Set in New Zealand's far north, it is the story of Michael, a motherless 'bait boy' who is happiest when netting flounder, swimming with a friendly seal or messing about in boats. No-one seems very rich, yet no one starves, with summers that last almost all year, fruit for the picking and fish for the catching. When Michael runs away he finds unexpected friends, from Maori sea weed pickers to the captain and the cook of a coastal scow. Billed as having a simple yet unexpected ending.
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First published in 1948, this book caused a sensation. Waugh, on a visit to California, was fascinated by the elaborate graveyards, pet cemeteries and overblown rituals of death. It inspired him to write this witty 'tragedy' of Anglo-American manners set against the background of embalming rooms and incinerators. -
A family is curious about a legend surrounding a string of beads, handed down from Great-grandfather. Kept in a horn snuff-box with a clue - or a riddle -
Our mystical meaning a secret shall be: Here's a key for a lock, find a key for the key.
They must be kept in the house as long as the house remains in the family - and this was stated clearly in Great Grandfather's will. It was believed, once, that the string of beads - being a variety of colours - might be a form of cipher or code that contained a hidden message. But none yet have cracked the code... -
Reveals the secrets of the magicians, those techniques that are simple yet seem so complex. Here are the basic principles of magic using ordinary household items: a deck of cards, rubber bands and even a potato. You can learn to: control the order of cards through any number of shuffles; move a straw through a potato; make coins pass through a handkerchief; make knots evaporate; predicting the sum of a five-digit number and much, much more. -
The Magic Pudding is a pie...except when it's something else, like a steak, or a jam doughnut, or an apple dumpling, or whatever its owner wants it to be. And it never runs out. No matter how many slices you cut, there's always something left over. It's magic. But the Magic Pudding is also alive. It walks and it talks and it's got a personality like no other. A meaner, sulkier, snider, snarlinger Pudding you've never met. So Bunyip Bluegum finds out when he joins Barnacle Bill and Sam Sawnoff as members of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners, whose members are required to wander along the roads, indulgin' in conversation, song and story, and eatin' at regular intervals from the Pudding. Wild and woolly, funny and outrageously fun. Illustrated by Norman Lindsay. -
From the author of The Once and Future King. This volume contains: The Maharajah; A Sharp Attack of Something or Other; The Spaniel Earl; Success or Failure; Nostradamus; No Gratuities; The Troll; The Man; The Black Rabbit; Kin to Love; Soft Voices at Passenham; The Point of Thirty Miles; A Rosy Future, Anonymous; Not Until Tomorrow; The Philistine Cursed David by His Gods; A Link with Petulengro. -
A foreign bachelor in the Diplomatic Service living in Peking's Chinese quarter during the years between 1908 and 1920 finds himself guardian to the young daughter of an Italian railway worker. Through his stewardship, he catches a glimpse of an entirely different side of life. As Kuniang grows up, his feelings for her change, and he must compete with a motley cast of characters for her attentions. These include a shadowy former mistress of Rasputin, a flamboyant American fashion designer, Red Russians, White Russians and Radishes (Red outside and White inside) and an English millionaire. But when Kuniang unwittingly falls under a form of Eastern hypnosis, a terrifying vision threatens their prospects. Set against the mysterious Eastern backdrop of Peking in the early twentieth century, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers is a charming, possibly autobiographical - and at times tragic - story of love and family. -
The mystery of the Man behind the Iron Mask has intrigued people for over 250 years, inspiring as much fantasy as serious conjecture. This is the story of the story, so to speak; an account of the theories and counter-theories, from the claim that he was the twin brother of Louis XIV to the recognition that he was Eustache Dauger, with diversion by way of such candidates as the Duke of Monmouth, Richard Cromwell, Molière, Nicholas Fouquet, an Armenian archbishop, an Italian astrologer and many more. Complete and comprehensive, this is a presentation of all the known facts of the prisoner's existence chronologically, as they have been discovered, together with all the myths as they have flourished from the preposterous stories put about by his gaoler in 1669 to the alleged discovery of his skeleton in a tower in Cannes in 1977. As the various stories are revealed, the reader may accept or reject the assorted evidence and develop his own views before the author presents his own conclusions. Illustrated. -
The Missing Angel: Erle Cox
$30.00Tydvil Jones is a victim of feminine autocracy; he's no longer young and he awoke to the fact that he'd never had a day's fun in his entire life. Fiercely determined to make up for lost time, he finds an ally in a very Powerful Personage. In three months, he manages more riotous adventure than most men manage in a lifetime and squares his account with his nagging spouse. He complicates the lives of his friends, confounds his enemies and becomes the most wanted by the entire police force. Jones breaks the shackles of convention and emerges triumphant, shameless and unregenerate - but very very happy! In the style of Thorne Smith. -
Everything and everyone is under the gun in this collection of outrageous stories and non-politically jokes! Even James Bond isn't exempt. There's blonde bombshells, ethnic jokes, religious rib-ticklers, mansplains, church crackers, sex, quickies and shorties and the completely bizarre to make you laugh out loud wherever you are. Adults only... -
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory - he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin. There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love. Illustrated. -
Phantom No. 7 . A palatial 200 ft yacht, The Sea Horse and a luxurious private island guarded by fierce dogs - all the property of the suave and charming Chris Danton. What is the source of his seemingly inexhaustible wealth? What is the grim secret behind the 'ageless' smile of the master of The Sea Horse ? The Phantom's sweetheart, beautiful Diana Palmer, innocently stumbles into Danton's web and finds herself caught up in an evil conspiracy from which she can be saved only by the power and ingenuity of the Phantom - The Ghost Who Walks...Cover art by George Wilson. -
Even in these days of X-Box and IPhones, there'll be some who'll remember when annuals such as these were eagerly looked for in the Christmas gifts - full of stories, games, puzzles and riddles. This one from 1961 is plenty of everything. Stories include: Clapper Boy, C. Schuster; Foes Of The Forest, Charles Hamilton (creator of Billy Bunter) ; Sports Club, Robert Bateman; Lovell On The War-Path, Owen Conquest; Shaghra The Leader, John Bancroft; The Flight of the Strato Queen, Leonard Gribble; The Guardian Of Devil's Cave, D.L.G. Stainton; Adrift On An Iceberg, Peter Spencer; Night Train To Zurich, Vincent Griffin; The Green Fire, Alan C. Jenkins; Just Like Jack! Frank Richards; Percy's Potty Prank, John Forsyth; The Young Archers, Sydney J. Bounds; Dawson's Double, Haydn Warman; Herring Moon, Arthur Catherall; Tick-Tock's Grandfather, David Norris; Who Cares About Archaeology? Robert Bateman; Spot On The Wicket, John Bancroft; Off The Record, Geoffrey Morgan; Sparks At Strathdrene, J.A. Jordan; The Wellport Wonder, John Forsyth; Adventures In Devon, William Luscombe; Pirates Of The Deep, Sydney J. Bounds; Old Bob's Barn, Louis Valentine; Terry Of The Tight Rope, Clifton Heath; Wildcatter By Accident, James Frederick; Leave Him To Ozzy, Michael Kendrick; Invisible Ink, R.A. Hall; Palma Incident, Darry McCarthy; Menace On Wheels, D.L.G. Stainton; Coral Sea Adventure, R.A. Hall; School House Mystery, Guy Leslie; The Stolen Renoir, The Phantom Rustlers and Road Ace, Sydney J. Bounds; Two Hundred Feet Of Celluloid and Phil Barton - Crack Runner, Robert Bateman. -
Realising he was on more than delicate ground and risking being caught between the choppers of the Machos and the Amazons , the irrepressible Ronald Searle felt it was more than time for a de-sexerciser - or at least, having a second look at some of the more sombre sexist crannies in the English language. The French don't seem to mind that la barbe (beard) is feminine; but in neuter English there are some anomalies crying out for correction. Is it logic that men should monopolise menopause ? Out of justice, womenpause must come. And so, Searle has corrected anomalies such as abandonment (abandonwoment) mandolin (womandolin) dismantle diswomantle - and more - complete with illustrations. -
A fabulously sage collection of wisdom and observations from the most brilliant mind of his day. Just a sample: 'Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.' Or...'The daily newspaper! The educator of the people! God help us, it might be so. It educates into inattention, folly, sin, vacuity and foolishness. It saps concentration, dissipates aspiration, scrambles grey matter and irons out convolutions. Watch the commuter rush for his Dope when he reaches the station in the morning.' That was written in 1927 - so not much has changed. Hubbard, were he alive today, would probably say the same of television or the Internet. -
Gabrielle Van Der Mal, a young gifted and strong willed Belgian girl, becomes Sister Luke and as a nun must remove all traces of her former self and sublimate herself as a devoted bride of Christ with no room for her personal desires and aspirations. She dedicates her life to the care of the sick as she battles to reconcile the demands of her Order with her pride as a nurse. She must face the heart-breaking and terrifying task of nursing the insane and finds her faith tested in Africa where she finds herself at odds with headstrong Dr. Fortunati, operator of a remote Congo hospital, with whom she gradually builds respect. She is ordered not to take sides in World War II, even as she witnesses the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Belgium and risks her life aiding the escape of British airmen and this order causes the final conflict within Sister Luke. -
Or Why I Don't Steal Towels from Great Hotels Anymore. This is not a travel book, exactly, and it's not a book about hotels. It's a book about obsessions and the need to let our obsessions guide us to discoveries...Travel can be the supreme pleasure in life but only if we undertake an interior journey along with our exterior voyage.Among other topics, Dale covers: Why men want to read maps and women want to ask the way; how to stop a taxi driver from talking to you; where to find the guidebook that suits your personality; the how, what and why of souveniring from Great Hotels; whether you should be in love with your travelling companion; where to go star-spotting for dead celebrities; how to enjoy fake travel and pseudo nostalgia; the best and worst waiters, streets, train dining cars, restaurants and small museums in the world; and why shopping is a waste of good siesta time. With amusing sketches by Matthew Martin.
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Described as romance shorts - with definite twists and turns in every tale - this volume contains: The Odds/Without Prejudice: A young woman, without realising it, meets a man on the run from the law. Sparks fly but he must keep running. Time passes...she gets engaged to a law man. What happens when the woman and the convict meet again? Her Own Free : An impetuous girl agrees to marry a Boer millionaire for his money. After an accident which keeps the couple separated for a year, she's not so sure that she wants to be married...The Consolation Prize: A young woman, in love with a local farmer, agrees to marry an eccentric lord to save her family from poverty. But rather than two lives being ruined by sacrifice, her sister proposes a shocking solution. Her Freedom: A free-spirited girl calls off her engagement - not in the usual way, but by an announcement in the Society columns. her soon-to-be former fiance responds by posting the wedding date in the same column. She then meets a wild, bushy bearded Canadian man and rather than allow her mischievous cousin Dick to polish off the Canadian's rough edges, she thinks he will 'do' just as he is. Is this true love? Or infatuation? Death's Property: A wealthy man, disillusioned man returns to the seaside village of his birth, disgusted at the world and himself for having served the 'God of Gold' for 20 years in America. Irritated by a shrill American accent, he finds the voice belongs to a real beauty. But according to her cousin, she is 'untouchable...' The Sacrifice: When a young Society girl's admirer is falsely accused of forgery, she will do anything to clear his name...she will even submit to blackmail... -
Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made The Old Curiosity Shop an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the nation, even as it was criticised for its sentimentality by figures such as Oscar Wilde. Yet alongside the story's pathos are some of Dickens's greatest comic and grotesque creations: the ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller, the mannish lawyer Sally Brass, the half-starved 'Marchioness' and the lustful, loathsome Quilp himself. Colour plates.
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A light-hearted, adventure story, set on the Great Barrier Reef around Lizard Island and Cooktown, of two young boys who join a trochus shell fishing boat and cruise to Lizard Island. A story for young adults, and it is NOT about opium or any other drug. -
A very complete collection of Aussie folk songs: Convicts, bushrangers, goldminers; lawyers and law breakers; teamsters, drovers, stockmen, shearers and strikers. A tribute to the men who boozed, battled, bludgeoned, bullied and blarneyed their way through the first century of Australia. Illustrated by the author. -
In this volume: The Family Streak andThe Old Fault, Shirley Grey; Hiking On Horseback, Cora Gordon; The Scotch Society, Constance Savery; The Monster Of Loch Shee, Dorita Fairlie Bruce; 'For The Best Disguise', Evelyn Simms; The Three Workers, Frances Joyce; Mr Stewart's Nuggets, Wallace Carr, The Fairies' Gift: A Welsh Story, Ann Vaughan; The Parrot That Did Not Talk, Elizabeth Whitely; Caroline And The Smuggler, Jocelyn Oliver; Good Aunt Earle, M.A. Peart; Camping Out, A.G. Holman; Jill Repays, Anne Page; Pamela's Piebald, Gunby Hadath; The Wanderer, Thora Stowell; How To Dive, W.J. Howcroft; Sally's Sunday, Alice Massie; The Poison Cupboard, Frances Joyce. -
Three naive teenage sisters, after the death of their mother, move from a small village to try to make their way in the big city. They make many mistakes yet find help in the most unexpected places, but hanging over them - still - is the mystery of their brother who went missing as a small boy. First published in 1887. Illustrated by John. E. Sutcliffe. -
The trail led from the assassination of a youthful President to the murder of a cynical homosexual after a bizarre orgy to a beautiful, promiscuous woman slain by an unknown lover. Then the trail went on to secret files behind the unmarked doors of an unlisted government agency. The victims have one thing in common - all twenty-five of them appeared on one piece of film. And twenty-four are now dead, leaving one man to tell the story to an unbelieving world - if he can live so long... -
Mr. T. Wallace Wooly, a self-important tycoon, but at heart a shy man, meets his future bride when he rescues her from a hotel fire. Usually this would pose unique challenges to a couple just getting acquainted, but it probably helped that the future Mrs. Wooly was completely naked at the time. Mr. Wooly is the most public, most consequential man in town and respectable - so the well-publicized rescue of the nude Miss Broome thrown over Mr.Wooly's shoulder as he rushes from the burning building sets tongues wagging. Mr. Wooly is aghast at the rumors, but Miss Broome is after all, bewitching, and Mr. Wooly is soon under the spell of her red lips, lustrous black hair, and slanting yellow eyes. It isn't long after their marriage that Mr. Wooly begins to question the wisdom of their hasty union when he sees his new wife climbing down the trumpet vine outside their bedroom window, riding the goat through the apple orchard in the moonlight and killing chickens. Among other things. The Passionate Witch was initially drafted as a film scenario, but later completed as a novel by Norman Matson after Thorne Smith's death in 1934 and is alleged to have been the inspiration for the hit television show Bewitched. Illustrated by Herbert Roese. -
Here is a veritable tossed salad of resort guests: old, young, eccentric, snobbish, pleasant and revolting and a good mix of employees to create a real microcosm of human nature. There's Miss Dukemer, the worldly wise cashier; Purcell, the Assistant Manager who likes ladies and liquor; the rich Mellott sisters who share their suite with a Siamese cat; the wealthy couple who order one small breakfast between them; the elevator boy who has a hair fetish; the newly weds who aren't sure what goes where and many more memorable and eccentric characters.
