Product Description
Quirky?You can say that again.Look at it.His mouth is so small there is only just enough room to poke in one pea at a time.He can't talk, he can't stick out his tongue and he can't eat.You'll be speechless.More stories from Paul Jennings. ... Read more

Product Description
71 poems are included from these two influential poets of 19th century England who were also man and wife. The poetry reveals their passion, ideas, and dedication to social causes. This 2-CD set offers the listener a convenient way to hear favorite poems of Elizabeth easily (CD1) and/or find the preferred poetry of Robert (CD2) with maximum accessibility. The first CD includes the most famous poems from Robert: "Love among the Ruins," "Home Thoughts from Abroad," "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister," "Abt Vogler," "Rabbi Ben Ezra" and 16 others. The second CD offers Elizabeth's best-loved works: "Grief," "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point," "Casa Guidi Windows," the 44 complete Sonnets from the Portuguese, and 4 others. 2-CD set. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of quirky tales. In one, a boy's mouth is so small there is only just enough room to poke in one pea at a time. He can't talk, he can't stick out his tongue and he can't eat. Another is about life with an undertaker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The great book
This is a great book to read for you children or the children read it themselves.I love this book its a a couple of Paul Jennings great stoies and i have realy enjoyed it and i hope you enjoy it aswell.

1 Sneeze 'coffin 2 Santa claws 3 A dozon bloomin' roses 4 Tonsil eye 'Tis and 5 more great stores ... Read more

Product Description
The brutal murder of Sarah Ford and the disappearance of her six-year-old daughter, Alice, shattered Julla Havilland's childhood. But these are not the only scars that have refused to heal. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Mitchell Havilland sacrificed himself on the Falklands hillside in an act of heroism. When Julia comes home from China fifteen years later, it is to a place of ghosts. But there have been other deaths, and the dead will not sleep... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Good Curl Up Book
Whilst not sit on the edge of your seat stuff this novel will certainly keep you engrossed. The novel provides for great visualisation whilst keeping you guessing to the end. A well thought out who dunnit incorporating psychological drama.

You will find this a great novel for a cosy curl up read. ... Read more

Product Description
This title presents a selection of the best short stories from Paul Jennings' earlier Puffin titles. Everyone is entirely different but all are wacky and extraordinary. Subjects range from the longest kiss ever, to a boy who becomes transparent - and the stories are all unpredictable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unpredictable Titles to Tease
I was introduced to this book by a visiting British teacher.She shared it with my fifth grade class.I began reading the tales to my students and I was hooked!The stories are entertaining and perplexing.The endings surprise adults as well as children.After reading part of "There's No Such Thing" to the class, they created their own endings to the story.Their work was the best writing they had created all year! ... Read more

Product Description
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be . . ." These lines from some of the most famous poems in the English language are also the legacy of a great love story. Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were united not only as man and wife, but also as writers who shared and debated ideas, values and literary craft. Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning: How Do I Love Thee? Their Story and Poetry is an audio original consisting of 70 poems performed by three great British actors. It interweaves the classic poetry by these two famous writers of the Victorian era with the narrative story of their love, offering a rare glimpse into the artistic, passionate nature of genius. 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Fantastic True Love Story
"How Do I Love Thee?" was a romantic true love story.In the book, Robert Browning gave Elizabeth "Ba" Barret the courage to love and live life.Ba was an invalid who lived with a widowed, controlling father of seven children.Although, Ba was his pride and joy, he kept her captive through her illness.Ba's poetry caused Robert Browning to fall in love with her and wish to meet her.The two poets' friendship blossomed through their letters; after they met face to face it soon became love.Soon Ba's father was the only thing standing in the way of their true happiness.

The book begins with a curious statement which holds your attention through the first few chapters."How Do I Love Thee?" becomes very interesting after Ba and Robert finally meet face to face.The author's incorporation of the love poems of Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning was terrific addition to the story.The end was disappointing, but the book as a whole was a fantastic true love story of two amazing poets. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert is alone, in a strange jungle. He has no food, no shelter, no warmth. Unfamiliar creatures are roaming about - and he's not even sure how he got there...Following the story of Robert's struggle for survival, through to his extraordinary realization of where he is and what has happened to him, and then to his perilous journey to find his way home, this is an incredible adventure story full of suspense and surprises. This builds on the great success achieved by Gillian Cross's previous novel "Calling a Dead Man". Gillian Cross is one of the UK's top children's authors, and has won every major children's book prize. She is highly acclaimed internationally. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

the past
This is a book /thriller that always kept me on my seat the whole book. The perfect description of background and character.The description was so good I could picture it all in my mind!Read it!

Spoilers aplenty! Spoilers galore! So many spoilers you're bound to be sore!
First of all, I want to say that due to the way "The Dark Ground" was written, it's almost impossible to write a review of it without giving away those major mysterious plot points that are slowly revealed by the author throughout the reading of the text.Therefore, I must be a good little reviewer and warn you right here and now that my review contains many many spoilers about this book.If you want to read this wonderfully mysterious and atmospheric tale with any sense of wonder, stop reading this review once this paragraph ends.I'll sum up the important information right here for your convenience:This is a fun first book in a series.It's fast-paced, full of action, and a bit gory for younger kids.You'll enjoy finding out what happens to its hero and the ending leaves you wanting more.There!Now go away unless you want to be completely clued into some of the deeper innerworkings of this marvelous British import.

It's just your typical airplane ride.One minute Robert's in the bathroom of a plane, looking in the mirror, and seeing a tiny man in the black part of his iris.The next, he's naked and alone in a huge forest with no sense of where he is and no one he knows near him.Using his wits Robert must fend for himself, finding food, makeshift clothing, and a shelter of some sort.As he grows better acquainted with his surroundings, the boy realizes that there are other people living near him and he must do everything he can to get their attention and find out what exactly has happened to him.

In many ways this book is just a slightly more fantastical version of Gary Paulsen's, "Hatchet".The sense of survival against a cruel world (not to mention the gigantic hungry creatures within it) and sense of one man against the universe is prevalent throughout the text.What really pulls the story together though is Cross's ability to convey the horrific and the impossible in a believable way.Robert realizes what's happened to him only after confronting the facts and realizing that, however impossible they may seem, they must be true.You see, Robert has been shrunken.He's tiny.So are the other people he meets.So when he sets off for his old home to recover his old life, the trek is long and arduous.The book's like "The Borrowers" but much darker.What's really amazing about Cross's writing is that she manages to make an essentially silly idea (boy-gets-shrunk) into something frightening and disturbing.

Of course there are some problems.For one thing, Cross is a great writer but she is simply awful at humor.There's really not a single funny line or lighthearted jab anywhere to be found in this tome.Robert's in a serious situation and it remains serious continually.This can be a bit wearying after 200 pages or so.There's also a lot of howling, pain, and people confronting big ideas and not being able to reconcile themselves to them.These characters are constantly shying away from painful thoughts.It gets more than a little repetitive over time.Also, though the other people don't save Robert right off the bat because they want him to prove himself, he never blames them for it.Never even mentions it to them (though he's almost killed several times as a result).Seems odd.Finally, none of the characters ever wear shoes... or seem to want to.Huh?

In any case, this is still a wonderful story that's written well but could have stood a little comic relief and less howls of agony.Definitely a title for older readers who aren't afraid of a little vomit, bloodshed, death, and despair.The feel good book of the year it's not.But it's a well told story and an entrancing one.

Size Does Matter!
Robert Doherty has been whisked out of his comfortable modern world and thrown into a dark and vicious wilderness where he must find a way to survive.In veteran author Gillian Cross's newest book, she proves again why she is one of the most popular children's authors in Britain.With deft storytelling and an atmospheric writing style, she takes a familiar plot element and transforms it into something new again. While Ms. Cross is not yet as well known in the US, I am hoping The Dark Ground can begin to change that.

What readers will encounter here is a mix between a fantasy and a survivor story.Robert is a teen traveling with his family by plane when something happens to him that he can't comprehend or quite remember-and he finds himself cold and naked in a dark and forbidding forest.What happened and how aren't quite as important as staying alive-and it's only when he discovers other people living in this strange forest that he begins to consider how to get back home.But getting back home won't be so easy-because Robert's home is both closer than he dreamed and farther away than he could have imagined.It's going to take all his strength and bravery, along with the help of his newfound friends to undertake the expedition. The fantasy element of the book is not inherently magical.Beyond the situation Robert finds himself in, there is no magic or magical way out of his predicament.The characters are left to figure their own way out.

Ms. Cross writes a riveting book, full of action, emotion and imagery that roars into the mind and sweeps the reader up into the experiences of the characters.But Ms. Cross does not write an easy book-this is not a tale of whimsy and Harry Potter-esque characters.Every individual is realistic, complex, sometimes unlikable and ultimately human.The world Robert faces is unforgiving and yet remarkable-and death comes all too easily.Ms. Cross doesn't give readers easy answers or a pat ending, nor does she tease readers by making them wait for the second volume in the trilogy to have some kind of closure to this first adventure.This book is best for children who are ready to deal with some of the tougher issues of adventure, and can handle endings that are thought provoking if not a hundred percent "happy".While still a young teen title, I do think both young adults and adults can enjoy this story as well.Ms. Cross never talks down to her audience, but offers universal perspectives and emotions that almost any individual can relate to.


Those who have read and enjoyed this book and want more survivor style fiction should check out Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell and Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.Likewise, those who are fans of Science Fiction may want to look for titles such as The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau or Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody.The Dark Ground is only the first in this trilogy, I can only hope the other two books can live up to the promise of this first one.

Happy Reading! Shanshad ^_^
... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Sid Russell, Dennis Pacey, Steven Caulker, Buster Lloyd-Jones. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sidney Edward James Russell (4 October 1937 18 June 1994) was an English cricketer and footballer. Sid Russell was born in Feltham, Middlesex and played in 142 first-class cricket matches for Middlesex (1960-1964), MCC (1961) and Gloucestershire (1965-1968) as a sound right-handed batsman, scoring 5,464 runs (average 23.86), with a highest score of 130. He scored 4 centuries and 21 fifties, as well as taking 41 catches. He played in 61 matches for Middlesex as an uncapped professional. He scored 2,681 runs from 105 innings at an average score of 27.63, with a top score of 130. He scored 1,119 runs at 31.08 in his debut season, a feat that he later repeated for Gloucestershire. He later played club cricket in the Bristol area of Almondsbury and for the Civil Service. He also played in 54 Football League matches as a full-back for Brentford between 1954 and 1960. He died from a heart attack in Quebec, Canada aged 56. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4687339 ... Read more

Product Description
The Caleighs have had a terrible year...They need time and space, while they await the news they dread. Gabe has brought his wife, Eve, and daughters, Loren and Cally, down to Devon, to the peaceful seaside village of Hollow Bay. He can work and Eve and the kids can have some peace and quiet and perhaps they can try, as a family, to come to terms with what's happened to them...Crickley Hall is an unusually large house on the outskirts of the village at the bottom of Devil's Cleave, a massive tree-lined gorge - the stuff of local legend. A river flows past the front garden. It's perfect for them...if it a bit gloomy. And Chester, their dog, seems really spooked at being away from home. And old houses do make sounds. And it's constantly cold. And even though they shut the cellar door every night, it's always open again in morning. "The Secret of Crickley Hall" is James Herbert's finest novel to date. It explores the darker, more obtuse territories of evil and the supernatural. With brooding menace and rising tension, he masterfully and relentlessly draws the listener through to the ultimate revelation one that will stay to chill the mind long after the book has been laid aside. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Too long
When I was a teenager, a feature film was 90-100 minutes long and an epic novel was about 300-400 pages long. Crickley Hall is a really great story and has the right level of spookiness and tension. The end of each chapter contains a snippet that wants you to read on and find out what happens next. Reading this book during the torrential rain and floods that were suffered by most of Britain in the Summer of 2007, made the story even more poignant. However, this book is at least 200 pages too long. Herbert could easily have reached the same conclusions in about 350 pages (actual lengthis 633 pages) and it would have been an excellent book. As it is, you will need serious stamina or a lot of time on your hands to embark on this read.

Slow, overwritten and not all that horrifying.

This is my first James Herbert book, and if it's one of his worst I do apologize, but I very much doubt I'll be picking up another. I'm not sure what I was expecting - something more along the lines of Stephen King's work, perhaps - but anyway:

The first thing that struck me about 'The Secret of Crickley Hall' is that, for a so-called page-turner, Herbert's writing is unbelievably turgid and repetitive. There's too much pointless description, too much stilted and unrealistic dialogue, too much everything. At times I was left wondering if the author himself knew what on earth he was talking about.

As far as the plot goes, it's your average horror fare: a family and their dog moving into a creepy old house and resolving to stay there despite many bizarre happenings and lots of suspicious, meaningful looks from the local villagers. You know the score. The cast consists of your average horror stock characters with very little sparkle, all of them talking like automatons and at times behaving in an inhumanly dense fashion. It makes it hard to feel any fear or sympathy for them as the book drags on and on.

Overall this could have been a decent book - not a great or original one, but a decent one - if not for Herbert's amateurish, inelegant prose. Any suspense or scare factor that the book might have had can't really be appreciated when you're dozing off in mid-sentence.

Not recommended, as much as I tried to enjoy it. How Herbert can be a bestseller with writing like this is quite beyond me.

When did James Herbert get old?
Reading some of the reviews on both Amazon and Amazon UK infuriates me as reviewers are trying to peg James Herbert as some Stephen King wannabe. As most true horror readers realize, this assertion is totally absurd as King has written three good horror novels in his career ('Salem's Lot, The Shining and The Tommyknockers)while Herbert, in my opinion, has spent twenty five of his thirty two year career writing excellent horror novels.The Rats, The Fog, The Survivor, The Spear, Lair, The Dark etc., not a clinker in the bunch.

Unfortunately, Mr. Herbert has lost a few miles on his fastball as his novels after the outstanding "Ghosts of Sleath" have devolved into overly introspective, sentimental and maudlin first person narratives (the wickedly funny Creed being the exception).

"The Secret of Crickley Hall" is no execption.I purchased the hardcover with high hopes of a cracking good Herbert ghost story complete with his excellent pacing, scene construction and characterization and instead got more of the same overwrought and overlong occult drama that should have been half the length of it's 500+ pages.Fortunately, Herbert regains his form in the last 100 pages and is able to rescue this novel from total dreck to something on the border of readable to good.

Gabriel Caleigh rents an old manor in the Devon area of England in an attempt to alleviate some of his wife Eve's grief over the diappearance of their son.The first anniversary of his disappearance is upon them and Caliegh believes that a change of scenery may help his wife.The family has the requisite other two children (Loren and Callie) and a dog named Chester that freaks out and attempts to run away when the family settles into Crickley Hall.

Anyway, mysterious things start to occur, a locked cellar door at night is found to be partially open in the mornings, mysterious puddles form on the floor, strange noises come from a wardrobe and the dank and forbidding cellar complete with a well and an underground river and mysterious flashing lights that seem to become ghosts of children. Investigating further, the Caleighs discover that Crickley Hall housed eleven orphans during WWII under the supervision of a most unpleasant man named Augustus Cribben and his sister Magda.All the orphans along with Cribben believed to have drowned in a cataclysmic flood in 1943, but only nine of the bodies were recovered and buried.Of course the family tries to get to the bottom of the Crickley Hall mystery as to whether the place is haunted and by whom.They are assisted in their quest by an old groundskeeper who believes that the children died under more sinister circumstances than publicly reported, a psychic who is trying to help Eve contact her missing son and a psychic investigator who doesn't believe in ghosts.

James Herbert's past reputation and the last 100 pages of this novel gives this book 4 stars.If someone is interested in reading James Herbert, this is not the novel to start with.I would recommend "The Spear" which I believe is his best work, or "The Survivor" which is almost as good, as books to start with.These were published when Herbert was younger, nastier, and a much leaner writer than he now.

Swish Thwack Snore
There's a Stephen King novel called "Bag of Bones", in which the Protagonist (a writer), after the untimely death of his pregnant wife, suffers an extreme case of writer's block. To offset the impending loss of his job he publishes two of his earlier, unseen manuscripts, that have been lying in a safe, retained for just such an emergency.

That was fiction. But one can't help feeling that, in publishing "The Secret of Crickley Hall", James Herbert is doing just the same thing as King's hero: this is a novel that surely could not belong to "Britain's No. 1 bestselling writer of chiller fiction". Could it?

The Caleigh family, supernaturally-sensitive family dog in tow, move into a haunted mansion, and begin to uncover the tragic secrets of Crickley Hall's murky past.

Now, read this next bit carefully: The Caleighs (a family with a dog), who have a dog (who is sensitive to ghosts), move into Crickley Hall (a spooky, scary sort of manor, now home to the Caleighs, a family with a dog who is sensitive to ghosts), a Manor that is both spooky and scary (called Crickley Hall).

This is the most basic flaw of Herbert's novel: the repetition of basic plot elements occurs at such a frequent rate that after a few short chapters we wonder how he's managing to forward the (basic) plot at all. Also, this repetition becomes tiresome after a while: we KNOW that Lili Peel's a psychic, we were introduced to her as one, we don't need to be told again two pages later. We are WELL AWARE that the Caleigh's little boy is missing and that father Gabe is emotionally detached from that fact: that point was laboured plenty already, why keep doing it? Things go on in this manner for almost all of the novel, and the promising characterisation and relatively interesting premise of the Manor and its history are left, sadly and wastefully, unexplored.

There's not a lot one can do with a Haunted House premise anymore - personally, I think Shirley Jackson ("The Haunting Of Hill House") and Steven King ("The Shining") said all that can be said on the subject - but that's not to say "The Secret of Crickley Hall" has a boring premise, or is pointless in its subject matter - quite the contrary. There's a definite sense of a terrific novel lying underneath the frankly amateurish quality of the prose and the absent characterisation - Herbert obviously has talent (50 million copies worldwide can't mean that one million stupid people bought fifty of his books apiece), and in places, there's plenty of atmosphere and tension - the scenes where Serafina and her brother break into Crickley Hall immediately spring to mind, as well as the initial supernatural goings-on that befall the Caleighs - but sadly, and confusingly, Herbert's good bits seem to be accidental - they are few and far between, and it's in the mundane, irritating in-between that the essence of a great novel is totally lost.

Avoid. Like another reviewer said, Clive Barker's where it's at, as far as contemporary British horror fiction is concerned.

Things that go (very gently ) bump in the night
This here's a haunted house novel. I read Herbert's "Once..." and thought it was kind of ok, and was willing to give him a shot at the classic haunted house story. The author has a very simple style of writing that reads like a young adult title. He repeats himself constantly, as if he's talking to a young child. Not sure if he's just padding the page count or what. As well as the simplistic style that repeats itself constantly, the characters are stock and thin, and the plot a yawner. This one adds nothing to the haunted house genre. Try Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" or Matheson's "Hell House" instead.
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Customer Reviews (4)

Some days, just getting out of bed is the first mistake
THE SOLITARY MAN incorporates two parallel plots, either of which could stand on its own, but which combined yield a sum greater than the parts.

The IRA has branched out into drug smuggling - so long as the goods don't come home to Ireland. One of the lads, Ray Harrigan, is arrested in Thailand and thrown into prison to rot. The IRA wants its boyo freed and impresses that fact on Billy Winter, the organizer of the drug deal gone sour. If Billy wants to live, he's got to conjure Ray's escape.

Tim Carver is the DEA's local rep in Bangkok. His boss, the number two man in the agency, Jake Gregory, is under pressure from the U.S. Vice-President to bring down one of the most successful and ruthless drug lords in the Golden Triangle, Zhou Yuanyi. It was Zhou that sent to the States the heroin that killed the Veep's son. Now, Jake orders Tim to locate the elusive Zhou and his jungle headquarters preparatory to a reprisal strike.

The problems facing both Winter and Carver ultimately put Warren Hastings between two rocks and a hard place.

Seven years previous, Chris Hutchinson made a daring escape out of Her Majesty's maximum security prison at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, in the process of which it looked to the authorities as if Hutch had died. But Chris, with a new identity as Hastings, has built a new life and a successful dog training business in Hong Kong. One day, a fellow prisoner pal from Parkhurst, Winter, shows up seeking a favor; he wants escape artist Hutch to spring Harrigan from the Thai hell hole known as Klong Prem prison - a real place nicknamed the "Bangkok Hilton". (And Hutch, old mate, it's nothing personal, you understand, but, if you don't cooperate, your son back in the UK might come to some hurt.) Then, Carver shows up and offers Hutch a deal he dare not refuse. Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

And then, just as his life couldn't get more complicated, Warren's head kennel maid in his doggie biz, Chau-ling, who secretly loves her boss and whose Dad is one of the richest and most powerful men in Hong Kong, decides to stick her nose in. Now make that Hastings between three rocks and a hard place.

THE SOLITARY MAN is one of Stephen Leather's best offerings because of his skillful intertwining of the various subplots. The author also provides one of the best descriptions of life inside a Thai prison that I've ever read. (Ok, ok, so it's the only one that I've ever come across, but it perhaps makes a Soviet-era Siberian gulag look like a holiday camp in comparison - at least the latter provided a lot of fresh air and outdoor exercise.) Via email, Leather told me that he based his description on the personal experience of an acquaintance.

The high caliber of Stephen's thrillers is largely due to the author's on site research. An old Southeast Asia hand, Leather is currently off to Cambodia. Whatever new novel results, I'm in.

Why no Stephen Leather
Stephen Leather has a great new book called The Stretch ,what a shame you cannot buy it on Amazon.. But you can get it through the U.K. site.All Stephen Leather books are a good read.fast paced with good story lines,and always well researched.

An involving read from a top thriller writer
Sad that Stephen Leather is not as well known in the US as in the UK and elsewhere, for he is a very talented author who draws upon his experience as a journalist and first hand knowledge of the settings of his books.

Here weaving favourite themes such as the IRA, drug-smuggling and South-East Asia he produces yet another compelling tale. The IRA having had a man arrested whilst drug-smuggling and imprisoned in the infamous "Bangkok Hilton" prison track down the hero Hutch, a man expert at breaking out of prison. They blackmail him into getting thrown into the prison to rescue their man by fixing it so that he faces a long sentence himself. His Chinese girlfriend Chau Ling, daughter of a wealthy Triad leader, attempts to get him out of prison herself taking advantage of the fact that in Thailand, money talks very loudly indeed.

A subplot involving a unsanctioned strike on a Thai drugs baron in retaliation for the death via heroin of a politician's son is deftly woven into the mix producing a three-way conflict amongst the dramatis personae. Nobody describes South-East Asia as vividly and real as Leather and few thriller writers are able to sustain his narrative tension. I highly recommend Leather to anyone with even a passing interest in the genre........

it's not Leather at all
Stephen Leather is an exceptionally good writer but this book is not Leather at all.Though it has potential to develop the story to powerfulclimax, Leather gets soft overempasizing unrelated issues like Hutch's(mainhero) girlfriend Chau Ling a daughter of a powerful magnet in Hong Kong.Itgets so unbelievable to the point that Chau Ling can challenge theallmighty DEA in Thailland get away with it and have her way.Mercy MrLeather,you have writen masterpieces like Hungry Ghost,Vets,Double Tap,LongShot,etc.please do not ruin it with incorporating highly improbableevents.Keep up the good work. ... Read more

Product Description
Unmentionable? Sure. But I'll try to tell you anyway...The mouth organ is inside my mouth. It is stuck in sideways. The pain is terrible. My eyes water. Some things you just can't talk about. Locked in the loo. Kissing a cold, cold kid. Being a little squirt. Burning your behind. Unmentionable short stories from the brilliant Paul Jennings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Worth a Mention
"Unmentionable!" is the sixth collection of quirky short stories for kids by Australian author Paul Jennings, originally published in 1991. It's technically the eighth collection of his stories, if you count "The Naked Ghost, Burp & Blue Jam" (a collection of his early work) and his novelization of his television series "Round the Twist", which presented selected episodes as short stories. Ah well...

He might not be that well known in America, but if you were an Australian kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Paul Jennings was something of a superstar. He did for reading in Australia in the 1990s what J.K Rowling did for reading this decade with her "Harry Potter" series. Even kids who usually hated books could get into Paul Jennings. His writing style, though not the most polished in the world, was just the way Australian kids think and feel, and is full of things kids can relate to: (school, bullies, getting in trouble, etc), plus he had a wacky imagination, was full of ideas and had a sort of slapstick, sometimes gross out, sense of humour that you could really visualise. I know when I was in third grade, when I first started reading Paul Jennings, he very quickly became a hero of mine, one of my first. When we had private writing time in class, I wanted to be Paul Jennings. He was a Melbourne guy, which I really admired. He described places and suburbs I could actually go to and visit, he had taught at schools just up the road from mine.

I got this particular book, "Unmentionable", with it's 9 short stories on my 9th birthday. It's the last one in what I'd call, as a fan, Jennings golden age. He released it after his television series "Round The Twist" had taken off, and four of the stories here ("Ice Maiden", "Birdman", "Little Squirt" and "Sloppy Jalopy") were adapted into episodes of the second series. It is a collection has a couple of his most famous stories, and the lesser known tales are just as good as the known ones. Here's a rundown:

"Ice Maiden" tells us a tale of a boy who falls in love with an ice sculpture of a young woman in a butcher's shop window. When it gets thrown out, he tries to rescue it, a plan that results in chaos and embarrassment for the poor boy.

"Birdman" is probably my favorite in this book. It's all about a birdman contest, where kids make wings and other flying contraptions, then jump off the pier and see how far they can fly with them. Sean doesn't have much of a chance, that is until he discovers a hat made out of a cat washed up on the beach. It's something of a copy cat, when it sees someone doing something, the wearer of the hat repeats the actions the cat-hat sees perfectly. Perhaps Sean could win the contest with it. Perhaps it will all go horribly wrong.

"Little Squirt" takes place in a urinal of a school toilet block. That's all I'll say about that one...

"The Mouth Organ" is a classic Jennings story. A busker girl receives an enchanted mouth organ from a mysterious ponytailed man. There's some beautiful descriptions of music here, something you wouldn't normally expect to find in a kids book. Jennings must be really passionate about music, whatever he listens to.

"The Velvet Throne" is another top story. An all too mild mannered man gets locked in a public toilet block for the night. He soon discovers that anything written on the walls of this particular block comes to pass. He also discovers that there is some pretty crazy stuff written on the walls already...

"Cry Baby" begins with a boy photocopying his bottom on the school's photocopier, and ends up in the arid Australian desert. How does the story end up there? You'll have to read to find out. Great quote: [regarding the photocopy] "I'd called it 'elephant ears', because that's what it looked like"

"Ex Poser" is a curious tale. A brainy kid at school has invented a lie detector, and his friend tries it out on the pretty, rich girl named Sandra. He's determined to prove she is a snob and determined to expose the secrets she presumably hides, but ends up proving something else entirely. You can feel the unrequited young love that comes from all angles so strongly in this story.

"Sloppy Jalopy" is another real classic, with a little bit of an enviromental message thrown in. A boy, while sitting in his dad's Jalopy, gets blasted with toxic waste from the truck in front of him, which had a loose valve. After this putrid bath, the boy is horrified to find that all rubbish is attracted to him like a magnet!

"Eyes Knows" is a story I'd forgotten about for years, but it's actually a really good one. After a couple decides to get divorced, their son is forced to choose which one he is going to live with. He has a lot of trouble with this decision, and pretty soon he's having trouble with every decision, even the small decisions like what socks to wear. Maybe his toy robot can help. It's eyes light up red and green at random when you push a button. Red for no, green for yes, that's a good way to make tough decisions, the boy decides. The boy tries it and finds that life becomes a lot easier for him. At first, that is...

For those who have never read Paul Jennings before, be they young or old, "Unmentionable" is a fairly good place to start. Though I like the books he wrote after this one ("Undone", "Uncovered", etc), they're not quite as good, I don't think.

Highly recommended to kids, and for those looking for something quirky to read. ... Read more

Product Description
Two cassettes.Playing time 3 hours. Read by Steven Pacey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Whats for dinner?
Brutal, graphic and at times quite unsettling. The characters are entertaining if somewhat non-dimensional. Having read the book before listening to the audiotape,it was intriguing to go back and listen to it for the first time. It was more horrific making you feel you had become an actual participant in the hide and seek game. The rats are of course the real stars and the humans merely hor d oeuvres on the main menu. Overall a genuine feast.

Harris was just a teacher...
and one day one of his students got attacked by a rat.That was all it took to pull him into the mess.The mess was an invasion of giant rats that carried a deadly disease.And I mean invasion - the rats were taking over the city.They had the numbers and they lacked any fear of men.Soon the public knew that a war had started - a war that London might NOT win.
The book really pushed buttons.I happen to like rats or at least I have no fear of them but even I have to shiver at some of the blood splashing scenes.

The Rats
As the result of genetic engineering gone wrong, the rats of London have evolved. They are no longer the small black dirty things that sculk about under floorboards and flee at the first sight of man. They are big, and getting bolder by the day. After their first of human victim, they have decided they want more. It is with a chill that man decides it cannot stop them.

This is one of James Herbert's best books. It is incredibly difficult to put it down, and it keeps its qualities to the last page. The morbid horror of it grips you, as well as the involvement you feel with the main character as he tries to face the rats.

It is not a book for the faint hearted.

I like rats, but not these rats!
Okay, the basic story is killer rats.Rats have never ever scared me. I've had a few for pets.But I do enjoy a good gory book and i'd heard this one was pretty gross.Well, it was.I thought i might not enjoy it given the fact that i like rats, but i was delighted to find how good the book actually was.Its short and bloody.The details are great.You get thrown in with each characters struggle.I loved it and can't wait to read the other two books in the trilogy.

The horror novel that launched an entire genre!
This slim, grim piece of b-movie trash (and believe me, I mean that in the most positive and respectful way) actually launched a sub-genre in the british horror novel industry - the mutant pet and/or pest novel.The next few years would see bookshelves stuffed with grue dripping books about killer cats, dogs, bats, crabs, slugs (yes, I said slugs), spiders, jellyfish, and assorted other nasties.For this alone Herbert's novel deserves some kind of special recognition.

The novel itself was written, by hand I believe, on a lark.In one interview Herbert even admitted to not even bothering to do a rewrite!The story is simple: giant mutant rats gobble down assorted victims as, in between the gruesome attacks, scientists and members of the government scratch their heads and wonder how to do away with the seemingly indestructable beasties.In what would grow to be a trademark storytelling style, Herbert lavishes as much character detail on the victims to be as he does on the actual characters.An essential book for animal on the rampage buffs and rodent lovers everywhere. ... Read more

Product Description
For Nina, the trip around the world was the holiday of a lifetime.Her new friends were lively students but terrorism was the only degree attractive James Kiley was pursuing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an unconventional love story -- and spy novel
This is the best of three MacInnes novels featuring Robert Renwick as the hero. They are best read in order: PRELUDE TO TERROR, THE HIDDEN TARGET, and then CLOAK OF DARKNESS.

Almost all of MacInnes's novels were about the struggle against either Nazism or Communism, but in this novel the focus has shifted more to international terrorism. Renwick is a former NATO intelligence officer who is starting a new organization, InterIntell. Like InterPol, they exist to be a clearinghouse for information, but instead of drugs they focus on terrorism.

The central figure of the novel is Nina O'Connell, a college student who accepts a friend's offer to join a round-the-world student adventure. Unbeknownst to her, she has been specifically targeted by one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. Renwick had almost captured this man, Erik, but he escaped the net. Renwick is hunting him, and he is travelling from country to country on behalf of his Soviet moneyman, recruiting new terrorist cells.

Erik wants to use Nina to get close to her father, a high level member of the State Department. Nina is torn between her attraction to "James" and a girlish crush on a man she remeets just before she starts her trip -- Robert Renwick. As the trip progresses and she starts to question the strange behavior of James and his friend Tony, Renwick starts to suspect that Nina's travelling partners may also be the terrorists he is hunting.

Which man will Nina choose? And will she survive the choice? This is one of MacInnes's best novels. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by the author of "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" and "Flaubert's Parrot", this novel begins as a comedy about love and misunderstanding, then slowly darkens and deepens, drawing us into the quagmires of the heart. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Innovative Format
It is hard to get used to the conversational format of this book, particularly as one character "talks" much more than the others with allusions to all sorts of literary, historical, and theatrical subjects.It does draw you in after a while, and it is a satisfying read, with an ending which leaves lots of room for conjecture.

And over and over and over...
This is a book where a simple story of a love triangle is made more interesting by allowing the reader to view it from the perspectives of everyone involved (or everyone even remotely associated with the main three characters). However, the book seems to lack momentum may be because the unfolding of events is delayed when characters take their turns to talk about them.

A classic triangle
Julian Barnes's Talking It Over is told from the perspectives of three first-person narrators: Stuart, who is pedantic and slightly nerdy; the reserved, conflicted, and lovely Gillian; and Oliver, a flamboyant show-off in love with his own cleverness. Stuart marries Gillian, Oliver is their best friend who tags along with them all the time, and I'm willing to bet that you guess what happens next.

The plot is conventional, the characters never quite escape their stereotypical roles, yet somehow the book succeeds. Don't get me wrong; it's not Great Literature, nor is it Barnes's best work, but it's an engaging read nonetheless. Barnes does a good job of playing his three narrators against each other, and despite the fact that they never quite rise above their types, he eventually manages to show us the humanity that lies beneath the type. There are some nice lines and a few very well-written scenes. I like the way Barnes captures the feeling that exists between Gillian and Oliver as they sit in her attic studio day after day, and I love the moment when Gillian sees the secret flower petal on the shelf and swallows it--such a wonderfully subtle way of letting us know that she's crossed a line within herself, before she even knows it.

The book lost steam a bit towards the end.It seems that Barnes is better when is writing is fueled by the crackling sexual tension that exists in the first half of the narrative; once the tension is resolved, the story seems to go astray.

It was a compelling read, and very quick, but anyone seeking Barnes best work would be better of with A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters.

Fails structurally - and a rip of of Amis
For a start, for readers of Martin Amis's success, Barnes' novel seems like such an obvious rip off that it is hard to believe it wasn't intentional. The central tenets of Amis's novel - one successful dilletante male, the other hard working and mundane, a woman who doesn't say much, characters speak directly to the reader - are all followed in Talking it Over.

In addition, the structure of the book is weak. The narrative rests on the reader being drawn into Gillian first falling in love with Stuart (which you don't - how often does an attractive woman sign up for a dating agency then fall for a dull, needy, insecure man?) then Oliver (which is also unconvincing - he bungles the seduction, but she falls for him anyway). Barnes pads out this narrative with some interesting comment from the characters on love, life and sex, and some trademark humour, but pasting some wry social observation onto the page does not in itself make a good novel.

Actually, I found the sequel, Love etc. rather better, and far more convincingly done. You would have to read this novel as a stepping stone to that book, which picks up the lives of the characters after the cliffhanger at the end of Talking it Over.

Dear Reader
Steady nerdish Stuart and his best friend, flamboyant loser Oliver, are both in love with Gillian, who solves her dilemma by marrying both of them. It is set in 1980's London
It is told very cleverly (rather too cleverly) from the point of view of each of a cast of characters who write as if trying to get their own points of view across to the reader and analyze each others motives and criticize each other. Normally I dislike these fancy narrative devices (sometimes called post-modern, although you can trace them back to eighteenth century epistolary novels, andaddressing the "dear reader") but Barnes does this so well that I was captivated.
The style becomes too fancy when Oliver is the narrator. He is fond of elaborate witticisms and bits of French.The best narrators were Val and the girl in the flower shop.
Barnes wrote a sequel "Love Etc" ten years later, which is set ten years later in the characters' lives. It is even better.
... Read more

Product Description
Woven around a real-life incident, this novel produces an intriguing explanation to a mystery. In 1960 an American pilot was shot down while on a spying mission over the Soviet Union. Later he was exchanged for a high-powered Soviet agent - an exchange never explained, until now. The author has written numerous novels which have been translated widely. The most recent is "The Seeds of Treason".of Treason". ... Read more

Product Description
The plan for the invasion of Hitler's channel stronghold is the Allies' greatest secret. So when Colonel Hugh Kelso is pulled from the sea off German-occupied Jersey a crisis erupts as he knows the exact details of the invasion. The Allies launch a mission - to rescue or silence the Colonel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

they seem to have made a movie of this
I didn't know about the movie when I got this used:Night of the Fox.
The German E-boats were also new to me.
But I had seen a fictionalization of Rommel's double,
I just didn't realize that it was this film.
Toward the end of WWII the German generals realized Hitler was leading them to a crushing defeat
and planted a bomb unsuccessfully.
Leading that plot was the desert fox Rommel.
This book takes place on the captured island of Jersey.
One always wonders why instead of attacking Russian Hitler didn't invade
England when he had the chance?
The answer is that the British Navy actually ruled the channel
well enough that Germany couldn't launch an invasion.
The E-boats ( very like American PT boats)and the U-boats
were the only advantage the Germans had at sea.
I liked this novel about spies on the island of Jersey on a secret mission, but is just a myth type of story.

Warm World War II Adventure
It's near the end of World War II, and Hugh Kelso is an American officer who knows important information about the pending invasion in France when his boat is sunk in the English Channel.His rescue raft washes up on the shore of the isle of Jersey, which is presently under German occupation.Hugh is lucky to be rescued by Helen de Ville, a Jersey resident who hides him in her home and gets a message to the Allies that she has him.A rescue team is sent, as it is imperative that Hugh Kelso be kept out of German hands because of the information he has about the invasion.

The British send in Harry Martineau, who can perfectly imitate a German officer and has nerves of steel, and young Sarah Drayton, a nurse who can pass for his French girlfriend who also happens to be Helen de Ville's niece.With their forged papers, Harry a/k/a Standartenfuhrer Max Vogel and Sarah fly to France to meet with the Resistance there, and then go on to Jersey to play their parts.At the same time, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel needs to be in two places at once, so he sends an imposter to Jersey to take his place.Rommel's double and Standartenfuhrer Vogel cross paths and make each other nervous, and Vogel has also raised some suspicions with the powers that be on Jersey.

The story moves from Rommel's imposter, to Harry and Sarah and their friends at de Ville Place, to the German contingent on the island, and cruises along at an easy pace while the danger slowly builds.Things happened that I knew were going to cause trouble, yet the story ambled along in an easy manner, which kept me turning the pages and eagerly anticipating being able to pick it back up every time I had to put it down.I've always enjoyed a good World War II story, and Jack Higgins seems to have a special flair for the era.I not only felt like I was right there on Jersey, but in the rooms with these characters, who were all warm, real people I would want to know.There's something incredibly romantic about the World War II era, with the black market, the bartering, the danger, and the basic lifestyle most people were reduced to as the world at large went off the rails.This book in particular showed a glimpse of life under occupation, and the wonderful human spirit that can prevail in such conditions.Though Jack Higgins has been writing books for a long time, I'm fairly new to them, and I consider myself lucky that there are so many more waiting for me.

A Masterful WW2 Intrigue
Jack Higgins is a masterful writer who revels in World War II intrigue evident in this interweaved story. The stakes are high: the imminent invasion of Normandy. It's May 1944. Colonel Kelso is injured and marooned on the German-occupied island of Jersey. The British select Harry Martineau to either get Kelso out - or execute him to keep the secret. Martineau enlists the help of a variety of characters - his French mistress, an Italian naval officer and a Jewish German paratrooper.

Higgins' skills are a masterful ability to deceive and counterdeceive his character - and the reader - in a journey of excitement and adventure. His characters are well-drawn. The pace is relentless. The stakes for Normandy are high and well-known. As a companion to his earlier book, "The Eagle Has Landed", Higgins continues in a fine tradition of WW 2 Intrigue.

Michael Mandaville, Author "Stealing Thunder"

Great WW2 adventure
I have read most of Higgins works. This is one of the best books he has written. I cant say that there was a whole lot of action in this novel but it is still good non the less.

I am an avid fan of WW2 fiction and nonfiction and this ranks among the top.

probably his best book!
I give 5 stars but consider it just for Higgins. He is not Le Carre or Forsyth. But he tells his story well. And I think this one is better than Higgins's other books. Exciting. Try also Eagle has landed. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Story They Didn't Want You to Hear"Andy McNab gripped more than two and a half million readers worldwide with his number one best-seller Bravo Two Zero, the true story of an SAS patrol behind enemy lines in Iraq.Now he tells a story which is even more explosive and compelling.Immediate Action is a no-holds-barred account of his extraordinary life -- from his delinquent youth to days as a young soldier in Northern Ireland and then life as a member of 22 SAS Regiment, at the center of covert operations for nine years -- on five continents.Hear Andy McNab recounts in riveting, often horrifying detail his activities in the world's most highly trained and efficient Special Forces Unit. This gripping story will sweep you into a world of surveillance and intelligence -- gathering, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (55)

Tough homelife for SAS
I had read several books over the last 20 years on the "glory" of being in the SAS, but never realized how often and for how long SAS members are away from home.It's a tough organization to get into and even tougher one to retain your membership.

Inside the Regiment.
Immediate Action by Andy McNab is not so much about missions as it is about men.It tells the story of how McNab became a member of the Regiment and just what it takes to get in.Like Bravo Two Zero, it is the honesty that grips you, as McNab relates everyday events, tragic mishaps and the hilarious antics of men too big, too strong and too smart to be kept inactive or in one place for very long.Missions are recounted with wins and losses, but it is the men in the story that you remember.This is one of those books that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

It's good
This was a pretty good book for just about anybody.For those who are used to military life (i.e. in the military, a dependent or just friends with one) then you will see a lot you already recognize.For everyone else, this truly shows what the military in any country trains for, how they train for it and how they deal with it.This book stresses that what the public see's on the screen is not so in real life.Good book =)

Tragic disappointment
For those who seek to read an amazing literary account of the remarkable exploits of the British Special Air Service, this is not the book for you.

This book was a colossal disappointment from beginning to end. As one reviewer remarked, there was absolutely nothing within the pages of this book that was even remotely controversial. Furthermore, the writing was abysmal with a grammatic structure which was embarrassingly deplorable and an insightfulness which bordered on drudgery. To me, this book seemed to be a poor mans version of INSIDE DELTA FORCE (by Eric Haney) written with the offensive (and sometimes insulting) language of JARHEAD (by Anthony Swofford) with the worst of both and the best of neither.

Unless you are simply interested in the camradery of military unit service (the spitting, the cussing and the beer guzzling), this book is just a bit better than a waste of time and money. I, for one, considering the rich and illustrious history of the S.A.S. was tragically disappointed - much in the same way as I was disappointed in reading INSIDE DELTA FORCE, but at least the latter was well written and offered some fascinating anecdotes.

Immediate Action
Immediate Action

A close friend of mine recently told me he was SAS. That revalation made me want to find out more of what he was not telling me. When I finished I was speechless - McNab gave a clear picture of what, who and how this group works. ... Read more

Product Description
A science-fiction adventure written for Radio 4, and starring some of the actors from the original "Blake's 7" series on BBC television. Roj Blake has gone, but the ragged band of rebels he united are still fighting for their lives. The cassettes include non-broadcast materials and cast interviews. ... Read more

Product Description
Spitfire Ace provides a vivid portrait of the few that flew in the Battle of Britain, 1940. The Battle of Britain, was one of the most famous air battles in the history of warfare and it is a story of ruthless organization, brilliant control and command. Spitfire Ace reintroduces the few that flew in the Battle of Britain and includes interviews with many of the surviving veteran Spitfire pilots. Combined with a historical narrative of the events surrounding the Battle of Britain, you will learn for the first time what it was really like to fly a Spitfire and to experience combat flying at its most visceral. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Battle of Britain Then and Now!
This interesting volume, published by England's Channel 4 Books, revisits the Battle of Britain but with a twist. Sparked by an encounter with a two-seat Spitfire, television producer Martin Davidson decided to create a TV show featuring two young English lads who would undergo the pilot training received by their contemporaries back in 1940. That experiment, in turn, led Davidson and James Taylor to research the Battle of Britain with particular emphasis on those surviving Spitfire aces who flew in the Battle. SPITFIRE ACE is the story of those intertwining threads.

The bulk of SPITFIRE ACE is given over to the BoB. The authors detail the history of the RAF in the 1930s, its organization, the commanders who led it in the successful repulse of the Luftwaffe in 1940, RAF training and equipment, the development of radar, the birth of the Spit and the Hurricane, etc. Included in this are lengthy reminiscences by RAF pilots like Bob Doe, Nigel Rose, Peter Brothers, Gerald Stapleton, George Unwin, Billy Drake and Allan Wright that provide an insider's view of that important period of history. Around all that is woven descriptions of the selection of four Englishmen, the willowing down of the four to two and then one, personal comments by the four and so on.

The Battle of Britain has been written about endlessly. SPITFIRE ACE presents a pretty standard history of the Battle and preceding events; no new revelations here. Its main strength is the comments from the pilots and groundcrew which put a very human face on those long-ago events. The Channel 4 "competition," by contrast, is pretty straightforward, interesting but not as much as the BoB material.

The book features dozens of vintage and contemporary b&w and color photographs, maps and diagrams.

In short, SPITFIRE ACE is an appealing and unique combination of Royal Air Force history then-and-now. Recommended. ... Read more