Exam Board: SQA Level: Higher Subject: English First Teaching: August 2018 First Exam: May 2019 Get your best grade with comprehensive course notes and advice from Scotland's top experts, fully updated for the latest changes to SQA Higher assessment. How to Pass Higher English Second Edition contains all the advice and support you need to revise successfully for your Higher exam. It combines an overview of the course syllabus with advice from a top expert on how to improve exam performance, so you have the best chance of success. - Revise confidently with up-to-date guidance tailored to the latest SQA assessment changes - Refresh your knowledge with comprehensive, tailored subject notes - Prepare for the exam with top tips and hints on revision techniques - Get your best grade with advice on how to gain those vital extra marks

Exam Board: SQA Level: Higher Subject: English First Teaching: September 2014 First Exam: June 2015 A brand new edition of the former Higher English Close Reading, completely rewritten for the new Higher element - worth 30% of marks in the final exam. Written by two highly experienced authors, this book shows you how to practise for the Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation section of the CfE Higher English exam. It introduces the terms and concepts that lie behind success and offers guidance on the interpretation of questions and targeting answers. - Acquire and improve the skills needed for success in this area of CfE Higher - Includes questions and passages to reflect the style of assessments in this section of the paper - Revise for the exam using the practice papers and accompanying book of suggested answers

From the clouds with ghostly faces in the Chisos Mountains to the spirits of the Alamo, follow in the footsteps of a "spirit magnet" as she takes a wild Western romp across haunted Texas and beyond. Meet Joshua's ghost in his creepy room in Mineral Wells and Sara, who is one of the most active spirits at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio. Did phantom soldiers holding swords of fire really save the Alamo from destruction by the Mexicans? Is it really Teddy Roosevelt's ghost that haunts the bar at the Menger? Be amazed at the phenomenal results from the Spirit Scanner. Find out in this factual and spine-tingling adventure across the Lone Star State.

In the beautiful countryside of Portugal, erstwhile British secret agent Julia Probyn is to attend a royal wedding. But her former acquaintance, Countess Hetta Paloczy, the young Hungarian refugee, unwittingly gets them both tangled in Cold War intrigue. After Hetta accidentally uncovers a Communist plot to assassinate an American admiral in Spain, she is a marked woman yet again and must flee to Portugal. But even in the tranquil beauty of Gralheira, peril lurks. Unluckily for the assassins, these women are no strangers to danger. In The Episode at Toledo, book six in the series, Julia is joined by Hetta and Luzia, uniting all our heroines from The Julia Probyn Mysteries.

While on an assignment with British Intelligence in Morocco, the widowed Julia Probyn Jamieson, journalist, amateur sleuth and occasional spy, loses her heart to Gerald O'Brien, a kind and unassuming lawyer. Together with her five-year-old son, Julia travels to Gerald's family home in Ireland to see if the country life could be for her. Julia's quiet vacation is interrupted when she stumbles upon a plot by a cunning landowner. It is down to Julia to investigate the devious scheme, which would destroy the wild beauty of the coast and disrupt the peace of the community. Julia in Ireland is book eight and last in The Julia Probyn Mysteries.

When Julia Probyn's cousin and childhood friend Colin cuts off all contact with his family, it is down to Julia to find him. Setting sail for Morocco - the last place he was seen - and using her occupation as a journalist as a cover, Julia is ready for a fairly lighthearted quest. But Julia wasn't counting on the level of secrecy surrounding her cousin's disappearance. With the British consulate offering little help, Julia must use her charm and tenacity to follow the clues and unravel the mystery left in Colin's wake. Book one of The Julia Probyn Mysteries, The Lighthearted Quest has Ann Bridge's trademark blend of humour and adventure which transports us to exotic places, but also throws a good deal of light on the explosive political issues that French Morocco encountered in the 50s.

Julia Probyn, journalist and amateur sleuth, must acquaint herself with the world of counterespionage. Hetta, a young Hungarian Countess, just released from behind the Iron Curtain, is drawn into a communist plot. Together the two young women will need all of their strength to unravel the schemes and machinations closing in from all sides. With Ann Bridge's talent for evoking place and mixing mystery with humour, The Portuguese Escape, book two in The Julia Probyn Mysteries, is full of danger and adventure amidst Communist intrigue.

The last thing recently widowed Julia Probyn expects to find on the lush and charming island of Madeira is a clue to her husband's mysterious death, for Colonel Jamieson perished somewhere in the wilds of Central Asia while on a top-secret mission for British Intelligence. No sooner does Julia arrive at Madeira with her infant son and his devoted Nanny, however, than a series of strange, sinister, but apparently unconnected events begin to occur. Suspecting a Cold War plot, Julia summons her cousin, Colin Munro, and together they might just be able to blow the entire Russian scheme wide open. The Malady in Madeira, book seven in the Julia Probyn Mysteries, is a high adventure interwoven with all the sights, sounds and scenes of fecund Madeira.

While on her last assignment with British Intelligence in Morocco, the widowed Julia Probyn Jamieson meets and is strongly attracted to an Irish country lawyer, Gerald O'Brien, who is travelling with friends of hers. O'Brien has asked Julia to marry him but she delays her decision until he has met her five-year-old son Philip, who is somewhat hard to handle.Boy and man take to each other, and it becomes clear that Gerald will be an ideal stepfather. On his part, Gerald insists that she come to Ireland to see his modest home and meet his friends and neighbors before she makes up her mind, for his world is far different from the glamorous cosmopolitan one she is accustomed to.Julia's quiet vacation is interrupted when she stumbles upon a plot by an unknown land speculator who, with the unwitting aid of an attractive American woman and an Irish poet, is surreptitiously buying a strip of land along the coast for the purpose of building a huge resort hotel and casino. The intrepid Julia is drawn in as a participant when she joins Gerald in his investigation of this devious scheme, which will destroy the wild beauty of the coast and disrupt the peace of the community.Ann Bridge has woven a web of intrigue against the background of a remote Irish village, its people, and their customs. The unexpected denouement and happy ending will delight the author's many devoted readers.

Julia Probyn-an old friend of many readers-is sailing off the west coast of Scotland. On the desolate island of Erinish Beg, she and her cousin are startled to see a sky-blue pole rise up out of the ground at their feet. Military Intelligence sends Colonel Jamieson to investigate this find. The action moves from the Erinishes to a tweed-shop in Tobermory, an archaeological dig on Lewis, an island off the County Mayo, and finally to a dramatic end in the Scillies. The mystery of the sky-blue pole is solved soon enough; but there is much journeying, heart-searching and danger for Julia before the whole system of espionage is laid bare. During these events Julia, more and more attracted to Colonel Jamieson, finds in him the man she will marry.Miss Bridge's many admirers will warm to this tale of love and adventure, full of authentic local colour, well informed about the cold war of science on which its plot is based.

Julia Probyn, like most people, knew very little about anonymous numbered accounts in Swiss Banks. Until her cousin, Colin Munro, asked her to look into the matter of one containing a fortune for his fiancee Aglaia Armitage, left to her by her Greek grandfather. Julia - journalist, amateur sleuth, occasional spy - must learn fast. When the account is compromised, and documents of vital interest to the British Secret Service go missing, it is again down to Julia to foil a Communist plot. In The Numbered Account, book three in The Julia Probyn Mysteries, Ann Bridge brings her characteristic wit, suspense and sense of adventure.

First published in 1953, A Place To Stand is set in Budapest in the spring of 1941, Hope - a spoilt but attractive society girl and daughter of a leading American business man - finds herself playing the lead in a dangerous and most unexpected affair of underground intrigue, through the machinations of her journalist fiance. During the course of her activities she falls in love with a Polish refugee, and at the moment when Germany invades Hungary, she is already deeply involved - both emotionally and politically. Bridge, herself an eye witness of these events, tells in moving and graphic terms the terrible story of Germany's 'protective' invasion; although it is presented in the form of an imaginative episode, the historical significance and accuracy are all too tragically evident. This admirable novel is at once a charming love story in the shadow of fear and disruption, a subtle and intimate portrayal of human beings in a time of crisis, and a most exciting narrative, set against the enchanting background of Budapest.