Humphrey Lyttelton 1924-1958 - Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band

Advantages: Lovely pictures
Disadvantages: Too gentle for slightly older toddlers.

...***Background*** My final Christmas book review is one about a charming elephant called Humphrey. He was created by Sally Hunter and there are a number of books written about him. Humphrey is part of a large elephant family and he is only 3 but has lots of fun with his big sister Lottie who is 5. You can find lots more about these lovely characters at www.humphreys-corner.com. The designs have been turned into cards, soft toys and they also appear on children's clothes and bedding sets. ***The Story*** The book starts, "Humphrey and Lottie love Christmastime?watching the soft, floaty snow." As we go through the book we see Humphrey and his sister Lottie getting ready for Christmas. They help lick out the bowl after their mummy has made the Christmas cake and we see them opening the last door on their advent... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: superb post iraq thriller
Disadvantages: none

...The Third World war is thriller written by BBC news broadcaster Humphrey Hawksley. It is set in the immediate future, with Iraq and the war on terror still very much the current issues of the time. The book begins dramatically with an attack on the Indian Parliament by muslim terrorists. The Indian Prime Minister Vasant Metha finds himself helping to fight off the attack alongside his daughter Meenashki. A few days later the President of Pakistan is assassinated which serves as the trigger for a series of uprisings by Muslim extremists in East Asia. Meanwhile a US military base in Japan is hit by a North Korean missile and a sample of the smallpox vaccine disappears from a laboratory in Russia. All these events initially seem unconnected but the American and British intelligence services soon discover chilling links between... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A biased account of the life of this Irish comic genius and lunatic!
Disadvantages: Perhaps too revealing and not to everyone's taste.

...In writing this review I am keenly aware that Spike Milligan may not appeal to everyone as an icon of British comedy. I only became interested in him through his improbable wartime memoirs, his various books of comic verse and his insane novels, Puckoon and the Looney. My curiosity was heightened by his TV appearances on talk shows in his later years, here it appeared was a true eccentric with a genuine twinkle in his eye. Then when Humphrey Carpenter produced a biography of Milligan I just had to read it. After all, he had done such a fine job with JRR Tolkien and other English stalwarts. Spike (Terence Alan) Milligan KBE was born in Ahmednegar, India on the 16th April 1918, the son of Irish born Leo Milligan, an officer in the British Army. Apparently Leo was quite a colourful character who often dressed up as a cowboy and did... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful