"'Substantial... and the choice is rich indeed. Endlessly refreshing and intriguing... there's never a dull moment.' Guardian"

Michael Morpurgo, the Children's Laureate, has published over 95 titles. His books have been translated into over twenty languages, many have been adapted for the theatre and five have been made into films. In 1999 he was awarded an MBE for services to youth. His books have won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Book Prize, the Children's Book Award and the Cercle D'Or Prix Sorciere (France), and several have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Kate Agnew has chaired the Booksellers Association Children's Group and has served as a judge for the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Award. She was a contributor to the Cambridge Guide to Children's Books, co-wrote Children at War with Geoff Fox and has recently edited a series of short story collections for Egmont. In 1999 she won a special British Book Award for her contribution to the National Year of Reading.

Includes poems by Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Hardy, Blake, Browning, Tennyson, Tacitus, Marvell and Milton as well as extracts from Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice and the Bible.