While best known as being the scene of the most terrible carnage in the WW1 the French department of the Somme has seen many other battles from Roman times to 1944. William the Conqueror launched his invasion from there; the French & English fought at Crecy in 1346; Henry V`s army marched through on their way to Agincourt in 1415; the Prussians came in 1870. The Great War saw three great battles & Approx. half of the 400, 000 who died on the Somme were British
- a terrible harvest, marked by 242 British cemeteries & over 50, 000 lie in unmarked graves. These statistics explain in part why the area is visited year-on-year by ever increasing numbers of British & Commonwealth citizens. This evocative book written by the authors of the iconic First Day on the Somme.is a thorough guide to the cemeteries, memorials & battlefields of the area, with the emphasis on the fighting of 1916 & 1918, with fascinating descriptions & anecdotes.
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All her life, Rose Lovell has moved from town to town with her alcoholic father. When they wash up in an Australian coastal sugarcane town, Rose wonders if maybe, finally, things will be different this time. On her first day at school, Rose meets Pearl Kelly, a popular, pretty & lively girl intent on tracking down her long-lost Russian father. She convinces Rose to join in with the town`s annual Harvest Parade, & Rose agrees, despite thinking the whole thing is embarrassingly yokel. She has to find a truly special dress
- one that will make it clear she is different to the rest of the girls in this town. & who better to help her than the local eccentric, Edie Baker, who knows all the town`s secrets & whose own family is a rich tapestry of stories, including whispers of witchcraft & murder. Edie agrees on the condition that Rose will create the dress with her
- a dress woven from scraps & secrets & stories. But when the girl wearing the midnight blue dress goes missing, the town will find it has secrets of its own to tell, & nothing can ever be the same again. The Midnight Dress weaves a mesmerising story of love, loss & longing to the very last page.

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And then, this afternoon, ` Uncle Fred said to me, `you & I`ll go after the fox.` Tom, a town boy, is horrified when his parents tell him he has to stay on Aunt Millie`s farm while they are away. He finds country life every bit as strange & uncomfortable as he feared. But soon, he discovers a rare black fox with green eyes, living with her cubs in the forest. Suddenly, the summer is full of excitement. That is, until Uncle Fred decides to go after the fox
- will Tom save her & her family in time?
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Welcome to the Midnight Gang! Midnight is the time when all children are fast asleep, except of course for the Midnight Gang. That is when their adventures are just beginning. When Tom gets hit on the head by a cricket ball, he finds himself at Lord Funt Hospital, & is greeted by a terrifying-looking porter. Things go from bad to worse when he meets the wicked matron in charge of the children`s ward. But Tom is about to embark on the most thrilling journey of a lifetime. The Midnight Gang tells an extraordinarily heartwarming &, of course, funny story of five children on a hospital ward
- & on a quest for adventure. It is a story of friendship & magic
- & of making dreams come true. Readers are set to be utterly spellbound by this heartfelt story that will bring magic to everyone`s Christmas.

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Welcome to the Midnight Gang! Midnight is the time when all children are fast asleep, except of course for... the Midnight Gang. That is when their adventures are just beginning... When Tom gets hit on the head by a cricket ball, he finds himself at Lord Funt Hospital, & is greeted by a terrifying-looking porter. Things go from bad to worse when he meets the wicked matron in charge of the children`s ward... But Tom is about to embark on the most thrilling journey of a lifetime! The Midnight Gang tells an extraordinarily heartwarming &, of course, funny story of five children on a hospital ward
- & on a quest for adventure! It is a story of friendship & magic
- & of making dreams come true. Readers are set to be utterly spellbound by this heartfelt story that will bring magic to everyone.

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Jack Reacher is having a bad day. It would be a dumb idea to make it worse. Reacher sees a West Point class ring in a pawn shop window. It`s tiny. It`s a woman cadet`s graduation present to herself. Why would she give it up? Reacher was a West Pointer too, & he knows what she went through to get it. All he wants is to find the woman. He`ll have to go through bikers, cops, crooks, & low-life muscle. If she`s ok, he`ll walk away. If she`s not.. . he`ll stop at nothing. Best advice: stay out of his way. ...

A fast-paced historical mystery adventure for readers aged 9+ years, with gorgeous Edwardian period detail. Perfect for fans of Chris Riddell`s Goth Girl series, Enid Blyton & Robin Stevens`s Murder Most Unladylike series. You are cordially invited to Sinclair`s Midnight Peacock Ball! The festive season has come to Sinclair`s & Sophie & Lil are spending the holidays at snowy Winter Hall. But it turns out that this is no ordinary house party... As sinister secrets come to light, our intrepid heroines find themselves faced with a more baffling mystery than ever before! With the help of their friends, can they uncover the truth in time to foil a truly diabolical plot? Or will Mr Sinclair`s New Year`s Eve Midnight Peacock Ball spell disaster for the dauntless young detectives? Prepare for shocks & surprises in the thrilling conclusion to the Sinclair`s Mysteries!****** Praise for The Clockwork Sparrow:`A wonderful book, with a glorious heroine & a true spirit of adventure`
- Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers`A real page-turner, it has murders, spies & gangs of thieves. Thrilling!`
- Indiana, aged 10 years, Love Readingfor Kids reviewer` Dastardliness on a big scale is uncovered in this well-plotted, evocative novel`
- Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times` It`s a dashing plot, an atmospheric setting & an extensive & imaginative cast. Katherine Woodfine handles it all with aplomb`
- Julia Eccleshare, Guardian` An incredible read full of mystery, wonder & adventure... This is now one of my top ten.`
- Celeste, age 13 years, Love Reading 4 Kids reviewer The Midnight Peacock is the fourth book in the Sinclair`s Mysteries quartet. The other two books are the bestselling The Clockwork Sparrow, The Jewelled Moth & The Painted Dragon. Katherine Woodfine is a true champion of children`s literature. Until 2015 she was Arts Project Manager for Booktrust, where she project-managed the Children`s Laureateship & YALC, the UK`s first Young Adult Literature Convention, curated by Malorie Blackman. She is part of the founding team at Down the Rabbit Hole, a monthly show for Resonance FM discussing children`s literature. Katherine blogs at followtheyellow.co.uk. She lives in London.




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A fascinating, revelatory novel based on the true story of the ship, & its crew, that failed to come to the sinking Titanic`s aid. Set on board the Californian during those terrible hours, & in Boston in the aftermath of the disaster, Antonia Senior has called `historical fiction at its best`. A perfect read for fans of Robert Harris & CJ Sansom, which gives a whole new side to A Night To Remember. On a black night in April 1912, fifteen hundred passengers & crew perish as the Titanic slowly sinks beneath the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Charting the same perilous course through the icebergs is the SS Californian, close enough for her crew to see the eight white distress rockets fired by the Titanic. Yet the Californian fails to act, & later her crew insist that they saw nothing. As news of the disaster spreads throughout America, journalists begin a feeding frenzy, desperate for stories. John Steadman is one such reporter, a man broken by alcoholism, grief & a failed marriage. Steadman senses blood as he fixates on the Californian & his investigation reveals a tense & perplexing relationship between the ship`s captain & second officer, who hold the secrets of what occurred that night. Slowly he peels back the layers of deception, & his final, stunning revelation of what happened while the Titanic sank will either redeem the men of the Californian, or destroy them. ...

At midnight, the dogs, cats, & rats rule Venice. The Ponte di Ghetto Nuovo, the bridge that leads to the ghetto, trembles under the weight of sacks of rotting vegetables, rancid fat, & vermin. Seeping refuse on the streets renders the pavement slick & the walking treacherous. It was on such a night that the men came for Hannah. Hannah Levi is famed throughout Venice for her skills as a midwife but, as a Jew, the law forbids her from attending a Christian woman. However, when the Conte appears at her door in the dead of night, Hannah`s compassion is sorely tested. & with the handsome reward he is offering, she could ransom back her husb&, currently imprisoned on the island of Malta. But if she fails in her endeavours to save mother & child, will she be able to save herself, let alone her husband? ...

Longlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction `A thrilling & complex book, enlarges our view of Homer.. . There`s something that hits the mark on every page` Claire Tomalin, Books of the Year, New Statesman Where does Homer come from? & why does Homer matter? His epic poems of war & suffering can still speak to us of the role of destiny in life, of cruelty, of humanity & its frailty, but why they do is a mystery. How can we be so intimate with something so distant? ` The Mighty Dead` is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past, sewn together by some of the oldest stories we have
- the great ancient poems of Homer & their metaphors of life & trouble. In this provocative & enthralling book, Adam Nicolson explains why Homer still matters & how these vital, epic verses
- with their focus on the eternal questions about the individual versus the community, honour & service, love & war
- tell us how we became who we are.


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