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Orion Books
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King Canute, Lady Godiva, Guy Fawkes, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Grace Darling and other famous names live again in these 101 tragic, comic, stirring tales of adventure, folly and wickedness. Spanning nearly three thousand years, and including stories as up-to-date as Live Aid, the Braer Oil Tanker disaster and the Hadron Collider, each story includes a note on what really happened. |
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Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. BOOK 17 A multinational team of slave construction workers are to clear the forest around the Gaulish village and build a modern housing development forcing the villagers to take swift action to protect themselves against the Roman newcomers. |
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Internationally bestselling historian Antonia Fraser's new book brilliantly evokes one year of pre-Victorian political and social history — the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. For our inconclusive times, there is an attractive resonance with 1832, with its 'rotten boroughs' of Old Sarum and the disappearing village of Dunwich, and its lines of most resistance to reform. This book is character-driven — on the one hand, the reforming heroes are the Whig aristocrats Lord Grey, Lord Althorp and Lord John Russell, and the Irish orator Daniel O'Connell. They included members of the richest and most landed Cabinet in history, yet they were determined to bring liberty, which whittled away their own power, to the country. The all-too-conservative opposition comprised Lord Londonderry, the Duke of Wellington, the intransigent Duchess of Kent and the consort of the Tory King William IV, Queen Adelaide. Finally, there were 'revolutionaries' and reformers, like William Cobbett, the author of RURAL RIDES. This is a book that features one eventful year, much of it violent. There were riots in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, and wider themes of Irish and 'negro emancipation' underscore the narrative. The time-span of the book is from Wellington's intractable declaration in November 1830 that 'The beginning of reform is the beginning of revolution', to 7th June 1832, the date of the extremely reluctant royal assent by William IV to the Great Reform Bill, under the double threat of the creation of 60 new peers in the House of Lords and the threat of revolution throughout the country. These events led to a total change in the way Britain was governed, a two-year revolution that Antonia Fraser brings to vivid dramatic life. |
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The slaves are revolting... they've stolen Julius Casar's own galley. Seeking shelter in the little Gaulish village, they find it in crisis. Obelix has suffered diree effects from drinking the druid's magic potions on the sly. Can his friends get him cured by Absolutlifabulos, high priest of Atlantis? Enjoy all the thrills and spills of sea battles against the Roman navy! |
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Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. BOOK 5 The Romans build a barricade around the village. So Asterix and Obelix demonstrate their resistance by going on a journey around the entire country, collecting local specialities on the way. |
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Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. BOOK 7 The Romans persuade a Gaulish chief to challenge Vitalstatistix to single combat. This poses no threat until Getafix is hit by a flying menhir and forgets how to make the magic potion. |
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Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. BOOK 16 Quaestor Vexatius Sinusitus turns up in Gaul to investigate the creative accountancy of Governor Varius Flavus. When the quaestor is poisoned, he turns to Getafix the druid and the other Gauls for help. |
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In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the people she encountered. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House — she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within six months of one another and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. These stories give a fascinating insight into the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties. |
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Four hilarious new Horrid Henry stories — HORRID HENRY'S MOTHER'S DAY, probably not the day his mum looks forward to most in the year, HORRID HENRY'S NIGHTMARE where Henry's chased by a ghost bunny with huge teeth, a wailing graveyard ghost and, for good measure, a slimy zombie, then a new story about one of his greatest enemies in THE RETURN OF THE DEMON DINNER LADY and last but not least FLUFFY STRUTS HER STUFF. Horrid Henry is illustrated by Tony Ross, who also illustrates David Walliams' children's books, as well as his own picture books. |
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MIGHTY BATTLES! REVOLUTION! DEATH! WAR! (AND HIS SONS TERROR AND PANIC, AND DAUGHTER CLANCY). The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I did on My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading throughout the ancient cities. And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for everyone is: Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard'... Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying... and a very special butterfly. |
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DISCWORLD GOES TO WAR, WITH ARMIES OF SARDINES, WARRIORS, FISHERMEN, SQUID AND AT LEAST ONE VERY CAMP FOLLOWER. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him... and that's just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse. JINGO, the 21st in Terry Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld series, makes the World Cup look like a friendly five-a-side. |
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The fairies are back — but this time they don't just want your teeth. It's Midsummer Night — no time for dreaming. Because sometimes, when there's more than one reality at play, too much dreaming can make the walls between them come tumbling down. And there's usually a damned good reason for there being walls between them in the first place — to keep things out. Things who want to make mischief and play havoc with the natural order. Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves. And even in a world of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and the odd orang-utan, this is going to cause real trouble. With lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place. |
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THE SHOW MUST GO ON, AS MURDER, MUSIC AND MAYHEM RUN RIOT IN THE NIGHT... The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork... A huge, rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely familiar evil mastermind in a hideously deformed evening dress... At least, he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing. So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evenin's entertainment with murders you can really hum...). |
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One Thursday lunchtime Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this is already more than he can cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun. And the Galaxy is a very, very large and startling place indeed... The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy became a massive cult success when it was first published and continues to sell all over the world. It introduced such memorable characters as Arthur Dent, Marvin the Paranoid Android, Zaphod Beeblebrox and, of course, the Vogons, and remains one of the funniest, most irreverent and entertaining novels ever. |
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The 23rd Horrid Henry storybook containing four brand new stories — including Horrid Henry's Ketchup, Horrid Henry's Chicken, The Revenge of the Bogey Babysitter and Horrid Henry Tells It Like It Is. Discover the one thing Horrid Henry is scared of, watch out for the return of Rabid Rebecca, find out what happens when Henry makes a film about his family and lots more in the more hilarious and horrid storybook yet. Horrid Henry is illustrated by Tony Ross, who also illustrates David Walliams' children's books, as well as his own picture books. |
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Four brand new stories in which Horrid Henry makes his own scary movie, The Undead Demon Monster Who Would Not Die, persuades Peter to hand over his stash of Grump Cards (as a brilliant scheme to get him out of the punishments his parents give him) and spends a weekend at Aunt Ruby's where he has to share a bedroom with his two arch-enemies, Stuck-Up Steve and Bossy Bill. Then when Henry's school decides to have a mini-Olympics, he sets up his own Holympics, with medals for crisp-eating, TV watching, and Burping to the Beat. |
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SHADOW AND BONE. SIEGE AND STORM. Now Alina's story reaches its incredible conclusion in RUIN AND RISING. The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as Alina begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction — but claiming it could cost Alina the very future she is fighting for. Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance. |
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This is where the dragons went. They lie... not dead, not asleep, but... dormant. And although the space they occupy isn't like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there's a key... GUARDS! GUARDS! is the eighth Discworld novel — and after this, dragons will never be the same again! |
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