On 15 September 2003 Baha Mousa a hotel receptionist was killed by British Army troops in Iraq. He had been arrested the previous day in Basra & was taken to a military base for questioning. For forty-eight hours he & nine other innocent civilians had their heads encased in sandbags & their wrists bound by plastic handcuffs & had been kicked & punched with sustained cruelty. A succession of guards & casual army visitors took pleasure in beating the Iraqis humiliating them forcing them into stress positions in temperatures up to 50 degrees Centigrade & watching them suffer in the dirty concrete building where they were held. Other soldiers officers medics the padre did not take part in the violence but they saw what was happening & did nothing to stop it. Some knew it was wrong. Some weren't sure. Some were too scared to intervene. But none said anything or enough until it was far too late & Baha Mousa had been beaten to death. This book tells the inside story of these crimes & their aftermath. It examines the institutional brutality the bureaucratic apathy the flawed military police inquiry & the farcical court martial that attempted to hold people criminally responsible. Even though a full public inquiry reported its findings into the crimes in September 2011 its mandate restricted what it could say. The full story told with the power of a true-crime expose or court-room drama shows how this was not simply about a few bad men or 'rotten apples'. It shines a light on all those involved in the crime & its investigation from the lowest squaddie to the elite of the army & politicians in Cabinet. What it reveals is devastating. It is the winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2013. ...

On 15 September 2003 Baha Mousa a hotel receptionist was killed by British Army troops in Iraq. He had been arrested the previous day in Basra & was taken to a military base for questioning. For forty-eight hours he & nine other innocent civilians had their heads encased in sandbags & their wrists bound by plastic handcuffs & had been kicked & punched with sustained cruelty. The story of Baha Mousa's death symbolised some of the tragedy of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. Not only does it show how easily our troops could abuse the very people we were supposed to liberate but it also revealed how incapable
- or unwilling or incompetent
- the army government & the law were in stopping that abuse. This book proves that the detention & interrogation system imposed by the armed forces was flawed. It enabled abusive techniques (hooding imposing stress positions
- known as 'harshing') to be used that frequently spilled over into physical & psychological violence. The government has set up a body to find out the scale of the problem & already almost 200 separate cases are being investigated.


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This is a beautiful & classic picture book from Eric Carle
- The Very Busy Spider". Early one morning a little spider begins to
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This is a classic picture book from Eric Carle
- The Very Busy Spider. Early one morning a little spider begins to spin her web
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In the Jingle jangle jungle four friends encounter a very cranky bear. Moose Lion & Zebra all think they know how to cheer him up but its plain boring Sheep who has the answer. This is a hilarious picture book with the over-riding message being: Dont underestimate the quiet ones! Sometime a little thought is all you need to solve a problem instead of rushing to immediate action. ...

Tunes & nursery rhymes from all over the world are included in this illustrated book alongside classical pieces from the worlds finest composers including J.S. Bach Thomas Morley & Franz Schubert. Snippets of information about the origins of each tune on the borders of each page aim to give children a more intuitive feel for the music & advise them on timing. The Usborne Quicklinks site provides downloadable files so that children can listen to the tunes on their computer. ...

This volume

Includes:: simple recorder tunes for anyone learning to play the descant recorder. Information

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Why did the banana go to the doctors? Because he wasn't peeling very well! Proving the age-old maxim that 'it's in the way that you tell them' Dads
- for the best part of forever
- have always been renowned for being truly god-awful joke tellers. Whether it's telling them at the wrong moment misremembering the punchline or it just simply being one of those jokes that were terrible to begin with Dads are an embarrassment to the whole family when it comes to trying to tell jokes. The VERY Embarrassing Book of Dad Jokes is full to the brim with jokes that only your dear old Dad would dare say
- jokes that will make you groan sigh.. .and then probably make you groan again. Dads take great pleasure in these kinds of jokes & some of them are so rubbish they actually blossom into proper rib-ticklers
- but don't tell your dad that it'll only encourage him! Word count: 35 000



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While her friends & family may not believe in fairies Geraldine knows deep down that she is a VERY fairy princess. From morning to night Gerry does everything that fairy princesses do: she dresses in her royal attire practices her flying skills & she is always on the lookout for problems to solve. But it isn't all twirls & tiaras
- as every fairy princess knows dirty fingernails & scabby knees are just the price you pay for a perfect day! This new picture book addition to the Julie Andrews Collection features the joyful illustrations of Christine Davenier & is sure to inspire that sparkly feeling within the hearts of readers young & old.
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Everyone's favorite fairy princess is back & just in time for her ballet recital in this new picture book addition to the Julie Andrews Collection. At first when Gerry is cast as the Court Jester & not the Crystal Princess she is dismayed -- nothing is pink & no one can see her crown under her silly jester hat! But just as the recital looks like it's headed for disaster our ever-energetic very fairy princess swoops in to save the day! Gerry's sparkle radiates from the page once more through Christine Davenier's whimsically elegant illustrations in this spirited ballet-themed follow-up to The Very Fairy Princess from the renowned mother-daughter team of Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton. ...