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Macmillan Publishers
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Laser is now a five-level course, with the addition of two new levels, A1+ and A2, designed to cater to younger exam students, and now covers the entire span of secondary education. It is the perfect preparation for students still at school and working towards school-leaving exams and the Cambridge ESOL, KET, PET and FCE exams. The vibrant topic-based units cover the lexical and grammatical syllabus of the Breakthrough to Vantage levels of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework. The course integrates development of all the language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, and regular revision sections check continuous progress. Each Student's Book comes with a CD-ROM that reinforces the structures and vocabulary learnt in each unit. Each Workbook is complete with Audio CD, making it ideal for homework, and the Teacher's Book includes a DVD-ROM with tests, a test generator and teacher-training videos. Class CDs are also available. |
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Going home can kill you. When Special Agent Will Robie gets the call to make his first visit home since he was a teenager, it's because his father, the local judge, has been arrested for murdering a man who came before him in court. The small, remote Mississippi town hasn't changed and its residents remember Robie as a wild sports star and girl magnet. He left a lot of hearts broken, and a lot of people angry. Will and his father, Dan, are estranged, and his mother left years ago. When he visits Dan in jail, he finds that time hasn't healed old wounds. There's too much bad blood between the men, and although Will feels no good will come of staying around, he is persuaded to confront his demons by fellow agent Jessica Reel. But then another murder changes everything, and stone-cold killer Robie will finally have to come to grips with his toughest assignment of all. His family. |
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Summer Secrets by Number One bestselling author, Jane Green, is a gripping tale of recovery and redemption. June, 1998. At twenty-seven, Cat Coombs is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that. June, 2014. Cat's life has come full circle. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, the gorgeous New England island where the women she once called family still live. What Cat doesn't realize is that these women, her real father's daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone's need for revenge. |
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First published by Macmillan in 1895, and now returning to print in this beautiful new edition, The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to Rudyard Kipling's classic, The Jungle Book. Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves learns more of life and survival in the Indian jungle in the company of well-loved characters such as Baloo the brown bear and Bagheer the black panther. Including three further stories of life in India, this rich collection of adventure, fable and poetry from the master-storyteller and illustrated by his father, John Lockwood Kipling, is a classic to treasure. |
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The collapse of Western colonial empires after the Second World War led to any number of vicious struggles for power whose bloody consequences haunt us still. Acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh's brilliant analytic skills and clear eye for common themes underpins this powerful account of those struggles. He takes us on a historical journey from Palestine to Pakistan, from Cuba to Indo-China and reframes mid-20th century history by forcing us to look away from the Cold War to the hot wars that continue to afflict us. The result is a dazzling work of history, which examines the death of colonialism with passion, insight and genuine understanding of what it feels like to be caught in the middle of realpolitik. |
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Lycia, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is an ancient land steeped in mystery, myth, and legend. Figured prominently throughout history and literature, Lycia is known as home to the fiery chimera; heartland of worship for the goddess Leto; old ally of Troy; lure to conquering Cyrus and Alexander; and irresistible destination for centuries of travelers, artists, and writers. Part of *The Turquoise Coast*, Lycia now attracts more tourists to its glimmering shores than any other part of Turkey. In the early 1950s, following the trail of the ancient Persian and Greek traders, famed travel writer Freya Stark set out by boat to explore the Lycian coast. South from Smyrna, she was guided by traces of Lycia's rich history and cultural heritage. For all those who now follow in her wake, there can be no better, more evocative or knowledgable guide to Turkey's most enchanting coast. |
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Modern business is a blur of jargon with thousands of books all purporting to hold the key to relentless success. The working reality is often very different. This book distils and summarises all the best current thinking in business respectively so that you can become an authority yourself — and quickly. As well as saving hundreds of hours of reading time, the reader is able to grasp ideas accurately, explain them authoritatively to colleagues and avoid being hoodwinked by those who claim to understand a concept when in fact they have got the wrong end of the stick. Books profiled include Nudge, Freakonomics, and Built to Last. |
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By September 2003, six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the anarchy had begun. Rory Stewart, a young Biritish diplomat, was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority's deputy governor of a province of 850,000 people in the southern marshland region. There, he and his colleagues confronted gangsters, Iranian-linked politicians, tribal vendettas and a full Islamist insurgency. Rory Stewart's inside account of the attempt to re-build a nation, the errors made, the misunderstandings and insumountable difficulties encountered, reveals an Iraq hidden from most foreign journalists and soldiers. Stewart is an award-winning writer, gifted with extraordinary insight into the comedy, occasional heroism and moral risks of foreign occupation. Beautifully written, highly evocative... a joy to read. |
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For ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them. Along the way Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people, and considers whether he's learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them. Has he manipulated the people he's interviewed, or have they manipulated him? From his Las Vegas base, Louis revisits the assorted dreamers and outlaws who have been his TV feeding ground. Attempting to understand a little about himself and the workings of his own mind, Louis considers questions such as: What is the difference between pathology and 'normal' weirdness? Is there something particularly weird about Americans? What does it mean to be weird, or to be yourself? And do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us? |
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Marilyn Monroe's status as one of the most recognisable icons of the twentieth century lives on, most recently in the Oscar-nominated film My Week with Marilyn. but the real Marilyn in many ways has remained a mystery. Her life has been pondered by everyone from film scholars and historians to novelists and pop culture experts ever since her death in August of 1962. With astute research and crisp writing, Adam Victor sifts through the competing versions of events throughout Marilyn's life and traces a young woman's path to iconhood. The Marilyn Encyclopedia, the product of many years of research, brings order, clarity and comprehensiveness to the massive amount of material written about Marilyn Monroe. The Marilyn Encyclopedia also offers hundreds of photographs taken by some of the world's top photographers. Some of the images catch Marilyn in rare, unposed moments, in addition to the famous images the world has come to love. Complete with cross-referencing, a full bibliography and an extensive index of names, The Marilyn Encyclopedia surpasses everything that has come before it. A true testament to the legend that is Marilyn Monroe. |
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'We are, and always will be, wanderers who have lost their way...' A prolific novelist and acclaimed historian of the Middle East, Amin Maalouf had never before taken the time to trace his own ancestry. But on the sudden death of his father he decides to address this, and, given a trunk of letters and the opportunity to sort them, begins to find the keys to his past. Like many Levantine families, Maalouf's is ethnically and religiously diverse, and the figures he encounters are maverick, visionary, strong-willed, far-flung. Starting in the mountains of Lebanon, their story is yet one of exile: of brothers separated, of dramatic emigrations, and of revolutions espoused in the dying years of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. Taking Maalouf from Lebanon to Cuba, this memoir is a fascinating insight into the nature and fate of a nomadic family. Above all, it is a meditation on the profound extent to which blood ties can represent homeland, and to which curiosity, guilt, love and pride can echo through the generations. 'What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel' — Rabih Alameddine. |
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Featuring a brand new chapter on 7/7, this fiercely intelligent expose is the culmination of twenty years' research. By infiltrating the most inaccessible political resistance groups, hardened reporter Phil Rees has sought to understand what motivates the 'terrorist' or 'freedom fighter' and to weigh this against current world events and the sweeping power of US military might. In his discussions with groups in such diverse countries as Colombia, Algeria, Kosovo, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Lebanon, France, Cambodia and Ireland, Rees seeks to pierce the propaganda, to discover the human story behind the faceless, hooded caricature, and to test our preconceptions of just what the word terrorist actually means. 'His account should trouble anyone who believes Washington's enemies in the war on terror are easily identified' — Newsweek. 'The most exhaustive expose of the ideas of the Noam-Chomsky/Michael-Moore school... he is a good reporter and a congenial gourmet' — Sunday Telegraph. |
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This is the long-awaited autobiography of one of the most beloved entertainers in the world. William Shatner gets the joke about William Shatner. In fact, most of the time he's the one telling it. His self-effacing attitude, so perfectly parodied in the bombastic character he now plays on Boston Legal, Denny Crane, is one of the reasons for his huge popularity. While best known for his creation of Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship Enterprise on Star Trek, William Shatner has been a working actor for more than half a century. He has experienced all the ups (the awards and acclaim) and the downs (having to live for a time in the truck bed of his camper when he couldn't get work) that are a part of the actor's world. In Up Till Now he tells us about his remarkable life, from training as a Shakespearean actor under Sir Tyrone Guthrie to his time on Broadway, his movie career and, of course, his successful TV series. He has worked with an extraordinary range of actors, among them Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Walter Matthau, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. He also writes, with glee, about some of his less successful ventures, including Incubus, the only feature ever made entirely in Esperanto. As funny, charming and self-deprecating as the man himself, this book will delight his many fans of all ages. |
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More than two decades ago Rowan Simons moved to China, and soon after he began working to expose the country to the social and health benefits of amateur soccer. As he soon learned, this was no easy task, especially in a country where it is illegal for more than 11 people to congregate for the purposes of a recreational sporting activity. In this humorous and affectionate account, Rowan recalls the various successes and failures of his efforts to encourage his adopted country to embrace the beautiful game, and depicts contemporary Chinese culture in a clear and engaging light. Despite various setbacks, Rowan managed to build a playing field and clubhouses, and currently runs Club Football, a steadily growing amateur league. |
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This highly personal book is a singular and open-spirited account of a writer's life. It has evolved entirely with its author, bringing pieces from various stages of Graham Swift's career together with new essays, observations, poetry and interviews. Swift writes about the intimacy of playing the guitar and the perils of reading in public; of the pleasures of spending time with Ishiguro and Rushdie or sharing a private moment with Montaigne; of youthful adventures in Greece, the experience of Czechoslovakia mid-Velvet Revolution, and of the rich material offered on his very own doorstep by the district of London in which he lives, walks and works. Making an Elephant is a book of encounters, between the writer and his younger selves, father and son, present and past, author and director, reader and the page — and between friends. Full of life, charm and candour, it illustrates and celebrates the layers of experience, history and interpretation that inform not only the process of writing, but also shape the writer himself. |
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JFK had won the Presidency in 1960 by a razor thin majority, and his reelection campaign for 1964 was expected to be as close. He began it in November 1963 with a kick-off multi-city, four-day swing across the important state of Texas. It was going unexpectedly well when shots were fired into his triumphant motorcade in downtown Dallas that ripped history apart, changing it forever The assassination of American President John F. Kennedy in 1963 came at the very height of both the Cold War following the Second World War and the Pax Americana that was thought to exist at the war's conclusion in 1945. The United States and its allies possessed a far greater number of nuclear weapons than their Soviet adversaries, but the latter could unleash World War 3 and a nuclear Armageddon that would destroy them all. The sudden and totally unexpected murder in broad daylight in an American city of one of the most popular presidents in history was the murder mystery of the 20th century. The Cold War could have become hot and nuclear within minutes. The murderer had to be found and vital questions had to be answered quickly. Who did it, why and who ordered Kennedy's assassination? Was the deed part of a conspiracy: foreign, domestic or both? Were none of the these questions part of the bloody puzzle and was it entirely possible that only one man was responsible? The questions remain to this very day and Dallas Fifty Years On: The Murder of John F. Kennedy reveals sensational new evidence, eyewitness accounts and top secret documentation. |
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When Uncle Ben's Dublin business fails, it's clear to Gloria and Raymond that something is wrong. He just isn't his usual cheerful self. So when the children overhear their granny saying that the Black Dog has settled on Ben's back and he won't be OK until it's gone, they decide they're going to get rid of it. Gathering all their courage the children set out on a midnight quest to hunt down the Black Dog and chase it away. But they aren't the only kids on the mission. Loads of other children are searching for it too, because the Black Dog is hounding lots of Dublin's adults. Together — and with the help of magical animals, birds and rodents — the children manage to corner the Black Dog... but will they have the courage and cleverness to destroy the frightening creature? |
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Jelly, Myf and Roobs have an exciting summer ahead. Not only are they going to be bridesmaids, but they're going to see OMG live in concert! They just need to find a not-stupid way to get enough money for the concert tickets first. Then they have to become totally pro street dancers so they can fulfil Jelly's mum's wedding dream. And then there's the small issue of Jelly not embarrassing herself in front of Roger Lovely, which is quite hard with a name like Jelly... Hilariously honest accounts of an ordinary tween girl's life, for fans of Dork Diaries, Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. |
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