All About Cats is a collection of hilarious rhymes . . . all about cats! These short, funny rhymes are brought to life with illustrations from Axel Scheffler, the bestselling illustrator of The Gruffalo. Cats are sleek, and cats are slick. They read, and do arithmetic! Have you ever seen a cat playing a piano? Or taking a bubble bath with a rubber duck? Find out what cats really get up to when people aren't around! Axel Scheffler's charming and witty illustrations introduce all kinds of cats - making mischief, playing games, singing songs and out on adventures. This collection of hilarious, quirky poems by Frantz Wittkamp is wonderfully adapted from German to English for the very first time by celebrated children's author David Henry Wilson. With fourteen delightfully funny short poems, and full-page colour illustrations by Axel Scheffler, the genius illustrator of Room on the Broom, Zog, The Smeds and the Smoos and many more, this collection is sure to entertain children young and old, and is the perfect gift for any cat fan.

Mock-heroic poetry is one of the most characteristic genres of English neoclassicism in the eighteenth century. Derived from French models, the mock-heroic became something more than merely a parody of the serious epic: relieved of its gravity, it was nevertheless a legitimate and independent form of epic poetry. This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre. In the first part, Ulrich Broich shows how mock-heroic poetry combines the characteristics of various discourses - epic, comedy, parody, satire and occasional poetry. The 'polyphonic' genre which emerges from this analysis stands in ironic contrast to the neoclassical ideal of decorum in a harmonious unity of discourse and form. The second part traces the history of mock-heroic poetry: its foreign sources, its beginnings in England, the 'rivalry' with other forms of comic narrative, and its decline in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Mock-heroic poetry is one of the most characteristic genres of English neoclassicism in the eighteenth century. Derived from French models, the mock-heroic became something more than merely a parody of the serious epic: relieved of its gravity, it was nevertheless a legitimate and independent form of epic poetry. This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre. In the first part, Ulrich Broich shows how mock-heroic poetry combines the characteristics of various discourses - epic, comedy, parody, satire and occasional poetry. The 'polyphonic' genre which emerges from this analysis stands in ironic contrast to the neoclassical ideal of decorum in a harmonious unity of discourse and form. The second part traces the history of mock-heroic poetry: its foreign sources, its beginnings in England, the 'rivalry' with other forms of comic narrative, and its decline in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Without a beginning and without an end, Tristram Shandy moves in many different directions, defying the conventional expectations of its readers. Wolfgang Iser shows how Sterne exploits the philosophy of his day and its cognitive deficiencies, using digression, humour and play to convey experience of subjectivity, and implicitly to expose the traditional concept of the self.

Molly loves to listen to her dad's bedtime stories. Once upon a time, he says, everyone was green, squirrels sang in choirs, tiny people lived in Aunt Elsie's pot plant and of course, rabbits could fly . . . but can all this really be true? Molly thinks her dad's just being silly as usual, but no-one's bedtime stories are as good as his. So cuddle up on the sofa and pick one of these fourteen fantastically funny stories to read together before bed. Which one will be your favourite?

Melanie von Bismarck's brilliant collection of short stories is cleverly translated from the German by David Henry Wilson, author of the Jeremy James series, and is brought to life by the warm, witty and richly detailed pictures by Axel Scheffler, illustrator of The Gruffalo.

With a jacket, extra-thick paper, and a special ribbon to mark your place in the book, Flying Rabbits, Singing Squirrels and Other Bedtime Stories makes a great present – truly a book to treasure.

Originally published in English in 1989, from a 1980 German edition, this book provides a comprehensive study of Oscar Wilde's work. It aims to gain fresh insight into his literary and critical oeuvre by fully analysing each of his works on the basis of a textually oriented interpretation, taking equal account of the biographical and intellectual contexts. Professor Kohl's starting-point is the thesis that Wilde's identity - both personal and artistic - can only be adequately described in terms of a conflict between two opposing forces: individualism and convention. This conflict colours not only Wilde's use of Romantic and Victorian images and motifs, but also his modern portrayal of the individual's alienation from society, the loss of transcendent values, the sovereignty of subjectivity and autonomous art, and also his formal experiments with language. This is a penetrating and highly readable account of Wilde as a 'conformist rebel'.

Over the 29 years of his short life, Franz Michael Felder worked with furious productivity to better himself and the lives of those around him. From his humble origins in the Austrian village of Schoppernau, he went on to found workers' cooperatives, a political party and even a public library in his own home, while also writing many literary works. A Life in the Making is both the culmination of this extraordinary career and a chronicle of its development. It is a story of early hardship and fortitude, of Felder's relentless zeal for learning and his lifelong effort to reconcile his own expanding horizons with the enforced confines of the community he was born to. Unfolding in prose of limpid beauty, A Life in the Making becomes a deeply moving tribute to Felder's wife Nanni, and to his enduring belief in the possibility of a better world.

Jeremy James always seems to be getting into mischief and is fed up with grown-ups never knowing the answer to important questions . . . Join Jeremy James as he finds himself in a runaway car, causes havoc at a birthday party and comes up with a cunning plan on how to get rich. Illustrated throughout by the award-winning Axel Scheffler, David Henry Wilson's funny and gentle stories about the inimitable Jeremy James are much-loved classics, perfect for younger readers.

Lorina, a young schoolgirl, is led by a black rabbit through a wood to a magical land. There she finds a race of green people, who are all overworked, starving and suffering from the toxic fumes billowing out of a nearby castle. She decides to gain access to the castle for the poor green people, and within its walls she meets the "insiders", selfish creatures who hoard all the resources and treat the outsiders as slaves. Her quest leads her to encounter the bureaurat, the superviper, the farmadillo and, eventually, the awful Piggident himself.Will she be able to save the green people from the cruelty of these "insiders"?

Rouse, a Council official, is visiting the theatre run by Mike Pemberton-Hawkesley, and his mission is simple: to save the Council money. His brainwave is to turn the theatre into a storage facility for files; Mike, understandably, is outraged. Mavis Dinwiddy - intervenes and the hilarious absurdity of the situation, compounded by Rouse's very idiosyncratic verbal style, is maintained right up to the end of this surprising and enigmatic play. Simple to stage - no set is required - this is an ideal festival piece.

Without a beginning and without an end, Tristram Shandy moves in many different directions, defying the conventional expectations of its readers. Wolfgang Iser shows how Sterne exploits the philosophy of his day and its cognitive deficiencies, using digression, humour and play to convey experience of subjectivity, and implicitly to expose the traditional concept of the self.