This work contains over forty stories in one book-all of them very very short. None of the stories are more than two pages long but each of them is special & thought-provoking. Drawn from a range of sources including folk tales urban myths & narrative jokes as well as original stories the stories are ideal to be used in the classroom as well as for sleepovers & just for dipping into. Short & Spooky!"

Includes:: stories of ghosts of all kinds
- some funny some scary some shocking-but all guaranteed to give a fright!"


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Winner of the Andre Simon Food Book Award 2011 The ultimate baking compendium from Dan Lepard the country's foremost baking guru. Dan Lepard's innovative & earthy approach has made him the baker that every top chef wants in their kitchen & with this utterly dependable how-to-bake book you'll be baking cakes pastries breads & cookies like never before. Collecting together Dan's best recipes
- & mixing science with old-fashioned kitchen wisdom
- Dan has tried & tested almost every baking technique out there. Guiding you through the crispest flatbreads blue cheese & oatmeal biscuits gluten-free white loaves savoury leek & smoked haddock pies caramel sweets frostings simple scones & pumpkin & ginger cupcakes Short & Sweet uses the newest flours & ingredients & has everything from updates on the classics to the latest in baking for intolerances. If baking is therapy then Dan is your life coach. He'll show you how to improve what to work on how to take what is just ok right up to brilliant without a sweat. No wonder he is the country's cutting-edge baker.

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After spending his childhood & school years in Albania imagining that the mini-skirts & quiz-shows of Italian state TV were the reality of life in the West & fantasizing accordingly about living on the other side of the border the death of Hoxha at last enables Gazmend Kapllani to make his escape. However on arriving in the Promised Land he finds neither lots of willing leggy lovelies nor a warm welcome from his long-lost Greek cousins. Instead he gets banged up in a detention centre in a small border town. As Gazi & his fellow immigrants try to find jobs they begin to plan their future lives in Greece imagining riches & successes which always remain just beyond their grasp. The sheer absurdity of both their plans & their new lives is overwhelming. Both detached & involved ironic & emotional Kapllani interweaves the story of his experience with meditations upon border syndrome
- a mental state as much as a geographical experience
- to create a brilliantly observed amusing & perceptive debut.

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I look at all of Carvers work as just one story for his stories are all occurences all about things that just happen to people & cause their lives to take a turn... In formulating the mosaic of the film Short Cuts which is based on these nine stories & a poem Lemonade Ive tried to do the same thing- to give the audience one look... But it all began here. I was a reader turning these pages. Trying on these lives
- Robert Altman in his introduction.
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A Short History of Byzantium" is renowned historian & author of "A History of Venice" John Julius Norwich's classic history of Byzantium. Constantine the Great moved the seat of Roman power to Constantinople in AD 330 & for eleven brutal bloody centuries the Byzantine Empire became a beacon of grand magnificence & depraved decadence... Here then are the centuries dominated by ferocious arguments over the nature of Christ & his Church. By knowledge where scholars & scribes preserved the heritage of the ancient world. By emperors like Justinian the Great & Basil the Bulgar-Slayer
- men pious heroic or monstrous. By creativity as art & architecture soared to new heights. In this abridgement of his celebrated trilogy John Julius Norwich provides the definitive introduction to the savage scintillating world of Byzantium. " Norwich has the gift of historical perspective as well as clarity & wit. Few can tell a good story better than he". (" Spectator"). "A real-life epic of love & war accessible to anyone". (" Independent on Sunday"). " Norwich tells a remarkable story with boundless zest. He offers character sketches of the appalling personages who infest his narrative.. .with the assurance of a Macauley or a Gibbon". (" Daily Telegraph"). John Julius Norwich was born in 1929. He was educated at Upper Canada College Toronto at Eton at the University of Strasbourg & after a spell of National Service in the Navy at New College Oxford where he took a degree in French & Russian. In 1952 he joined the Foreign Service where he remained for twelve years serving at the embassies in Belgrade & Beirut. In 1964 he resigned from the service to write. He is the author of histories of Norman Sicily the Republic of Venice & the Byzantine Empire. He has written & presented some thirty historical documentaries on television & is a regular lecturer on Venice & numerous other subjects."
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This is a definitive concise account of our remarkable past. From the Battle of Catterick (AD 598) to the premiership of Tony Blair one of Britains most respected journalists Simon Jenkins weaves together a strong narrative with all the most important & interesting dates in a book that characteristically is as stylish as it is authoritative. There have been long synoptic histories of England but until now there has been no standard short work covering all significant events themes & individuals. Published with the support of the National Trust & beautifully illustrated this magisterial history will be the standard work for years to come. ...

This is the definitive concise account of our remarkable past. Which battle was fought ' For England Harry & St George'? Who demanded to be painted 'warts & all'? What
- & when
- was the Battle of the Bulge? In A Short History of England" bestselling author Simon Jenkins answers all these questions
- & many more
- as he tells the tumultuous story of a fascinating nation. From the invaders of the dark ages to today's coalition via the Tudors the Stuarts & two world wars Jenkins weaves together a gripping narrative with all the most important & interesting dates in his own inimitable style. Until now there has been no short history of England covering all significant event themes & individuals: this bestselling book published in association with the National Trust will be the standard work for years to come."



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Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller: but even when he stays safely in his own study at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization
- how we got from there being nothing at all to here being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us like geology chemistry & particle physics & see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth or what a black hole is or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time & space he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric competitive obsessive & foolish scientists like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums like how much the Earth weighed but never bothered to tell anybody about many of his findings. In the company of such extraordinary people Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey & reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
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In the bestselling prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything" Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the world of science both understandable & entertaining to millions of people around the globe. Now in this glorious new illustrated edition everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization is even more vividly brought to life with stunning full-colour photographs drawings portraits & cartoons." ...

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Brysons quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization
- how we got from there being nothing at all to here being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us & see if there isnt some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. Its not so much about what we know as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth or what a black hole is or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time & space Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey & reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before. -A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Brysons quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization
- how we got from there being nothing at all to here being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us & see if there isnt some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. Its not so much about what we know as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth or what a black hole is or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time & space Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey & reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

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