Father Christmas is starting his rounds on Christmas Eve, but his little helper has forgotten to bring the gifts and sweets! Can she collect them all in time? Or will some children have no presents this year? This traditional story gives children a glimpse into the busy lives of Father Christmas and his helpers on Christmas Eve, showing the work of the angels up in the heavens and how all the creatures on Earth come to share in the joy of Christmas. Else Wenz-Vietor brings the magic of Christmas alive once more with her beautiful illustrations.

Lively, warm and friendly, this illustrated collection — plus a CD with Peter Yarrow, his daughter Bethany and cellist Rufus Cappadocia — will bring families together to read and to sing. Peter makes every tune sound fresh and irresistible and Terry Widener's appealing pictures capture the spirit of each song, from the wild waves and rocking boat of Sloop John B to happy dancers ready to Skip to My Lou. Included in the book and CD are: The Golden Vanity, Skip to My Lou, Cockles and Mussels, The Fox, Springfield Mountain, The Erie Canal, Rock-a My Soul, I've Been Workin' on the Railroad and Sloop John B.

The 27 poster images here range from a sunset over Inverness to the sparkling cliffs of Cornwall, from the ancient hills and castles of Wales to the stately dome of St. Paul's in London, with many a ruined abbey and railway viaduct between. In the 1920s, the major railways in Great Britain began employing a number of artists to produce a series of uncommonly beautiful posters promoting rail travel. Chief among these artists was Norman Wilkinson, and this postcard book offers vivid reproductions of some of his finest lithographed posters, from the collection of Britain's National Railway Museum. The cards measure 6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches, and require first-class (letter) postage.

These classic nursery rhymes come to life with bright, animated illustrations and moving parts. Children will enjoy playing with the moving parts while following the actions of the much-loved nursery rhyme.

A few simple tricks will carry you far in the social world, and the menagerie in this book will help you to master them, from the proper way to converse (don't open your mouth just to hear yourself roar) to good manners while bathing (don't hog the mud bath!).

The New Earth From Above: 365 Days is now fully revised and updated. Reaching across the continents, from the icebergs of Antarctica to the cotton fields of India, the breathtaking, full-color photographs are accompanied by informative new text that describes the environmental concerns related to each location. Each chapter of the book opens with an insightful introduction by a different noted author who addresses a subject critical to the future of our planet: agriculture, biodiversity, sustainable development, energy, forests, water, and global warming. This edition includes 60 new and unpublished photos taken by Arthus-Bertrand over the past few years. The text throughout the book is revised to reflect changes in the world since the last publication, and includes three new authors: the heads of WWF France and the Observatory of Renewable Resources, and the president of Alter Eco, a fair trade firm. Yann Arthus-Bertrand's powerful aerial photographs reveal the incidental beauty of our planet and are reminders of our capacity to save or destroy it.

Read about... AND SEE... Vampires, Werewolves, Yeti's, Medusa, Griffins and a Komodo Dragon in this amazing Pop up book featuring the most ghastly, grisly and scary creatures ever!

«If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.» E. M. Forster Through seven previous novels, Reggie Nadelson has created one of the more memorable characters in detective fiction: Artie Cohen, New York police detective and first-generation American with complex ties to his Russian past, especially his close friendship with the enigmatic and flamboyant New York/London club owner T olya Sverdloff. Now, in «Londongrad» — by far Nadelson's most ambitious novel to date — Artie is faced with a murder that strikes at him personally and will ultimately place his best friend's life in his hands as it challenges his own loyalty. In a playground in Brooklyn, Artie is led to a dead girl tied up in duct tape on a children's swing. He soon realizes the killer murdered the wrong girl — the intended victim was Valentina S verdloff, Tolya's daughter, long adored by Artie. Artie flies to London to tell Tolya and finds himself enmeshed on his friend's behalf in a maelstrom of Russian money and crime. Like Berlin at the end of World War II, somebody tells Artie, Londongrad, as it's known, has become an offshore island for the new Russian underworld. Over his head, Artie is drawn further in, to Moscow, where, balancing between the old KGB and the new FSB, between the dazzle and grimness of Russia today, he uncovers a painful truth about his past that puts Tolya's life in the balance.»

Works of art you must know; Works of Art you should know — and Works of Art you really impress people if you know! 999 beautiful illustrations.

Thirty-five short stories from the top names in British crime fiction, by the likes of Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Jake Arnott, Val McDermid, and more.

An epic saga of the Soviet Union's brutal first decades-from The New York Times bestselling master of espionage. Hailed as the American le CarrA(c), Robert Littell presents an ambitious novel about star-crossed idealist Alexander Til. When Til returns from America to Petrograd on the eve of the October Revolution in 1917, it is to put his life on the line in the hope of transforming Russia. But after witnessing the birth of a new era, he watches the people, and his own ideals, trampled by the rise of Josef Stalin-with whom Til is destined to have a shattering confrontation. Taking readers from the storming of the Winter Palace to the nightmares of the gulag, The Revolutionist is a masterwork of historical fiction.

This newly updated, award-winning dictionary gives children confidence as they learn to read. More than 2,000 entry words are clearly defined, and 850 full-color photographs and drawings enhance the text for today's visually sophisticated young readers.

The Tales of Belkin were the first work of prose fiction to be completed by Russia's greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin. Written over a short period in the autumn of 1830, and sometimes referred to as the little parodies, the five stories reflect a number of the key interests of European writers of the time, such as the Byronic hero, the Gothic novel, and the tale of the supernatural. Perhaps the key element in each of these sparkling vignettes is surprise, as they provide some familiar literary themes with a range of unexpected twists. At the same time they suggested fruitful new avenues for Russian writers to explore, and the country's literature would simply not have been the same without them. The volume is completed by Pushkin's other prose work of the same time, The History of the Village of Goryukhino , an amusing parody of a contemporary history of Russia.

Murder doesn't get more peculiar than this. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England's most well-known pubs. What's even more peculiar, Arthur Bryant happened to see the latest victim only moments before her death — at a pub torn down eighty years ago! It's only the beginning of a case littered with clues that defy everything the veteran detectives know about the profiles of serial killers and the methodology of crime. What do the Knights Templars, the secret history of English pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic have to do with this recent crime spree? More important, do the Peculiar Crimes Units two living legends have enough life left in them to stop a murderous conspiracy...and a deadly cupid targeting one of their own?

Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives, returns for more crime solving adventure in this hilarious third novel from the Mobile Library series. Israel has been invited to attend the Mobile Meet in London, the annual mobile library convention, with his irascible companion Ted Carson. Back in the UK, Israel is reunited with his family, and there is much eating of paprika chicken, baklava and the drinking of good coffee. But within only twenty-four hours of their arrival, the mobile library has been nicked. Who on earth would want to steal a thirty-year old rust-bucket of a van, and who can the two men turn to for assistance? Can Mr and Mrs Krimholz, the parents of Israel's childhood rival Adam Krimholz, help them out? Amidst all this mayhem, will Israel and Ted, one of literature's oddest oddball couples, ever make it to the Mobile Meet? In this, his most puzzling, personal and problematic case yet, Israel has never had it so bad! neither has his library.

Thank you for the music... It's 1939 and the war in Europe casts a long, all-encompassing shadow. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, the generous and determined widow, La, forms an amateur orchestra to entertain the locals and soothe her own broken heart. She recruits Felix, a refugee from Poland, to play the flute, and a touching friendship emerges. When the war is over and the orchestra disbands, La is left pondering her next move. What role can she play in her community now the war is over? And can she let herself love again? La's Orchestra is another delightful story celebrating friendship and the healing power of music, told with the warmth and charm we've come to love from one of the nation's favourite storytellers.

Our close bond with Great Britain seems inevitable, given our shared language and heritage. But as distinguished historian Kathleen Burk shows in this groundbreaking history, the close international relationship was forged only recently, preceded by several centuries of hostility and conflict that began soon after the first English colony was established on the newly discovered continent. Burk, a fourth-generation Californian and a professor of history in London, draws on her unrivaled knowledge of both countries to explore the totality of the relationship — the politics, economics, culture, and society — that both connected the two peoples and drove them apart. She tells the story from each side, beginning with the English exploration of the New World and taking us up to the present alliance in Iraq. She reveals the real motivations for settling North America, the factors that led to Britain's losing the colonies, and the reasons why hawks in Congress took the two countries to war again in 1812. Indeed, war between Britain and the United States loomed again later in the nineteenth century, and it took common enemies to bring them together in the twentieth. But the anchor of the alliance was human. Nineteenth-century British writers celebrated American energy while scorning its vulgarity; American writers appreciated the British sense of tradition while criticizing its aristocracy. Yet social reformers on both sides of the ocean worked together to end slavery and achieve female suffrage. Since 1945, the world has watched and wondered at the close bonds of the leaders — Kennedy and Macmillan, Reagan and Thatcher, and Bush and Blair. The first joint history of its kind, Old World, New Worldis a vivid, absorbing, and surprising story of one of the longest international love-hate relationships in modern history.

An international cabal drives Volk back to blood-soaked Chechnya, where he confronts an old nemesis and reunites with his lost love in this gripping sequel to the acclaimed series debut. The headquarters of an American oil company hemorrhages chemical-pink smoke into the Moscow night, the aftermath of an apparent terrorist attack. A Russian army captain carrying a priceless Faberge egg and digital evidence of horrific wartime atrocities is murdered and relieved of both these prizes. And in the snowy mountains of southern Russia, a terrorist named Abreg — who once held Volk captive in a Chechen mud pit — hatches a plan to lure him back into his grasp. Volk's Shadow finds Colonel Alexei Volkovoy — covert agent of the Russian army and major player in the Moscow underworld — once again struggling to stay afloat in the swirling currents of Russian political and economic intrigue. This time, however, he is without his sidekick and lover, the ethereal Valya Novaskaya. Aching for the soul mate he pushed away, Volk begins to doubt himself, becoming even more detached from the brutality of his actions. When he takes out his inner pain on the wrong man, he gains a powerful enemy in the highest reaches of the Kremlin, and only after he travels back to Chechnya to eliminate his old nemesis, Abreg, is Volk's debt finally repaid.

Tolstoy's tumultuous tale of passion and self-discovery marks a turning point in the author's career. His compelling, emotional saga recounts the effects of nonconformist behavior — a society woman's adulterous affair and a landowner's unconventional quest for a meaningful existence — against a backdrop of late 19th-century Russia.

Alice Hoffman is my favorite writer. Alice Hoffman is one of our most beloved writers. Here on Earth was an Oprah Book Club selection. Practical Magic and Aquamarine were both bestselling books and Hollywood movies. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and People magazine, and her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, and Self. Now, in The Third Angel, Hoffman weaves a magical and stunningly original story that charts the lives of three women in love with the wrong men: Headstrong Madeleine Heller finds herself hopelessly attracted to her sister's fiance. Frieda Lewis, a doctor's daughter and a runaway, becomes the muse of an ill-fated rock star. And beautiful Bryn Evans is set to marry an Englishman while secretly obsessed with her ex-husband. At the heart of the novel is Lucy Green, who blames herself for a tragic accident she witnessed at the age of twelve, and who spends four decades searching for the Third Angel-the angel on earth who will renew her faith. Brilliantly evoking London's King's Road, Knightsbridge, and Kensington while moving effortlessly back in time, The Third Angel is a work of startling beauty about the unique, alchemical nature of love.