Old Before My Time

Hayley Okines is like no other 13-year-old schoolgirl. In Old Before My Time, Hayley and her mum Kerry reflect on her unusual life. Share Hayley’s excitement as she travels the world meeting her pop heroes Kylie, Girls Aloud and Justin Bieber and her sadness as she loses her best friend to the disease at the age of 11. Now as she passes the age of 13 – the average life expectancy for a child with progeria – Hayley talks frankly about her hopes for the future and her pioneering drug trials in America which could unlock the secrets of ageing for everyone...

The New York Times bestseller that tells the true story of the life of Major Dick Winters, the man who led the Band of Brothers in World War II. Look for the Band of Brothers miniseries, now available to stream on Netflix! In every band of brothers, there is always one who looks out for the others. They were Easy Company, 101st Army Airborne—the World War II fighting unit legendary for their bravery against nearly insurmountable odds and their loyalty to one another in the face of death. Every soldier in this band of brothers looked to one man for leadership, devotion to duty, and the embodiment of courage: Major Dick Winters. This is the riveting story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero. After he enlisted in the army’s arduous new Airborne division, Winters’s natural combat leadership helped him rise through the ranks, but he was never far from his men. Decades later, Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers made him famous around the world. Full of never-before-published photographs, interviews, and Winters’s candid insights, Biggest Brother is the fascinating, inspirational story of a man who became a soldier, a leader, and a living testament to the valor of the human spirit—and of America.

An entertaining book full of humour, science and history Children can learn in a fun way about history with more time travellers than you can throw a Flux-capacitor at! The story starts in a gentlemen’s club in London in 2061 and follows the main character, Benjamin Digby Esq. He relives his days as a ‘quantum’ scientist at the Crick institute in London in 2021 by telling his circle of friends his extraordinary tale about travelling in time. He travels back to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 Victorian England where he meets Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Benjamin’s aim is to pick up inventors and scientists for his Time Travellers’ Club: Einstein, Da Vinci, Brunel. He gets more than he bargained for when he gets chased through time and space and encounters Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli. There are more twists and turns in this than time itself – expect the unexpected! The Time Travellers Club is Mark’s fourth Matador children’s book, and will appeal to science fiction lovers and fans of his former books

Covering over 10,000 idioms and collocations characterized by similarity in their wording or metaphorical idea which do not show corresponding similarity in their meanings, this dictionary presents a unique cross-section of the English language. Though it is designed specifically to assist readers in avoiding the use of inappropriate or erroneous phrases, the book can also be used as a regular phraseological dictionary providing definitions to individual idioms, cliches, and set expressions. Most phrases included in the dictionary are in active current use, making information about their meanings and usage essential to language learners at all levels of proficiency.

While aging and the life-course appear to be normalized processes, the complex construction of age at the intersection of biology, society, and culture remains opaque. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of age(ing) by exploring its construction through the analysis of extraordinary cases. Focusing on life narratives of centenarians and children with progeria, Julia Velten analyzes the way in which these people experience age(ing) and shows how these experiences can contribute to our understanding of age. Situated at the intersection of aging studies and medical humanities, the study explores what extraordinary age(ing) can tell us about aging processes in general.

When matchmaker Freya Hansen-Adler is inspired by the holiday spirit, she’ll stop at nothing to see former Navy SEAL Harris and single mom Ava get the happily ever after they deserve… I set the bar pretty low when it comes to the holidays. I have to. As a Navy officer, I spend plenty of them far from anyplace I’d call “home”… sometimes getting shot like I did on my last SEAL mission. So, yeah, I set the bar low enough that I can roll over it. That is, until I meet my neighbor Ava. She’s the type of woman who bakes pecan pie and drinks egg nog. She carols with her neighbors and illuminates her house with enough tiny lights that it can probably be spotted by satellites. I bet she even owns a stack of ugly Christmas sweaters. She’s also got a son… and roots dug deep into this picturesque holiday town. Roots that make life with a Navy guy like me impossible. Ava is the last thing I need. Yet she’s all I want for Christmas.

Cowboys and Christmas are an unbeatable combination in this charming western anthology helmed by New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer—one of America’s most beloved romance writers. Equal parts sweet and sexy, these all-new novellas feature picturesque settings, festive appeal, and rugged cowboy heroes finding their love matches. A perfect gift for fans of Linda Lael Miller, Jill Shalvis, and Maisey Yates. ONCE THERE WAS A LAWMAN * Diana Palmer FBI agent Thomas Kincaid Jones has soured on love and Christmas, but Annalisa Davis could change all that. Except the lovely nurse isn’t looking to get involved with someone whose job requires a gun on his hip. And Tom has a case to solve that has nothing to do with love. Yet the spirit of the holidays just might spark a lifetime connection . . . CHRISTMAS CREEK COWBOY * Delores Fossen In Christmas Creek, Texas, folks go all out for the holidays, but Sheriff Calen Jameson is too busy commiserating about cheating exes with his best friend, Emmy Kendrick. Calen always thought their bond was too precious to risk, yet maybe it’s time to start making some changes . . . by firing up the heat with Emmy. COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS * Kate Pearce Lucy Smith thinks Santa has outdone himself when Caleb Erickson shows up at her B&B. In high school, Caleb was oblivious to her crush. But while they wait out a snowstorm, he’s discovering she may be the gift he never knew he wanted . . .

Convinced by her mother that she is a child of Satan, Laura Scarapelli, a beautiful, intelligent Italian begins to write at an early age to escape poverty, horrendous abuse, fear of God and most of her world. When Laura refuses to attend her high school graduation, despite the fact that she is class valedictorian, a teacher, Sue Finley, steps up to help. Sue, a widow with no children, immediately finds her maternal wings and helps Laura into college and begin to win in her struggle to know God. Because she feels loved, Laura also begins to feel she belongs to the world around her. Laura's world becomes big with pretty clothes, piano lessons, car trips, people and kindness. A Whitfield favorite son, Hugh Brehm, falls in love with Laura but she is too busy learning to live and still struggling with trust issues. Hugh studies law and Laura goes to Yale where Sue hopes Laura will have exposure for her writing. Sue dies about the same time an interested professor sends Laura's book to a New York publisher. Laura realizes she does love Hugh but when she turns to him for comfort, she learns he is engaged to someone else. Fear returns and she once again hears her mother's words...God cannot love you. Walk with Laura in her mission barrel "wooly worm" black coat. Hear her utter her first prayer, share intimacy with a purple-winged wasp, thrill with Laura as she feels love for the first time -- love for a stray dog she names Pilot. See the world through Laura's eyes as she is named May Day Queen, as she searches for an elusive movie idol, experiences her first kiss, faces a life threatening experience with a long-lost brother and embraces the reality of her own loveliness in a vintage gown as she speaks at the Academy awards.