The plays is this book came about via the unique work done in schools by Peter Mortimer. In each case, he worked through a series of workshops with a group of pupils, and out of these a dramatic piece slowly evolved. With one exception - a play created in a Palestinian refugee camp - the first session started with a totally blank sheet awaiting the input of the creative team. As Peter Mortimer stresses, such a process is risky and at the start often terrifying, but ultimately proves to be highly rewarding for all. The youngsters helped to create the plot, characters and style, and were often involved in costume and set design as well as producing programmes and posters. And then they became actors. All these plays were given public performances, often in professional theatres. This approach gave the pupils an involvement in and commitment to the plays which no ordinary drama class could bring. In his Introduction, Mortimer writes about the beneficial effects such projects can have on young developing minds, but also warns how such work is increasingly difficult to undertake in a school philosophy of tick boxes, league tables and inflexible curricula.

No further information has been provided for this title.

'Off the Wall' is a lively guide to the idiosyncrasies of Hadrian's Wall and the communities that live at either end and along the route. Cloud Nine Troubadours walked the length of the Wall performing every night. The book records the journey in its raw detail.

The Voyage of the Sea Dragon is an adventure story that takes a young Devonshire fisherman on an exciting voyage to the other side of the world. As the young man prepares his boat for sea on a grey July morning in 1725, little does he realise that he will soon be taken on a rip-roaring odyssey to the great Pacific Ocean with a crew of ruthless fortune hunters. Fierce battles against North African Barbary corsairs French Spanish, as well as warring pirates and south sea anthropophagi; leaves the young man and the crew staring death in the face on numerous occasions. The book describes close combat at sea, brutality and the everyday hardships the crew have to bear while sailing through ferocious storms. The story is full of wonderful daring adventures, acts of gallantry and heroism. While searching for love, Matthew discovers true love in the most unlikely of places. With wonderful descriptions of what life at sea was like in the 1700s, readers are given the opportunity to climb aboard the Sea Dragon and join its crew as they chase their individual dreams of love, wealth and immortality.

'Mortimer At Large' is a selection of the best columns written by Peter Mortimer since 2003, and published weekly in the News Guardian series of newspapers on North Tyneside.