LOVE OF SEVEN DOLLSA young girl called Mouche is about to throw herself into the Seine, when her attention is attracted by a voice. It turns out to be the voice of a glove puppet, called Carrot Top. She then meets Reynardo the fox, Gigi, Alifanfaron, Dr Duclos, Madame Muscat and Monsieur Nicholas. The story is about her relationship with the seven puppets and their grim puppetmaster, Capitaine Coq, and what happens when she joins their travelling show.This is another of Paul Gallico's brilliant short novels. You find yourself thinking, as Mouche does, of the puppets as individuals, and completely forgetting that they are only puppets.

THE MAN WHO WAS MAGIC, marks the return of Paul Gallico to those realms of enchantment established by The Snow Goose, The Love of Seven Dolls from which the movie Lili was made, Thomasina, Snowflake, Ludmila, The Small Miracle, and, of course, the famed Mrs. ’Arris series, which have entertained millions of readers. Magic and magicians have fascinated humans down through the ages. With this book the reader will experience vicariously one of man’s oldest wishes to be one with the supernatural, not just a performer pulling rabbits out of hats, but a genuine wizard who can unscramble an egg, or share the miracles of nature with a child. No more unusual and enthralling book has ever come from the pen of this well loved magician of words.

Perhaps Thomasina did not really have divine powers. Possibly she was only an ordinary cat. But it cannot be denied that she changed three lives in a near-miraculous manner ... There was Andrew MacDhui, Scottish veterinarian, whose bristling manner matched his fiery beard. Dour and withdrawn since his wife’s death, he had little patience with wooing sick animals back to health and was said to be a wee bit too quick with the chloroform. There was Andrew’s seven-year-old daughter, who brought her ailing cat, Thomasina, to her father to be cured—only to be bitterly disappointed by Andrew’s hasty and unfeeling disposal of her beloved cat. And there was Lori—beautiful, “daft Lori,” whose gentle and mysterious powers of healing caused some of the villagers to call her a saint—or a witch. How Thomasina, taking full advantage of a cat’s nine lives, brought these three together is a story which may be enjoyed for its face-value excitement and whimsey, but in which the more discerning reader will find both trenchant allegory and spirit-lifting philosophy. Set in the rugged and picturesque Scottish highland, Paul Gallico’s latest and finest work, while it retains the elements of faith and enchantment which have long delighted his many devotees, is primarily a novel of romance, character, and high adventure. With superb artistry, the author of The Snow Goose and The Small Miracle blends fantasy and warm humanity into a poignant tale of the natural and the supernatural in Thomasina the Enchanted Cat.

The brave little Manxmouse is one-of -a-kind creature on a special journey. But everyone knows who awaits him, for the Manxmouse belongs to the Manx Cat...The Manxmouse is one-of-a-kind. He's the strangest little mouse you'll ever see, with bright blue fur, huge rabbit ears and a distinct lack of tail. But Manxmouse doesn't mind being different.He knows that destiny awaits him, and so Manxmouse sets out on an exciting adventure. He meets tigers and hawks and dastardly pet-shop owners, but there's someone he dreads and desires to meet more than anyone else. The someone who has been waiting for him all along... the Manx Cat.

From the author of "The Snow Goose". "I was aware, from the very beginning, that I was a most unusual cat..." Thomasina is the beloved pet cat of 7-year-old Mary Ruadh, whose strict father is the town's vet. When Thomasina falls ill, her father sees no other option but to put the cat down. Heartbroken by his cruelty, Mary stops speaking to her father and falls dangerously ill herself.Meanwhile, Thomasina is rescued by Lori, a young woman who lives alone in an isolated glen and is rumoured to be a witch with healing powers.While Lori helps Thomasina recover from her ordeal, Mary's health continues to deteriorate and it is only when Thomasina makes her miraculous return, on a dark and stormy night, and is reunited with her owner that Mary is pulled from the brink of death.

An insightful story of cat-ology and the life of homeless cats told as a small boy’s strange dream.

A touching tribute to one of the greatest ballplayers of all time For seventeen seasons, Lou Gehrig was the heart and soul of the New York Yankees. The power-hitting first baseman donned the pinstripes for 2,130 consecutive games, a streak that earned him the nickname "the Iron Horse" and went unbroken for more than five decades. World Series champion, All-Star, American League Most Valuable Player, Triple Crown winner—the list of Gehrig's on-field achievements is spectacular. But he is best remembered for the grace and the strength with which he faced an insurmountable challenge off the field: the disease that ended his career and which now bears his name. When he retired on April 30, 1939, Lou Gehrig called himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." His words continue to resonate more than seventy-five years after they were spoken. In this heartfelt biography, which was the basis for the Academy Award–winning film The Pride...

A stunning new edition of a beloved children’s classic.On the desolate Essex marshes, a young girl, Fritha, comes to seek help from Philip Rhayader, a recluse who lives in an abandoned lighthouse. She carries in her arms a wounded snow goose that has been storm-tossed across the Atlantic from Canada. Fritha is frightened of Rhayader, but he is gentler than his appearance suggests and nurses the goose back to health. Over the following months and years, Fritha visits the lighthouse when the snow goose is there. And every summer, when it flies away, Thayader is left alone once more.The Snow Goose is set in the years running up to the evacuation of Dunkirk in the Second World War. Originally published in 1940 in the Saturday Evening Post, it was brought out in book form the following year by Knopf, Michael Joseph and M&S simultaneously. It won the prestigious O Henry prize that same year and has been continually in print ever since. The Snow Goose has inspired a number of musical scores and albums, has been made into two feature films and moved generations of readers. A new feature film will be released in the coming year.Beautifully written, with a powerful ending, and breathtakingly illustrated, this is an exquisite edition of Gallico’s masterpiece.About the AuthorPaul Gallico was born in New York in 1892. He became a minor celebrity as a sports writer and then began writing short stories for magazines. Gallico went on to write many more short stories and novels, including The Poseidon Adventure in 1969. He died in 1976.Angela Barrrett is one of the most highly acclaimed British illustrators. She studied at the Royal College of Art and has illustrated a number of picture books, including a retelling of Anne Frank that has been translated into twelve different languages. Angela has won the Smarties Book Prize and the WHSmith Illustration Award. She lives in London, England. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.One November afternoon, three years after Rhayander had come to the Great Marsh, a child approached the lighthouse studio by means of the sea wall. In her arms she carried a burden.She was no more than twelve, slender, dirty, nervous and timid as a bird, but beneath the grime as eerily beautiful as a marsh faery. She was pure Saxon, large-boned, fair, with a head to which her body was yet to grow, and deep-set, violet-coloured eyes.She was desperately frightened of the ugly man she had come to see, for legend had already begun to gather about Rhayader, and the native wild-fowlers hated him for interfering with their sport.But greater than her fear was the need of that which she bore. For locked in her child’s heart was the knowledge, picked up somewhere in the swampland, that this ogre who lived in the lighthouse had magic that could heal injured things.She had never seen Rhayader before and was close to fleeing in panic at the dark apparition that appeared at the studio door, drawn by her footsteps — the black head and beard, the sinister hump, and the crooked claw. She stood there staring, poised like a disturbed marsh bird for instant flight.But his voice was deep and kind when he spoke to her.‘What is it child?’She stood her ground, and then edged timidly forward. The thing she carried in her arms was a large white bird, and it was quite still. There were stains of blood on its whiteness and on her kirtle where she had held it to her.The girl placed it in his arms. ‘I found it, sir. It’s hurted. Is it still alive?’‘Yes. Yes, I think so. Come in, child, come in.’Rhyander went inside, bearing the bird, which he placed upon a table, where it moved feebly. Curiosity overcame fear. The girl followed and found herself in a room warmed by a coal fire, shining with many coloured pictures that covered the walls, and full of a strange but pleasant smell.The bird fluttered. With his good hand Rhayader spread on of its immense white pinions. The end was beautifully tipped with black.Rhayader looked and marvelled, and said: ‘Child: where did you find it?’‘In t’ marsh, sir, where fowlers had been. What — what is it, sir?’‘It’s a snow goose from Canada. But how in all heaven came it here?’The name seemed to mean nothing to the little girl. Her deep violet eyes, shining out of the dirt on her thin face, were fixed with concern on the injured bird.She said: ‘Can ‘ee heal it, sir?’‘Yes, yes,’ said Rhayader. ‘We will try. Come, you shall help me.’There were scissors and bandages and splints on a shelf, and he was marvelously deft, even with the rooked claw that managed to hold things.He said: ‘Ah, she has been shot, poor thing. Her leg is broken, and the wing tip! but not badly. See, we will clip her primaries, so that we can bandage it, but in the spring the feathers will grow and she will be able to fly again. We’ll bandage it close to her body, so that she cannot move it until it has set, and then make a splint for the poor leg.’Her fears forgotten, the child watched, fascinated, as he worked, and all the more so because while he fixed a fine splint to the shattered leg he told her the most wonderful story.

Paul Gallico relates in his own inimitable way the story of the best known Christmas carol in the world. It is a tale where truth is touched by legend and research is coloured by imagination, and it tells of a village priest and a school teacher in a tiny Austrian hamlet who, more than a hundred years ago, wrote the words and music which are sung today at Christmas in at least seventy different tongues. Since the publication of The Snow Goose early in World War II Paul Gallico has established himself as one of the best loved authors in the world. He has put into this Christmas story all the warmth and charm for which he is so justly famous.