English

This selection of a hundred of O. Henry’s succinct tales displays the range, humour and humanity of a perennially popular short-story writer.

Here Henry gives a richly colourful and exuberantly entertaining panorama of social life, ranging from thieves to tycoons, from the streets of New York to the prairies of Texas.

These stories are famed for their 'trick endings' or 'twists in the tail': repeatedly the plot twirls adroitly, compounding ironies. Indeed, O. Henry's cunning plots surpass those of the ingenious rogues he creates. His style is genial, lively and witty, displaying a virtuoso’s command of language and allusion.

This great collection offers delights for the mind, imagination and emotions.

In Berlin, the city divided after World War II, everybody knows about the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler s bunker, Kennedy's speech, red and green beer, splendidly broad boulevards, and numerous lakes. But this metropolis, once again the capital of Germany, encompasses many clandestine niches characteristic of a heterogeneous city without a beginning and without an end between its famous backyards, nature parks, and bridges. It is often these minuscule witnesses that tell authentic history. Besides the larger attractions, this unusual guide presents Berlin's other side - such as a tower so ugly that no-one wants to open a restaurant in it; a library offering its books in the trunks of living trees; the monument for the inventor of the currywurst; a residential settlement in a former East German prison; the place where the Nazis concealed the so-called 'degenerate art' which they had confiscated; the house where David Bowie lived; an automat out of which maggots can be pulled; a museum for things used for purposes for which they were not created; the reception camp for refugees from East Germany - and, in a completely unexpected spot, the most romantic place in Berlin.

12 complete practice tests that provide extensive practice in the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE).



The Student’s book contains: 

- an introduction with information about the ECPE providing a detailed description of each section of the examination

- 12 complete tests

- sample answers to the Writing tasks

- glossary with definitions and examples

- sample answer sheets. 

Learn to count with Percy the park keeper and his animal friends in this fun first concept book from highly regarded, award-winning author/illustrator Nick Butterworth. Learning to count is much easier when you do it with friends, and in this book children will find all their favourite characters from Percy's Park! From one to ten, the pages are packed full with beautiful illustrations, also introducing toddlers to the natural world as they go along. Based on the bestselling picture books by Nick Butterworth, including One Snowy Night, this simple and fun first concept book is perfect for nature lovers and the very youngest of Percy's fans! Percy and his animal friends have delighted readers around the world for over thirty years!

The stories from Greek mythology have never ceased to fascinate young and old alike. Heroes such as Heracles, Theseus, Jason and Odysseus remain indelibly fixed in the memory of every reader, inspiring admiration. This book contains several of the best loved and best known stories from Greek mythology, providing the opportunity for young readers to gain a taste of the worlds best known and richest mythology.

The distinguished historian Michael Llewellyn-Smith, author of the classic Ionian Vision as well as a number of other important studies about modern Greece, writes about this book: The story of how the Greeks founded their independent state, through a mixture of bravery, persistence, skulduggery and guile, is an inspiring one, and there is no better time to tell it than the 200th anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek war of independence in 1821. Athina Cacouri’s new book, 1821: The Founding of Modern Greece, tells the whole complicated story, from the outbreak of war in March 1821 to the emergence of a nominally independent state, in an English language narrative adapted from her Greek original in terms suitable for a young readership. The main focus of her book, rightly, is the leading Greek personalities, ranging from the doughty warrior Theodore Kolokotronis, whose vivid words on the ‘torment’ of leading an army of Greeks she quotes, to the western-influenced Alexander Mavrocordatos (for whom Cacouri has little love), and above all the tragic figure of Ioannis Capodistrias, the ‘Governor’ or first President of Greece, who did all in his power, with meagre resources, to create a well governed modern state. He was assassinated in Nafplion on 27 September 1831. Capodistrias is the first hero of this book. The other is the Greek People, to whose developing national feeling the emergence of the Greek state is largely owed. In what will be a crowded market, the book holds its own by the vigour of its narrative and judgements, and Athina Cacouri’s knowledge and love of her native country and its people. MICHAEL LLEWELLYN-SMITH Born in 1928, in the town of Patras, Greece, Athina Cacouri has lived in Vienna, Austria and Philadelphia, USA, and mostly in Athens, Greece. She has children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She has worked in a petroleum company, a shipping agency, in tourism and as a journalist and a translator. She has published four volumes of detective stories, eight historical novels, and three studies of history, all about Greece during the last two centuries. Her translation of Stephen Vincent Benét’s short story ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ and of Charles Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, as well as her novels Primarolia, set in Patras at the end of the 19th century, and Thekli, set during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, have been awarded major literary prizes. Her most recent works are two studies of the political rift which divided Greece during World War I, and a fresh look at the Greek War of Independence, 1821, and the creation of the modern Greek state, a translation of which is the volume in hand.

Satire on the possible horrors of a totalitarian regime in England in 1984.

"Book Two of 1Q84" ended with Aomame standing on the Metropolitan Expressway with a gun between her lips. She knows she is being hunted, and that she has put herself in terrible danger in order to save the man she loves. But things are moving forward, and Aomame does not yet know that she and Tengo are more closely bound than ever. Tengo is searching for Aomame, and he must find her before this world's rules loosen up too much. He must find her before someone else does.

Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, and made into one of the most influential films of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY remains a classic work of science fiction fifty years after its original publication. The discovery of a black monolith on the moon leads to a manned expedition deep into the solar system, in the hope of establishing contact with an alien intelligence. Yet long before the crew can reach their destination, the voyage descends into disaster . . . Brilliant, compulsive and prophetic, Arthur C. Clarke's timeless novel tackles the enduring theme of mankind's place in the universe. Praise for Arthur C. Clarke:'The king of science fiction . . . His influence continues to inform the genre' Guardian'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print' New York Times'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age . . . The colossus of science fiction' New Yorker 'Dazzling' Time