Margaret Hughes Knihy

A natural and cultural history of the hedgehog that explores the symbolism of the animal, from Romans who regarded it as a weather prophet to Sonic the Hedgehog and children's books today.

Peter Reading was one of the most original and controversial British poets of the post-war angry, uncompromising, gruesomely ironic, hilarious and heartbreaking – as funny as he was disconcerting. He was a prodigiously skilful and technically inventive poet, mixing the matter and speech of the gutter with highly sophisticated metrical and syllabic patterns to produce scathing and grotesque accounts of lives blighted by greed, meanness, ignorance, phony media flimflam, political ineptness and cultural impoverishment. Each of his collections is self-contained, as carefully constructed and plotted as a novel, interweaving voices and narrative strands which can now be seen to link the 24 books which make up his Collected Poems. This was published in three volumes from Poems 1970-1984 (1995), Poems 1985-1996 (1996) and Poems 1997-2003 (2003). He subsequently produced two later collections, -273.15 (2005) and Vendange Tardive (2010). He died in 2011. Volume 1 of his Collected Poems includes an Introduction by Isabel Martin and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The collections included (in full) Water and Waste (1970), For the Municipality’s Elderly (1974), The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery (1976), Nothing For Anyone (1977), Fiction (1979), Tom o' Bedlam’s Beauties (1981), Diplopic (1983), 5x5x5x5x5 (1983) and C (1984).

The only way is a rescue dog. Although he's most famous for his appearances on The Only Way is Essex, he's never happier than when he's with his best friend - no, not James Lock - his French Bulldog Eric.

timely and essential reading' Kathy Willis, Director of Science, Kew GardensIt is rare to find a landscape untouched by our lines - the hedges, walls, ditches and dykes built to enclose and separate; for while nature does not tend to straight lines and discrete borders, our lines can and do contain a real potential for wildness and for wildlife.

Being able to read is one of the most important skills in life and something we all want our children to achieve - for learning and for pleasure. This book gives you the understanding you need of the reading process to ensure that children are effectively supported in their reading journeys.