Based on the authors popular Times Online" column " Weird Cases" this book draws on extraordinary cases from many countries including the UK USA Canada Brazil Australia New Zealand Germany Italy Romania & China. The result is a highly entertaining read for anyone who enjoys reading about the more bizarre aspects of human life that fetch up in the law courts at the beginning of the 21st century. Courts have seen judges do things like try to turn off a musical tie playing We wish you a merry Christmas while sentencing a defendant to prison fall fast asleep in the middle of trials flip a coin to decide a case demand a foot massage from a clerk & get sentenced for judicial racketeering. Courts have listened to the defences like that of a bogus dentist caught using DIY tools on his patients a man who based his defence on being as hapless as Homer Simpson & a woman who was running a brothel from an office in the criminal courts. Courts have seen a litigant sue for becoming pregnant by a stray sperm in a swimming pool & a litigant suddenly strip naked before the judges. The cases featured in " Weird Cases" are those that truly stand out as odd even among all the unusual dramas that challenge the courts. The chapters are: Compensation & Punishment Love & Sex Food Drink & Drugs Judges Death & Violence Pets & Animals On the Road Lawyers & Jurors Friends & Neighbours." ...

Pinchton is left home alone & decides to invite the Weird family around
- with chaotic results! Now re-jacketed in a stylish new
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Recently scientists at the frontiers of biology have hypothesised the existence of life-forms that can only be called weird": organisms that live off acid rather than water microbes that thrive at temperatures & pressure levels so extreme that their cellular structures should break down even organisms that reproduce without DNA. The search for these strange life-forms spans the universe from the Martian permafrost the ammonia oceans of Jupiter's moons the hydrogen-rich atmospheres of giant planets the exotic ices on comets & the crusts of neutron stars. David Toomey brings us into the world of the researchers who have devoted their careers to "weird life". As they envision & discover ever stranger organisms here on earth they open up fascinating possibilities for the discovery of life in the rest of the universe." ...

' Can books conduct electricity?' ' My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok...isn't it?' A John Cleese Twitter question [' What is your pet peeve?'] first sparked the Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops" blog which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From ' Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; & from 'I've forgotten my glasses please read me the first chapter' to ' Excuse me...is this book edible?' This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers Mc Leod also

Includes:: top ' Weird Things' from bookshops around the world."

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This is the new novel from the First Lady of Noir Fiction." (David Peace). Twenty years ago a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl named Corrine Woodrow was convicted of murdering one of her classmates. But now new forensic evidence indicates that Corrine didnt act alone & Sean Ward
- a private investigator whose promising career in the Met was cut short by a teenage drug dealer with an automatic weapon
- travels to the seaside town of Ernemouth to try to discover what really happened all those years ago. But he quickly realises that whats ultimately at stake is not Corrines reputation but those of the people who ran the place then
- & still run it now. In order to get to the truth he has to take on not just retired Detective Inspector Le Rivett
- the man who headed up the original case & wants to keep it firmly closed
- but also the mindset of an entire town that has always known how to look after its own."




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Daniel is known as Weirdo because he enjoys doing things at school that others think strange: working out mathematical calculations & formulas for everything doing his homework & being on his own. Tosh couldn't be more different: hanging around with his 'friends' who use him as a butt of their jokes & picking on others such as Daniel. So when they find themselves sharing lodgings on an Outward Bound weekend neither is too happy. Then they fall into a cave whilst out orienteering & the teacher with them is knocked unconscious. Before they know it water is pouring in on top of them! Faced with the prospect of drowning Daniel & Tosh are forced to forget their differences even for a short time & work together to save themselves & their teacher. ...

A collection of Calvin & Hobbes cartoons. The author won the 1986 Reuben Award as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year & has also illustrated Something Under the Bed is Drooling Calvin & Hobbes Yukon Ho! & Scientific Progress Goes Boink. ...

A tale of Alderley When Colin & Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge they are saved by the Wizard. He takes them into the caves of Fundindelve where he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred & forty knights. But the heart of the magic that binds them
- Firefrost also known as the Weirdstone of Brisingamen
- has been lost. The Wizard has been searching for the stone for more than 100 years but the forces of evil are closing in determined to possess & destroy its special power. Colin & Susan realise at last that they are the key to the Weirdstones return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan & her deadly brood?

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This lavish hardback edition of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Alan Garners seminal fantasy masterpiece. Featuring a beautiful new design & a foreword by Alan himself it is a must-have collectors item for any lover of great childrens fiction. When Colin & Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge they are saved by the Wizard. He takes them into the caves of Fundindelve where he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred & forty knights. But the heart of the magic that binds them -- Firefrost also known as the Weirdstone of Brisingamen -- has been lost. The Wizard has been searching for the stone for more than 100 years but the forces of evil are closing in determined to possess & destroy its special power. Colin & Susan realise at last that they are the key to the Weirdstones return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan & her deadly brood? ...

The heart of the magic was sealed with Firefrost the Weirdstone of Brisingamen...should Nastrond destroy the stone then the magic will die away. When Colin & Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge the Wizard
- Cadellin Silverbrow
- takes them to safety deep in the caves of Fundindelve. Here he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred & forty knights awaiting the fated hour when they must rise & fight. But the Weirdstone of Brisingamen is lost & the forces of evil are closing in. The children realise that they are the key to its return but how can they defeat the powerful magic of the Morrigan & her deadly brood. First published in 1960 four decades before Harry Potter" Alan Garners novel of magic & wizards has endured & become a modern classic of childrens literature."

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