Mark Griffiths

"The RHS Shorter Dictionary of Gardening is a comprehensive, quick-reference source to gardening and horticulture. Compiled with keen gardeners and students particularly in mind, it gathers into one volume a treasure trove of information and advice about plants, practical horticulture and cultivation techniques, botanical and gardening terms, pests and diseases and common names." "The A to Z style provides easy access to a huge range of essential information, creating an effective gardening library in one volume and drawing together information that would usually appear in a number of gardening books. The diverse content includes references to little-known aspects of the subject as well as explanations of all the practical details of the gardener's craft. It contains descriptions of over 1900 genera with many more references to species, hybrids and cultivars." "Included throughout the text are colour photographs and specially commissioned line drawings that illustrate gardens, plants and gardening techniques."--BOOK JACKET.

Summary:Mark Griffiths, one of Britain's leading writers on botany and horticulture, has written a grand history of taxonomy - the story of how plants are named, how this relates them to each other, and what this means for the history and future of mankind's relationship with the botanical world.

When Admiral Skink, an alien-lizard warlord from the planet Swerdlix, is attacked by The Hideous and Unimaginably Vast Comet Creature of Poppledock he faces a certain death… but luckily his underlings have installed the BrainTwizzler 360 Mind Migration SystemTM. This nifty invention safely transfers Skink's mind on to a memory wafer and jettisons it through space to find a suitable temporary "home" until he can be rescued by his fellow Swerdlixians. Unluckily for eleven-year-old Lance Spratley it just so happens that the temporary home for Admiral Skink's mind is his body! And while Skink deals with being trapped in Lance's useless body - it can't even breathe fire! - Lance is transferred to a virtual waiting room surrounded by the lizard race who seem intent on destroying Earth when they have successfully retrieved Skink.Will Lance ever get his body back? And even if he does will he be able to thwart Admiral Skink and the Swerdlixians plans to invade Earth…

Somewhere in the small, dull town of Blue Hills, the impossible is happening. Inanimate objects are coming to life. Time travelers from the future are mingling unnoticed with the shoppers in the high street. School children are developing uncanny powers. Strange creatures are lurking within the grounds of a forgotten stately home. And with each of these mysteries comes a terrible threat that just might endanger the entire world…Fortunately, help with these extraordinary phenomena is at hand in the form of Gabby Grayling and Barney Watkins aka Geek Inc.! Gabby and Barney are set to investigate all the odd happenings in their town and find out the truth…

The Mustard twins disgust the town with their raucous burps but when aliens invade they are the only ones with a plan to save the world. A revolting, rhyming tale in the spirit of Roald Dahl and Horrid Henry.

"Blue Hills seems like any ordinary town, but look closer, things are stranger than they appear and Geek inc. are on the case to investigate the impossible... When a new boy at school shows off his crazy magic tricks, Geek inc. are sure there's something weird going on, because no one can disappear into thin air - can they? Geek inc. is determined to reveal the truth, and they soon discover that there's more to the tricks than meets the eye, in fact the fantastic illusions might just endanger the entire world..."--Back cover.