Keep Calm and Carry On was a WWII government poster discovered in a dusty box nine years ago. Though it never saw the light of day in 1939 (it was only supposed to go up if Britain was invaded), it has suddenly struck a chord in our current difficult times, now we are in need of a stiff upper lip and optimistic energy once again. Gordon Brown has one up in 10 Downing Street and James May wears a Keep Calm T-shirt on the telly — it is suddenly everywhere. The book is packed full of similarly motivational and cheering quotes, proverbs, mantras and wry truths to help us through the recession, from such wits as Churchill, Disraeli and George Bernard Shaw. Funny, wise and stirring — it is a perfect source of strength to get us all through the coming months. 'A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain' — Mark Twain. 'It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own' — Harry S. Truman. 'An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today' — Laurence J. Peter. 'Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine' — Lord Byron. 'Better bread with water than cake with trouble' — Russian Proverb.

Tim's quiet holiday in Wales, with his parents and his best friend Biscuits, unexpectedly becomes truly terribly adventurous. An encounter with two local bully-boys threatens to disrupt Tim and Biscuits' fun but their friendship is also threatened by the arrival of Tim's ebullient friend, Kelly. Tim tells the story in snappy prose punctuated with revealing, illustrated extracts from his and Biscuits' holiday diaries.

I sometimes talk about my mum to Mabel, because Mabel doesn't ever get upset. Verity adores her cat, Mabel, and is desperately sad when she dies. Remembering her recent school lessons about the Ancient Egyptians, Verity decides to mummify Mabel and keep her hidden. Verity's dad and grandparents can't bear to talk about death, having lost Verity's mum in childbirth, but when they eventually discover what Verity has done with Mabel, the whole family learns that it's time to talk. A superb handling of bereavement in Wilson's uniquely accessible and enjoyable style, for readers of 7 plus.

Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems, they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.

«The possibilities are endless in Dr. Seuss's classic Beginner Book! Young readers will delight in «Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!» which celebrates the imagination and encourages young readers to think... about thinking! «Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the Thinks you can think up if only you try.» Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.»

Ancient Rome is the setting for the superb new novel from Robert Harris, author of the number one bestsellers Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel. Where else to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples. All along the coast, the Roman Empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Only one man is worried. The engineer Marius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line — somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Marius — decent, practical, incorruptible — promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. But as he heads out towards Vesuvius he is about to discover there are forces that even the world’s only superpower can’t control. Pompeii recreates in spellbinding detail one of the most famous natural disasters of all time. And by focusing on the characters of an engineer and a scientist, it offers an entirely original perspective on the Roman world.

Kate DiCamillo’s first published novel, like Winn-Dixie himself, immediately proved to be a keeper — a New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Honor winner, the inspiration for a popular film, and most especially, a cherished classic that touches the hearts of readers of all ages. It’s now available in a paperback digest format certain to bring this tale’s magic to an even wider circle of fans.

Elmer loves practical jokes, but so does his black and white cousin Wilbur. Until, that is, Elmer has an idea which brings Wilbur back down to earth, in more ways than one...

In 1941, Irene Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through, not in terms of battles and politicians, but by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. She did not live to see her ambition fulfilled, or to know that sixty-five years later, Suite Francaise would be published for the first time, and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during a year that begins with France's fall to the Nazis in June 1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, Suite Francaise falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion and make their way through the chaos of France; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected. Nemirovsky's brilliance as a writer lay in her portrayal of people, and this is a novel that teems with wonderful characters, each more vivid than the next. Haughty aristocrats, bourgeois bankers and snobbish aesthetes rub shoulders with uncouth workers and bolshy farmers. Women variously resist or succumb to the charms of German soldiers. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places. Irene Nemirovsky conceived of Suite Francaise as a four or five-part novel. It was to be a symphony — her War and Peace. Although only two sections were finished before her tragic death, they form a book that is beautifully complete in itself, and awe-inspiring in its understanding of humanity.

A richly original look at the origins of money and how it makes the world go around Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of our financial system, from its genesis in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Whatas more, Ferguson reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history, arguing that the evolution of credit and debt was as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization. As Ferguson traces the crisis from ancient Egyptas Memphis to todayas Chongqing, he offers bold and compelling new insights into the risea and fallaof not just money but Western power as well.

After the tragic deaths of their parents, Magdalen and Norah discover the devastating news that they are both illegitimate and not entitled to any inheritance. Norah is forced to become a governess to earn her keep but Magdalen has grander plans and embarks on an elaborate scheme of revenge against her cold-hearted relatives.

Missing a young girl, Dora Bruder, 15, height 1.55m, oval-shaped face, grey-brown eyes, grey sports jacket, maroon pullover, navy blue skirt and hat, brown gym shoes. All information to M. and Mme Bruder, 41 Boulevard Ornano, Paris. The author chanced upon this notice in a December 1941 issue of Paris Soir. The girl has vanished from the convent school which had taken her in during the Occupation. She had apparently run away on a bitterly cold night at a time of especially violent German reprisals. Moved by her fate, the author sets out to find all he can about her. Eventually he discovers her name in a list of Jews deported to Auschwitz in September 1942 and what further fragments he is able to uncover about the Bruder family become a meditation on the immense losses of the period — people lost, stories lost, human history lost. Modiano delivers a moving survey of a decade-long investigation that revived for him the sights, sounds and sorrowful rhythms of occupied Paris. And in seeking to exhume Dora Bruder's fate, he in turn faces, and must come to terms with, his own family history.

Great art has dreadful manners. Simon Schama observes at the start of his epic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality. With the same disarming force, Power of Art jolts us far from the comfort zone of the hushed art gallery, as Schama closes in on intense make-or-break turning points in the lives of eight great artists who, under extreme stress, created something unprecedented, altering the course of art forever. The embattled heroes — Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko — faced crisis with steadfast defiance. The masterpieces they created challenged convention, shattered complacency, shifted awareness and changed the way we look at the world. With powerfully vivid story-telling, Schama explores the dynamic personalities of the artists and the spirit of the times they lived through, capturing the flamboyant theatre of bourgeouis life in Amsterdam, the passion and paranoia of Revolutionary Paris, and the carnage and pathos of civil-war Spain. Most compelling of all, Power of Art traces the extraordinary evolution of eight world-class works of art. Created in a bolt of illumination, such works tell us something about how the world is, how it is to be inside our skins, that no more prosaic source of wisdom can deliver. And when they do that they answer, irrefutably and majestically, the nagging question of every reluctant art-conscript... Ok, Ok, but what's art really for?

«It's a deadly game of blackmail. And they're making him play. Kyle McAvoy is one of the outstanding legal students of his generation: he's good looking, has a brilliant mind and a glittering future ahead of him. But he has a secret from his past, a secret that threatens to destroy his fledgling career and, possibly, his entire life. One night that secret catches up with him in the form of some bad men in a dark alley — they have a deeply compromising video of the incident that haunts him. The men make it clear to Kyle that he no longer owns his own future — that he must do as they tell him, or the video will be made public knowledge, with all the unpleasant consequences. What price do they demand for Kyle's secret? Strangely, it is for Kyle to do exactly what any ambitious young lawyer would want to do: take a job in New York as an associate at the largest law firm in the world, a job that is incredibly well paid and, with mammoth hours and outrageous billing, could lead to partnership and a fortune. But Kyle won't be working for the company, but against it — passing on the secrets of the company's biggest trial to date, a dispute between two defense contractors worth billions of dollars to the victor. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him and the FBI, who would love to unmask the conspiracy. Will his intellect, cunning and bravery be enough to extricate him from an impossible dilemma? Full of twists and turns and reminiscent of «The Firm», «The Associate» is vintage John Grisham.»

Sparkling with comic genius and narrative exuberance, I Served the King of England is a story of how the unbelievable came true. Its remarkable hero, Ditie, is a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events in Prague from the German invasion to the victory of Communism. Ditie's fantastic journey intertwines the political and the personal in a narrative that both enlightens and entertains.

New from the best selling author of Generation X. Generation A is set in the near future in a world where bees are extinct, until one autumn five unconnected people around the world — in the US, Canada, France, New Zealand and Sri Lanka — are all stung. Their shared experience unites them in ways they never could have imagined. Generation A mirrors Coupland's debut novel, 1991's Generation X. It explores new ways of looking at the act of reading and storytelling in a digital world. Like much of Coupland's writing, it occupies the perplexing hinterland between optimism about the future and everyday, apocalyptic paranoia.

The fountain was not working. Nothing unusual in that... Marcus Didius Falco and his laddish friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked — by a gruesomely severed human hand. Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts and sewers. Public panic overcomes official indifference, and the Aventine partners are commissioned to investigate. Women are bing abducted during festivals, with the next Games only days away. As the heat rises in the Circus Maximus, they face a race against time and a strong test of their friendship. They know the sadistic killer lurks somewhere on the festive streets of Rome — preparing to strike again.

Based on the award-winning formula of his hugely popular nightly show on CNBC, Donny Deutsch's The Big Idea is a step-by-step guide for anyone who has ever dreamt of following through on creating their own business. From the 'Aha! Moment' to taking that all-important first leap, Deutsch cheers aspiring entrepreneurs along every step of the way. Starting with how to look for opportunities, through to keeping what you've created going and growing, each stage of the process is illustrated by an invaluable lesson learned by a leading entrepreneur. With the author's irrepressible energy, enthusiasm and expertise providing the engine that drives this incredibly upbeat book, The Big Idea will provide the tools to tackle issues head on, and is the ideal how-to for entrepreneurs — from inventors to artists, marketers to producers, teenagers to retirees. Timely, and hitting just the right note given the economic challenges so many face today as they struggle to pursue their dreams and control their destinies, The Big Idea is an inspirational road map to achieving your dreams.

What does Jade Goody tell us about Athenian democracy? What does Achilles say about the death of Ayrton Senna? Why does anyone want to be famous? Why do we want them to be? Everybody wants their fifteen minutes of fame. But just what is it that elevates mere mortals to the status of gods, and why has celebrity become an increasing preoccupation in the modern world? It once was ability, intelligence, power or beauty that established fame: military or sporting achievement, artistic, literary or musical genius, political prowess, blue blood or, occassionally, criminal depravity. Attributes of the men and women who rose above the common stock. Throughout history we have defined ourselves with reference to famous people, and allowed them to exercise a strange power over us, and us, a strange power over them. Fame though, has changed. The cult of celebrity has become a global obsession. Reality television dramatises the lives of the famous as though they were people just like us, and people just like us can become famous on reality TV. Are we more preoccupied with fame than before? Or have we always been a little too interested? In A History of Fame Tom Payne expertly answers these puzzling questions and many more. From deities to divas, masterpieces to magazines, it is a book about the heroes, losers, loners and glamour-pusses of all times. It is also a book about the rest of us, about what our hunger for celebrity says about ourselves, and about the value of fame, both good and bad.

She lived only for pleasure... until war forced her to find courage she did not know she had, and love where she least expected it. It is 1941, and while Britain is in the grip of war, life in the Far East is one of wealth and privilege. In Singapore Susan Roper, secure in the supremacy of the British Empire, enjoys dancing, clothes and fast cars, tennis and light flirtations with visiting naval officers — her life is devoted solely to pleasure. When she meets an Australian doctor who warns her of the danger that they all face she dismisses him as an ignorant colonial. Singapore goes on partying, oblivious to the threat of invasion. The British flag will, they believe, protect them from all enemies. But when Japan invades, Susan finds herself in grave danger. She become an ambulance driver and is taken prisoner by the Japanese. Gradually and reluctantly she realizes that she has fallen in love with the tough, arrogant and totally unsuitable doctor, but she has to face many hardships and witness terrible events before she can acknowledge the truth.