At night, this mischievous bunch peeks out from under your bed. When you hear that creak . . . creak . . . THE CREAKERS are there! Discover a hilarious and eerie middle-grade story by a UK star.What would you do if you woke up to a world with no grown-ups?When all the parents in the world disappear, most kids think this is amazing! They can finally run wild and eat candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But Lucy Dungston wants to get her mom back, especially because her dad disappeared not long ago. Lucy wants the truth, and she's convinced that the creaking sounds that come from under her bed can lead her to it.Creak . . . creak . . .That's when Lucy meets the Creakers, a bunch of sticky, smelly creatures who live under children's beds. This troublesome bunch has taken all the grown-ups to an upside-down world called the Woleb. Lucy must act fast if she wants to rescue the grown-ups, because adults who stay in the Woleb...

The Thing on the Shore takes place in a call-centre in Whitehaven. When Artemis Black (from The Leaping) is assigned to manage the centre on behalf of a mysterious multinational corporation called Interext, the isolation and remoteness of the place encourage him to implement a decidedly unhinged personal project, installing what purports to be cutting-edge AI technology, with a real, 'human' voice, on the automated answering systems.As a result of Artemis' actions, one of his employees, Arthur, becomes aware of an intangible landscape inside the labyrinthine systems of the call-centre -- a landscape in which he can feel some kind of otherworldly consciousness stirring and in which, perhaps as a result of his father's increasingly alarming eccentricities, he feels that he could find his recently deceased mother.Arthur takes refuge in this belief as his father, his job, and his house slowly deteriorate around him. He begins to conflate the mysterious,...

The case for paring diplomacy back to its essential elements. Stripped of the paraphernalia, what is it really about, and why does it still matter? The essential attributes are now thick skin, an open mind and a smart phone.In next century we will need to deal with equivalent in social development of last 43 centuries: like the change from cave paintings to the atom bomb. We will see the arrival of the digital native; the rebirth of the city state; the battle for new energy; disappearing borders; disruption and diplomacy. So who will really be in charge of the 21st century? Will Google be the new emperors? How do you influence the future?In 'The Naked Diplomat', Tom Fletcher – an experienced foreign representative – explores the core principles of a progressive 21st century foreign policy: how to balance interventionism and national interest, use global governance structures to achieve national objectives and explore representative international systems. Re-evaluating the core...

A little girl discovers that eating ice cream from her grandfather's old ice-cream truck gives her the power to travel through time, in this brilliant, funny and heartwarming story from bestselling author Tom Fletcher.

Why settle for a pony or a puppy for Christmas when you could have a dinosaur? A rollicking adventure from singer-songwriter and YouTuber Tom Fletcher.Once upon a time—long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth—an egg rolled away from its mother and landed in the ocean, where it froze solid and stayed peacefully for thousands of years. Then one day Santa and his elves discover the frozen egg, and Santa sits on it to see if it will hatch. But he can't guess what's inside. . . . A dinosaur!Meanwhile, a young boy named William Trundle has only ever wished for one thing for Christmas: a dinosaur! So when Santa accidentally gives William the real Christmasaurus instead of a stuffed replica, it's the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! Until an evil man known as the Hunter decides a dinosaur will be the perfect addition to his collection. A wild and hilarious adventure ensues. An instant Christmas classic!