A collection of six playlets, based on The Twits. They highlight the key points in the story and some can be acted by groups of children while others only need a couple of actors.

Pablo Escobar: billionaire drugs baron; ruthless manipulator, brutal killer and jefe of the infamous Medellín cartel. A man whose importance in the international drug trade and renown for his charitable work among the poor brought him influence and power in his home country of Colombia, and the unwanted attention of the American courts. Terrified of the new Colombian President’s determination to extradite him to America, Escobar found the best bargaining tools he could find: hostages. In the winter of 1990, ten relatives of Colombian politicians, mostly women, were abducted and held hostage as Escobar attempted to strong-arm the government into blocking his extradition. Two died, the rest survived, and from their harrowing stories Márquez retells, with vivid clarity, the terror and uncertainty of those dark and volatile months.

‘César Montero was dreaming about elephants. He’d seen them at the movies on Sunday...’ Only moments later, César is led away by police as they clear the crowds away from the man he has just killed. But César is not the only man to be riled by the rumours being spread in his Colombian hometown – under the cover of darkness, someone creeps through the streets sticking malicious posters to walls and doors. Each night the respectable townsfolk retire to their beds fearful that they will be the subject of the following morning’s lampoons. As paranoia seeps through the town and the delicate veil of tranquility begins to slip, can the perpetrator be uncovered before accusation and violence leave the inhabitants’ sanity in tatters?

'For twenty-one years I have been shuffling back and forth between classrooms and libraries. Now you tell me what the hell it's got me'. That's how Benjamin Braddock talked when he came down from university. Somehow it didn't seem to be what his father expected from a college education, and everyone was really appalled when Ben raped Mrs Robinson (that was her story anyway) and ran off with her daughter in the middle of her wedding to someone else... a brilliantly sordid tale of a young man's search for identity and a portrayal of the worst-behaved yet most sympathetic anti-hero of the day.

«Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour and discover the joys of French rural living with Peter Mayle's bestselling, much-loved account of «A Year In Provence». Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Luberon Valley and began a new life. In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provencal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait.»

«'The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself a gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin'. He has never married, never loved and never gone to bed with a woman he didn't pay. But on finding a young girl naked and asleep on the brothel owner's bed, a passion is ignited in his heart — and he feels, for the first time, the urgent pangs of love. Each night, exhausted by her factory work, 'Delgadina' sleeps peacefully whilst he watches her quietly. During these solitary early hours, his love for her deepens and he finds himself reflecting on his newly found passion and the loveless life he has led. By day, his columns in the local newspaper are read avidly by those who recognise in his outpourings the enlivening and transformative power of love. The publication of «Memories of My Melancholy Whores» spearheads «Penguin's» celebration of Marquez's 80th birthday in 2007.»

«Masters and Commanders» describes how four titanic figures shaped the grand strategy of the West during the Second World War. Each was exceptionally tough-willed and strong minded, and each was certain that he knew best how to win the war. Yet each knew that he had to win at least two of the others over in order to get his strategy adopted. The book traces the mutual suspicion and admiration, the rebuffs and the charm, the often explosive disagreements and wary reconciliations which resulted.»

You remember an idyllic childhood. But your memory is deceitful. And possibly deadly... When a skeleton is unearthed in the Martellos' garden, Jane Martello is shocked to learn it's that of her childhood friend, Natalie, who went missing twenty-five years ago. Encouraged by a therapist to recover lost memories, Jane hopes to find out what really took place when she was a child — and what happened to Natalie. But in learning the truth about hers and Natalie's past, is Jane putting her own future at terrible risk?

«The publication of «The World According to Clarkson» in 2004 launched a multi-million-copy bestselling phenomenon. But to no avail. Jeremy's one-man war on crimes against common sense has not yet been won. And our hero's still scratching his head at the madness of it all. But it's not all bad. He's learned a little along the way, including: Why binge drinking is good for you The worst word in the English language The remarkable secret of eternal youth The pleasure and pain of middle-aged drumming The problem with America And how to dispose of a seal For anyone who's ever been driven to wonder just what is the matter with people these days, «For Crying Out Loud» is the perfect riposte. Surprising, fearless and always laugh-out-loud funny, Clarkson's back. And he's got a point...»

«'It is now time that something was done. But the man who has the courage to do something must do it in the knowledge that he will go down in German history as a traitor. If he does not, however, he will be a traitor to his own conscience' — Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, July 1944. The July 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler was a desperate attempt by a group of senior officers to redeem Germany's honour and end the Second World War. They were heroic because they knew their chances of success were slight and that the result of their failure would undoubtedly be a terrible death.They wanted to leave a message for later generations: that there were Germans who understood the evils of Nazism and were willing to act against it. This extraordinary story is the basis for Bryan Singer's major new film «Valkyrie», due to be released in February 2009. Published for the first time as a separate book, «Luck of the Devil» is taken from Ian Kershaw's bestselling «Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis» and is a brilliant account of just what happened in those fateful days at Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters, when his opponents came so astonishingly close to assassinating what is one of the modern era's most terrible figures.»

It is 1905. Asta and her husband Rasmus have come to East London from Denmark with their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keep loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published over seventy years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For they seem to hold they key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter Ann to unearth the buried secrets of nearly a century before.

The latest Vine novel, published by Viking in August, is called The Birthday Present, and I believe it is destined to take its place beside the very best of her novels. It has a sensational plot: a right-wing government minister is conducting an illicit sado-masochistic affair with a young married woman. As a surprise birthday present, he arranges for her to be 'kidnapped' off the street, and taken — bound and blindfolded — to a secret destination where he will be waiting. But she fails to turn up, and he soon finds out that something has gone horribly wrong.

«For four novels, Clive Cussler has charted the exploits of the Oregon, a clandestine spy ship completely dilapidated on the outside, but on the inside packed with sophisticated weaponry and intelligence-gathering equipment. Captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo and manned by a crew of former military and spy personnel, it is a private enterprise, available for any government agency that can afford it — and now Cussler sends the Oregon on its most extraordinary mission yet. The crew has just completed a top-secret mission against Iran in the Persian Gulf, when they come across a cruise ship adrift in the sea. Hundreds of bodies litter its deck, and as Cabrillo tries to determine what happened, explosions rack the length of the ship. Barely able to escape with his own life and that of the liner's sole survivor, Cabrillo finds himself plunged into a mystery as intricate — and as perilous — as any he has ever known, and pitted against a cult with monstrously lethal plans for the human race... plans he may already be too late to stop. «Plague Ship» is a high-stakes, high-seas journey that proves once again that Cussler is the master of high octane adventure.»

The violent death of a journalist leads secret agent Gabriel Allon to Russia. Not to the grim Moscow of Soviet times, but a modern Moscow awash with oil wealth and in thrall to a new generation of rich Stalinists plotting to challenge an old enemy: the United States. One such man is Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB colonel, whose global empire is built on a lucrative and deadly business. Kharkov is an arms dealer – and he's about to sell Russia's most dangerous weapon to al-Qaeda. Unless Allon can learn the time and place of the delivery, the world will suffer its deadliest terror attacks since 9/11. The countdown to Armageddon has begun...

«'Big Daddy' Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta, is about to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday. His two sons have returned home for the occasion: Gooper, his wife and children, Brick, an ageing football hero who has turned to drink, and his feisty wife Maggie. As the hot summer evening unfolds, the veneer of happy family life and Southern gentility gradually slips away as unpleasant truths emerge and greed, lies, jealousy and suppressed sexuality threaten to reach boiling point. Made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, «Cat on a Hot Tin Roof» is a masterly portrayal of family tensions and individuals trapped in prisons of their own making.»

Following a treacherous rescue mission high in the freezing Alps, James Bond is preparing for life back at Eton. But James is under surveillance; his every move is being watched. He alone holds the clue to a sinister plot that will bring bloodshed and carnage to his school — and his country. Life for James Bond will never be the same again.