On a Halloween night, eight boys are led on an incredible journey into the past by the mysterious “spirit” Moundshroud. Riding a dark autumn wind from ancient Egypt to the land of the Celtic druids, from Mexico to a cathedral in Paris, they will witness the haunting beginnings of the holiday called Halloween.Featuring the evocative prose and imagery of Ray Bradbury, the fine acting of the Colonial Radio Theatre players, and atmospheric music and sound effects, this story will send ...

This book provides an exposition on the professional and cultural life of Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914), more popularly known as P. W. Joyce, who lived and worked during the final phase of British rule in Ireland. The focus throughout is very much on how family, locale, and schooling influenced this significant Irish patriot, polymath, and pioneering pedagogue who worked across a range of disciplines, including education, language, history, and music. Moreover, attention is paid to how ...

This is an exceptional, contemporary, heart-breaking novel.Toby's life was perfectly normal . . . until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They're looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it's time to take the...

‘Grabbed me and refused to let go’ George R.R. MartinSOMETIMES A GIRL IS TOUCHED BY MOTHER WARThorn lives to fight. But she has been named murderer by the very man who trained her to kill.SOMETIMES A GIRL BECOMES A WARRIORFate traps her in the schemes of Father Yarvi, sending her across half the world to seek allies against the ruthless High King.SOMETIMES A WARRIOR BECOMES A WEAPONBeside her is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failur...

He’s been trapped in his home since he died. If he can’t outwit the demon holding him captive, he’ll never be free.Tim Lane is running out of time. Since dying on Halloween 1981, he’s tried everything to hold back the hellish force that killed him. But with the demon clawing his way into his elderly father’s mind, the desperate teenage ghost finally takes the gloves off.As Tim races to save his father, he pieces together the truth about what really happened...

Poor Mr Swimble is having a bad day.Rabbits are bouncing out of his hat, pigeons are flying out of his jacket and every time he points his finger, something magically appears – cheese sandwiches, socks . . . even a small yellow elephant on wheels!It’s becoming a real nuisance – and he’s allergic to rabbits.His friends at the Magic Rectangle can’t help, but the mysterious vacuum cleaner he saw that morning may have something to do with it . . .Fourteen fantas...

Brought to you by Penguin.From international bestseller, Karen McManus, comes the explosive third and final thrilling instalment in the acclaimed One of Us... series.Ever since Simon died in detention, life hasn't been easy for the Bayview Crew. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren't killers. Then a new generation had to outwit a vengeful copycat. Now, it's beginning again.At first the mysterious billboard seems l...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSurnames are much more than convenient identity tags; they are windows into our families’ pasts. Some suggest ancestral trades (Butcher, Smith, Roper) or physical appearance (Long, Brown, Thynne). Some provide clues to where we come from (McDonald, Evans, Patel). And some – Rymer, Brocklebank, Stolbof – offer a hint of something just a little more exotic or esoteric.All are grist to the mill for David McKie who, in Wh...

Each of Foster's books has generated vigorous discussion, but in THE IRISH STORY he breaks fresh ground even by his own standards. Driven by his sense of the seriousness of history and a fascination with those who distort it, THE IRISH STORY examines how key facets of Ireland's past have been tampered with to serve a multiplicity of purposes.THE IRISH STORY is endlessly varied, surprising and funny. It is also a rallying cry for those anxious that contemporary Ireland may be in dan...

This is a new, extended edition of an unusual book, which generated considerable interest and controversy when it was first published in 2004, and won the Ewart Biggs Memorial Prize the following year. In its original form it had three elements, a memoir giving the author's intellectual and political formation and his family connection to 1798 in Wexford, a critique of the bicentenary of the rebellion and of writing about it, and a detailed account of the pivotal battle of New Ross and the...

During the 1660s, Samuel Pepys kept a secret diary full of intimate details and political scandal. Had the contents been revealed, they could have destroyed his marriage, ended his career, and seen him arrested. This engaging book explores the creation of the most famous journal in the English language, how it came to be published in 1825, and the many remarkable roles it has played in British culture since then. Kate Loveman – one of the few people who can read Pepys's shorthand – unlocks...

WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs AwardNEW LOWER PRICEThis book uses the nineteenth-century legend of Spring-Heeled Jack to analyse and challenge current notions of Victorian popular cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this supposedly supernatural entity moved from rural folklore to metropolitan press sensation, co-existing in literary and theatrical forms before finally degenerating into a nursery lore bogeyman to frighten children. A mercurial and unfixed cultural phenom...