It also inspired us to come out with a delightful article, the ‘Indian Masketeers’, exploring Indian culture through its various masks. We also have ‘Dotty and the Albino Dragon’, the First Prize winning story in the Tinkle Original Story Competition. Moving on, we have three popular characters this issue, Shikari Shambu, Kalia the Crow and the Defective Detectives. Shambu goes on a rollicking ‘Jumbo Adventure in Assam’ while the Defective Detectives have a spine-chilling experience in ‘The Horror’. As for Kalia, can you imagine him, Chamataka and Doob Doob playing together? If you can’t, you should check out ‘Let’s Play a Game’. Next, enjoy a fun story by a reader, ‘Show Business’ in our Fan Fiction segment along with ‘Pranav’s Dadi and the Karate Kid’, where Dadi tries her hand at karate! And to wrap it up we have two diverse stories about two brave men who refused to give up. So check out ‘A Mighty Will’ and ‘No Crazy Ideas’. Enjoy!

    

    Up until today. Do I have a return ticket? No. Will someone wait for me at the airport? No. Do I have a plan? No. Do I speak English? Absolutely not. Then why do I get onto the flight to London when I originally planned to go to Frankfurt? Well, it all started with a game of solitaire…

    ‘I can’t do it!’ I sulked. Mother sighed and shook her head. My heart sank. Of course, I’d seen the mill hundreds of times before, but now it was different – now, I was going in. I’d never seen a place so depressing; I wanted to cry.'With tales from hardworking Audrey and mischievous Maureen to high-spirited Doris and dedicated Marjorie, The Mill Girls is an evocative story of hardship and friendship from when cotton was still king. Through the eyes of these northern mill girls, we are offered a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ordinary women who rallied together, nattered over the beamers and, despite the difficult conditions, weaved, packed and laughed to keep the cotton mills spinning.

    Marcin Milkowski, Ph.D. and Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak, Ph.D. It is the largest English-Polish dictionary ever published. It contains over 1.8 million words, covering hundreds of thousands of meanings in over two hundred thousand definitions, includign abbreviations, synonyms, antonyms, et al. Its range is over 20% wider than in the case of any dictionary published before.It is also the first English-Polish dictionary developed in the 21st century, basing on actual English language usage and frequencies (based on corpora of American, British, and Canadian English), covering not only general vocabulary, but also terminology and idioms typical for business, finance, law, medicine, the sciences and technology, including over 150 disciplines! It is the first English-Polish dictionary including words such as QWERTY, screenager, smartphone, tablet or boccia, with their proper pronunciation. The dictionary can replace the standard Kindle e-reader dictionary, to allow one-click lookups (please, note that this functionality is typical for all Kindle e-readers, but not necessarily a tablet).

    From the CWA Debut Dagger Shortlist Novelist comes the extraordinary crime series that everyone is raving about. Featuring: TrophiesTormentTalisman Trophies: When DI Colin Strong interviews a suspect on suspicion of handling stolen goods he’s convinced he’s heard their voice before. Nearly 25 years ago the tape of Wearside Jack taunted West Yorkshire Police and his suspect fits the profile.Then the body of a known burglar shows up and a mysterious metal case is discovered at the scene.Strong turns to his close friend, journalist Bob Souter, and embarks on an awkward alliance to probe areas he is unable to explore.As the murder suspects start to disappear Strong must discover just who the shadowy figure inciting fear and panic amongst those he encounters is.Strong wants to bring a murderer to justice and Souter is hungry for a story.Who will get to the truth first and can their friendship remain intact?  Torment: A message left in error on a young woman's answerphone is the catalyst for uncovering some dark deeds. Three young women are missing; luxury cars are being stolen; and just what did happen to two young schoolgirls, missing since the 1980's?DI Strong and journalist, Bob Souter are drawn into murky and dangerous worlds. Talisman: Following a fire in a terraced house, the body of a prominent lawyer, Charles Chamberlain, is found naked and shackled to a bed frame. Six weeks earlier, DI Colin Strong is investigating the sudden death of a transsexual, left undiscovered in the bath for over a year. Initially, it appears to be a tragic death but one mysterious item, a card for the Talisman Club, is found in the bedroom.Meanwhile, Bob Souter, journalist and close friend of DI Strong, is probing connections between a developer and the council leader in respect of a controversial project when massive European funding is announced. Souter smells a rat and delves further into the scheme.Is there a link between the bodies and the business deal?Will Souter or DI Strong crack the case first?And what exactly is the Talisman Club? What the readers say: Trophies "Informative, interesting and thrilling""Simply unputdownable." Torment: "What a fantastic read , the author captured my interest early on with this thrilling story.""Another brilliant book from a great writer. "Torment' is an enjoyable detective book with gripping plots and a dark mystery." Talisman: "Another stupendous read""It will become one of the talked about novels of 2016"

    But when her daughter Joanna's husband walks out, and Joanna instantly assumes that Kate will step into the supporting Granny role while she goes career and man-hunting, Kate realizes it is time to step outside her family's preconceived expectations--with devastating results. What follows is a delightful story of the relationships and unspoken power struggles between four generations of women.

    It is instant history with added jokes.Read about how John Major learned the English language from his time in Nigeria. There is Tony Blair, with his verb-free sentences which imply everything and promise nothing. Gordon Brown, the grumpiest prime minister of recent years, both Stalin and Mr Bean. And now David Cameron - who really, really hates being drawn with a condom on his head.Let's not forget John Prescott, who can wrestle the English language to the mat and win by two falls to a submission, Michael Fabricant with his hairpiece stolen from the tail of a My Little Pony, Sir Peter Tapsell, a grandee so grand that when he rises to speak, Hansard writers are replaced by a crack team of monks to write up his words in illuminated lettering. Nick Clegg, with his default expression of a man's whose chldren's puppy is still missing. And of course, the famous 2010 press conference in the garden of Downing Street, a love-in that would have been illegal in 44 American states.This book will have you laughing, chuckling, roaring, sniggering, and sometimes despairing.

    The intensive education that follows offers Henry a model for future excellence; a model that he is doomed to fail.On his accession, he chooses his brother’s widow, Caterina of Aragon, to be his queen. Together they plan to reinstate the glory of days of old and fill the royal nursery with boys.But when their first-born son dies at just a few months old, and subsequent babies are born dead or perish in the womb, the king’s golden dreams are tarnishedChristendom mocks the virile prince. Caterina’s fertile years are ending yet all he has is one useless living daughter, and a baseborn son.He needs a solution but stubborn to the end, Caterina refuses to step aside.As their relationship founders his eye is caught by a woman newly arrived from the French court. Her name is Anne Boleyn. A Matter of Conscience: The Aragon Years offers a unique first-person account of the ‘monster’ we love to hate and reveals a man on the edge; an amiable man made dangerous by his own impossible expectation.The story continues in A Matter of Faith : Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle.

    Over twelve hundred years ago, Eadburg made a name for herself as one of the most powerful queens of the early middle ages, and her reputation for malevolence is documented in a contemporaneous biography of King Alfred the Great. Was she truly evil, a tyrant and a murderer, or could her reputation have been part of a double-standard smear campaign by later generations of male chroniclers? Read her story, and you decide. Warning: this book deals with adult topics and situations.

    With them is Mary McCarthy and her volatile son, Liam. All is well until the arrival of Siobhan’s husband George. A man of strong views and even stronger temper, he browbeats his gentle wife, belittles his daughter Christine and treats Liam like a servant…A year later, on a visit to Ireland, Liam unexpectedly comes face to face with the father he has never known. Liam wants nothing to do with him, but when George Clough throws him out, he has little choice but to enter his father’s dangerous world of Irish politics…As the Clough children grow up they each react to their domineering father in different ways, and his daughter Christine finds herself attracted to the man her father would disapprove of above all others, the wild card Liam McCarthy… Perfect for fans of Emily Gunnis, Fiona Valpy and Santa Montefiore, The Wild Card is an intensely gripping and unforgettable read.

    'Welcome to Islam' is a step-by-step guide to help people who have just accepted Islam. It teaches them the absolute basics of Islam that they should learn within their first month of being a Muslim. This work is not another introductory book on Islam but rather a step-by-step instruction manual that allows you to start practicing what you learn immediately. It also contains valuable advice on some common challenges that new Muslims often face.

    Perhaps the oddest quirk of Britain's railway network is also one of its least well known: around 150 of the nation's stations are request stops. Take an unassuming station like Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire - the scene of a fatal accident involving thousands of carrots. Or Talsarnau in Wales, which experienced a tsunami. Tiny Stations is the story of the author's journey from the far west of Cornwall to the far north of Scotland, visiting around 40 of the most interesting of these little used and ill-regarded stations. Often a pen-stroke away from closure - kept alive by political expediency, labyrinthine bureaucracy or sheer whimsy - these half-abandoned stops afford a fascinating glimpse of a Britain that has all but disappeared from view. There are stations built to serve once thriving industries - copper mines, smelting works, cotton mills, and china clay quarries where the first trains were pulled by horses; stations erected for the sole convenience of stately home and castle owners through whose land the new iron road cut an unwelcome swathe; stations created for Victorian day-tripping attractions; a station built for a cavalry barracks whose last horse has long since bolted; and many more. Dixe Wills will leave you in no doubt that there's more to tiny stations than you might think.

    There’s still something disturbing, I grant you, about the word “actress”. If an MP or some other outstanding person plays fast and loose with an actress the world is unsurprised. She is certainly no better than she should be, and probably French…’ As well as being a mother (to the actresses Sophie and Emma Thompson) and a devoted carer to her own mother and mother-in-law, Phyllida Law is also a distinguished actress, and Dead Now Of Course is the tale of her early acting career.As a young member of a travelling company, Phyllida learned to cope with whatever was thrown at her, from making her own false eyelashes to battling flammable costumes and rogue cockroaches. We find her in Mrs Miller’s digs, which were shared with a boozy monkey bought from Harrods, an Afghan hound known as the ‘the flying duster’, several hens and various children.Filled with funny, charming anecdotes, Dead Now Of Course paints a fascinating picture of life in the theatre – and at the heart of the story is an enchanting account of Phyllida’s courtship with her future husband, the actor and writer Eric Thompson.

    Then Charlie's business empire crashes and he vanishes. While their privileged beautiful daughters Olivia and Emma have to come to terms with being broke, eleven-year-old Mac refuses to talk about what happened. When Charlie's estranged mother, Vera opens her doors to the broken family, secrets emerge that reveal there was more to Charlie than meets the eye. But Charlie's shell shocked family aren't the only ones asking questions . . . The darkly enigmatic Russian billionaire Lukaz Mihailov arrives in Dublin with some unfinished business. What better way to track down Charlie than befriend his pretty and very vulnerable, abandoned wife Shelley . . . Is blood is always thicker than water? Maybe Charlie's family are simply better off without him ....