This title presents a selection of the best short stories from Paul Jennings earlier Puffin titles. Everyone is entirely different but all are wacky & extraordinary. Subjects range from the longest kiss ever to a boy who becomes transparent
- & the stories are all unpredictable.
...

Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning with Master & Commander these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the thirteenth book in the series. For all Jack Aubrey's life he has triumphed often sensationally over the dangers of the sea & the violence of the enemy. But his rashness his guilelessness his indiscretion have time & time again enabled his rivals to prevent him reaping his just rewards. The nadir was reached in The Reverse of the Medal when the victim of a skilful frame-up he was convicted of fraud & struck off the Navy list just as he was coming within sight of flag rank. The subsequent exposure of the conspiracy coupled with his brilliant success in command of a privateer had brought him to a position where Their Lordships were more or less bound to reinstate him. This as the present book opens they have done & he & his old friend Dr Maturin are sailing on a secret mission with a h&-picked crew most of them shipmates from the adventures & lucrative voyages of earlier years. ...

Imagine starting at the end & finishing back at the beginning. This is the story of a teenage girl called Valerie Saunders who is about to be thrown through time & space. Being bestowed with abilities beyond her wildest nightmares she discovers that she not only has to deal with turning eighteen her first job & an unwanted tattoo but also magical powers & intense urges to fall in love. She envisaged she would spend her life blending into the scenery not blowing it up! Val has a calling but which side is dialling her number? ...

Angelfield House stands abandoned & forgotten. It was once home to the March family
- fascinating manipulative Isabelle brutal
...

As Wartime did for the 1940s this book will grasp the broad spectrum of events in the 1930s in the words of contemporary witnesses drawn from metropolitan & provincial letters & diaries newspapers periodicals books & the range of rich material available in the British Library. J.B. Priestley famously described the three Englands he saw in the 1930s: Old England nineteenth-century England & the new post-war Engl&. Thirties Britain was indeed a land of contrasts at once a nation rendered hopeless by the Depression unemployment & international tensions yet also a place of complacent suburban home-owners with a baby Austin in every garage. Now Juliet Gardiner acclaimed author of the award-winning Wartime provides a fresh perspective on that restless uncertain ambitious decade bringing the complex experience of thirties Britain alive through newspapers magazines memoirs letters & diaries. Gardiner captures the essence of a people part-mesmerised by modernism in architecture art & the proliferation of dream palaces by the cult of fitness & fresh air the obsession with speed the growth & regimentation of leisure the democratisation of the countryside the celebration of elegance glamour & sensation. Yet at the same time this was a nation imbued with a pervasive awareness of loss -- of Britains influence in the world of accepted political social & cultural signposts & finally of peace itself. ...

Thirty Days Has September" helps with learning all of those confusing rules of language & mathematics & those tricky facts from science history & geography. It makes a lovely gift from parent to child & a perfect learning companion to help all school children. It is a treasure trove of easy methods to take important information from the back of the mind to the tip of childrens tongues." ...

Richard Hannay finds a corpse in his flat & becomes involved in a plot by spies to precipitate war & subvert British naval power. The resourceful victim of a manhunt he is pursued by both the police & the ruthless conspirators. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a seminal chase thriller rapid & vivid. It has been widely influential & frequently dramatised: the film directed by Alfred Hitchcock became a screen classic. This engaging novel also provides insights into the inter-action of patriotism fear & prejudice. ...

John Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps while he was seriously ill at the beginning of the First World War. In it he introduces his most famous hero Richard Hannay who despite claiming to be an 'ordinary fellow' is caught up in the dramatic race against a plot to devastate the British war effort. Hannay is hunted across the Scottish moors by police & spy-ring alike & must outwit his intelligent & pitiless enemy in the corridors of Whitehall & finally at the site of the mysterious thirty-nine steps. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers The Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print since first publication & has been filmed three times most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. In this the only critical edition Christopher Harvie's introduction interweaves the writing of the tale with the equally fascinating story of how John Buchan publisher & lawyer came in from the cold & via The Thirty-Nine Steps ended the war as spy-master & propaganda chief. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

Ever wondered what happened to your first love? Imagine bumping into them twelve years later & realizing you still fancy them rotten. Thats exactly what happens to Dig Ryan when he sees Delilah again. Now imagine youre Nadine. You & Dig have been best friends for fifteen years. & youve finally realized that youre in love with him. So when Delilah who always was your nemesis returns youre mad with jealousy & cant help behaving childishly. Like phoning your first love Phil just to get your own back Thirty-Nothing is a story of ex-boyfriends ex-girlfriends & friends dabbling with yesterday when they really should be thinking about today. ...

For fourteen years he has kept the demons at bay. The former SAS sergeant from Ulster has renounced the gun. With help from the bottle & a village girl he devotes his life to others in war-torn Mozambique. But as the terror spreads he must fight again. Plunged into the savage cauldron of Africas killing fields he confronts two very different but equally implacable enemies. ...