Jackson was the most talented richest & most famous pop star on the planet. But the outpouring of emotion that followed his loss was bittersweet. Dogged by scandal for over fifteen years & undone by his own tendency to trust the wrong people Jackson had become untouchable in many quarters a fact that wounded him deeply. Now drawing on unprecedented access to friends enemies employees & associates of Jackson Randall Sullivan delivers an intimate unflinching & deeply human portrait of a man who was never quite understood by the media his fans or even those closest to him. Untouchable promises to be a profound investigation into the enigma that was Michael Jackson. ...

When Jessica brings her granny into school for Unusual Day Miss Johnson thinks shes got muddled up with Family Day. Her granny may be wearing a tracksuit & trainers but she still looks like a fairly ordinary granny. However when Unusual Day is disrupted by a fire next door everybody discovers just how unusual Jessicas granny is... ...

Famous makes & models dominate motorcycle history but there have been many fascinating designs that never reached the spotlight. In the shadows lesser-known
- & often wacky
- motorcycles have come & gone. Unusual Motorcycles" is a celebration of the bikes scooters side-cars & engines that never quite made it. With insightful text accompanied by around 500 photographs this attractive book is a must-have for all fans of motorbikes & their history."

...

Life is so unfair & it sends many things to try Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs & pillar of the Institute of Romance Philology in the proud Bavarian city of Regensburg. There is the undeserved rise of his rival (and owner of a one-legged dachshund) Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer; the interminable ramblings of the librarian Herr Huber; & the condescension of his colleagues with regard to his unmarried state. But when his friend Ophelia Prinzel takes it upon herself to match-make & duly produces a cheerful heiress with her own Schloss it appears that the professors true worth is about to be recognised. Maddening idiotic & hugely entertaining von Igelfeld is an inspired comic creation. ...

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother left behind at the previous station alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station the girl was nowhere to be seen. To Inspector Alex Recht of the Stockholm police this looks like a classic custody row. But none of the evidence adds up & young Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman is convinced the case is far more complex than her boss is prepared to admit. So when the missing child is found dead in the far north of Sweden with the word UNWANTED scribbled on her forehead the rule book is finally thrown out of the window. Now on the trail of a ruthless murderer with a terrifying agenda will Alex & Fredrika manage to put aside their differences & work together to find the killer before it's too late? ...

From the bestselling author of The God Delusion" Richard Dawkins' " Unweaving the Rainbow" explores the most important & compelling topics in modern science & our appetite for wonder. Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours thus dispelling its mystery. In this illuminating & provocative book Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken & shows how an understanding of science in fact inspires the human imagination & enhances our wonder of the world. " Beautifully written & full of interesting original ideas. Essential reading". (" The Times"). "A brilliant assertion of the wonder & excitement of real tough grown-up science". (A.S. Byatt). " The way Dawkins writes about science is not just a brain-tonic. It is more like an extended stay on a brain health-farm.. .you come out feeling lean tuned & enormously more intelligent". (" Sunday Times"). " For Dawkins there is more poetry not less in the rainbow because of Newton.. .warming to his theme he weaves rainbows of wonder from other provinces of science & then unleashes his fury on those who accuse scientists like him of being unimaginative for not believing in horoscopes telepathy ghosts & gods". (Matt Ridley). " Brilliantly entertaining & stimulating". (" Observer"). Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society & the Royal Society of Literature & Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene which he followed with a string of bestselling books: " The Extended Phenotype" " The Blind Watchmaker" " River Out of Eden" " Unweaving the Rainbow" & an impassioned defence of atheism " The God Delusion"." ...

This book presents all the glitter & passion of Regency times through the lives & romantic escapades of the Lester Family. Having seen his sister Lenore & brother Jack caught in Parsons mousetrap albeit willingly Harry Lester had no intention of following their example. Now the news was out that the Lester family fortunes had been repaired Harry knew the society matrons would soon be in pursuit so he promptly left London for Newmarket. Fate however proved more far-sighted having arranged for a distraction in the person of Mrs Lucinda Babbacombe. Lucinda is a beautiful provocative but unwilling conquest
- who to Harrys irritation cannot be ignored.
...

Just over a decade into the new millennium America is beset by a sense of crisis. The seismic shifts that occurred in the space of a generation have created a country of winners & losers leaving the social contract in pieces. In The Unwinding" George Packer narrates the story of America over the past three decades bringing to the task his empathy with people facing difficult challenges his sharp eye for detail & a gift for weaving together engaging narratives. " The Unwinding" moves deftly back & forth through the lives of half a dozen characters including Dean Price the son of tobacco farmers who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas a factory worker in the industrial Midwest trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton a Washington careerist; & Peter Thiel a Silicon Valley billionaire. The narrative alternates these intimately told stories with biographical sketches of the era's leading public figures from Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs capturing the year-by-year flow of events. " The Unwinding" portrays a superpower coming apart at the seams its elites & institutions no longer working leaving ordinary people to improvise their own schemes for salvation." ...

In this much-anticipated sequel to the internationally best-selling picture book Lost & Found we revisit the boy & the penguin after their trip to the South Pole... The boy & the penguin still enjoy spending all their time together... That is until the penguin starts to dream of flying ignoring the boys advice that it is impossible. Running away the penguin visits place after place searching for a chance to get his feet off the ground. But will flying be everything he had hoped? & is the boy missing him as much as he is missing the boy? A heart-warming story about friendship love & reaching for your dreams from highly-regarded multi-award-winning author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers. ...

From the Sunday Times" bestselling author Gervase Phinn comes a fourth book of reminiscences about life as a Yorkshire Dales school inspector that will continue to delight & charm fans across the globe. Life for the Gervase Phinn is about to become not unlike the rambling hills of the Dales themselves
- up & down & all over the place. After a routine school inspection
- & a rather brutal report
- culminates with a teacher being forced into early retirement Gervase is left feeling his year hasnt exactly begun on the right foot. Then the news that his local school is closing down the accidental demolishment of an historical church (disguised as a disused barn in his backyard) & an injured knee which puts him into hospital. & still Gervase manages to gallantly retain his sense of humour throughout making this a delightful charming & thoroughly entertaining read."


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