Alan Moss

He could juggle with soap and dance on a tightrope. He could make snails faster and outrun his schoolmaster. Like all the characters in the Silly Kids series of rhyming picture books, Clever Trevor lives up to his name. He gets up to all sorts of cheeky things that kids love to hear about, with infectious humour that adults will enjoy too Until, like most children, he tires of being clever and wants to be something else.. Children introduced to Clever Trevor love to read his story again and again. He gives them licence to laugh out loud and an eagerness to read that parents and teachers love. Clever Trevor and Unruly Julie are the first Silly Kids books to launch with lots more on the way to keep them entertained, engaged and educated in a fun way.

She put something smelly behind the telly and rotten fruit in her Uncle’s best suit. Like all the characters in the Silly Kids series of rhyming picture books, Unruly Julie lives up to her name. She gets up to cheeky things kids will love to hear about, with infectious humour that adults will enjoy too. Until, like most children, she tires of being Unruly and wants to be something else. It’s a very silly story with a very clever twist. Children introduced to Unruly Julie love to read her story again and again. She gives them licence to laugh out loud and an eagerness to read that parents and teachers love. Unruly Julie and Clever Trevor are the first Silly Kids books to launch with lots more on the way to keep them entertained, engaged and educated in a fun way.

Explore Britain’s dark criminal history through the fascinating objects that have been hidden away in the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard, a collection that, although world-famous, is so sensitive it is not open to public view. Each object tells its own story: the briefcase with a concealed syringe owned by the notorious Kray twins; the gun Ruth Ellis used to murder her lover David Blakely; a burnt-out computer from the Glasgow airport car bomb; a picture from the property of Dennis Nilsen of the grisly drain that was blocked with human body parts; and the gun that Edward Oxford fired at Queen Victoria that failed to assassinate her. Updated to feature new objects that have entered the collection since 2015, Scotland Yard’s History of Crime in 100 Objects is an absorbing, sometimes shocking and often disturbing journey through criminal history. Peer within to experience a unique insight into the crimes and criminals dealt with by Scotland Yard.

Ever since its inception in 1829 the Metropolitan Police Service has seen change on a daily basis, not least in recent years with budget cuts and the closure of police stations. Recording the stories of these buildings, BEHIND THE BLUE LAMP reveals the histories of more than 400 police stations operated by the Metropolitan Police over the course of its existence, from pre-Peel Parish watch houses to the New Scotland Yard headquarters on Victoria Embankment. The lives of the officers who served and sometimes lived in these police stations are related, charting a developing social history across the capital of almost two centuries. An account of the evolution of the Metropolitan Police District is also given, including histories of the various Divisions, and details of the developing uniforms, equipment and badges of rank over the course of more that 190 years are recorded.

At the dawn of the Victorian age there was effectively no police detective force in Britain and detecting methods were rudimentary; by the end of Victoria’s reign the Criminal Investigation Department had been established and basic forensic tests were in use. This book explores the development of the professional detective during the nineteenth century, giving examples of the methods he used to track down criminals and to convict them of offences ranging from petty theft to brutal murder. It also explains the development of forensics, from fingerprinting to tests that could identify whether or not blood was human. Mysteries such as the Jack the Ripper murders are examined, as well as the work of famous sleuths like the ‘Prince of Detectives’ Jonathan Whicher – the real-life counterpart of the legendary Sherlock Holmes.