Exam Essentials is our major British English exam preparation series combining exam preparation, practice, and tips for the revised Cambridge English exams. This effective combination of testing and teaching has proved a popular formula with teachers and students. The first two practice tests in each book are 'walk-through' tests. Students are carefully guided through the tests and shown how they work and what they have to do to succeed in each part of the exam. Additional step-by-step support for the Writing paper is offered in all the tests. All of the tests are written by experts in the field, which means that students preparing for the exams experience material that is appropriate for and at a level at least as high as the actual exams. Candidates internationally find the Speaking test very challenging. To help them deal with this, each Practice Test book comes with a DVD-ROM which includes a bespoke video showing a complete Speaking test interview as well as an examiner talking about this part of the exam and giving students expert guidance on how to approach it. The DVD-ROM also features worksheets to use with the interview and all the Listening test files.
Charles Osborne Book order
Charles Osborne is celebrated for his unique talent in adapting classic narratives for contemporary audiences. As the sole author granted permission by the Agatha Christie Estate to create works in her name, he demonstrates a profound understanding of literary tradition. His approach revitalizes familiar stories, making them accessible and engaging for both long-time admirers and new readers alike.







- 2014
- 2008
First certificate. Practice tests with key
- 228 pages
- 8 hours of reading
Intended for FCE exam, this title features 2 fully guided tests with useful tips; 6 complete tests; useful information on the exam; guide to encourage self-study; and, special section on the Speaking Paper in full colour that includes additional helpful phrases and expressions.
- 2006
CAE practice tests with key
- 278 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Exam Essentials: CAE Practice Tests have been updated to the specifications of the CAE examination.
- 2002
A full-length novel by Charles Osborne adapted from Agatha Christie's stage play, in which a diplomat's wife finds a body that mustn't be discovered... Following BLACK COFFEE and THE UNEXPECTED GUEST comes the final Agatha Christie play novelisation, bringing her superb storytelling to a new legion of fans. Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat, is given to daydreaming. 'Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?' she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in the drawing-room of her house in Kent. Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband comes home with an important foreign politician, Clarissa persuades her three house guests to become accessories and accomplices. It seems that the murdered man was not unknown to certain members of the house party (but which ones?), and the search begins for the murderer and the motive, while at the same time trying to persuade a police inspector that there has been no murder at all...
- 2000
The Unexpected Guest
- 176 pages
- 7 hours of reading
A young man, broken down in the fog, witnesses a murder he is asked to conceal... A full-length novel adapted by Charles Osborne from Agatha Christie's acclaimed play. When a stranger runs his car into a ditch in dense fog in South Wales and makes his way to an isolated house, he discovers a woman standing over the dead body of her wheelchair-bound husband, gun in her hand. She admits to murder, and the unexpected guest offers to help her concoct a cover story. But is it possible that Laura Warwick did not commit the murder after all? If so, who is she shielding? The victim's young half-brother or his dying matriarchal mother? Laura's lover? Perhaps the father of the little boy killed in an accident for which Warwick was responsible? The house seems full of possible suspects... THE UNEXPECTED GUEST is considered to be one of the finest of Christie's plays. Hailed as 'another Mousetrap' when it opened on 12 August 1958 in the West End, it ran for 604 performances over the succeeding 18 months and has been staged many times around the world over the last 40 years.
- 1998
Black Coffee
- 306 pages
- 11 hours of reading
A novel based on a 1930s play in which detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a British scientist and the theft of his formula for an atomic explosive. Suspects range from his son, heavily in debt, to an Italian lady spy.
- 1992
Richard Strauss, born in 1864, was one of the 20th century's greatest and most prolific opera composers. His third opera, Salome, introduced the single-act structure, and the sensuality of the mujsic caused a furore. This was followed by the equally shocking Elektra, written in collaboration with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, but they completely changed direction for their next joint venture, Der Rosenkavalier, in which the Viennese waltz found its apotheosis. Once considered a revolutionary, Richard Strauss is today seen as the last of the German romantic composers, and most of his operas are still performed regularly throughout the world.
- 1986
- 1980
Klemperer Stories
- 176 pages
- 7 hours of reading




