Hene is a Maori girl living in 1840s New Zealand. When her twin brother falls dangerously ill, her parents fear she will also catch the sickness, so they send her away from her home at the pa to the Paihia mission station. Life with the missionaries is difficult. Hene must wear an uncomfortable European dress and learn to sew, which she hates. Meanwhile, across the water in Russell, the world is in turmoil. Hone Heke has cut down the flagpole again and has attacked Korororeka. Hene sees smoke and fire from across the bay; the town is on fire and her best friend from the mission house, Rangi, is trapped there. Hene is the only one who can save her.

Joss Lambert has always been a loner, constrained by a secret from his past, until he finds friendship and solace firstly with Guy Liddell, a friend from school, and then with Guy's family, who welcome him into their farmhouse home. Joss increasingly comes to depend upon the Liddells and treats Alvesdon Farm as the one place where he feels not only appreciated but also truly happy. But in late 1930s England, the idyll cannot last. With war looming, Joss is forced to confront the past. He escapes through flying, becoming a fighter pilot in the RAF. But with the onset of war, even the Liddells' world is crumbling. As Joss is fighting for his life in the Battle of Britain, so he begins to fall madly in love with Stella - Guy's twin - but with tragic consequences. Leaving England and the Liddells far behind, he continues to fly amid the sand and heat of North Africa's deserts, flying above the 'Desert Rats' of the 8th Army, until his hopes and dreams are seemingly shattered for good...

Churchill's description of the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, after Lt-Gen Percival's surrender led to over 100,000 British, Australian and Indian troops falling into the hands of the Japanese, was no wartime exaggeration. The Japanese had promised that there would be no Dunkirk in Singapore, and its fall led to imprisonment, torture and death for thousands of allied men and women. With much new material from British, Australian, Indian and Japanese sources, Colin Smith has woven together the full and terrifying story of the fall of Singapore and its aftermath. Here, alongside cowardice and incompetence, are forgotten acts of enormous heroism; treachery yet heart-rending loyalty; Japanese compassion as well as brutality from the bravest and most capricious enemy the British ever had to face.

Chronicles of Egg: Blue Sea Burning by Geoff Rodkey is the third and final installment to this hilarious and exquisitely written swashbuckling adventure series. After narrowly escaping the New Lands, Egg is determined to take down ruthless slave trader Roger Pembroke. But war is brewing among the Blue Sea's pirate gangs-and Egg, Guts, and Kira are running out of time to find the Fire King's treasure and free the Okalu slaves from the silver mine on Sunrise. Can they save Kira's people before Sunrise is plundered by Ripper Jones's pirates? Will Burn Healy save the day, or has the legendary captain finally met his match? And will Egg ever win back Millicent from the annoyingly handsome Cyril? This explosive conclusion to Egg's journey delivers the ultimate combination of humor, heart, and white-knuckle adventure. Praise for Geoff Rodkey: 'This is a rip-roaring debut. It is Lemony Snicket meets Pirates of the Caribbean, with a sprinkling of Tom Sawyer for good measure.' - Rick Riordan, author of the bestselling PERCY JACKSON series. Geoff Rodkey is a successful screenwriter, whose hits include RV (starring Robin Williams) and Daddy Daycare (starring Eddie Murphy). As well as contributing to MTV's seminal animated series Beavis and Butt-head, Geoff received an Emmy nomination for his work on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. Deadweather and Sunrise, the first book in The Chronicles of Egg series has been shortlisted for the prestigious Waterstones Children's Book Prize.

True stories from the time when ocean steamers plied their trade across the globe

Until now, information regarding chemical spill clean-up was available only through manufacturer's literature from an individual firm, or scattered in the traditional textbooks on remediation engineering and hazardous waste management. Survey of Chemical Spill Countermeasures provides a one-stop source of information on how to clean up spill sites in safe, acceptable ways. Because of the ever-growing need to maintain constant vigilance over hazardous chemicals and potential leaks and spills, this reference will become an important source for the practicing environmental engineer and field technician. Survey of Chemical Spill Countermeasures provides operators with useful information on how to clean up sites, including controlling leakage, containment of spills on land and water, and ways to safely transfer and store the contaminants. Additionally, the book includes up-to-date information on containment and treatment technologies, from dredging and vacuuming, to solid and vapor treatment systems.

Charlotte struggles to find her twin brother after the rest of her family is killed in the tragic Halifax explosion. No Safe Harbour is set in the months before and after the December 6, 1917 Halifax explosion, which was the largest man-made blast in history until the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The explosion levelled most of the city and sent shards of glass and burning debris flying for miles. It left thousands dead, blinded or homeless. Suddenly orphaned, Charlotte turns to her diary to help her cope with the events that killed her entire family - leaving her older brother, still fighting in the trenches of WWI, as her only surviving relative. This is an affecting story of loss and recovery, powerfully told by award-winning author Julie Lawson.

* * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

Biomass burning profoundly affects atmospheric chemistry, the carbon cycle, and climate and may have done so for millions of years. Bringing together renowned experts from paleoecology, fire ecology, atmospheric chemistry, and organic chemistry, the volume elucidates the role of fire during global changes of the past and future. Topics covered include: the characterization of combustion products that occur in sediments, including char, soot/fly ash, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; the calibration of these constituents against atmospheric measurements from wildland and prescribed fire emissions; spatial and temporal patterns in combustion emissions at scales of individual burns to the globe.

This is a tale of courage, faith, wisdom, tragedy, and perseverance in a small fishing hamlet called Tobay.