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We often use expressions without thinking about it, but why do we use them and what are their origins? Such as cheesed off to denote irritation; and what does it mean to cock a snook? Why a kangaroo court? All these and so much more, great potential for trivia nights. A great little volume to browse now and then. -
The daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana is raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, home to the Amazons, women warriors created by the Olympian gods to protect mankind. Diana is raised on their history and knows that Ares became so jealous of humanity that he slayed the Gods and determined to destroy Mankind. But Zeus left weapons in the guardianship of the Amazons - the sword Godkiller and the Lasso of Hestia, a magical artefact that forces the truth from captives. In 1918, Diana rescues US pilot Captain Steve Trevor when his plane crashes off the Themysciran coast. The island is soon invaded by German soldiers in pursuit of Steve. The Amazons kill the crew and Steve is interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia. He reveals that a great war is consuming the outside world and that he is an Allied spy. He has stolen a notebook from the Germans' chief chemist, Dr. Isabel Maru, who is attempting to engineer a deadlier form of mustard gas under the orders of General Erich Ludendorff. Believing Ares to be responsible for the war, Diana dons her armour and must leave Themyscira with Steve to locate and stop Ares for good. Her only weapons are her Amazon training, the Lasso of Hestia and Godkiller... -
A compilation of over 6000 quotations arranged thematically; a great reference for speeches, essays and letter writing as well as for trivia quiz and crossword buffs. On actors - Marlon Brando: An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening. Or the home? Cicero: What is more agreeable than one's own home? Or there's Spencer Tracy's memory of the lean times in his life, before stardom: There were times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails. And from Bert Leston Taylor, journalist: A bore is a man who, when you ask how he is, tells you. With an introduction by Reginald Hill. -
Mount Lidgbird and Ball's Pyramid commemorate the discovery of Lord Howe Island in 1788 by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commander of the Supply, when Lieutenant King sailed in it to establish a settlement in Norfolk Island. Between that time and 1834 only whalers and an occasional schooner, visited this Pacific paradise, which had evidently never been inhabited. In 1834 three former sailors, with their Maori wives, settled at the head of Hunter Bay. They all left in 1841, but others succeeded and the commencement of the palm-seed industry by Captain Armstrong in 1878 brought commercial property to the island. Originally printed in 1940, a fascinating history of Lord Howe Island - its discovery and early associations and illustrated with wonderful old black and white photographs, covering the years 1788 - 1888. -
A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station on a mission of discovery find a rapidly evolving life-form that caused extinction on Mars. It now threatens the crew and all life on Earth -
The evergreen classic tale of the March sisters begins ten years after Little Men. Plumfield is still presided over by Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer. Although her 'little men' are now adults, they are still her 'boys'. Restless Dan looks towards new frontiers, but his good heart and efforts to protect a naive man lands him in jail; Emil has gone to sea and will experience shipwreck and sorrow before he sees Plumfield again and Nat, the musician, is ready to go abroad and study music - and he gets some other lessons in life as well. Meg's youngest daughter Josie is stage-struck and Amy worries that her only daughter Beth will make an unwise marriage. Apart from worrying about her 'boys', Jo inadvertently gets into another scrape when her privacy is invaded after one of her books becomes a best-seller. -
Nash observes the world around him and cannot resist making humorous, sly and very on-the-mark rhymes while often poking fun at society pretensions. There's even a few fractured fables and fairy tales in this collection. So, just for fun...I often grieve for Uncle Hannibal
Who inadvertently became a cannibal.
He asked Aunt Mary to roast him the gobbler;
She understood him to say - the cobbler.
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The Venture, an old Trident nuclear sub retrofitted for research has picked up an ancient and powerful artifact on the ocean floor and brought it on board. Called the Hades Stone, it allows the dead to return and join the living. Evil things appear in this world - phantoms. demons and an ancient being called the Stone Keeper, the guardian of the Hades Stone. The demons attack, killing the crew. The portal inside the Hades Stone fills the submarine with the accursed souls of the past. Jack Bavaro, head of Interceptor Force, has gathered his best operatives they know the submarine has been commandeered and they know they cannot just torpedo it - a navy attack submarine that tried was instantly destroyed by the demon-ridden submarine. They must enter the Venture and do battle at the bottom of the ocean. -
Book II in the Katy series. Dr. Carr's mind is firmly made up. Katy and her little sister Clover are to spend a year away at boarding school. A strange place and far from home, but on arrival the girls have an inkling that it might turn out to be rather different from their expectations. One thing is for sure, it certainly isn't going to be dull with Rose Red as an ally. -
Nash has more sly and wry observations, this time on the nuclear family. Chapters include: Man Is The Father of the Child - But He Never Quite Gets Used To It; Daddy, I Want A Pet Of My Own, I Promise To Take Care Of It and Around The House or What Parents Think About When They Aren't Thinking About Their Children. The following is a sample of the poem, Children's Party - and no doubt many fathers can relate to Mr Nash's observations...May I join you in the doghouse, Rover?
I wish to retire till the party’s over.
Since three o’clock I’ve done my best
To entertain each tiny guest.
My conscience now I’ve left behind me,
And if the want me let them find me…
Of similarities there’s lots,
’Twixt tiny tots and Hottentots.
I’ve earned repose to heal the ravages
of these angelic-looking savages...
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A Tale of Rome, in the time of Marcus Aurelius...very few major historical characters will appear here. This story concerns itself with the back streets of Rome; the artisans, the growers and the makers; where hucksters and tricksters rubs shoulders with priests and philosophers. The Encyclopedia of the Novel describes it as a 'playfully comic' depiction of Ancient Rome. So don't worry too much about any historical inaccuracies you may find, it's all in good fun! -
In 404 B.C., the Spartans demolished the famous Long Walls of Athens, signalling the complete victory of the city of Lycurgus and the subordination of all Greece to the Spartan interest. Yet within forty years, the pride of Sparta had been humbled, their glory gone for ever. Xenophon lived through this time; despite being Athenian he was intimate with some of the most influential people in Sparta, including King Agesilaus. Here is the on-the-spot documentation of the last years of the independent cities of Hellas, by someone who saw it all. Translated by Rex Warner. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/imperial-caesar-rex-warner/
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History as you've never learnt it before - from the invasion of Briton to Alfred the Cake, from Anne (A Dead Queen) to The Merrie Monarch and WilliamandMary who were a pair of Oranges. A lot of it reads like a Blackadder script with typical English humour.With comic illustrations by John Reynolds. -
Persuaded by a beautiful Russian Countess to help her flee her loathsome fiancè, Captain Jonathan Clark sails from San Francisco to Alaska, evading cunning rival Captain Portugee - who will unite with Clark to defeat the Russian menace, Prince Semyon. -
Volcano: Cecil Roberts
$8.00A series of strange events in and around a group of volcanic islands in the Augean with associated happenings in London. On a bright morning, Ian Caudray, a young devotee of archaeology and of the classics swims from a yacht to one of the islands which he believes is uninhabited. When a beautiful girl appears he thinks of her as Nausicaa with himself as Odysseus- but she makes it clear she doesn't share his fantasy and wants him gone! Discouraged, he returns to the yacht for breakfast and a light-hearted inquisition from his family - but it's not long before the beautiful lady's secrets come out. -
Originally published over 300 years ago as The Compleat Housewife - and 100 years before the famous Mrs Beeton - Eliza Smith, drawing on her vast experience while 'constantly employed by fashionable and noble families' compiled this collection of over 600 recipes which had 'met with general approbation'. There are also remedies and cures for the 'benefit of every accomplished noblewoman' for every ailment from the bite of a mad dog to a case of pimples. This book was not only famous in Britain, but also in America where it has the distinction of being the first ever cookery book to be published there. N.B. Please exercise caution if you should decide to try any of the remedies mentioned; this is a 300 year old book and some of the recommendations and ingredients therein would definitely NOT be advisable to try. -
Hiding under the witness protection programme, Rick Jarmin gets nervous when his old flame Marianne recognises him as her fiancè who vanished years ago. But before he can assume a new identity, the man he put in jail is released and comes to pay his respects. Rick and Marianne are thrown together on the run across the country, barely evading the police, gangsters and an amorous veterinarian. Also stars David Carradine, Joan Severance and Bill Duke. -
Book III of The Saint vs Crown Prince Rudolph. The Saint had decided to turn over a new leaf. But he hadn't reckoned with Prince Rudolf - nor with his old adversary's hankering for diamonds! Why would a man as rich as Rudolph care about the comparatively small value of the Montenegrian Crown jewels? -
A fabulous collection of over two dozen of Joyce Grenfell's well-known sketches and song lyrics, including Stately As A Galleon, Shirley's Girlfriend, Thought For Today, At The Laundrette and I'm Going To See You Today. Often cheeky, sometimes sly and satirical, often poking fun at the sacred cows of the English and all have a point to make. -
This novel spans 130 years and follows the line of women of the Wrotham family, beginning with Sabrina in 1806. The daughter of a socially disgraced, sadistic roué, she is sponsored into 'Society' by her step-aunt - after having had some good manners vigorously instilled in her and her tomboyish ways smoothed out. Her brother Prior's marriage and production of children play a part in keeping the Wrotham name going. The next Wrotham woman is Clare - her brother Anthony's marriage to Harriet brings Charlotte to the line and the last is Gillian Rose, known as 'Jill'. The diaries and letters of the women are fictitious but the times in which the story is set are not, and many historical characters and events of England are brought to the story. As the generations overlap, with the members of each generation subscribing to the beliefs of their day, there is little sentimental romance involved - just a very good story, tinted with gentle romance and enhanced by the backdrop of historic reality. -
Honouring those who continue to improve our gene pool by removing themselves in sublimely idiotic ways, such as: the woman caught in an American national park, smearing honey all over her small son's face so she could get a photo of a bear licking it off; the man who decided to add a plastic bag to his collection of solo sex toys, and who was found with the plastic bag over his head, the vacuum cleaner still running and himself being very very dead; and the two allegedly experienced twenty-something construction workers who fell to their deaths after cutting a circle in a thick concrete floor without realising they were standing in the middle of the circle. All this and much much more! Also includes sections on honorable mentions and debunks.
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De Vaca was one of hundreds of men who left Spain in 1527 on an expedition headed by Panfilo de Narvaez. The mission was to explore Florida. This is the eyewitness account of how an expedition of over 600 men and five ships was reduced to a band of four half-mad survivors who staggered into Mexico City, having unintentionally become the first Europeans to cross the American Southwest via Texas, Ne Mexico and Arizona. It is the quintessential travel horror story. -
A fascinating history of Christmas carols and their meanings. Who was Good King Wenceslas? What are the pagan origins of The Holly And The Ivy? And - of course - what was the partridge doing in the pear tree? Carols first appeared in the Middle Ages, when a carol was any song sung with the singer standing in a circle; they were banned under Puritan law and united the soldiers on both sides on the Western front; and they are the longest running tradition of Christmas. -
Heidi: Johanna Spyri
$9.00First published in 1880, here is Heidi's story - a young Swiss girl whose parents' sudden death leaves her to be brought up by her Aunt Dete - a hard-working woman who loves Heidi, but does not have the time or resources to look after a child in busy Frankfurt. She leaves Heidi with Heidi's grandfather, who lives in the Swiss mountains. The lonely, embittered old man lives like a hermit on the mountain-top and has nothing to do with the people in the village below. Known to all as “Alm-uncle”, Heidi's grandfather is good-hearted but mistrustful of the villagers. He refuses to send Heidi to school and allows her to roam the pastures with a mischeivous young goat herder, Peter. They become good friends but events take a turn when Aunt Dete decides that Heidi must stay in Frankfurt and learn to earn a living as a companion to a rich invalid child, Clara, and soon learns to read and write along with the little girl. The city begins to take its toll on the young Heidi and she becomes ill and depressed, longing for the open spaces. How Heidi returns to her beloved mountains, reforms her crotchety old grandfather and helps Clara regain her health forms the rest of this perennial classic. With illustrations in colour and black and white by Pelagie Doane. -
Inimitable (definition): that which defies imitation. For years, Mikes wrote witty articles and books on every aspect of British life, pricking pomposity and praising decency. Contains chapters on how to avoid travelling, wine snobbery, television, how to be class conscious and how to remain poor. Mikes may have emigrated from Hungary - but he wouldn't live anywhere else. Illustrated by Nicholas Bentley. -
What's in a name? Well, plenty, according to this interesting little booklet. The word 'dunce' meaning slow-witted or dull is from the name Duns Scotus, a brilliant medieval teacher; Dick Whittington, mayor of London, did exist but is not the legendary poor boy with a pet cat seeking his fortune; Robert Louis Stevenson's infamous character Dr. Jekyll was based on a real man; Old 'Uncle Tom Cobbleigh' was a hotblooded and amorous red-headed man; Lady Godiva did get her gear off as a result of a bet with her husband - and Mother Goose did write a swag of nursery rhymes! Loads of interest in a small package. -
Over 150 original images guaranteed to cross your eyes, baffle your brain and frustrate your friends - there's even one dated from the time of the Ancient Romans. In colour and black and white.
