Pauline, Petrova and Posy are found as orphaned babies in different parts of the world by eccentric fossil collector and explorer Gum. He adopts them, takes them to his London home and leaves them in the care of his niece Sylvia and the family Nurse. Then off he goes to continue his exploring, saying that he'll be back in five years' time. When the three little girls are old enough, they choose the surname Fossil for themselves and vow to make the name famous.At first they lead privileged and sheltered lives. But when Gum fails to return after five years, Sylvia's money begins to run out. First she is forced to take in some boarders - an engaging and eclectic mix of characters - but then she decides that the girls should go to acting school. This way they will be able to earn some money before they grow up.Pauline adores the school, as she dreams of becoming an actress. Petrova hates it, all she wants to do is learn about cars and planes and engines. Posy loves it too - she is born to be a dancer and the school is the perfect place for her.

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Brutally honest and fearless, Poverty Safari is an unforgettable insight into modern Britain, and will change how you think about poverty.The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.Winner of the Orwell Prize.Named the most 'Rebellious Read of the 21st Century' in a Scottish Book Trust poll.Darren McGarvey has experienced poverty and its devastating effects first-hand. He knows why people from deprived communities all around Britain feel angry and unheard. And he wants to explain . . .So he invites you to come on a safari of sorts. But not the kind where the wildlife is surveyed from a safe distance. This book takes you inside the experience of poverty to show how the pressures really feel and how hard their legacy is to overcome.Arguing that both the political left and right misunderstand poverty as it is actually lived, McGarvey sets out what everybody – including himself – could do to change things.'Another cry of anger from a working class that feels the pain of a rotten, failing system. Its value lies in the strength it will add to the movement for change.' - Ken Loach, director of Kes

'This book is just about my favourite book of all time ... I'm not entirely convinced I could like somebody who didn't like this book ... it's funny and moving and gives you an insight into this extraordinary moment as the war is about to begin ... it's so vivid, and what's more, it's incredibly current' Robert Rinder, BBC Radio 4'Wonderfully funny and very poignant' Philip Toynbee'More than an extremely amusing autobiography ... she has evoked a whole generation. Her book is full of the music of time' SUNDAY TIMES'Whenever I read the words "Peer's Daughter" in a headline,' Lady Redesdale once sadly remarked, 'I know it's going to be something about one of you children.' The Mitford family is one of the century's most enigmatic, made notorious by Nancy's novels, Diana's marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, Unity's infatuation with Hitler, Debo's marriage to a duke and Jessica's passionate commitment to communism. Hons and Rebels is an enchanting and deeply absorbing memoir of an isolated and eccentric upbringing which conceals beneath its witty, light-hearted surface much wisdom and depth of feeling.

In 2002, the University of Michigan Press published Rodney Merrill's translation of Homer's Odyssey, an interpretation of the classic that was unique in employing the meter of Homer's original. Praising Merrill's translation of the Odyssey, Gregory Nagy of Harvard wrote, "Merrill's fine ear for the sound of ancient Greek makes the experience of reading his Homer the nearest thing in English to actually hearing Homer. The translator's English renders most faithfully the poet's ancient Greek---not only the words and meaning but even the voice."Merrill has now produced an edition of Homer's Iliad, following the same approach. This form of rendering is particularly relevant to the Iliad, producing a strong musical setting that many elements of the narrative require to come truly to life. Most notable are the many battle scenes, to which the strong meter gives an impetus embodying and making credible the "war-lust" in the deeds of the combatants.For many years, until his retirement, Rodney Merrill taught English composition and comparative literature at Stanford and Berkeley. In addition to his translation of Homer's Odyssey, he is the author of "Chaucer's Broche of Thebes."Jacket photograph © 2007 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston"Other competent translations of Homer exist, but none accomplish what Merrill aims for: to convey to the reader-listener in translation the meaning and the sounds of Homer, coming as close as possible to the poetry of the original. Merrill accomplishes this virtuosic achievement by translating Homer's Greek into English hexameters, a process requiring not only a full understanding of the original Greek, but also an unusual mastery of the sounds, rhythms, and nuances of English."---Stephen G. Daitz, Professor Emeritus of Classics, City University of New York"This is a faithful and powerful rendition of the original Greek. With his deep understanding of the language, [Merrill] has succeeded in capturing the heroic essence of the Homeric Iliad."---Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University, and author of Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond

From the author of The Railway Children and Five Children and It comes this tale of six siblings and their adventures in Victorian London. The Bastable children are deeply saddened by the death of their mother, and to make things worse, they're impoverished when their father's business fails. Determined to restore both the family's fortune and its good name, the young Bastables embark on a variety of hilarious get-rich-quick schemes.Each chapter details a new adventure, from digging for treasure and becoming detectives and highway robbers, to writing a newspaper and selling wine. The children accost a nobleman on Blackheath and are mistaken for blackmailers, pay a visit to a moneylender, encounter a royal princess in Greenwich Park, and earnestly pursue other comic ventures. Their courage and determination provide a heartwarming complement to the droll narrative, and their hopes, disappointments, and triumphs remain as real and moving today as they were a century ago.

“Every time I meet someone who also loves I Capture the Castle, I know we must be kindred spirits.” —from the new foreword by Jenny Han, the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.A beautiful, deluxe edition of Dodie Smith’s beloved novel, I Capture the Castle, featuring a new foreword by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han, a stunning new cover, and designed endpapers that is perfect for devoted readers and those discovering this timeless story for the first time.Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family may live in a ramshackle old English castle, but that’s about as romantic as her life gets. While her beautiful older sister, Rose, longs to live in a Jane Austen novel, Cassandra knows that meeting an eligible man to marry isn’t in either of their futures when their home is crumbling and they have to sell their furniture for food. So Cassandra instead strives to hone her writing skills in her journals. Until one day when their new landlords move in, which include two (very handsome) sons, and the lives of the Mortmain sisters change forever.Through Cassandra’s sharply funny, yet poignant, journal entries, she chronicles the great changes that take place within the castle’s walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has “captured the castle” – and the heart of the reader – in one of literature’s most enchanting novels.“This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met.” —J.K. Rowling, bestselling author of the Harry Potter series

Edited and with an introduction by Robert PhelpsThe hundred short stories collected here include such masterpieces as 'Bella-Vista', 'The Tender Shoot' and 'Le K-pi', Colette's subtle and ruthless rendering of a woman's belated sexual awakening. Shot through with the colours and flavours of the Parisian world and fertile French countryside, these short stories reverberate with the fine-spun desire, wit and psychological acuity that made Colette unique.

This carefully created P. G. Wodehouse collection includes this notable humorist's greatest novels and satirical short stories. This book has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Jeeves & Wooster Series Novels Right Ho, Jeeves Short Stories Leave It to Jeeves Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg Absent Treatment Helping Freddie Rallying Round Old George Doing Clarence a Bit of Good The Aunt and the Sluggard Jeeves Takes Charge Jeeves in the Springtime Aunt Agatha Takes the Count Scoring off Jeeves Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch Jeeves and the Chump Cyril Comrade Bingo The Great Sermon Handicap The Purity of the Turf The Metropolitan Touch The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace Bingo and the Little Woman Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg Bertie Changes His Mind Psmith Series Mike Mike and Psmith Psmith in the City The Prince and Betty Psmith, Journalist Other Novels The Pothunters A Prefect's Uncle The Gold Bat The Head of Kay's Love Among the Chickens The White Feather Not George Washington The Swoop! The Intrusion of Jimmy The Little Nugget Something New Uneasy Money Piccadilly Jim A Damsel in Distress The Coming of Bill Indiscretions of Archie The Little Warrior Three Men and a Maid The Adventures of Sally The Girl on the Boat Short Story Collections Tales of St. Austin's The Clicking of Cuthbert The Man with Two Left Feet Other Short Stories The Politeness of Princes Shields' and the Cricket Cup An International Affair The Guardian A Corner in Lines The Autograph Hunters Pillingshot, Detective When Papa Swore in Hindustani Tom, Dick, and Harry Disentangling Old Duggie Poems Damon and Pythias: A Romance The Haunted Tram Articles Some Aspects of Game-captaincy An Unfinished Collection The New Advertising The Secret Pleasures of Reginald My Battle With Drink In Defense of Astigmatism Photographers and Me A Plea for Indoor Golf

Miss Emma Woodhouse of Hartfield lives in the small town of Highbury, and is young, pretty, and rich. Though she has decided she will never marry, Emma takes credit for matchmaking her friend and former governess, Miss Taylor, to the widower Mr. Weston. Emma decides to organize marriages for others of her acquaintance, despite friendly warnings not to meddle from Mr. Knightley, who is both an old friend, her brother-in-law, and the wealthy owner of Donwell Abbey. Emma resolves to marry her new friend, a pretty orphan named Harriet Smith, to the young parish priest Mr. Elton. This fails once Emma realizes to her horror that Elton desires to marry her instead. New arrivals come to Highbury, including young orphan Miss Fairfax and Elton's new pretentious wife. Frank Churchill, the handsome son of Mr. Weston, also arrives generating interest and gossip. Emma, so sure of her ability to judge the feelings of others, believes that Frank wishes to marry her. Eventually the town discovers that Frank and Miss Fairfax have been secretly engaged, while Emma comes to recognize her true feelings for Mr. Knightley ...

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

The original and best survival guide for any situation in every climate. Now with added techniques for handling Urban dangers, the ‘SAS Survival Handbook’ is the complete companion for adventurers everywhere. The original and best survival guide for any situation in every climate is back. Now with added techniques for handling Urban dangers, the SAS Survival Handbook is the complete companion for adventurers everywhere. From making camp and finding food in the wild to security and self-defence in the streets, be prepared in any city, land or sea. SAS legend John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman’s unrivalled multi-million copy bestseller will teach you: Preparation – Understanding and assembling latest, most resilient, kit. Navigation – Skills, technologies and techniques to get you through unfamiliar terrain. Food and Health – Finding resources in your environment, feeding yourself, healing yourself and avoiding disease. Urban Safety and Security – Recognising dangerous situations, defending yourself and saving others. Disaster Survival – Dealing with unstable environmental conditions: what to do in the face of flash flooding or fast-spreading fire.

"Catch-22 is one of this century's greatest works of American literature. First published m 1961, Joseph Heller's profound and compelling novel has appeared on nearly every list of must read fiction. It is a classic in every sense of the word. Catch-22 took the war novel genre to a new level, shocking us with its clever and disturbing style. Set in a World War II American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of John Yossarian, who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. Yossarian is also trying to decode the meaning of Catch-22, a mysterious regulation that proves that insane people are really the sanest, while the supposedly sensible people are the true madmen. And this novel is full of madmen -- Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly m order to finish their tour; Milo Minderbinder, a dedicated entrepreneur who bombs his own airfield when the Germans offer him an extra 6 percent; Major Major Major, whose tragedy in life is that he resembles Henry Fonda; and Major -- de Coverley, whose face is so forbidding no one has dared ask his name. No novel before or since has matched Catch-22's intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. Heller satirizes military bureaucracy with bitter, stinging humor, all the while telling the darkly comic story of Yossarian, a bombardier who refuses to die. Nearly forty years later, Yossarian lives"--Cover.

“How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times, even if they are different and perhaps less dark, and “Origins” raises a set of fundamental questions about how tyranny can arise and the dangerous forms of inhumanity to which it can lead.” Jeffrey C. Isaac, The Washington PostHannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political historyThe Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.

A child's abduction is not what it appears to be in this 'highly recommended' thriller from the internationally bestselling author of Broken Ground (The Guardian) Stephanie Harker is travelling through security at O'Hare airport with five-year-old Jimmy. But in a moment, everything changes. In disbelief, Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away - and she's stuck the other side of the gates, hysterical with worry.The authorities, unaware of Jimmy's existence, just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is wrestled to the ground and blasted with a taser gun. By the time she can tell them what has happened, Jimmy is long gone.But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. There are many potential suspects for this abduction. With time rapidly running out, how can Stephanie get him back?A breathtakingly rich and gripping psychological thriller, The Vanishing Point is Val McDermid's most accomplished standalone novel to date, a work of haunting brilliance that demonstrates why she is hailed as 'the queen of crime' (The Independent).'Masterfully handled, and McDermid's ability to wrong-foot the reader remains second to none: highly recommended' -The Guardian '[McDermid's] work is taut, psychologically complex and so gripping that it puts your life on hold' -The Times

Intrigue, investigations, thievery, drugs and murder all make an appearance in Collins’s classic who-done-it, The Moonstone. Published in serial form in 1868, it was inspired in part by a spectacular murder case widely reported in the early 1860s. Collins’s story revolves around a diamond stolen from a Hindu holy place. On her eighteenth birthday, Rachel Verinder receives the diamond, but by the following morning the stone has been stolen again. As the story unravels through multiple eyewitness accounts, the elderly Sergeant Cuff—with a face “sharp as a hatchet”—looks for the culprit. One of Collins’s best-loved novels, with an exciting plot moved along by deftly-drawn characters and elegant pacing, The Moonstone was also turned into a play by Collins; the play appears as an appendix to this edition.

Collins' disturbing tale of deceit and trickery, set against a backdrop of Victorian madness and melodrama, has been captured in ths compelling stage version. Walter Hartright, the drawing teacher, re-tells the fascinating story of the sisters Laura and Marian, and of the strange appearance of the Woman in White...

The second Oxford edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works reconsiders every detail of their text and presentation in the light of modern scholarship. The nature and authority of the early documents are re-examined, and the canon and chronological order of composition freshly established. Spelling and punctuation are modernized, and there is a brief introduction to each work, as well as an illuminating and informative General Introduction. Included here for the first time is the play The Reign of King Edward the Third as well as the full text of Sir Thomas More. This new edition also features an essay on Shakespeare's language by David Crystal, and a bibliography of foundational works.

A scandalously talented stage performer, a practiced seductress of both men and women, and the flamboyant author of some of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature, Colette was our first true superstar. Now, in Judith Thurman's Secrets of the Flesh, Colette at last has a biography worthy of her dazzling reputation.Having spent her childhood in the shadow of an overpowering mother, Colette escaped at age twenty into a turbulent marriage with the sexy, unscrupulous Willy--a literary charlatan who took credit for her bestselling Claudine novels. Weary of Willy's sexual domination, Colette pursued an extremely public lesbian love affair with a niece of Napoleon's. At forty, she gave birth to a daughter who bored her, at forty-seven she seduced her teenage stepson, and in her seventies she flirted with the Nazi occupiers of Paris, even though her beloved third husband, a Jew, had been arrested by the Gestapo. And all the while, this incomparable woman poured forth a torrent of masterpieces, including Gigi, Sido, Cheri, and Break of Day. Judith Thurman, author of the National Book Award-winning biography of Isak Dinesen, portrays Colette as a thoroughly modern woman: frank in her desires, fierce in her passions, forever reinventing herself. Rich with delicious gossip and intimate revelations, shimmering with grace and intelligence, Secrets of the Flesh is one of the great biographies of our time.NOTE: This edition does not include a photo insert.

Read the HILARIOUS books that inspired the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON films! Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is a smallish Viking with a longish name. Hiccup's father is chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe which means Hiccup is the Hope and the Heir to the Hairy Hooligan throne - but most of the time Hiccup feels like a very ordinary boy, finding it hard to be a Hero. In the first How to Train Your Dragon book Hiccup must lead ten novices in their initiation into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. They have to train their dragons or be BANISHED from the tribe FOR EVER!But what if Hiccup's dragon resembles an ickle brown bunny with wings? And has NO TEETH? The Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus is stirring and wants to devour every Viking on the Isle of Berk . . .Can Hiccup save the tribe - and become a Hero?READ ALL 12 BOOKS IN THE SERIES!You don't have to read the books in order, but if you want to, this is the right order:1. How to Train Your Dragon2. How to Be a Pirate3. How to Speak Dragonese4. How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse 5. How to Twist a Dragon's Tale6. A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons7. How to Ride a Dragon's Storm8. How to Break a Dragon's Heart9. How to Steal a Dragon's Sword10. How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel11. How to Betray a Dragon's Hero12. How to Fight a Dragon's FuryHow to Train Your Dragon is now a major DreamWorks franchise starring Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett and Jonah Hill and the TV series, Riders of Berk, can be seen on CBeebies and Cartoon Network.

The escapades of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside--Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger.

Впервые опубликованный в 1877 году, а затем экранизированный, роман о нелёгкой судьбе чёрного жеребца по имени Красавчик завоевал сердца читателей во всем мире. История Красавчика, рассказанная им самим, начиная с первых лет его жизни в английской деревне до тяжёлых рабочих будней в Лондоне, наполнена радостями и трудностями, встречами и расставаниями. Это позволяет взглянуть читателю на привычные нам всем вещи с неожиданной стороны. Но истинная доброта, противостоящая жестокости окружающего мира, всегда находит себе дорогу.Читайте зарубежную литературу в оригинале!

Justice brings together in one indispensable volume essential readings on justice and moral reasoning. With readings from major thinkers from the classical era up to the present, the collection provides a thematic overview of the concept of justice. Moreover, Sandel's organization of the readings and his own commentaries allow readers to engage with a variety of pressing contemporary issues. Looking at a host of ethical dilemmas, including affirmative action, conscription, income distribution, and gay rights, from a variety of angles—morally, legally, politically—the collection engages with the core concerns of political philosophy: individual rights and the claims of community, equality and inequality, morality and law, and ultimately, justice. With concise section introductions that put the readings in context, this anthology is an invaluable tool for students, teachers, and anyone who wishes to engage in the great moral debates that have animated politics from classical times to our own.