P Handley was evacuated from Portsmouth to Melton Mowbray at the beginning of the Second World War, and much of her poetry is a celebration of the town and the surrounding countryside. Her memories of Melton Mowbray span almost seventy-five years, and here she recalls in verse the local landmarks, unforgettable characters and vanished way of life of another era. With the same affection and humour, her poems cover subjects as diverse as a balloon flight on a glorious summer's evening, the temptations of full-cream milk and sugary treats, the pleasures of chatting, and watching the passage of the seasons from her window.

Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch is an invocation, an ancient invitation that summons the darkness within and channels those lonely spirits looking for a host. It's a collection that lives in the realm of ghosts and family curses, witchcraft and urban legends, and if you're brave enough to peek behind the veil, the hauntings that permeate these pages will break seals and open doorways, cut throats and shatter mirrors. You see, these poems are small drownings, all those subtle suffocations that live in that place between our ribs that swells with panic, incubates fear. Lynch shows her readers that sometimes our shadow selves--our secrets--are our sharpest weapons, the knives that rip through flesh, suture pacts with demons, cut deals with entities looking for more than a homecoming, something better, more intimate than family. It's about the masks we wear and the reflections we choose not to look at, and what's most terrifying about the spells is these incantations show that we are the possessed, that we are our greatest monster, and if we look out of the corner of our eyes, sometimes--if we've damned ourselves enough--we can catch a glimpse of our own burnings, what monstrosities and mockeries we're to become. So cross yourselves and say your prayers. Because in this world, you are the witch and the hunter, the girl and the wolf. "Lynch mixes in childhood fables with waking nightmares, the result is electrifying; sometimes in a few razor sharp words; sometimes in longer numbered verses counting down the cycle of a damaged life. The silent cries of souls tormented to healthiness by pills and poultices, force fed by imperfect humans, echo in the silhouette of these poems. I smiled at the shadows unexpectedly delivered by her words, as will you."--Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner "This collection is not for the chronically disturbed, as fear is doled out in terse, potent portions. I got the shivers reading these unsettling poems."--Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winner, SFPA Grand Master Poet "Choking Back the Devil is unlike any other poetry collection you've ever read. Donna Lynch crafts beautifully terrifying worlds, packed with dense imagery and horrifying yet lush details. This collection will get your blood racing even as it breaks your heart." --Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens "Some dark poets use their verse as a means to exorcise their demons. Lynch instead embraces her torment, nurtures it, and transforms it into equal parts hideous and heavenly. With a mix of wicked wit, carnal fury, and commentary that has sharpened its fangs to drain you until you're left with nothing but despair, Choking Back the Devil is essential sustenance for harrowed souls."--Chad Stroup, author of Secrets of the Weird and Sexy Leper

Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s?A Collection of Nightmares?is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.?? ?These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.?? ?Dream carefully.?? ?You’ve already made your bed.?? ?The nightmares you have now will not be kind.?? ?And you have no one to blame but yourself.

When Patrick McGoohan first starred in “Danger Man” in 1960 and as ‘Number 6’ in cult show “The Prisoner”, industry insiders hailed the arrival of an enigmatic genius and Hollywood beckoned. But who was this man who worked as a chicken farmer and bank clerk before becoming a hugely successful actor simply by chance? In this up-to-date biography Rupert Booth reveals the true character of a man whose off-screen behaviour matched his fiery on-screen persona. Why was he so puritanical, refusing even to kiss a woman for any part he played? Why was he so controlling over his work in “The Prisoner” and other productions? A timely exploration of the man whose declaration ‘I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered!’ continues to resonate with audiences decades after it was first uttered with such conviction.

From the tear drops of angels. These writings come. These are the tears with-in the tranquilized warmth of our children. From the graceful willows spoken through the eyes of a dream-teller. Soft words dancing naked upon the wedge of feathers, for the people of the world. For with-in the corridors of whispering tears. The children sing to the soft morning mist. For the tenderness of love and happiness. So allow the shadowed moon flowers of our children to eclipse he wings of life around you. Yes these writings are of our children. The most wonderful reflection we will ever know. Illuminating the twinkling of precious memories. So thank the lord of evening prayers, for the gift of a child, is here.

First Class Phonics is a series of books designed to help children quickly become proficient readers and writers.These books use Synthetic Phonics, a high-quality teaching method recognised all over the world. In Synthetic Phonics, children focus on the skills that enable them to read and spell words accurately. They recognise the importance of every sound they hear in the spoken word and learn to blend these sounds so that they can read words from the very beginning of the program.It is essential that children develop the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds in order to read fluently. This book provides a range of fun activities to ensure this happens.Book 2 covers the sounds b, f, ff, l, ll, ss, j, v, w, x, y, z, zz and qu. It teaches the tricky words my, her, of, all, you, they and into. The last chapter contains a story that uses only words built from the sounds taught in this book.

James Shirley was born in London in September 1596.His education was through a collection of England's finest establishments: Merchant Taylors' School, London, St John's College, Oxford, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in approximately 1618.He first published in 1618, a poem entitled Echo, or the Unfortunate Lovers.As with many artists of this period full details of his life and career are not recorded.He wrote his first play, Love Tricks, or the School of Complement, which was licensed on February 10th, 1625.For the next two decades, he would write prolifically and with great quality, across a spectrum of thirty plays; through tragedies and comedies to tragicomedies as well as several books of poetry. Unfortunately, his talents were left to wither when Parliament passed the Puritan edict in 1642, forbidding all stage plays and closing the theatres.His death, at age seventy, along with that of his wife, in 1666, is described as one of fright and exposure due to the Great Fire of London which had raged through parts of London from September 2nd to the 5th.He was buried at St Giles in the Fields, in London, on October 29th, 1666.

Ronnie Biggs: The Inside Story, written by two of Ronnie Biggs's closest friends and most ardent supporters, delivers exactly what it says on the label, giving a very personal, unique and yet disturbing insight into the mind and subsequent treatment by the judicial and penal systems of the man that became a legendary household name for his role in one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the Great Train Robbery of 1963, and his subsequent life on the run upon his escape from prison in 1965. Raising pointed questions and dispelling many myths, the story makes one wonder who is the greater criminal: the carpenter that played a bit part in an unarmed robbery 45 years ago, who has remained incarcerated since his return to the UK in 2001 despite the fact that he is now a frail, wheelchair-bound 79-year-old grandfather who is no threat to society, is fed via a tube to his stomach and can only communicate by pointing to letters on a laminated sheet; or the justice and prison systems that have allowed him to rot in jail for so long. One thing's for sure, although Ronnie Biggs's body is letting him down after a series of strokes and other illnesses, his legal team, campaign supporters, underworld friends and devoted family certainly aren't, and neither is his own fighting spirit or his humanity in the face of inhumanity. All he wants now is to be able to die a free man rather than suffer "e;a slow crucifixion on the Home Office cross"e;, and once all the facts have been digested one can only be moved to ask: "e;How could anyone deny him that?"e;

Planning for Learning through ICT aims to introduce young children to what ICT is, and provides over six weeks worth of activities that explore a range of technologies suitable for children 3-5. The book provides ideas for helping children learn about the different purposes of ICT and explores how to use ICT to create, to find information, to play, to shop. The book focuses in particular on how to use ICT creatively as well as outdoors. Whatever your daily learning, this book aims to show how ICT can be easily and appropriately included in your everyday play and learning.

Diana, Princess of Wales is one of the most recognisable figures in history. However how much do you really know about the woman who stole a nation's heart? This quick-read eBook gives you all the information you need in easy to digest sections which cover her life from a young child through her ill-fated marriage and subsequent divorce, her relationships, charity work plus much more. Find out everything there is to know about the people's princess whose life was tragically cut short.

A fascinating fictionalised story of the life of Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, written by bestselling novelist and coiner of such phrases as "e;the pen is mightier than the sword"e; and "e;It was a dark and stormy night"e;, Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Lee's first love was always poetry, though he was only moderately successful as a poet. Lee's first poem appeared in The Sunday Referee in 1934. Another poem was published in Cyril Connolly's Horizon magazine in 1940 and his first volume of poems, The Sun My Monument, was launched in 1944. This was followed by The Bloom of Candles (1947) and My Many-coated Man (1955). Several poems written in the early 1940s reflect the atmosphere of the war, but also capture the beauty of the English countryside. The poem "e;Twelfth Night"e; from My Many-coated Man was set for unaccompanied mixed choir by American composer Samuel Barber in 1968.

When Robin Barratt and his wife first met Maria in Moscow, they had no idea how much of an impact she would have on their own lives. From the initial interest in her story, the horror of discovering her daily struggle to survive through to active involvement in trying to improve her life. Living on the streets and begging is a harsh reality for many in Russia but for those with a disability life can be doubly cruel. Overlooked by the authorities and people who should have helped her, Maria willingly shared her story with the author who, in turn, made a promise, not only to tell the world about her situation, but to try and make a real difference. Maria's Story documents the true story of one woman's fight for survival against all the odds and those who tried to help her. It uncovers the truth of how many people continue to live in poverty in one of the world's most vibrant cities. Desperately sad, haunting but frequently uplifting, this book is a tale about overcoming adversity and, above all, never losing hope.

James Shirley was born in London in September 1596. His education was through a collection of England's finest establishments: Merchant Taylors' School, London, St John's College, Oxford, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in approximately 1618. He first published in 1618, a poem entitled Echo, or the Unfortunate Lovers. As with many artists of this period full details of his life and career are not recorded. Sources say that after graduating he became "e;a minister of God's word in or near St Albans."e; A conversion to the Catholic faith enabled him to become master of St Albans School from 1623-25. He wrote his first play, Love Tricks, or the School of Complement, which was licensed on February 10th, 1625. From the given date it would seem he wrote this whilst at St Albans but, after its production, he moved to London and to live in Gray's Inn. For the next two decades, he would write prolifically and with great quality, across a spectrum of thirty plays; through tragedies and comedies to tragicomedies as well as several books of poetry. Unfortunately, his talents were left to wither when Parliament passed the Puritan edict in 1642, forbidding all stage plays and closing the theatres. Most of his early plays were performed by Queen Henrietta's Men, the acting company for which Shirley was engaged as house dramatist. Shirley's sympathies lay with the King in battles with Parliament and he received marks of special favor from the Queen. He made a bitter attack on William Prynne, who had attacked the stage in Histriomastix, and, when in 1634 a special masque was presented at Whitehall by the gentlemen of the Inns of Court as a practical reply to Prynne, Shirley wrote the text-The Triumph of Peace. Shirley spent the years 1636 to 1640 in Ireland, under the patronage of the Earl of Kildare. Several of his plays were produced by his friend John Ogilby in Dublin in the first ever constructed Irish theatre; The Werburgh Street Theatre. During his years in Dublin he wrote The Doubtful Heir, The Royal Master, The Constant Maid, and St. Patrick for Ireland. In his absence from London, Queen Henrietta's Men sold off a dozen of his plays to the stationers, who naturally, enough published them. When Shirley returned to London in 1640, he finished with the Queen Henrietta's company and his final plays in London were acted by the King's Men. On the outbreak of the English Civil War Shirley served with the Earl of Newcastle. However when the King's fortunes began to decline he returned to London. There his friend Thomas Stanley gave him help and thereafter Shirley supported himself in the main by teaching and publishing some educational works under the Commonwealth. In addition to these he published during the period of dramatic eclipse four small volumes of poems and plays, in 1646, 1653, 1655, and 1659. It is said that he was "e;a drudge"e; for John Ogilby in his translations of Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey, and survived into the reign of Charles II, but, though some of his comedies were revived, his days as a playwright were over. His death, at age seventy, along with that of his wife, in 1666, is described as one of fright and exposure due to the Great Fire of London which had raged through parts of London from September 2nd to the 5th. He was buried at St Giles in the Fields, in London, on October 29th, 1666.

Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somerset on April 22nd 1707. His early years were spent on his parents' farm in Dorset before being educated at Eton.An early romance ended disastrously and with it his removal to London and the beginnings of a glittering literary career; he published his first play, at age 21, in 1728.He was prolific, sometimes writing six plays a year, but he did like to poke fun at the authorities. His plays were thought to be the final straw for the authorities in their attempts to bring in a new law. In 1737 The Theatrical Licensing Act was passed. At a stroke political satire was almost impossible. Fielding was rendered mute. Any playwright who was viewed with suspicion by the Government now found an audience difficult to find and therefore Theatre owners now toed the Government line.Fielding was practical with the circumstances and ironically stopped writing to once again take up his career in the practice of law and became a barrister after studying at Middle Temple. By this time he had married Charlotte Craddock, his first wife, and they would go on to have five children. Charlotte died in 1744 but was immortalised as the heroine in both Tom Jones and Amelia.Fielding was put out by the success of Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. His reaction was to spur him into writing a novel. In 1741 his first novel was published; the successful Shamela, an anonymous parody of Richardson's novel.Undoubtedly the masterpiece of Fielding's career was the novel Tom Jones, published in 1749. It is a wonderfully and carefully constructed picaresque novel following the convoluted and hilarious tale of how a foundling came into a fortune.Fielding was a consistent anti-Jacobite and a keen supporter of the Church of England. This led to him now being richly rewarded with the position of London's Chief Magistrate. Fielding continued to write and his career both literary and professional continued to climb.In 1749 he joined with his younger half-brother John, to help found what was the nascent forerunner to a London police force, the Bow Street Runners. Fielding's ardent commitment to the cause of justice in the 1750s unfortunately coincided with a rapid deterioration in his health. Such was his decline that in the summer of 1754 he travelled, with Mary and his daughter, to Portugal in search of a cure. Gout, asthma, dropsy and other afflictions forced him to use crutches. His health continued to fail alarmingly.Henry Fielding died in Lisbon two months later on October 8th, 1754.

If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his plays, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also an exceptional writer of short stories of the horrific and macabre. Something very different from what you might expect. Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than GBP10 (GBP700 today) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him.

First published in 1910, this book details the history of one of the most important inventions of the modern world: the telephone.

The Book of Eve is neither male nor female, rather a poetic revelation of one's exploration of life. A quest for knowledge, wisdom, truths and understanding, Eve takes us on a heartfelt journey of discoveries, fears, needs and desires. Melanie E. Haggins is a poet, a creative writer and former radio personality. She is strongly influenced by a musical and business background, which later helped her to progress into the world of media as the host of her own popular radio magazine show, where she conducted celebrity interviews with musicians and vocalists alike. An inspirational figure to young people and women of all ages, Melanie has worked for many years as a passionate educator and mentor to young people within her community, championing a number of initiatives on behalf of young people and human rights. With a keen eye for innovation, she draws inspiration from all she encounters for the purpose of improving the lives of those who come into contact with her as she continues to put her visionary ideas and quests for truths into poetic forms.

A fascinating look into the life of King Frederick II of Prussia (also prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick IV of Brandenburg), and the members of his court.

It is 1888 and the foggy streets of Whitechapel, one of the poorest areas of Victorian London, are gripped by fear. Five women thought have been murdered by the same hand, all but one of their corpses terrifyingly mutilated. But who were these women? And who could the murderer be? This fascinating book contains over one hundred facts about the awful crimes of the serial killer we all know as Jack the Ripper. Organised into sections covering each individual victim, clues to the Ripper's identity, possible suspects and more, this is an excellent addition to any classic crime fan's bookshelf.

Throughout history people have claimed, or have been claimed, to have magical powers through contacting dead spirits. This is a fascinating look at some of those people, from ancient times to the modern age.