Marina Lewycka explores the clash of the generations in one extremely colourful family in her comic novel Various Pets Alive & Dead". For twenty years Doro & Marcus lived in a commune convinced lentils & free love would change the world. They didnt. What they did do was give their children a terror of radicalism dirt cooking rotas & poverty. Their daughter Clara wants nothing less conformist than her own clean bathroom. Their son Serge hides the awkward fact that hes a banker earning loadsamoney. So when Doro & Marcus spring a surprise on their kids
- just as the world is rocked in ways they always wished for
- the family is forced to confront some thorny truths about themselves..." Made me laugh at least once every chapter. Lewyckas fiction is unlike anything else around at present. The warmth of its zest its blend of quirky humane comedy & intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure". (" New Statesman"). " Wonderfully funny inventive & witty. Fizzes along from beginning to end". (" Daily Express"). " Hilarious. Lewyckas trademark humour is present in abundance.. .she is not only witty but astute. A charming beautifully observed novel". (" Independent on Sunday"). " Every bit as funny as "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian"". (" Good Housekeeping"). Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" in 2005 which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005 winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005 shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 & longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels " Two Caravans" (published as " Strawberry Fields" in the USA & Canada) & " We Are All made from Glue" are also available from Penguin."

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Lentils free love radical politics & family truths... Various Pets Alive & Dead" is the wonderfully funny fourth novel from Marina Lewycka author of the bestselling "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian". For twenty years Doro & Marcus lived in a commune convinced lentils & free love would change the world. They didn't. What they did do was give their children a terror of radicalism dirt cooking rotas & poverty. Their daughter Clara wants nothing less conformist than her own clean bathroom. Their son Serge hides the awkward fact that he's a banker earning loadsamoney. So when Doro & Marcus spring a surprise on their kids
- just as the world is rocked in ways they always wished for
- the family is forced to confront some thorny truths about themselves..." Wonderfully funny.. .a dizzy eye-watering treat.. . Lewycka is somewhere between Hilary Mantel in her satirical mode & Sue Townsend". (" Independent"). " Thank heavens for Marina Lewycka whose " Various Pets Alive & Dead" made me laugh at least once in every chapter.. . The warmth of its tone its zest its blend of quirky humane comedy & intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure". (" New Statesman"). " Marina Lewycka's latest novel is wonderfully funny with moments of pure farce in the best tradition of social satire.. .this inventive & witty book fizzes along from beginning to end". (" Daily Express"). Marina Lewycka was born in Kiel Germany after the war grew up in England & lives in Sheffield. Her first novel "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" was shortlisted for the Orange Prize longlisted for the Man Booker & won the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction & the Waverton Good Read Award. Her second novel " Two Caravans" was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" " Two Caravans" & Marina's third novel " We Are All made from Glue" are all available in Penguin"

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Varjak Paw is a Mesopotamian Blue kitten. He lives high up in an old house on a hill. He's never left home but then his grandfather tells him about the Way
- a secret martial art for cats. Now Varjak must use the Way to survive in a city full of dangerous dogs cat gangs & strangest of all the mysterious Vanishings.
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Along with my own personal story I am going to write down a few things that may amuse you (or even take you down some other emotional path) & Ill let you in on a few so-far-unrevealed aspects of my life. Ill try to leave out the boring bits. Dont be thinking this is easy for me. Im darn good at getting under other peoples skin but opening up about my own life is quite a different matter. So how shall I portray myself? There are choices you know: Wife mother psychologist writer comedian actor dancer diver gypsy dreamer rich girl poor girl beggar girl thief. I am all of those & more. Tell you what you decide. You decide exactly what I am...A complicated childhood in Australia a bold move to London being a woman in a mans world on Not the Nine oclock News becoming Mrs Billy Connolly motherhood career changes & then Strictly Come Dancing
- told in her own inimitable style The Varnished Untruth is Pamela Stephensons own story.
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The Vatican Diaries is an inside look at one of the worlds most powerful & mysterious institutions by John Thavis. A humane & realistic & (yes) humorous picture of a mortal institution. To an old Prot like me its a tour of alien terrain & a bridge to old & dear friends". (Garrison Keillor). For thirty years John Thavis worked for the Catholic News Service in Rome & reported on the inner workings of the Vatican. The Vatican Diaries is his insightful & often very funny account of exactly what goes on in this unique & secretive institution. Its a place where cardinals fight private wars scandals are constantly threatening to undermine papal authority & reverence for the past comes up painfully against the considerations of modern life. He describes the politics surrounding the election of a new pope & the beatification of an old one the angst of dealing with the international issue of sexual abuse the intricacies of arranging a Papal visit to India the conflicts involved in trying to build a car park over an ancient Roman burial site
- & above all the unfathomable personality of the conservative Pope Benedict XVI the first pope to resign for 600 years. At this extraordinary moment of crisis in the Church Thavis account of its inner workings is invaluable. One closes John Thavis perceptive study reflecting on the Vaticans challenge: to persist in a secularizing world sometimes fascinated by the pomp & pageantry of St. Peters-but often hostile or increasingly indifferent to the Churchs determined mission to harmonize warring factions & bickering enemies even if both are on the same Catholic side New York Journal of Books John Thavis recently retired as the prizewinning chief of the Rome bureau of Catholic News Service where he had covered the Vatican since 1983. He is the past president of the International Association of Journalists Accredited to the Vatican & in 2007 the Catholic Press Association awarded him the Saint Francis de Sales Award the highest honour given by the Catholic press. He divides his time between Minnesota & Rome."
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In the peaceful garden of a London house a manhole cover has just been raised. Inside the cellar lie three bodies. Two men & a woman. None carry identification. The men have been there for twelve years; the woman for only two. For Inspector Wexford this is a case worth coming out of retirement for. Soon he is trying to establish who the victims in the vault are
- & most importantly who put them there. But a shocking development in his private life means that his search for the truth is about to become a lot more complicated...
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AUTOMATE REPORTS BUILD FUNCTIONS VISUALIZE DATA WRITE FAST RELIABLE SCRIPTS Microsoft Excel 2010 VBA & MACROS: SAVE TIME & SUPERCHARGE EXCEL 2010 WITH VBA & MACROS! Use Excel 2010 VBA & macros to automate virtually any routine task & save yourself hours days maybe even weeks. Then learn how to make Excel do things you thought were simply impossible! This book reveals scripting techniques you wont find anywhere else & shows you how to create automated reports that are amazingly powerful & useful. It helps you instantly visualize information so you can understand & act on it. It also shows you how to capture data from anywhere & use it anywhere & helps you automate Excel 2010s most powerful new features. Learning advanced Excel scripting has never been easier. Youll find simple step-by-step instructions real-world examples & case studies & 50 workbooks packed with bonus examples macros & solutions straight from Mr Excel. * Work efficiently with ranges cells & R1C1-style formulas * Build super-fast applications with arrays * Customize the Excel 2010 Ribbon to run your macros * Write Excel 2010 VBA code that works on older versions of Excel * Create custom dialog boxes to collect information from your users * Use error handling to make your VBA scripts more resilient * Use Web queries to import data from virtually any online source * Master advanced techniques such as classes & collections * Use Excel VBA to control other Office programs...even control Windows itself via the Windows API * Create add-ins to share or sell your programs About Mr Excel Library: Every book in the Mr Excel Library pinpoints a specific set of crucial Excel tasks & presents focused skills & examples for performing them rapidly & effectively. Selected by Bill Jelen Microsoft Excel MVP & mastermind behind the leading Excel solutions website Mr Excel.com these books will * Dramatically increase your productivity-saving you 50 hours a year or more * Present proven creative strategies for solving real-world problems * Show you how to get great results no matter how much data you have * Help you avoid critical mistakes that even experienced users make ...

VBA helps you put your computer in its place Write programs that automate tasks & make Office 2007 work better for you If your computer is becoming your boss instead of your servant start using VBA to tell it what to do! Here's the latest on the VBA IDE & program containers debugging & controlling your programs working with multiple applications using a single program & the most exciting stuff -- programming for all the Office 2007 applications. Discover how to * Customize an application's interface * Quick-launch a VBA program * Store & modify information * Use VBA with the Ribbon * Understand object-oriented programming * Avoid runtime errors ...

For a nation with a long & proud-military tradition one token stands above all others as a mark of recognition for the ultimate individual feats of arms: the Victoria Cross. Awarded for one reason alone
- to mark extreme acts of great heroism by British & Commonwealth servicemen in the face of the enemy
- it is unquestionably the hardest club in the world to gain entrance to. Its holders
- ordinary soldiers sailors & airmen
- are linked by an uncommon bond of exceptional bravery displayed often at great personal risk & against impossible odds. The VC has been awarded only sixteen times since the end of the Second World War in 1945. Three of these awards were made to recipients who had paid the ultimate sacrifice while demonstrating gallantry beyond the call of duty.



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Vefas Kitchen" is the first authoritative & all-encompassing Greek recipe book in English. Doing for Greek cuisine what the hugely successful " Silver Spoon" did for Italian it contains more than 700 fully updated straightforward & mouthwatering recipes. Aimed at all lovers of Mediterranean food the book will appeal to anyone who loves to cook easy tempting & delicious dishes from simple but stunning salads & mezedes in summer to slowly simmered meat dishes & crisp filo pastries in winter. As well as presenting definitive recipes for taverna favourites such as moussaka tzatziki & hummus the book documents the extraordinary variety of local sweets & pastries delicious home-baked breads & cheeses of the mountainous interior as well as the fish & vegetable dishes of coastal areas simply fragranced with lemons & herbs. Like Italian cuisine Greek cooking is incredibly simple & delicious & is based on the natural qualities of good olive oil fruit & vegetables grains & seafood. & more than almost any other cuisine modern Greek food contains many traces of its remarkable history with its origins as far back as Homer & the wine-dark Aegean Sea of the Iliad. The health benefits of the traditional Greek diet are well documented & the extensive Greek repertoire of vegetable dishes is well represented with more than 300 dishes that do not contain meat or fish. There is a comprehensive introduction on local ingredients & wines the history of Greek cooking & the culinary characteristics of each region as well as recipes for traditional & religious dishes. Vefa Alexiadou is the leading culinary authority in Greece today & is the author of many bestselling cookbooks. " Vefas Kitchen" will quickly become a must-have for all home cooks & lovers of Mediterranean food." ...