stitched conspicuously upon her dress. But though she bears the stigma of the shame her peers would confer upon her others feel the guilt for her transgression more acutely notably the pious Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale the confessor with whom Hester & Pearl's destinies are intimately bound up. First published in 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical study of guilt & sin has since been lauded as the most important work of fiction by its distinguished author & a landmark of American literature. This exquisite collectible edition features an elegant bonded-leather binding a satin-ribbon bookmark distinctive stained edging & decorative marbled endpapers. It's the perfect gift for book-lovers & an artful addition to any home library. ...

William Marshal's prowess & loyalty as a knight in the English royal household has been rewarded by marriage to Isabelle de Clare heiress to great estates in England Normandy & Irel&. But their contentment & security is shattered when King Richard dies & is succeeded by his brother John who takes the Marshals' sons hostage & seizes their lands. Now William must face the conflict between remaining loyal or rebelling against these injustices
- & the struggle threatens to tear his marriage apart. Fiercely intelligent & courageous Isabelle too must come to terms with what the future holds.. . The Scarlet Lion is the final novel in an unforgettable standalone trilogy about William Marshal Earl of Pembroke Regent of England
- & one of the country's greatest forgotten heroes.

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