An inspiring and heart-warming short story of canine devotion and bravery. Rats was a stumpy, feisty, determined little terrier of mixed parentage who attached himself to British solders serving in Northern Ireland during the late 1970s. He liked to play with their boot laces and they admired his unstinting courage on patrol. The Troubles were at the height in Crossmaglen, but the little dog who felt safe in the company of soldiers, liked hitchhiking in helicopters and bore the scars of war on his body like the men, wouldn’t give up. Extracted from the bestselling title The Dog That Saved My Life, The Small Dog With A Big Personality tells the story of a courageous canine who brought ‘an oasis of friendship in a desert of sadness’.

Steve Hislop was one of the most famous motorcycle racers in the world. He had always been a controversial and outspoken character having had many famous clashes and splits with teams and riders over the years, not always to his advantage. Season 2003 was no different. Steve’s life was incredible, funny and ultimately tragic. Hislop made his debut in 1979 on a bike paid for by his father, but when the latter died of a heart-attack, he embarked on a self-destructive quest that resulted in more crashed bikes and cars than he can remember. Three years later his brother Garry was killed racing at Silloth. It looked as if he would never race again but while on holiday at the Isle of Man TT races in 1983, he was mesmerised by the sight of Joey Dunlop and he knew he had to try it. He took to the roads immediately, amassing an amazing career record of 11 wins and was the first rider in history to lap the course at an average speed of over 120mph. Hizzy's TT victories over big name rivals like Joey Dunlop and Carl Fogarty made him a living legend beyond the confines of just the UK. He turned his back on the Isle of Man in 1994, claiming it was too fast and dangerous for modern superbikes. However, he had already proved he was just as fast on purpose-built short circuits having won the British 250cc championship in 1990 and then went on to win the British Superbike (BSB) title in 1995 and 2002. Defending a title is always difficult and made even harder when your current team doesn't give you a new contract. However, season 2003 started positively for Steve, inasmuch as he found a new team, but he was sacked half way through the season after a string of poor results on an uncompetitive bike. These events, however, paled into insignificance when Steve was killed in July 2003 when the helicopter he was flying crashed in a remote Scottish border region. His book is a fitting tribute to a motor racing legend.

A biography of an unsung Victorian hero, Joseph Paxton was the man behind the garden design at Chatsworth and the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Victorians heralded a new era of creativity, a revolutionary fervour seizing all forms of design. Joseph Paxton was a leading light of this movement. Head Gardener at Chatsworth House by the age of twenty-three, encouraged by the sixth Duke of Devonshire he transformed the Derbyshire estate into the greatest garden in England. Queen Victoria came to marvel and with the development of the railway, so too did daytrippers from all over the country. His design for the Crystal Palace sealed his reputation. By the time of his death, Paxton ‘the busiest man in England’ according to Charles Dickens, could count Brunel and Stevenson amongst his friends. Horticulturalist, designer, architect – Paxton was one of the most remarkable figures of his time. The greatest age of art and industry is embodied in this compelling portrait of a Victorian hero.

Thieving ninjas, racist fast-food patrons, road traffic accidents, mischievous shoplifters, sudden deaths, car chases, and domestic violence – it’s all in a day’s work for London-based PC Matt Delito. Working at the front-line on the streets of London can be thrilling, frightening, rewarding, infuriating, and sometimes plain hilarious. In this eye-opening account of on-the-beat policing, Delito narrates some of his most interesting cases – from working undercover in a city club to being ambushed in the London riots – as well as taking us through the gadgets, procedures, and lingo that go with life at the other end of a 999 call. From the team that brought you the bestselling CONFESSIONS OF A GP and CONFESSIONS OF A MALE NURSE comes CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CONSTABLE: a book that will shine a light on the gripping, touching and shocking realities of life as a city police constable. What did you do at work today?

‘Where are the snows of yesteryear. And the speedballs I useta know? Well, I guess it’s time for my Ovaltine and a long good night.’ In 1996 William Burroughs began writing a final journal. He died the following summer after a life of notoriety: godfather of the Beat writers, author of thirteen controversial novels, druggy, dangerous and bleak. Spanning the realms of personal memoir, cultural criticism and fiction, Burroughs’ diaries include anecdotes and memories, entries on his beloved cats and the joys of housekeeping, and musings on drug-taking, humanity and government cover-ups. ‘Last Words’ contains some of the most brutally personal prose in the William Burroughs canon, and the deaths of his friends, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, provide a window onto his own preparations for death – a quest for absolution marked by a profound sense of guilt and loss.

The definitive account of Whitney Houston's astonishing life, ground-breaking career, and tragic death -- complete with never-before-seen photographs -- from the only one who truly knows the story behind the headlines: her mother, Cissy Houston. Cissy has said little publicly about Whitney's heart-breaking death. Now, for the first time, she opens up and shares the unbelievable story of her daughter's life, as well as her own, and addresses Whitney's brightest and darkest moments. A legendary Grammy Award-winning gospel singer in her own right, Cissy Houston shows how the lessons from her own musical journey helped to shape Whitney's career -- from teaching Whitney to use her voice, to keeping her level-headed throughout her meteoric rise to fame. With candor and respect, she sets the record straight about Whitney, exploring both her turbulent marriage and her misunderstood struggles with drug abuse. Cissy goes behind the tabloid headlines to show fans around the world the true, human side of a strong, successful -- yet flawed -- musical icon who died much too young.

The quintessentially English cricket commentator, writer, oenophile, bon viveur, collector and national treasure, fondly known as “Blowers”, tells his colourful life story. Born in Norfolk and educated at Eton and Cambridge, Henry Calthorpe Blofeld OBE, nicknamed “Blowers” by the late Brian Johnston, is best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. His distinctively rich, cut glass voice and his vividly eccentric observations of life on and off the pitch, have made him a household name, not only in Britain but around the world, wherever cricket is played. Blowers has been close the the heart of the game for over fifty years and his career has taken him to the far corners of the earth. This autobiography, stuffed to the gunwhales with delicious anecdotes, brings his astonishingly colourful story bang up to date.

First time in ebook format. Sir Joseph Banks, botanist, explorer, President of the Royal Society and one of Australia's founding fathers, was among the most influential figures of the 18th and 19th centuries. As a young man, Sir Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage of discovery to Australia; in later years he was instrumental in establishing Kew Gardens as the greatest botanical centre in the world, and he knew just about everybody who mattered in the scientific circles of the time. Patrick O'Brian's biography draws on much hitherto unpublished material. Far from being merely the colossus of science traditionally imagined, Joseph Banks emerges here as a warm-hearted enthusiast whose legacy survives not only in the record of his botanizing in the South Seas but in the development of the Australian continent and in the tenor and tradition of subsequent scientific enquiry.

LA is a beast. A city that swallows most with its glamour and glitz. Not Sarah Fuller though. Stubborn and relentless, Sarah refuses to be changed by her surroundings. Often, she takes a cynical approach, judging the world around her, though never taking anything too seriously. Thrown back into the dating arena in her late thirties, Sarah encounters brand new challenges. Readers will laugh out loud at the adventures and mishaps this sassy protagonist gets herself into. She explores LA life, seeing it through her unique lens. Hair extensions, goat yoga, socialites and all the strangeness that comes out of LA weave together in this crazy, episodic adventure. Can you handle the absurdities?? Fans of Chelsea Handler and Sex in the City will love Everyone in LA is an Asshole, a series that doesn’t hold back and says what we’re all secretly thinking.

Focusing purely on Queen Elizabeth II's relationship with television, this book shows how she was ahead of the game in helping to change the face of British television from the outset of her reign in 1953 when she let the cameras into Westminster Abbey. The Queen embraced television at a time when Winston Churchill and her government advisors recommended that she should keep them out - on the grounds that the cameras would destroy her royal mystique - right through the 1950s which was Britain s television decade (for reasons that are not generally understood today), when Britain became the first nation in the world to have public service television. In 1969 the Queen opened the doors to the cameras once again for the invention of Britains first family-reality-TV, fly-on-the-wall programme, showing how she and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh and their children, Charles and Anne, went about their daily lives, thereby giving the seal of royal approval to reality-TV, ahead of the first programmes in the United States and the UK that followed in her wake. Queen Elizabeth II can accurately be described as a television queen, the first monarch to understand and embrace television and, in particular reality-TV, which is why she was light years ahead of other royals and her government ministers. Television was for her a right of passage and, not until she ran into bad and stormy weather with Princess Diana in the 1980s and 1990s, did she have any image problems with television. These problems no longer remain today, evidently, as once again the television arrangements are in full swing for her Diamond Jubilee celebrations this June. Queen Elizabeth II remains the most televised and visualised person in the world.

Written during World War I by Harry Brodribb Irving, this is a study of the crimes of some of the world's most infamous criminals. Irving spent much of his life in the theatre, and his flair for the dramatic is displayed in his writings.He went on to found 'Our Society' with, amongst others, Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle. 'Our Society' survives today as the so called 'Murder' Club in London, where old crimes are discussed at regularly held dinners.

LA is a beast. A city that swallows most with its glamour and glitz. However, as a science fiction writer, Sarah Fuller has a hard time trying to fit in with the socialites, granola moms and trendy hipsters. That’s why she chooses to passively sit by and make fun of them. No one is safe from her ridicule. Thrown back into the dating arena in her late thirties, Sarah encounters brand new challenges. Readers will laugh out loud at the adventures and mishaps this sassy protagonist gets herself into. She explores LA life, seeing it through her unique lens. Adventures in WeHo, drag queen bingo, pot dispensaries and all the strangeness that comes out of LA weave together in this crazy, episodic adventure. Can you handle the absurdities?? Fans of Chelsea Handler and Sex in the City will love Everyone in LA is an Asshole, a series that doesn’t hold back and says what we’re all secretly thinking.? ?

Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it’s from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats. This is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you’ve had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who—or what—lives inside us once everything is taken away. These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what’s moral versus what’s necessary to survive. What’s clear though, is that the world is burning and we don’t remember who we are. So tell me: who will you become when it’s over? "Reading this collection is like dancing through Doomsday, intoxicated by the destructive, decadent truth of desire in our very mortality." --Saba Syed Razvi, author of?Heliophobia?and?In the Crocodile Gardens "Vivid, each word a weight on your tongue, these poems taste of metal and ash with a hint of spice, smoke. She reminds us the lucky ones die first, and those who remain must face the horrors of a world painted in blisters and fear." --Todd Keisling, author of?Ugly Little Things?and?Devil's Creek "Set in a post-apocalyptic world that at times seems all too near, Wytovich's poems conjure up frighteningly beautiful and uncomfortably prescient imagery." --Claire C. Holland, author of?I Am Not Your Final Girl "A surreal journey through an apocalyptic wasteland, a world that is terrifyingly reminiscent of our own even as the blare of evacuation alarms drowns out the sizzle of acid rain, smiling mannequins bear witness to a hundred thousand deaths, and "the forest floor grows femurs in the light of a skeletal moon."--Christa Carmen, author of?Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked "Like a doomsday clock fast-forwarding to its final self-destruction, Wytovich's poetry will give you whiplash as you flip through page after page. The writing here is ugly yet beautiful. It reads like a disease greedily eating up vital organs. The apocalypse has arrived and it couldn't be more intoxicating!"--Max Booth III, author of?Carnivorous Lunar Activities

The Brilliant Support Activities series contains photocopiable activities for use with slower learners or pupils with learning difficulties at Key Stage 2. The books introduce one concept per sheet, using simple language and clear, black line illustrations making them easy to read and understand. Understanding Materials contains 42 photocopiable sheets to help pupils understand the properties of materials through investigation. They reinforce the methods of scientific enquiry by requiring pupils to plan, carry out practical activities, consider evidence, and present ideas and conclusions. They focus on grouping and classifying materials, changing materials, and separating mixtures of materials. Other concepts such as forces, heat and magnetism are included within the context of understanding the properties of materials.

Clearly written lesson plans aimed at improving a range of social and physical skills, as well as stimulating children's imaginations through a series of exciting problems and scenarios. From saving an endangered animal to surviving an alien invasion, the children are placed in problematic situations in which they will need to work together to find a solution. Not only will the activities develop students' PSHE skills - building their self-esteem and helping them to work with a partner or small group - they will also develop essential movement skills: agility, balance and co-ordination.

Maths Problem Solving - Year 1 is the first of six books in the Maths Problem Solving series. The books have been written for teachers to use during the numeracy lesson. They cover the Esolving problemE objectives from the numeracy framework. This first book contains four chapters; Making decisions, Reasoning about numbers or shapes, Problems involving Ereal lifeE, money or measures and Organizing and using data. The books are designed in such a way that each section has six stages of questions to be worked through. Every stage is split into three levels, for example 1a, 1b or 1c, based on achievement. Each corresponding question from these levels follow the same line of questioning, so that when the teacher talks about a certain question, the solution process is the same for each level but the complexity of the sum varies.

Maths Problem Solving - Year 4 is the fourth of six books in the Maths Problem Solving series. The books have been written for teachers to use during the numeracy lesson. They cover the 'solving problem' objectives from the numeracy framework. This book contains three chapters; Making decisions, Reasoning about numbers or shapes and Problems involving 'real life', money or measures. The books are designed in such a way that each section has six stages of questions to be worked through. Every stage is split into three levels, for example 1a, 1b or 1c, based on achievement. Each corresponding question from these levels follow the same line of questioning, so that when the teacher talks about a certain question, the solution process is the same for each level but the complexity of the sum varies.

Maths Problem Solving - Year 6 is the sixth book in the Maths Problem Solving series. The books have been written for teachers to use during the numeracy lesson. They cover the 'solving problem' objectives from the numeracy framework. This book contains three chapters; Making decisions, Reasoning about numbers or shapes and Problems involving 'real life', money or measures. The books are designed in such a way that each section has six stages of questions to be worked through. Every stage is split into three levels, for example 1a, 1b or 1c, based on achievement. Each corresponding question from these levels follow the same line of questioning, so that when the teacher talks about a certain question, the solution process is the same for each level but the complexity of the sum varies.

A collection of three plays by former Olympic Coach and best-selling author Tom McNab delving into the murky world of Olympic politics (1936: Berlin), the troubled mind of George Orwell (Orwell on Jura), and an imaginary meeting between the acclaimed director Orson Welles and infamous fellow filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who directed Hitler’s propaganda film The Triumph of the Will, and filmed the 1936 Olympic Games (Whisper in the Heart). Reviews On 1936: Berlin “A powerful, thought-provoking, richly rewarding piece of theatre.” ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?–What’sOnStage “There’s no doubt McNab has a fascinating story to tell... This battle of idealsand ambition is where the play takes flight, as McNab provocatively parallelsAmerica’s treatment of its black athletes, Jesse Owens included, with racismunder the Third Reich.” ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?– The Guardian About the Author Tom McNab is a leading figure in the sporting world, having won five titles in the Scottish triple jump and coached Greg Rutherford to a gold medal as a long jumper and the English rugby team to win silver in 1992. He was Technical Director on the film Chariots of Fire and has written several radio plays and novels including best seller Flanagan’s Run, with film rights sold to Disney. In 1982 he won the Scottish Novelist of the Year award. He has been a commentator for ITV and Channel 4, a freelance journalist for the Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Times and Independent.

Do you enjoy reading poetry? Are you looking for something out of the ordinary? A poem can affect our mood and make us see the world differently. It can convey a wealth of emotion in just a few short lines. The skill of the poet is in choosing the right words to get his message across and create a lasting impact on the reader so that they will want to revisit the poem time and again. The Awakening is a collection of poems that does just that. The poems in this book embrace the fantastical and dream-like nature of our world, telling stories of the search for contentment and ultimately redemption, as well as the darkness and confusion that may tempt and consume us along the way. Dip inside this book to discover poems about a range of experiences from love and loss and relationships, through compulsion and self-destruction and what it is that makes us human. If you like poetry, you are certain to want to add The Awakening to your collection.

A fascinating early 20th Century look at the science of electricity, including some of the interesting and sometimes bizarre uses that early inventors found for the electrical force, such as Edison's electromagnetic pen (a very early form of photocopier), an instrument that could detect the level of starlight, and even (don't try this one at home kids!) a method for electro-plating lizards!