Even Sillier Seriously Silly Stories

Once upon a time there was a football-crazy boy, a fun-free town and a girl who got lost in the forest - but did they all live happily ever after? Open up to find out what happens next in these brain-ticklingly brilliant Seriously Silly Stories! They're scarily silly! Includes Cinderboy, The Fried Piper of Hamstring (Shortlisted for the Notts Children's Book Award), Ghostyshocks and the Three Scares (Children's Book Award Pick of the Year).

Once upon a time there were seven aliens, some giant knickers and a beastly bride - but did they all live happily ever after? Open up to find out what happens next in these brain-ticklingly brilliant Seriously Silly Stories! They're scarily silly! Includes the Smarties Award-winning Snow White and the Seven Aliens, The Emperor's Underwear and Billy Beast.

Hilarious retellings of familiar stories.

Once upon a time there was a Big Bad Girl, a miller's daughter and a teeny-tiny turnip - but did they all live happily ever after? Open up to find out what happens next in these brain-ticklingly brilliant Seriously Silly Stories! They're scarily silly! Includes Little Red Riding Wolf, Rumply Crumply Stinky Pin and The Rather Small Turnip.

These fractured fairy tales will send readers laughing from book to book. Each story transforms a classic tale into a funny and fabulous new version. A great model for creative writing.

One of the late twentieth century’s most celebrated and influential public intellectuals, Edward W. Said was also a critic of astonishing range. This book presents his insightful and elegant analyses of four major operas—originally delivered as the Empson Lectures at Cambridge University in 1997—showcasing the power of Said’s critical acumen to unsettle canonical interpretations. In close readings of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Said explores how each opera engages with the social and political questions of their own eras—and how they might speak to the present. He pays careful attention to the works’ historical context as well as the possibilities they open for contemporary reinterpretations, examining the tension between opera’s cultural prestige and its potential for subversion. Said considers the representation of national identity, class, and exoticism, and he shows how cultural and literary studies can enrich understandings of operatic texts and performance. Lucid and gracefully written, Said on Opera enlivens well-known works with fresh insights and demonstrates the breadth of Said’s contributions to cultural criticism. This book features an introduction by the editor, Wouter Capitain, who situates these essays in the context of Said’s career, and a foreword by the acclaimed opera director Peter Sellars, who offers a masterful appreciation of Said’s achievements.

Confessions of a Cowgirl Guru runs amok with the foibles of relationships, family, technology, aging, the media, stereotypes, and spiritual over-seriousness. Nothing is sacred-even the sacred itself-and Lola Jones pokes fun at herself most of all.

The book to read if you want to get some idea of the original primal energy of pop music. Nik Cohn: A Derry boy who became the omnipresent man in music's developing story from the 50s to the present; a self-styled rat, addicted to adventure, a rock legend, forever at the heart of the real action. This memoir provides a strong flavour of the person whose writing inspired Saturday Night Fever and several other pop-culture landmarks. Cohn leads us, in reverse order, through the decades of his musical life and times, meeting familiar heroes and rogues - let readers decide the categories to which Hendrix, Moon, Proby, Vicious et al belong. The Noise From The Streets is elegiac, charming and thoughtful - wallow in it. Nik Cohn recently headed Jarvis Cocker's top 10 music books in The Guardian (13 June 2014) for his title Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom. 'The original title for this book was ' Pop from the Beginning' and that pretty much sums it up. Nik Cohn was only just out of his teens when he wrote it and it's the book to read if you want to get some idea of the original primal energy of pop music. Loads of unfounded, biased assertions that almost always turn out to be right. He went on to provide the inspiration for Saturday Night Fever (Hurrah!) and Tommy (Boo!), but this is still his best book. Absolutely essential.'