This is a fantastic addition to the popular Beginners" series providing an informative introduction to the fascinating world of trains for young readers. Terrific reading practice for children who prefer fact to fiction this is an exciting introduction to trains covering everything from the first steam & diesel trains to modern day high-speed passenger trains. It also looks at rail networks underground trains how trains travel uphill & famous long-distance train routes like the Orient Express. It is developed with a reading expert from Roehampton University to help young readers grow in confidence." ...

This is a wonderfully entertaining activity book for young vehicle enthusiasts with over 300 stickers of wheels cabs carriages tracks trailers animals & drivers that can be put together on the page to create attractive scenes. Large colourful stickers many interchangeable provide a wealth of picture-making possibilities. Vehicles include trucks trains & tractors of all different kinds from old-fashioned steam trains to monster racing trucks. ...

Eccentric sentimental & homespun John Betjemans passions were mostly self-taught. He saw his country being devastated by war & progress & he waged a private war to save it. His only weapons were words
- the poetry for which he is best known & even more influential the radio talks that first made him a phenomenon. From fervent pleas for provincial preservation to humoresques on eccentric vicars & his own personal demons Betjemans talks combined wit nostalgia & criticism in a way that touched the soul of his listeners from the 1930s to the 1950s. Now collected in book form for the first time his broadcasts represent one of the most compelling archives of twentieth-century broadcasting reawakening the modern reader to Betjemans unique perspective & the compelling magic of the golden age of wireless.
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In the words of Alexander Mc Call Smith: You feel the rocking of the train you hear the sound of its wheels on the rails; you are in the world rather than suspended somewhere above it. & sometimes there are conversations to be had which is what the overarching story in this collection is all about. It is a simple device: people brought together entertain one another with tales of what happened to them on trains. It takes place on a journey I frequently make myself & know well the journey between Edinburgh & London. It is best read on a train preferably that one. ...

This is an up-to-date photographic survey of the eight surviving railways of the Isl&. The oldest of these had its beginnings in 1823 the youngest is hardly out of its infancy. The photographic journey is accompanied by informative captions supported by a short historical text describing each of the railways. Detailed maps & a complete index complement this title making it one of interest to railway enthusiasts across the world as well as many of the visitors to the Isle of Man who want a lasting souvenir of their journey on one or more of the heritage railways. ...

' An unremitting powerhouse of a novel that marks the arrival of a major new talent. Trainspotting is a loosely knotted string of jagged dislocated tales that lay bare the hearts of darkness of the junkies wide-boys & psychos who ride in the down escalator of opportunity in the nation's capital. Loud with laughter in the dark this novel is the real Mc Coy. If you haven't heard of Irvine Welsh before-don't worry you will' The Herald ...

With her mother dead & her father currently in prison awaiting trial for her murder a pregnant Frankie is blamed for the tragedy & forced to live with her wideboy fiance Jed O' Hara in a trailer on his parents' l&. Frankie struggles to adapt to their gypsy way of life but when her daughter Georgie is born things go from bad to worse. Jed's mother is a loud brazen domineering woman who has always yearned for a daughter herself & she begins to take over her baby granddaughter. Meanwhile Frankie's family & friends know that Jed is cheating on her but blinded by love & a sucker for his charm Frankie refuses to believe them. Then one day the unthinkable happens. Sick to the stomach at her discovery Frankie for once sees Jed for what he really is. She realises that the man she loves is not only heartless but also violent & dangerous. Petrified for the safety of herself & her family Frankie plots the ultimate revenge. But can she actually go through with it? ...

After a surveillance mission in Sevastopol goes badly wrong Stratton finds himself doing penance at MI16 the governments clandestine organisation that creates weapons equipment for special forces & the secret service. But Sevastopol has started something. In the North Sea a team of hijackers take over the giant Morpheus oil platform. They are demanding two billion dollars. Inside twenty-four hours. Or the bodies will start falling. With the SBS overstretched & its surveillance team locked down there is only one option: Stratton & a team of unproven operatives from MI16. Stratton knows he has to redeem himself & he also has his own agenda. One of the men on the rig is an old friend. & Stratton intends to save him. But one of Strattons team is not what they appear to be. A traitor. With a deadly agenda of their own. & Morpheus is just the beginning. This is the incendiary sixth thriller in the Stratton series by the UKs leading ex-SF professional. ...

From Rory Clements winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award comes TRAITOR the fourth in his acclaimed John Shakespeare Elizabethan mystery series. ' Does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times The Elizabethan navy has a secret weapon: an optical instrument so powerful it gives England unassailable superiority at sea. Spain will stop at nothing to steal it & seize the two men who understand its secrets
- William Ivory the ' Queen's Eye' & the magician Dr Dee. With a second Armada threatened intelligencer John Shakespeare is sent north to escort Dr Dee to safety. But he finds Dee's host the Earl of Derby dying in agony apparently poisoned. Who wants him dead & why? What lies behind the lynching of a recusant priest & how is the mysterious & beautiful Lady Eliska involved? While Shakespeare attempts to untangle a plot that points to treachery at the very highest reaches of government he also faces serious accusations far closer to home. With so much at stake must he choose between family & his duty to Queen & country?
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