The Thomas Annual 2013" is packed full of stories & activities about Thomas & his many engine crane bus boat plane & helicopter friends! There are lots of fun activities to do which include things to find count & colour as well as Fact Files of their favourite characters. It also features some creative makes so they can use simple materials to make their very own Fat Controller Jeremy the Jet Fat Controllers top hat & some tasty engine cakes!" ...

Recreate your favourite scenes from Blue Mountain Mystery the new movie starring Thomas the Tank Engine & his friends on Sodor! Enhance the mystery in this fun-packed activity book as you solve puzzles & add some colour to Thomas & his friends
- including Luke the br&-new engine with an old old secret.. .
Includes: 4 pages of full-colour stickers to use in the book
- or anywhere you like!


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With stories games activities & stickers! The popular little blue engine is back
- & he has some br&-new friends! Fans of Thomas
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Thomas Ades is feted from Los Angeles to London from New York to Berlin as the musician who has done more than any other living composer to connect contemporary music with wider audiences. His operas orchestral pieces & chamber works have already stood the test of repeated performances productions & continued critical acclaim. But this celebrated composer conductor & pianist is notoriously secretive about his creative process about what lies behind his compositional impulse. The poetry technique & biography that fuel his most successful & shattering works such as his operas Powder Her Face" & " The Tempest" or his orchestral works " Asyla" & " Tevot" have remained hidden & unexplained. Until now. In conversation with Tom Service
- the writer with whom he has had the closest relationship in his career
- Ades opens up for the first time about how he creates his music where it comes from & what it means. In these provocative & challenging interviews Ades connects his music with influences from a huge historical & cultural spectrum
- from Sephardic Jewish folk music to 80s electronica from the films of Luis Bunuel & pre-Columbian art to the soundtracks of Al-Qaeda training videos
- & offers a unique insight into the crucible of his composition."



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Pierce Brosnan narrates this brand new feature-length Thomas & Friends" story. When Thomas discovers the long-lost town of Great Waterton The Fat Controller says it will be restored to mark Sodor Day. New engine Stanley arrives to help with the restoration but Thomas feels his position as the number 1 engine is under threat & plays a trick on him. When the plan backfires Thomas finds himself lost down a mine braving raging rapids & leaping the gap of a broken bridge. This all-action adventure will keep Thomas fans on the edge of their seats!" ...

From the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award John Guy comes Thomas Becket" a lively & enlightening new study that brings a colossal figure of British history vividly to life. Behind the legend there was a man. In 1120 the wife of a Norman drapers merchant gave birth to a baby boy in Londons bustling Cheapside. Despite his sickly constitution middle-class background & unremarkable abilities he rose within the space of thirty-five years to become the most powerful man in the kingdom second only to Henry II himself. At his height he led seven hundred knights into battle brokered peace between nations held the ear of the Pope & brought one of the strongest rulers in Christendom to his knees. & within three years of his bloody assassination he was a saint whose cult had spread the length & breadth of Europe & a legend who remains as controversial & compelling today as he was during his life. The story of " Thomas Becket" is the story of an enigma as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records personal letters & first-hand accounts John Guy has reconstructed a psychologically compelling stunningly nuanced & utterly convincing account of this most remarkable man the dramatic times in which he lived & the pivotal role he played in his nations history. " Lively effortlessly readable superb. A triumph". (" The Times"). " Suspenseful meticulously researched.. .however well you think you know the story it is well worth the read". (" Financial Times"). " Wonderfully moving & subtle. Reading of the assassination is almost unbearably intense & brings tears to ones eye". (" Daily Express"). " Compelling marvellously measured entertainingly astute & in places positively moving". (" The Independent"). "A beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history.. .not only corrects many historical errors & uncertainties but merits reading more than once for the sheer joy of its superb storytelling". (" The Times"). " Scintillates with energetic scene-setting giving us a tactile visual feel for early medieval England.. .breathes new life into an oft-told tale". (" Financial Times"). " Vivid & extremely readable. The most accessible " Life of Thomas Becket" to be published in recent years". (" The Times"). " Literary Supplement" John Guy is an award-winning historian accomplished broadcaster & a Fellow of Clare College Cambridge. His previous books include " My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots" winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award the highly acclaimed dual biography "A Daughters Love: Thomas & Margaret More" & a history " Tudor England" which has sold over 250 000 copies worldwide." ...

From the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award John Guy comes Thomas Becket a lively & enlightening new book that brings a colossal figure of British history vividly to life. This is the man not the legend... Thomas Becket lived at the centre of medieval Engl&. Son of a draper's merchant he was befriended & favoured by Henry II & quickly ascended the rungs of power & privilege. He led 700 knights into battle brokered peace between warring states & advised King & Pope. Yet he lost it all defying his closest friend & King resulting in his own bloody murder & the birth of a legend. In John Guy's masterful account the life death & times of Thomas Becket come splendidly alive. Lively effortlessly readable superb. A triumph". (The Times). " Suspenseful meticulously researched.. .however well you think you know the story it is well worth the read". (Financial Times). " Wonderfully moving & subtle. Reading of the assassination is almost unbearably intense & brings tears to one's eye". (Daily Express). " Compelling marvellously measured entertainingly astute & in places positively moving". (The Independent). "A beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history.. .not only corrects many historical errors & uncertainties but merits reading more than once for the sheer joy of its superb storytelling". (The Times). " Scintillates with energetic scene-setting giving us a tactile visual feel for early medieval England.. .breathes new life into an oft-told tale". (Financial Times). " Vivid & extremely readable. The most accessible Life of Thomas Becket to be published in recent years". (The Times Literary Supplement). John Guy is an award-winning historian accomplished broadcaster & a Fellow of Clare College Cambridge. His previous books include My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award the highly acclaimed dual biography A Daughter's Love: Thomas & Margaret More & a history Tudor England which has sold over 250 000 copies worldwide." ...

The extraordinary life of Thomas Cromwell & the real story of Wolf Hall. Thomas Cromwell chief architect of the English Reformation served as chief minister of Henry VIII from 1531 to 1540 the most tumultuous period in Henrys thirty-seven-year reign. Many of the momentous events of the 1530s are attributed to Cromwells agency the Reformation the dissolution of the monasteries & the fall of Henrys second wife the bewitching Anne Boleyn. Cromwell has been the subject of close & continuous attention for the last half century with positive appraisal of his work & achievements by historians this new biography shows the true face of a Machiavellian Tudor statesmans of no equal.

Includes:: 50 illustrations 40 in colour.

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The son of a brewer Cromwell rose from obscurity to become Earl of Essex Vice-Regent & High Chamberlain of England Keep of the Privy Seal & Chancellor of the Exchequer. He manoeuvred his way to the top by intrigue bribery & sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry. Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy & little subtlety. Tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal chamber he tortured her servants & relations then organised a show trial of Stalinist efficiency. He orchestrated the greatest act of privatisation in English history: the seizure of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility & to enrich the crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too soliciting colossal bribes & binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold. ...

From outstanding new graduate talent Thomas Flintham this is a puzzle book with a difference. Beautifully rendered black-&-white intricate mazes will keep children absorbed for hours on end. Children can find their way through the fur of a great big bear help squirrels reach nuts at the top of a tall tree & aid a knight in his quest for the castle. Every child will find themselves delighted to discover the world of Super Amazing Mazes. ...