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This follow-up to the bestselling The Dangerous Book for Boys continues its mission to make growing up an adventure. Between stirring tales of famous battles, great explorers and terrible Roman emperors, diagrams show how to build a flying machine, pick a lock, make a stink-bomb and light a fire using a battery and a chewing-gum wrapper. There are card games, puzzles, fun facts, a tree ID guide and a list of all the British prime ministers.

The scandal over his marriage to his teenage cousin stopped Jerry Lee Lewis’s career in its tracks in 1958 but he made a comeback in the 1970s as a country artist. Extensive recent interviews with the singer provide the basis of this biography, telling his story of rags to riches success, multiple wives and divorces, drug and alcohol abuse and eventual rehabilitation as a respected elder statesman of rock. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Helen Forrester wrote vividly about her family's harrowing struggles in Depression-era Liverpool in her bestselling memoir Twopence to Cross the Mersey. Now, drawing upon her carefully kept papers and letters, her son Robert Bhatia recounts the surprising life she went on to live, initially in India, and later in Canada, and in doing so reveals his parents' touching love story.

Following a letter in The Times in 1937 about the difficulty of sourcing Stilton, Sir John Squire asked ten writers to raise awareness of local cheeses by recording the provenance and mythology relating to their favourite. Their entertaining and often humorous anecdotes, reprinted here with illustrations by EH Shepard, reveal an artisanal world as much under threat from mass production then as it is today.

Former teacher Anne Bennett discovered her talent for writing following an accident that left her unable to walk. Irish by birth, she grew up in Birmingham and uses both locations as settings in her gripping, historically accurate sagas, all of which depict ordinary people facing challenging situations. The three titles included in this set are: A Girl can Dream (Read more...) Another Man's Child (Read more...) Child on the Doorstep (Read more...)

Herself a voracious reader of romance novels, Annie Darling infuses the titles in this series with a warm-hearted charm. Each one features a quaint old bookshop setting, a bookworm protagonist and a plethora of clever literary references. The three titles included in this set are: The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts (Read more...) Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop (Read more...) True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop (Read more...)

The modern separation of religion from other aspects of life is one of many unintended consequences of the Reformation that would have shocked Martin Luther. This study of the devout Augustinian friar and his influence sets Luther within his cultural and intellectual contexts to explain what he was trying to achieve. It then traces 500 years of epochal changes, from the Enlightenment to consumerism, which were caused by the resulting political and social upheavals across Europe. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

As a pastor, Hamilton is often asked thoughtful and difficult questions about aspects of the Bible that people find confusing or disturbing. Here he responds by investigating the debates about the nature of scripture, and wrestling with some of the Bible’s most challenging passages. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

In the first of the series of classic stories by PL Travers, the East Wind blows Mary Poppins into the home of the Banks children, changing the family forever. Age 9+

Bibliophile Posy has just six months to turn around the fortunes of her inherited bookshop ¬– a task made harder by the unwelcome attentions of Sebastian, the previous owner’s belligerent grandson.

After FBI officer Jean Transom is found dead on a frozen slope in Colorado, Special Agent Ren Bryce is called to investigate, but Ren has secrets that could jeopardize the operation, and ruin her career.

Having fled to Virginia following the outbreak of the Civil War, John Tradescant the Younger, once gardener to Charles I, learns much from the native people. Then the arrival of the colonial settlers changes everything.

The mere presence of the German battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord was enough to haunt Allied war planners and keep a significant part of Britain's fleet tied to home waters. Consequently, repeated attempts were made throughout the Second World War to sink the ship, including mini submarine raids and many bomber attacks. Patrick Bishop's book is a tale of technology, ingenuity and daring, culminating in the final, successful assault of Autumn 1944, using Barnes Wallis's 'Tallboy' bombs.

Psychologist Dr Jessie Flynn is working to unlock the memories of a traumatized four-year-old, while her former patient, Captain Ben Callan, is investigating the suspicious death of an officer in Afghanistan. When a dead body washes up on a Sussex beach, their cases mysteriously converge.

Glasgow, 1969: three women have been murdered and the police investigation is going nowhere. The Flying Squad’s DI McCormack is sent to review the case and, despite the hostility of local detectives, he joins the hunt for the arrogant, Bible-quoting strangler dubbed the ‘Quaker’.

Returning to Ireland after 50 years, Gordon Lewis began to investigate the secrets of his childhood, only to be told not to go ‘digging up that old stuff’. Brought up in the 1950s in a secretive Catholic hostel for unmarried women, he had little idea of the hardships his mother had suffered, or her determination to keep her child, in defiance of an intolerant society.

In this cookbook, TV chef Lorraine Pascal adjusts the cooking methods and ingredients of well-known dishes to make them healthier and more nutritious, creating a range of tasty, satisfying and simple-to-prepare meals. The recipes include meat-free versions of classics such as Mushroom and Chestnut Lancashire Hotpot, as well as ideas for breakfasts, snacks, puddings and Sunday roasts. Slightly off-mint.

Presented as a dossier of evidence for the existence of hostile aliens (gleaned from the evidence provided by the adventures of Doctor Who) this well-illustrated volume explains the origins and nature of 14 extra-terrestrial threats to humankind. Chapters include case files of the Doctor's adventures with each monster, from the Daleks to the Slitheen, and behind-the-scenes insights into how the creatures were created and filmed. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Growing up in the Kremlin, Svetlana Stalin knew nothing of her father’s tyranny, but could not escape tragedy: her mother’s suicide, the loss of two brothers, and the exile of her lover to Siberia. With access to FBI, CIA and Russian state archives, this biography charts her growing awareness of Stalin’s crimes, her defection to the West, her struggle to escape his terrible legacy – and her horrified realization, with the rise of Putin, that ‘they haven’t changed a bit’. American cut pages with a felt-tip mark on the lower trimmed edge.

Inspired by his mugging-up on Winnie the Pooh for Celebrity Mastermind, Stuart McBride describes his book as ‘the story of what happens to Detective Chief Inspector Roberta Steel after she was caught being Very, Very Naughty in In the Cold Dark Ground’. Now, the man she was accused of fitting up is freed and back on the streets of Aberdeen – but Roberta knows he is guilty.

Now working in Professional Standards and policing fellow officers, Logan McRae must investigate the death of DI Bell after his body is found in the driver’s seat of a crashed car – although Bell died, and they buried him two years previously. The deeper McRae digs into his former colleague’s past, the more sinister the case becomes.

On this audio CD, Dylan Thomas tells the story of his childhood in Wales, evoking the sights, smells and sounds as only he could. As well as the title memoir, Thomas reads Reminiscences of Childhood, A Visit to Grandpa’s and Holiday Memory.

Designed specifically for anyone starting to learn Italian, this dictionary has several invaluable features for the novice. As well as clearly laid out headwords, translations and examples of usage in the Italian–English, English–Italian listings, there are sections on pronunciation, Italian verbs and ‘Italian in Action’, which includes lists of common words and phrases and information on topics such as writing letters, email and texts.

A US senator is murdered in his bed by a pair of killers who are targeting Washington’s elite. Elsewhere in the city, children are being brutally murdered. Alex Cross is under pressure to solve both cases fast, before Jack and Jill attempt the ultimate Washington murder.

A teenager returns home to find the house covered in blood and her mother gone. For DS Maeve Kerrigan it is an investigation of what seems to be a gory murder, but without a victim and in a London street where no one wants to talk.

One of the Taste of Britain series, described by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his preface as 'an exciting journey to find Britain's edible treasure', this volume goes north of the border into the land of oatcakes and haggis, Irn-Bru, Aberdeen Angus Cattle and mealie puddings. The authors explain the culinary history and traditions of each raw ingredient or product, how it is prepared (unless it is a trade secret), and where to find it.

This volume is from The Taste of Britain series that describes British foods – both raw ingredients and products – that belong to their region in the same way as French foods are linked to their terroir (soil). Surveying the foodstuffs of South West England, the Channel Islands and Wales, the authors delve into the history and culinary traditions of local fare such as Dittisham plums, Plymouth Gin, Caerphilly Cheese and the mighty Jersey Royal Potato.

In this moving memoir, Tina Moore tells the story of her life with the ‘blond boy’ who asked her to dance at the Ilford Palais, and who went on to become one of the greatest footballers of all time.

A murder mystery that enmeshes DI Archer of Scotland Yard in a high-level espionage drama, Len Deighton’s novel is set in Britain in 1941, nine months after British Command surrendered to the Nazis. Written in 1978, this compelling ‘alternative reality’ portrayal of Britain under Nazi rule became a BBC drama series in 2017. Reissued with a new introduction by Deighton.

Joey Harker has discovered that there are one trillion alternative earths, and they are all at war. In the third title in the series, Joey finds himself tasked with saving InterWorld and protecting the Multiverse. Age 11+

After Uncle Parker wins a Caribbean cruise, the bitterly jealous Bagthorpes are gripped by competition mania, while Grandma starts a riot, Zero becomes the most famous dog in the country and TV crews record the glorious chaos. Age 9+

Wylie’s adventures start with a text message: her best friend Cassie needs help, but finding her isn’t easy as Cassie’s messages become ever more cryptic. Something is dangerously wrong – but for an Outlier who can read minds, there is always danger. Young adult.

Wideacre Hall is Beatrice Lacey's ancestral home, but as a woman in the 18th century she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by an unjust world and wilful, Beatrice sets out to corrupt others and, by a series of crimes, to finally possess her beloved Wideacre.

Heretic, philosopher and now spy, Giordano Bruno arrives in Paris in 1585 and finds a city on the edge of catastrophe, a king living in fear of religious fanatics, and himself on the trail of a killer.

It is wartime and four children are evacuated to live with a professor in the country, where they make an incredible discovery. Generations of children have followed Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy through the wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia. There are epic battles, fantastical creatures, perilous adventures and dangerous quests, as well as fiendish villains and unforgettable acts of love, bravery and betrayal. Age 7+

Born in 1917, Dame Vera Lynn was 92 when she realized that her great age gave a better perspective (she wrote her first autobiography in her fifties) and she had to 'get everything down on paper in a final account'. Here then is the life of 'an ordinary girl from an ordinary family with a voice that you could recognize' – but also an embodiment of British spirit during the Second World War.

From the co-author of The Dangerous Book for Boys, this wide-ranging collection celebrates the men and women who prove how much you can achieve when powered by courage and self-belief – from the explorer Richard Burton to Douglas Bader, and from Florence Nightingale to Lisa Potts, the nursery nurse who protected children from a machete attack in 1996.

The mystery surrounding Jack the Ripper's crimes has led to more than a century of obsessive theorizing about his identity. Now, indignant at Ripperologists' tendency to believe the 19th century's 'greatest liars', Bruce Robinson offers 'a repudiation of virtually everything' published on the subject; his lengthy but lively analysis of the evidence exposes a web of corruption and cover-up that helped the killer to escape. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Agatha Christie's fame as a writer of detective fiction has obscured her theatrical work; the long-running hit The Mousetrap is just the best-known of a string of ventures that established her as the most successful female playwright of all time. Filled with extracts from unpublished plays and letters, this well-researched book charts her childhood theatre-going experiences, her first attempts to write for the stage and her subsequent popularity. Extensive endnotes can be downloaded from the publisher's website.

In the early 1950s, after growing up in Battersea, dancing with the Italia Conti school on the West End stages of wartime London and performing through summer seasons in Blackpool and winter seasons in pantomime, Irene Holland won a coveted place in the Tiller Girls troupe at the London Palladium. Her very engaging memoir describes her passion for dancing and the thrill of achieving her ambition.

Robert Goodwin chronicles the adventures of the African slave Esteban Dorantes (1500-1539), the first pioneer from the Old World to explore the entirety of the American south and the first African-born man to die in North America about whom anything is known. Goodwin's groundbreaking research in Spanish archives has led to a radical new interpretation of American history - one in which an African slave emerges as the nation's first great explorer and adventurer. Slightly off-mint.

Specially trained sniffer dogs play a vital role in bomb detection in the British Army; this book tells the story of two such animals, killed in action alongside their handlers, Lance Corporals Kenneth Rowe and Liam Tasker, in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2011. Told through the words of family, friends and colleagues, and letters home from the soldiers, the book describes the bond between dog and handler and the courageous work they undertook together.

Central to the traditions of Christianity is the example of the early martyrs, crucified, burned and thrown to wild beasts because they refused to renounce their faith. Yet as this controversial study makes clear, the myth of persecution was greatly exaggerated. Drawing on both Christian and pagan sources, it shows that only during brief, widely separated intervals did believers suffer violence, and that for much of Roman history they prospered and even achieved high public office.

''Twas the night before Christmas in Frogsbottom Field...' but as Russell is hanging the last lantern in the tree, something crashes into the nearby wood. It's Santa's sleigh and it seems Christmas must be cancelled – until Russell gets to work with his toolbox and becomes the sheep that saved Christmas. Age 3+