This is the endlessly fascinating story of our planet is told with the aid of lots of pictures & a simple narrative text. It covers the entire history of Planet Earth from the Big Bang to the present day including how life began & evolved the greening of the land the age of dinosaurs & the take-over of mammals. The story then moves to the arrival of people technology & how the planet is changing as we live on it. It

Includes:: links to key specially selected internet sites via Usborne Quicklinks which will enhance the book for the reader.

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This dream-laden & spooked (Marina Warner London Review of Books) story is to many one of the best-loved books of the twentieth century. Munthe spent many years working as a doctor in Southern Italy labouring unstintingly during typhus cholera & earthquake disasters. It was during this period that he came across the ruined Tiberian villa of San Michele perched high above the glittering Bay of Naples on Capri. With the help of Mastro Nicola & his three sons & with only a charcoal sketch roughly drawn on a garden wall to guide them Munthe devoted himself to rebuilding the house & chapel. Over five long summers they toiled under a sapphire-blue sky their mad-cap project leading them to buried skeletons & ancient coins & to hilarious encounters with a rich cast of vividly-drawn villagers. The Story of San Michele reverberates with the mesmerising hum of a long hot Italian summer. Peopled with unforgettable characters it is as brilliantly enjoyable & readable today as it was upon first publication. The book quickly became an international bestseller & has now been translated into more than 30 languages; it is today an established classic & sales number in the millions. ...

The story of Scotland from the Ice Age to the Vikings the Picts & the Romans to Robert the Bruce Mary Queen of Scots Bonnie Prince Charlie Flora Macdonald Sir Walter Scott Logie Baird Keir Hardie & many more famous Scots up to the present day. Each page is packed with colourful pictures & witty captions & speech bubbles & a pithy text gives the facts & tells the story. This is a fun book but it covers the material in a way that will make it attractive both to schools & to tourists. With NESSIE THE LOCH NESS MONSTER a continuing bestseller in Scotland Richard Brassey is the perfect author/illustrator for a book that should have a long life ahead. His co-author Stewart Ross is an ex-teacher with a special interest in Scottish history. ...

Soho has always been a source of fascination. A district quite unlike any other in London where glamour meets squalor & then often merges. It is different never mirroring the changes of its more fashionable neighbours. It seduces & destroys in equal measures. The Windmill Theatre opened in 1932 & after entertaining audiences through thirty-two years of dramatic change in Soho finally closed its doors in 1964. In this book the Windmill forms the backdrop against which Mike Hutton explores all the diversity taking place in the surrounding streets of this unique district during a period of social & moral change. There is the influence of the many nationalities living there during the years leading up to the war. Organised crime existing alongside leading West End theatres & restaurants. The arrival of the GIs with money to burn & time on their hands. The black market booms. Want some nylons? How about a gun? No problem. Falling bombs bring terror but there is still time to party. Then its all over & nationally austerity takes hold but never quite in Soho. The squeaky clean Windmill girls are joined by models baring all in the burgeoning strip clubs. There is money to be made dodgy policemen to be paid off & violence simmers away to a background of music. ...

The Story of Spain" is a story of kings & poets saints & conquistadors emperors & revolutionaries. It is the story of Torquemada Cervantes Picasso Franco Saint Theresa & of the Alhambra & the Escorial. Drawing on years of rigorous research & written with the flair of a master storyteller this superb new edition draws together the myriad fragments of Spanish history
- from its prehistory right up to the 2008 elections
- to re-create the drama excitement & pathos that is the story of one of Europes most fascinating countries."

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Batailles first novel published under the pseudonym Lord Auch is still his most notorious work. In this explicit pornographic fantasy the young male narrator & his lovers Simone & Marcelle embark on a sexual quest involving sadism torture orgies madness & defilement culminating in a final act of transgression. Shocking & sacreligious Story of the Eye" is the fullest expression of Batailles obsession with the closeness of sex violence & death. Yet it is also hallucinogenic in its power & is one of the erotic classics of the twentieth century." ...

The Story of the Fly & how it could save the world will take you behind the pesky reputation & inside the brain & body of the much misunderstood fly. It investigates the insect as pest & how man has tried (tirelessly often unsuccessfully) to kill it
- exploring everything from how it walks on ceilings to how it survives Ice Ages & outsmart all manner of fly swats toxins & traps. The book also reveals how throughout history innovative humans
- including Napoleon Bonapartes surgeon NASA various forensic entomologists & the UK National Health Services
- have harnessed & researched the fly to help mankind. But ultimately it introduces the fly as a future hero that could help save the world. How? By recycling waste nutrients & generating sustainable protein to spare the fish in the ocean & feed the ever-growing number of people on our Earth. Thats a story worth telling. & one worth reading too.


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The outrageous bestseller is back
- now in a hilarious pop-up edition! Who did their business on the mole's head? Join the intrepid
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A modern classic & one of the most popular picture books of the last 20 years
- now with sound! * Hear hilarious splat-tastic sounds
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Popular among both adults & children ' The Story of the Little Mole' follows the quest of a mole as he tries to find out who did their business" on his head. " Quite simply the funniest book you are ever likely to read (as long as you are not easily offended that is!). Perfect for children of course but if you are stuck for gift ideas for the adults in your life you may need to look no further."
- Susan Harrison amazon.co.uk"
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