Supernatural, surreal, suspense stories from day to day human activities written in a nostalgic and laid-back style.

It is over fifty years since the critics of the day acclaimed The Wooden Horse as a superbly told story of the most ingenious and daring escape of the Second World War. Millions of readers agreed, and the book became a modern classic. This revised and expanded edition tells the tale. The escape itself was conceived on classical lines. The Greeks built a wooden horse and by means of it got into the city of Troy; in 1943 two British officers built a wooden horse and by means of it got out of a German prison camp. Together with a third companion, they were the only British prisoners ever to escape and reach England from this camp, though many tried. It was Stalag Luft III, designed especially to hold the Germans' most prized captives – Allied aircrew – and considered to be escape-proof. The break from the camp itself is only part of the story. Once outside the wire the escapers were still faced with the problem of getting out of Germany. Fugitives in the midst of a watchful enemy population, they had many close shaves when disaster threatened to overwhelm them – adventures which the reader shares to the full. The fantastic nature of this enterprise, the patience, determination and endurance, above all the steel nerve it demanded from an undernourished physique, are rendered the more impressive by the manner of the telling. The characters are so surely drawn that they could not but be real. Throughout the book runs a vein of humour which alone made those days bearable. The warmth of human companionship born of privation, fear and a common purpose is vividly portrayed.

When Helen, the beautiful wife of King Menelaus, runs away to Troy, it sparks a siege that rages for ten years. Can the King's army ever break into Troy and bring Helen back? Just when the task seems impossible, clever Odysseus has an idea... This thrilling retelling of the classic Greek myth is specially written for children who have just started reading alone. Includes links to recommended websites to find out more about life in Ancient Greece. "Crack reading and make confident and enthusiastic readers with this fantastic reading programme." - Julia Eccleshare

Rediscover the classic magical adventure of the Little Wooden Horse, brought to life with the original inside illustrations from the author of Milly-Molly-Mandy, Joyce Lankester Brisley. When Uncle Peder the toymaker falls on hard times, his little wooden horse must go out into the world to seek his fortune. But whether he's working in a coal mine, sailing the seven seas with a band of pirates, or walking the tightrope in a circus, the loyal little horse only has one wish: to return to his beloved master. Originally published in 1938, Ursula Moray-Williams The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse is her most famous story and continues to be one of the most-loved classic stories of children's literature.

A wooden toy horse, passed from child to child, introduces us to ten children who lived in ten different decades and different parts of Washington state. Starting with an 11-year-old on an 1890s wheat farm, this book describes the everyday life of a Native American girl sent away to boarding school, a logger's son who conquers his fear of heights, a polio victim who meets President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a Laotion immigrant settling into an American school. Includes a glossary of ethic and historical terms. A useful supplement to standard Washington state history texts.

Friendship between man and horse is one of the pillars of civilization. Retired from most of his functions of transport and heavy work, today the horse is an animal companion - and is even used as a therapeutic tool in health treatments - and a classic partner of sports. In this book, the critic August Nemo has selected seven short stories that talk about the intimate relationship between man and horse. This book contains: - Chu Chu by Bret Harte. - The Doctor's Horse by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. - The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence. - Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle. - The Maltese Cat by Rudyard Kipling. - A Genuine Mexican Plug by Mark Twain. - The Brogue by Saki.

The complete uncollected fiction and nonfiction, including the five posthumously discovered “last” stories, published here in book form for the first time—from “one of the great short story writers of our time—of any time” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver’s mature writing and give his devoted readers a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver’s writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have already entered the canon of modern literature.

A foreword by former soldier and memoirist Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign Country, and an afterword by military wife and memoirist Angela Ricketts, author of No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, bookend the volume.

This is a tale of two princes and their destinies. Prince Hoshyar gains rank and fortune by supervising the construction of huge metallic fishes that perform wondrous tasks and bring riches to the people of his land. His brother, Prince Tambal, is interested only in a wooden horse that he obtains from a humble carpenter. But the horse is a magical one.

A collection of short stories by the infamously witty Jazz Age writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edna Ferber, including Buttered Side Down, Cheerful - By Request, Half Portions, and Gigolo. This volume features many of Edna Ferber’s best works of fiction. The Algonquin Round Table writer is known for her masterful ability to capture quiet everyday lives and present insightful philosophies. Many of her characters are strong, wilful women who have the remarkable capacity to exceed expectations as single mothers and businesswomen. The stories in this book are sad, enlightening, comedic, and surprisingly modern. The Collected Short Stories of Edna Ferber explores life before, during, and after the First World War, taking the reader through the quiet countryside of North America and into the States’ bustling cities. This collection features much-loved stories, including: - ‘The Kitchen Side of the Door’ - ‘The Leading Lady’ - ‘Cheerful by Request’ - ‘The Woman Who Tried to Be Good’ - ‘The Maternal Feminine’ - ‘One Hundred Per Cent’ - ‘Gigolo’ - ‘The Sudden Sixties’ First published between 1911 and 1922, this volume is now in a brand new edition, complete with an introduction by Rogers Dickinson. The Collected Short Stories of Edna Ferber would make the perfect gift for fans of the early feminist writer.