A double bill of films set in India. Comedy-drama 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' (2011) follows the experiences of a group of elderly Brits who arrive to take up residence in a newly-opened retirement home in Bangalore, India. Despite its glossy publicity campaign, the Marigold turns out to be rather different from the refurbished luxury hotel advertised in the brochures. However, it soon begins to reveal some unexpected charms of its own. Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith star.

'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008), the rags-to-possible riches tale, was the winner of eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Jamal Malik (Patel) is an 18-year-old street kid from the slums of Mumbai. So what is he doing appearing on the Indian version of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'? How can a young man from his background of poverty have acquired the knowledge to be only one correct answer away from winning 20 million rupees? With only one more question to be asked, however, the dream turns to nightmare. As the hooter sounds to signal the end of the show, Jamal is arrested and accused of cheating. No one can believe that he could really know all of the answers he has given. As Jamal tells the story of his life to the police, the reasons for his success begin to appear. Will Jamal be freed to hear the final question and, if so, will he know the answer?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A bittersweet study in both grief and joy." ---Time "A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes" (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age--from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving. "Life, like a poem, is a series of choices." In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman's personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy. You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is "extraordinary" (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.

Salem, Massachusetts, is the quintessential New England town, with its cobbled streets and strong ties to the sea. With the notoriety of the Salem witch trials, the city's reputation has been irrevocably linked to the occult. However, few know the history behind the religion of Spiritualism and the social movement that took root in this romanticized land. At the turn of the century, seers, mediums and magnetic healers all hoped to connect to the spiritual world. The popularity of Spiritualism and renewed interest in the occult blossomed out of an attempt to find an intellectual and emotional balance between science and religion. Learn of early converts, the role of the venerable Essex Institute and the psychic legacy of "Moll" Pitcher. Historian Maggi Smith-Dalton delves into Salem's exotic history, unraveling the beginnings of Spiritualism and the rise of the Witch City.

'Life, like a poem, is a series of choices' In her long-awaited debut memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, award-winning poet Maggie Smith explores in lyrical vignettes the end of her marriage and the beginning of a surprising new life. With the spirit of reflection and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself. It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

Double bill of films set in India. In 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), John Madden directs an all-star cast of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup and Tom Wilkinson as a group of mature Brits who travel to India looking for a sunnier climate in which to retire. Despite its glossy publicity campaign, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful turns out to be rather different from the refurbished luxury hotel advertised in the brochures. However, as the previously lonely people grow closer, the hotel soon begins to reveal some unexpected charms of its own. 'Life of Pi' (2012) is an Academy Award-winning fantasy adventure based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel. Suraj Sharma stars as Pi Patel, a 16-year-old zookeeper's son from Pondicherry who finds himself stranded on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean in the company of a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger following the shipwreck of the freighter on which he and his family were sailing for Canada. Over the course of several months Pi manages to survive on the meagre supplies of food and water he finds on the boat, and also takes up fishing, while in his half-delirious state he muses on various aspects of animal behaviour, religion and the meaning of life.

The entire third series of the ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. With World War One finally over, the 1920s heralds the promise of a new age for those at Downton Abbey. But while the family prepare for the wedding of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew (Dan Stevens), Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) learns that the future of Downton is in grave jeopardy after the collapse of investments made with his wife (Elizabeth McGovern)'s fortune. With the family beginning to gather for the wedding celebrations, a grand entrance by Cora's thoroughly modern mother, Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), threatens to ruffle a few of the Dowager (Maggie Smith)'s feathers.

Two-time Oscar winner and star of Downton Abbey, Dame Maggie Smith, recreates one of her most celebrated roles – the singular Miss Shepherd – in The Lady In The Van, Alan Bennett’s big-screen comedic adaptation of his own iconic memoir and honoured stage play.

Based on the true story, Miss Shepherd was a woman of uncertain origins who “temporarily” parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. What began as a begrudged favour became a relationship that would change both their lives.

Filmed on the street and in the house where Bennett and Miss Shepherd lived for all those years, acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner reunites with Bennett (The Madness of King George, The History Boys) to bring this funny, poignant, and life-affirming story to the screen.

I should have heeded my husband's apprehension and our friends' advice, but I wanted that house. Because Ron and I were public school teachers and supported public education, we ignored our friends' warnings and enrolled our daughters in Marion's school system. A year later I transferred to the Marion system from Florence where I had developed two educational programs: the itinerant learning disabilities program and a self-contained middle school class for emotionally disturbed juvenile delinquents. In Marion, I was assigned to two schools as a learning disabilities clinician. Within weeks of my transfer, my first encounter with the establishment made me acutely aware that the warnings of our friends were accurate. Almost four decades since the landmark decision in Pickering v. Board of Education, 1968, many teachers still cannot criticize their school system without fear of retaliation. When author Maggi Hall, a veteran public school teacher, wrote a letter to the newspaper in Marion County, South Carolina, criticizing her school district, she didn't realize that one day she would be called upon to defend the cornerstone of democracy itself-the First Amendment.

“[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life’s deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new.� —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author The bestselling poet and author of the “powerful� (People) and “luminous� (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age. “Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.� In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy. You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a poet’s attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre, Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

Contains all episdoes of the first five seasons of the ITV costume drama. This collection also includes the Christmas Day episodes from 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Spanning the idyllic pre-war era through the storms of The Great War and beyond to the roaring 1920s, Downton Abbey tells the story of the aristocratic Crawley family and the servants who work for them. As the world around them undergoes extraordinary change, life in the sumptuous country house continues to be marked by romance, ambition, passion and heartbreak. As challenges are faced upstairs and down, inhabitants of the great house share in each other's joys and hardship; their lives are inseparably interlinked.

Also Includes exclusive clip from the 2014 Christmas special PLUS "The Manners of Downton Abbey" - an exclusive to DVD programme featuring historian and Downton Abbey historical advisor Alastair Bruce as he guides us through the etiquette of how to eat, marry, behave, dress and make money in the 1920’s.

Maggie Smith, bestselling author of the viral poem “Good Bones� and the memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, delivers a lyrical and reassuring picture book perfect for calming active minds at bedtime (or anytime). At bedtime, when lights go out…sometimes thoughts stay on. Scary things and worries flutter and flap around. It’s so hard to sleep! But a little imagination (and a lot of love) can create a cozy nest for happy thoughts—and sweet dreams for little ones.

To integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning was the overarching goal of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). This, it was believed, would 'save the planet', encouraging behaviour changes to allow for the development of a more sustainable and just society for all. Awareness of sustainable development has risen enormously in recent years, challenging us, as individuals and as families, workplaces, and communities (both local and global), to think about and act upon the major issue which we face. The Decade reaffirmed the United Nations' commitment to the crucial role of education and learning in the pursuit of sustainable development, and the need for far-reaching changes in the way education is often practised. Of course, the very idea that education should be for something (whether sustainable development or anything else), remains as questionable as ever. Nevertheless the instigation of the Decade clearly recognised the need for intensified efforts to achieve sustainable development. This book reflects on the role and impact of the Decade in helping to reorient education towards sustainability, and looks forward, beyond the end of the Decade and its achievements, to contemplate the way ahead, giving special attention to case studies and the state of affairs in England. The authors offer different perspectives on the effectiveness and value of particular initiatives and practices that are responses to the Decade. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Curriculum Journal.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A meditation on kindness and hope, and how to move forward through grief." --NPR "A shining reminder to learn all we can from this moment, rebuilding ourselves in the darkness so that we may come out wiser, kinder, and stronger on the other side." --The Boston Globe "Powerful essays on loss, endurance, and renewal." --People Cosmopolitan's "Best Nonfiction Books of 2020" Marie Claire's "2020 Books You Should Pre-Order Now" Parade's "25 Self-Help Books To Get Your 2020 Off On The Right Foot" The Washington Post's "What to Read in 2020 Based on the Books You Loved in 2019" For fans of Cheryl Strayed and Anne Lamott, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life's challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience. When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem "Good Bones," started writing inspirational daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?

“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment.� —Time From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life. With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope� (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.�​ Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer� her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.� The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.

To integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning was the overarching goal of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). This, it was believed, would 'save the planet', encouraging behaviour changes to allow for the development of a more sustainable and just society for all. Awareness of sustainable development has risen enormously in recent years, challenging us, as individuals and as families, workplaces, and communities (both local and global), to think about and act upon the major issue which we face. The Decade reaffirmed the United Nations' commitment to the crucial role of education and learning in the pursuit of sustainable development, and the need for far-reaching changes in the way education is often practised. Of course, the very idea that education should be for something (whether sustainable development or anything else), remains as questionable as ever. Nevertheless the instigation of the Decade clearly recognised the need for intensified efforts to achieve sustainable development. This book reflects on the role and impact of the Decade in helping to reorient education towards sustainability, and looks forward, beyond the end of the Decade and its achievements, to contemplate the way ahead, giving special attention to case studies and the state of affairs in England. The authors offer different perspectives on the effectiveness and value of particular initiatives and practices that are responses to the Decade. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Curriculum Journal.

Organizing for Student Success draws on data from more than 50 institutions to provide insight into how university colleges are organized, the initiatives they house, and the practices in place to ensure their effectiveness. Twenty case studies from 15 different campuses offer an in-depth understanding of institutional practice. Ultimately, university colleges are not only a structure for organizing educational experiences but also a catalyst for creating institutional change. An invaluable resource for first-year experience steering committees, general education reform committees, and other groups or administrators charged with reorganizing and revitalizing the delivery of undergraduate education.

First published in 1995 by Orchard Books, this book takes one baby, two dogs, and three bicycles on a journey from the big city to Maine's seacoast. Objects packed for the trip and things seen along the way are all happily counted, finishing in a shining finale as the family tallies 20 fireflies found during their last evening in Maine.

Modeled on the famous United States competition, the third annual Best New British and Irish Poets anthology brings together a diverse and lively group of rising stars from across the UK and Ireland, and represents some of the most interesting new voices writing in the English language today.

It"s a good thing
you're not an
octopus!

If you were an octopus, you would have eight legs to put into your pants!

Follow one little boy through his day as he playfully considers how mealtime, bath time, nap time, and many other activities would be different if he were a bird, a tiger, or any number of baby animals. At the end of the day he realizes that the best thing of all is to be himself!

Julie Markes's first picture book is charmingly illustrated by Maggie Smith.

Born on a Somerset pea-field in 1941, the second of eight children in a Romani family, Maggie Smith-Bendell has lived through the years of greatest change in the travelling community's long history. As a child, Maggie rode and slept in a horse-drawn wagon, picked hops and flowers, and sat beside her father's campfire on ancient verges, poor but free to roam. As the twentieth century progressed, common land was fenced off and the traditional ways disappeared. Eventually Maggie married a house-dweller and tried to settle for bricks and mortar, but she never lost the restless spirit, the deep love of the land and the gift for storytelling that were her Romani inheritance. Maggie's story is one of hardship and prejudice, but also, unforgettably, it recalls the glories of the travelling life, in the absolute safety of a loyal and loving family.

'The number of two-year-olds entering our settings has been increasing over the last few years, and with the government set to continue with the expansion of free places, more and more practitioners will be caring for children in this age range for the first time. For those who still think in terms of the 'terrible twos', this book serves as a vital and urgent wake-up call. Whether experienced professional or someone starting out on an early years career, it has a great deal to recommend it. ' - Neil Henty, Editor and Associate Publisher, The Early Years Educator Do you want to know how best to provide for two year olds in your setting? Do you need effective guidance and advice on how to achieve this? This is an unmissable guide to working with two year olds, offering practical tips and tools to support practitioners, professionals and lecturers in meeting the unique set of needs of this age group. Written by two experienced early years' professionals this resource covers all aspects of provision and best practice for successfully working with two year olds, including key concerns such as: the completion of the Two Year Progress Check transitions into a setting child development formative and summative assessment effective learning environments working with parents. All this plus charts, pro forma, activities and training materials as well as further reading and access to websites, providing you with all you need to respond to the needs of two year olds with confidence. Chris Dukes and Maggie Smith are both Area SENCOs in London and experienced trainers and authors in the Early Years.