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'Writing that easily equals that of the Booker-winning Richard Flanagan...[and] as readable and gripping as any thriller.' - The TimesI've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back.Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2, 000 miles to water. Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently - and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.
WINNER OF THE WOLFSON PRIZE 2013 The extraordinary story of the Kremlin - from prize-winning author and historian Catherine MerridaleBoth beautiful and profoundly menacing, the Kremlin has dominated Moscow for many centuries. Behind its great red walls and towers many of the most startling events in Russia's history have been acted out. It is both a real place and an imaginative idea; a shorthand for a certain kind of secretive power, but also the heart of a specific Russian authenticity. Catherine Merridale's exceptional book revels in both the drama of the Kremlin and its sheer unexpectedness: an impregnable fortress which has repeatedly been devastated, a symbol of all that is Russian substantially created by Italians. The many inhabitants of the Kremlin have continually reshaped it to accord with shifting ideological needs, with buildings conjured up or demolished to conform with the current ruler's social, spiritual, military or regal priorities. In the process, all have claimed to be the heirs of Russia's great historic destiny.
After his insider's study of Chicago crack gangs electrified the academy, Columbia University sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh spent a decade immersed in New York's underbelly, observing the call girls, drug dealers, prostitutes and other strivers that make up this booming underground economy. Amidst the trust-funder cocktail parties, midtown strip clubs, and immigrant-run sex shops, he discovers a surprisingly fluid and dynamic social world - one that can be found in global cities everywhere - as traditional boundaries between class, race and neighbourhood dissolve. In Floating City, Venkatesh explores New York from high to low, tracing the invisible threads that bind a handful of ambitious urban hustlers, from a Harvard-educated socialite running a high-end escort service to a Harlem crack dealer adapting to changing demands by selling cocaine to hedge fund managers and downtown artists. In the process, and as he questions his own reasons for going deeper into this subterranean world, Venkatesh finds something truly unexpected - community. Floating City is Venkatesh's journey through the 'vast invisible continent' of New York's underground economy - a thriving yet largely unseen world that exists in parallel to our own, at the heart of every city.
* * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD * * * Outrageously funny and completely original, Chop Chop by Simon Wroe is the story of a hapless young chef in the crazed world of the professional kitchen, featuring lust, revenge, neurosis and haute cuisine.'A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites. A gripping look behind the kitchen wall' ShortlistTwo months behind on his rent, young graduate Monocle swallows his dreams and takes the only job he can find: the lowest-rung chef in a gastropub in Camden. Here he finds himself surrounded by a group of deranged hoodlums (his co-workers) and at the mercy of an ingenious sadist (the head chef, Bob). What follows is a furiously-paced, ribald, raucous and unexpectedly touching tale of loyalty and revenge, dark appetites and fading dreams, and a young man finding his way in the world as he is plunged into the fat and the frying pan and everything else besides. 'Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface' Independent'Lively, amusing and alarmingly informative' Daily Mail'Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain' Kirkus'Twisted, surprising and above all genuinely funny' William Sutcliffe'Raucous and inventive, peopled with technicolour characters and savagely funny' A D Miller'A complete page-turner. Reminiscent of Kitchen Confidential but with an entirely fresh voice' Thomasina Miers'A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking' Gary Shteyngart'Furiously funny, fast, surreal' Anya von BremzenSimon Wroe is a former chef who writes about food and culture for Prospect and the Economist, and regularly contributes to a wide range of publications including The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and Evening Standard. In 2014 Chop Chop was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. He is 30 and lives in London.
Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford is a hilarious satire of the upper classes. Eugenia Malmains is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of Captain Jack and the Union Jackshirts; Noel and Jasper are both in search of an heiress (so much easier than trying to work for the money); Poppy and Marjorie are nursing lovelorn hearts; and the beautiful bourgeois Mrs Lace is on the prowl for someone near Eugenia's fabulous country home at Chalford, and much farce ensues. One of Nancy Mitford's earliest novels, Wigs on the Green has been out of print for nearly seventy-five years. Nancy's sisters Unity and Diana were furious with her for making fun of Diana's husband, Oswald Moseley, and his politics, and the book caused a rift between them all that endured for years. Nancy Mitford skewers her family and their beliefs with her customary jewelled barbs, but there is froth, comedy and heart here too.'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh Nancy Mitford was the eldest of the infamous Mitford sisters, known for her membership in 'The Bright Young Things' clique of the 1920s and an intimate of Evelyn Waugh; she produced witty, satirical novels with a cast of characters taken directly from the aristocratic social scene of which she was a part. Her novels, The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, The Blessing and Don't Tell Alfred, are available in single paperback editions from Penguin or as part of The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford which also includes Highland Fling, Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie. This edition of Wigs on the Green is introduced by journalist and editor Charlotte Mosley.
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast is a powerful book about high productivity from bestselling author Laura Vanderkam.We're all busy. But we all waste time. What are the secrets of using every hour productively? How do the most successful people spend their time?In this brilliant accessible book, Laura Vanderkam inspires you to rethink your morning routine and jump-start your day. If you use your mornings wisely, you can build habits that will lead to a happier, more productive life. She also helps you to rethink your weekends. She explains why doing nothing can be more exhausting than doing something, how to balance work and play, and why Sunday nights are crucial. Finally she challenges you to make the most of your time at the office. Focusing on matching your to-do list to your natural body clock, she shows you how to maximize your productivity so you can accomplish more in less time. By blending stories of fascinating people with cutting-edge scientific research, Vanderkam shows us how to maximize our valuable mornings, make the most of our working hours, and enjoy the results with deeply satisfying weekends.Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours and All the Money in the World. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, USA Today, and Fortune, among others.
In The Launch Pad, Randall Stross, author of eBoys and Planet Google, takes a behind-the-scenes look at how tomorrow's hottest startups are being primed for greatness.Twice a year, in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs. Months of intense work culminates in Demo Day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear their pitches. Any one of them might turn out to be the next Dropbox (class of 2007), or Airbnb (class of 2009).Randall Stross was granted unprecedented access to Y Combinator, enabling a unique inside tour of the world of software startups. He tells the full story of this ultra-exclusive institution, how it chooses the aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go from concept to profitability in record time.This is the definitive story of a seismic shift in the business world, in which coding skill beats job experience, pairs of undergraduates take on Goliaths, and inves tors fall in love. The Launch Pad is both a gripping narrative and a gold mine of useful insights.'A must-read for anyone interested in the realities of modern entrepreneurship' -Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup'Stross's account of the best new entrepreneurs and the exciting companies they're building at startup schools is a great read for founders and would-be founders alike' -Marc Andreessen, cofounder, Andreessen HorowitzRandall Stross is the author of several acclaimed books, including eBoys, Planet Google, and The Wizard of Menlo Park. He has a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University.
The Curve by Nicholas Lovell is a breakthrough business idea: Chris Anderson's The Long Tail meets Seth Godin's Purple CowThe Curve is a new way of doing business and of seeing the world.For most of the last century, companies strived to sell more and more products at uniform prices. But the future of business is about variation: tailoring products for customers of all stripes, and letting your biggest fans spend as much as they like on things they value.The Curve shows us not to be afraid of giving some things away for free. The internet helps you forge direct relationships with a vast global audience, and take them on a journey from freeloaders into superfans. Value lies in how you make people feel, by building communities, bespoke products and experiences. Small numbers of high spenders are enough to fuel a profitable business.In games, free is becoming the norm, but some people now spend hundreds or thousands of dollars playing a single game. You can already see the Curve transforming areas like music, books and film, and it will rapidly spread to the physical world as 3D printing becomes reality.With stories drawn from artists, toymakers, sports, food, manufacturing and more, The Curve is nothing short of a business thinking revolution.'An astute and perceptive guide to the new rules for making money in a radically disrupted internet economy. This book deserves to be a hit' -David Rowan, editor, WIREDNicholas Lovell is an author and consultant who helps companies embrace the transformative power of the internet. His blog, GAMESbrief, is read by those seeking to learn how digital is transforming gaming - and how to apply that knowledge to other industries. His clients have included Firefly, nDreams and Square Enix (creators of Tomb Raider), as well as Channel 4 and IPC Media. His articles have appeared in TechCrunch, Wired, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in London.@nicholaslovellwww.nicholaslovell.com
NOW A BBC DRAMA The Boy With the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton is a hilarious and heart-rending tale of what it is like to grow up different in modern Britain."e;It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution."e;For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.Praise for The Boy with the Topknot:'I absolutely loved it. Heartbreaking and wonderful. He writes beautifully' Maggie O'Farrell'Could not be more enjoyable, engaging or moving' Observer'Tragic, funny and disturbing. It will challenge you, and may even change you' Carole Angier, IndependentSathnam Sanghera was born in 1976. He is an award-winning journalist who was previously chief feature writer at The Financial Times and now works for The Times. He lives in London. Published in hardback as If You Don't Know Me by Now
In The Three Rules, Michael E Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed provide the answer to the ultimate business question: how do some companies manage to keep excelling, year after year after year?'The objective is to deliver the best possible performance and sustain it for as long as possible'In every sector there's an outlier. An exceptional company that faces the same difficulties as competitors, but constantly delivers superior results. What are they doing differently? And what can they teach us?Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed analysed 25,000 companies spanning forty-five years to find the answers. What they discovered were three clear rules that the most exceptional companies follow when faced with the most difficult decisions. With a powerful combination of detailed case studies and rigorous data analysis, reading, learning and applying The Three Rules will help your organization become truly exceptional.Michael E. Raynor is a director at Deloitte Services LP, where he explores corporate strategy, innovation, and growth with clients in a variety of industries. He is the coauthor, with Clayton Christensen, of The Innovator's Solution, and the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed The Strategy Paradox and The Innovator's Manifesto.Mumtaz Ahmed is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP and the chief strategy officer of Deloitte LLP, responsible for the U.S. firm's strategy, corporate development, innovation, eminence, and brand.
The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of My Animals and Other Family, Clare Baldings wildly funny and deeply moving childhood memoir, read brilliantly by the author herself. I had spent most of my childhood thinking I was a dog, and I suspect I had aged in dog years. By the time I was ten I had discovered the pain of unbearable loss. I had felt joy and jealousy. Most important of all, I knew how to love and how to let myself be loved. All these things I learnt through animals. Horses and dogs were my family and my friends. This is their story as much as it is mine Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. As her father is a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. She and her younger brother came very low down the pecking order. Left to their own devices, they had to learn lifes toughest lessons through the animals, and through their adventures in the stables and the idyllic Hampshire Downs. From the protective Candy to the pot-bellied Valkyrie and the frisky Hattie, each horse and each dog had their own character and their own special part to play. The running family joke was that women aint people. Clare had to prove them wrong, to make her voice heard - but first she had to make sure she had something to say. My Animals and Other Family is a funny, brave, tender story of self-discovery.
The Siege by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark - a searing account of the 2005 terrorist attacks at Mumbai's famous Taj HotelOn 26th November 2008 the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai is besieged by Pakistani Islamists, armed with explosives and machine guns.For three days, guests and staff of the hotel are trapped as the terrorists run amok.On 29th November commandos launch Operation Black Tornado. The world holds its breath.The Siege is a helter-skelter thriller, threaded with powerful human stories. By turns tragic and heroic, the events are told through a cast of real characters, who were thrown together in the luxurious, century-old Taj: waiters, chefs, captains of industry, hedge funders, celebrities, tourists, policemen, special forces and terrorists. For the first time, this astonishing book takes us through the news footage and into the heart of the hotel. Each hostage has a choice: hide, run or fight. What would you do?This classic non-fiction account will grip readers of No Easy Day and No Way Down and will be enjoyed by fans of 'United 93' and 'The Towering Inferno'.Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy are the authors of four books, most recently the acclaimed The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 - Where the Terror Began (Harper Press UK; Penguin India). For 16 years they worked as foreign correspondents and investigative reporters for the Sunday Times and then the Guardian. In 2009, the One World Trust named them British Journalists of the Year, having won Foreign Correspondents of the Year in 2004. They co-produce documentaries for British and American television; their most recent for C4 Dispatches, on Pakistan's war on terror, City of Fear, was nominated for an award at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Currently they are filming new projects in Myanmar and China.
The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Telling Stories, Tim Burgesss laceratingly frank and vivid memoir. Read by the actor Craig Parkinson, star of the hit film Control. The Charlatans have had three UK Number One albums and seventeen Top Thirty singles. But theyve also had to face the imprisonment and death of keyboard player Rob Collins and an accountant who ran off with all their money. Not to mention the rock n roll excesses of singer Tim Burgess. In his startlingly revealing memoir, not ghosted but written by Burgess himself, he describes how they dealt with their crises, and whats gone right with the band as much as whats gone wrong. Brought up in a Cheshire village, he went on to front a band that has travelled the world and was at the forefront of the Madchester and Britpop movements. Telling Stories is a tale of achievement and survival, via a fair bit of heartache, but told with humour. At the centre of it is Tim Burgesss own story: how someone with a passion for music got to fulfill his dreams. He doesnt flinch from the dark stuff - the lure of the rock n roll lifestyle, its sweet enticements - and he confesses in vivid detail how he had to pull himself back from the brink. But along the way he had a lot of good times and met some great people while making great music. Its all here in Telling Stories.
Swallowed up by the Soviet prison system, the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, saviour of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Nazi holocaust, remains a mystery.Recently KGB files have been opened and many Communist crimes have been fully exposed. Yet there is still no evidence, apart from a handwritten note of doubtful authenticity, to support the Kremlin's claim that in 1947 Wallenberg, then thirty-five years old, died of a heart attack in prison. On the other hand there is abundant evidence - none of it conclusive, but much of it highly persuasive - that Wallenberg remained alive in captivity long after 1947, broken in body and spirit, somewhere in the vastness of the former Soviet Union.Righteous Gentile is the first book to tell the full story of Raoul Wallenberg's shining wartime exploits and shameful post-war incarceration.
The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Virginia Nicholsons Millions Like Us: Womens Lives in the Second World War. A special multi-voice recording featuring five actresses that bring to life the hundreds of personal testimonies, diary entries and books that make up this superb study. Read by Patience Tomlinson, Annie Aldington, Rachel Bavidge, Julie Maisey and Georgina Sutton. In 1942 Cora Johnston is grieving over the death of her young husband, torpedoed in the Atlantic; Aileen Morris is intercepting Luftwaffe communications during the siege of Malta - and Clara Milburn, whose son was captured after Dunkirk, is waiting, and waiting ... We tend to see the Second World War as a mans war, featuring Spitfire crews and brave deeds on the Normandy beaches. But in conditions of Total War millions of women - in the Services and on the Home Front - demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than anyone had ever guessed. In Millions Like Us Virginia Nicholson tells the story of the womens war, through a host of individual womens experiences. She tells how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared; how they re-made their world in peacetime. And how they would never be the same again ...
Bend, Not Break chronicles Ping Fu's journey from China's work camps to top CEO.'Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times' -Ping Fu's Shanghai papaPing Fu is one of the few women running a tech company in the US. But her story begins long before.Born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution, she was separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the vindictive teenagers of Mao's Red Guard. At twenty-five she escaped to the United States; her only resources were $80 in traveller's checks and three phrases of English: Thank you, hello, and help.Yet Ping persevered. Within a year she had completed her English qualifications and started studying computer programming, rising to run the team behind Netscape. She then founded Geomagic, a company that has literally reshaped the world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing NASA spaceships.Bend, Not Break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from Mao's China to technology start-ups. It is a tribute to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience.Ping Fu is President and CEO of Geomagic, Inc. A survivor of China's Cultural Revolution, she was imprisoned for her reporting on female infanticide under China's one-child policy and deported to the USA. Fu is one of the few women CEOs in technology and was named the 2005 "e;Entrepreneur of the Year"e; by Inc. Magazine. She is a member of President Obama's National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and an adjunct professor in computer science at Duke University.
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of Trust Agents, are back with The Impact Equation to show you how to make social media pay.What can the IMPACT EQUATION do for you? IMPACT = C (R+E+A+T+E) Contrast: Does your idea stand out? Reach: How many people do you connect to? Exposure: How often does your audience hear from you? Articulation: Is your idea clear enough? Trust: Do people believe you? Echo: Does your idea connect to your audience? When Chris Brogan and Julien Smith wrote their bestseller Trust Agents, being interesting on the Web was enough to build an audience. Now everybody has a platform. But most of them are just making noise.In The Impact Equation, Brogan and Smith show that to make people truly care about what you have to say, you need more than just a good idea, trust among your audience, or a certain number of followers. You need a potent mix of all of the above - and more.As traditional channels for marketing and selling disappear and more people interact mainly online, the very nature of attention is changing. Use the Impact Equation to figure out what you're doing right and wrong. Apply it to a blog, a tweet, a video, or a mainstream advertising campaign. Use it to explain why a feature in a national newspaper that reaches millions might have less impact than a blog post that reaches a thousand passionate subscribers.The Impact Equation will give you the tools to guarantee your message will be heard.'Their advice on the importance of being able to write to make a splash online is solid...when it comes to building a brand online Brogan and Smith have been there and done that' -The Financial TimesChris Brogan and Julien Smith are consultants and speakers who have worked with Fortune 500 companies, including PepsiCo, General Motors, American Express, and Microsoft. They have been involved in online communities and blogging for more than fifteen years. Their first book, Trust Agents, was a New York Times bestseller.
'If HBO are looking for a project to follow Game of Thrones, they need seek no further . . . an epic' ScotsmanThe adventure continues in G.W. Dahlquist's The Chemickal Marriage, the follow up to the popular The Glass Book of Dream Eaters and The Dark Volume.Miss Temple, young, wealthy and far away from home, never wanted to be a heroine. Yet her fianc is dead (admittedly, by her own hand), her companions slain and her nemesis, the terrifyingly wicked Contessa Lacquer-Sforza, escaped. It falls on her tiny shoulders to destroy a deadly cabal whose alchemy threatens to enslave the world. Miss Temple plots her revenge.But Dr Svenson and Cardinal Chang are alive, barely - their bodies corrupted by the poisonous blue glass. Wounded and outnumbered, Miss Temple, Dr Svenson and Cardinal Chang pursue their enemies through city slums and glittering palaces as they fight to prevent the cabal's crushing dominion and unholy marriage between man and machine.Dahlquist's rip-roaring adventure sees an assassin, an heiress and a surgeon battle against the world's most unholy evil, in their final quest.'If HBO are looking for a project to follow Game of Thrones, they need seek no further . . . an epic which...will only grow in popularity over the years [thanks to] its virtues, hi-jinks, horror, decadence and derring-do' Stuart Kelly, Scotsman 'Fantastic. Somewhere between Dickens, Sherlock Holmes and Rider Haggard. I was in seventh heaven' Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth on The Glass Books of the Dream EatersG. W. Dahlquist is a novelist and playwright. When he fell asleep during a snowstorm, his first book The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters came to him in a dream. This is his third novel. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he now lives in New York.
The Village by Nikita Lalwani is a disturbing and utterly gripping modern morality tale set in contemporary India.On a winter morning Ray Bhullar arrives at the gates of an Indian village. She is here to make a film. But this will be no ordinary tale about India - for this is no ordinary village. It is an open prison, inhabited by murderers. An apparent innocent among the guilty, Ray tries hard to be accepted. But the longer she and the rest of the crew stay, the more the need for drama increases. Soon the fragile peace of the village will be shattered and, despite Ray's seemingly good intentions, the motives of the visitors and the lives of the inhabitants will be terrifyingly, brutally exposed.Praise for The Village:'A thoughtful novel that envelops us in the oppression and beauty of the rural prison . . . each voice is distinct, believable and stubborn in its refusal to be easily known. Touchingly evocative' Financial Times'Thoughtful, beautifully written. A candid exploration of journalistic ethics' Observer 'A masterclass. The inmates' stories evoke larger questions about justice and privacy, power and powerlessness' GuardianNikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. Her first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She lives in London.
Judith O'Reilly, author of the hugely popular blog and book Wife in the North embarks on a year long social experiment in the witty A Year of Doing Good.Fed up of New Year's resolutions involving diets and exercise abandoned on January 2nd, Judith is attempting to be good. For one whole year.She embarked on a mission to do one good deed every day. Some called it a social experiment. At times she called it madness.Juggling family, friends and a variety of neighbours in the small Northumberland village she calls home, she recounts the ups, downs, moments of doubt and sheer bloody hard work of doing good. From the small - babysitting a friend's child, clearing up her neighbour's dead mice and feeding her friendship cake Herman the German, to the slightly larger - trying to raise 10,000 for charity with her Jam Jar Army and teaching a severely handicapped child to write - she describes what she learns along the way: that no good deed is too small and that being good makes you happy. Well, most of the time.'A funny, uplifting and admirable book' Observer 'Banish January blues with A Year of Doing Good by Judith O'Reilly who resolved to do one good turn day. . . utterly uplifting' Woman & Home 'Fizzing with energy Judith's writing is open-hearted and funny. . . though not a guide to doing good, Judith's story may inspire you to do a little more for others this year' Express 'Glorious sincerity. . .the admiring accounts of others' lives, the detailing of the deeds gladly done or furiously resented, the unending chaos of family life - all are rendered honestly, colourfully and occasionally hilariously' Lucy Mangan, Sunday Times A Year of Doing Good inspires the reader with the day-to-day journey of meaning, gratification and joy that comes from contributing to the lives of others in so many creative ways. For those who want to put "e;do unto others"e; in the centre of their lives and reap the unexpected benefits of happiness and health, this is the book for you. Elegantly written, the words jump off the page' Stephen G. Post, PhD, author of The Hidden Gifts of HelpingJudith O'Reilly is a writer and journalist. Her first book Wife in the North was based on her blog of the same name and was a bestseller. Her second book, a novel, is living in a drawer. Her third book is this one. She is married with three children, and for one year she tried to be good.
Midnight in Peking is a gripping true murder mystery by Paul FrenchTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4'A first-rate murder story, a thrilling narrative. Hurtles along from one cliffhanger to the next' SpectatorPeking, 1937:The teenage daughter of a British consul is brutally slaughtered. The police investigation is botched; as war looms British and Chinese authorities close ranks. A grieving father vows to uncover the truth - alone.Seventy-five years later, historian Paul French uncovers a stash of forgotten documents revealing the killer's identity . . .For those who loved The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil this is a riveting and evocative true crime classic.'Gripping, spellbinding . . . drawing the reader from the very first pages into an unwholesome, macabre world' Guardian'Part historical docudrama, part tragic opera . . . it is French's enormous achievement that he pieces together the puzzle. He tells this tale with the skill of an Agatha Christie' Financial Times'Fascinating and irresistible. I couldn't put it down'John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'Vivid, pulsating, riveting. It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly: with its false leads and twists . . . it sucks the reader in like the best fiction' ScotsmanBorn in London, Paul French has lived in China for more than 10 years. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China; his books include a history of North Korea, a biography of Shanghai adman and adventurer Carl Crow, and a history of foreign correspondents in China.
Following the acclaim for The End of the Free Market, Ian Bremmer is back with Every Nation for Itself, where he addresses the next big issue for the shifting world economy.'Smart and snappy ... provides the most cogent prediction of how the politics of a post-America world will play out' New StatesmanWhat happens when nobody's running the world?The United States is in financial crisis and can't hold onto the reins of the G-20. But China has no interest in international leadership, Europe is trying to save the euro, and emerging powers like Brazil and India are focused on domestic development. No government has the time, resources or political capital needed to take an international lead. The world power structure is about to have a vacancy...at the top.Welcome to the G-Zero world, in which no single country has the power to shape a truly global agenda. That means we are about to see 20 years of conflict over economics, finance and climate change.Bestselling author and strategist Ian Bremmer reveals how world powers are rapidly turning into gated communities, locked in competition. Who will prevail?'A prodigy in the US global commentariat. Mr Bremmer's rehearsal of the consequences should make us all wise up' Financial Times'An author who is always full of insights' George OsborneIan Bremmer is the president of the world's leading global political risk research and consulting firm, Eurasia Group. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, and Harvard Business Review. His six books include The J Curve and The End Of The Free Market.
With his lightning-quick wit, unbridled creativity and his ear for the absurd, Milligan revolutionised British comedy, leaving a legacy of influence that stretches from Monty Python's Flying Circus to the work of self-confessed acolytes such as Eddie Izzard and Stephen Fry today.Throughout his life, Milligan wrote prolifically - scripts, poetry, fiction, as well as several volumes of memoir, in which he took an entirely idiosyncratic approach to the truth. In this ground-breaking work, Norma Farnes, his long-time manager, companion, counsellor and confidante, gathers together the loose threads, reads between the lines and draws on the full breadth of his writing to present his life in his own words: an autobiography - of sorts.From his childhood in India, through his early career as a jazz musician and sketch-show entertainer, his spells in North Africa and Italy with the Royal Artillery, to that fateful first broadcast of The Goon Show and beyond into the annals of comedy history, this is the autobiography Milligan never wrote.
1878. South Africa. A country torn apart by greed.Frances Irvine, left destitute by her father's sudden death, is forced to travel from the security and familiarity of her privileged English life to marry Edwin Matthews, an ambitious but penniless young doctor in South Africa. They are posted to a smallpox station on the vast, inhospitable plains of the Karoo but she is so caught up in her own sense of entitlement and loss of status that she cannot recognise its hidden beauty nor the honour and integrity of the man she has married. All her hopes for happiness seem destroyed when her husband exposes the epidemic that is devastating the native community in the diamond-mining town of Kimberley. Here, the gleaming houses of the rich disguise the poverty of a labour force under coercion, and Frances is drawn into a ruthless world of wealth and opportunity, where influential men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Passionately caught up with the man her husband is fighting to bring down, she must make a fateful choice.The Fever Tree is a powerful and moving novel set against the raw backdrop of nineteenth-century Colonial South Africa, its deprivation and beauty alive in equal measure. Above all it is an achingly poignant love story, saving the best and most profound moments of truth and redemption until the last pages.
WINNER of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2015In the last two decades football in Britain has made the transition from a peripheral dying sport to the very centre of our popular culture, from an economic basket-case to a booming entertainment industry. What does it mean when football becomes so central to our private and political lives? Has it enriched us or impoverished us?In this sparkling book David Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon tracks the momentous economic, social and political changes of the post-Thatcherite era in a more illuminating manner than football, and no cultural practice sheds more light on the aspirations and attitudes of our long boom and now calamitous bust. A must-read for the thinking football fan, The Game of Our Lives will appeal to readers of Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. It will also be relished by readers of British social history such as Austerity Britain by David Kynaston. 'Brilliantly incisive. Goldblatt is not merely the best football historian writing today, he is possibly the best there has ever been. Goldblatt's book could hardly be more impressive' Sunday Times
The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year, Anatomies by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of bestseller Periodic Tales, is a splendidly entertaining journey through the art, science, literature and history of the human body.'Magnificent, inspired. He writes like a latter-day Montaigne. Stimulating scientific hypotheses, bold philosophic theories, illuminating quotations and curious facts. I recommend it to all' Telegraph *****'Splendid, highly entertaining, chock-full of insights ... It inserts fascinating scientific snippets and anecdotes about our organs into the wider history of our changing understanding of our bodies' Sunday Times'A relentlessly entertaining cultural history of the human body ... brims with fascinating details, infectious enthusiasm ... the terrain he covers is so richly brought to life' Guardian'Elegant and informative ... For Aldersey-Williams, [the body] is a thing of wonder and a repository of fascinating facts' Mail on Sunday ****In Anatomies, bestselling author Hugh Aldersey-Williams investigates that marvellous, mysterious form: the human body. Providing a treasure trove of surprising facts, remarkable stories and startling information drawn from across history, science, art and literature - from finger-prints to angel physiology, from Isaac Newton's death-mask to the afterlife of Einstein's brain - he explores our relationship with our bodies and investigates our changing attitudes to the extraordinary physical shell we inhabit.'More than a science book - it's also history, biography and autobiography - Anatomies is writing at its most refined, regardless of genre' Sunday TimesPraise for Periodic Tales:'Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful ... if only chemistry had been like this at school ... to meander through the periodic table with him ... is like going round a zoo with Gerald Durrell ... a rich compilation of delicious tales, but it offers greater rewards, too' Matt Ridley'Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in surprise' Sunday Times'Splendid ... enjoyable and polished' Observer'Full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well ... an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information' Sunday Telegraph'Great fun to read and an endless fund of unlikely and improbable anecdotes ... sharp and often witty' Financial TimesHugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. His previous book Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been published in many languages around the world. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.
John Banville's Ancient Light is a story of obsessive young love and the power of grief 'Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.'In a small town in 1950s Ireland a fifteen-year-old boy has illicit meetings with a thirty-five-year-old woman - in the back of her car on sunny mornings, and in a rundown cottage in the country on rain-soaked afternoons. Unsure why she has chosen him, he becomes obsessed and tormented by this first love. Half a century later, actor Alexander Cleave - grieving for the recent loss of his daughter - recalls these trysts, trying to make sense of the boy he was and of the needs and frailties of the human heart.Praise for Ancient Light:'Brilliant. Banville excels in his brightly lit descriptions of self-absorbed teenage lust', Guardian'Dazzling . . . captures a long-lost adolescent world of passion and desire', Independent'Banville perfectly captures the spirit of adolescence ... This is a luminous breathtaking work', Independent on SundayJohn Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of fourteen previous novels including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. He was recently awarded the Franz Kafka Prize. He lives in Dublin.
One September morning, elderly Ruth Wesemann wakes to the sound of a parcel being delivered to her door. Inside she finds a tattered little notebook. Opening its delicate pages she meets with a flood of memories...It's 1933 and she is back in her light-filled flat in Berlin. Hans is making caipirinhas, snow falls outside the kitchen window, and Hitler is making his first speech as Chancellor of Germany. Her life and those of her tight-knit group of friends are about to change beyond all recognition. Having dedicated themselves to resisting the Nazi's rise, they have become hunted outlaws overnight. Fleeing the country, Ruth and Hans find refuge in a basement flat in Bloomsbury, but inspired by Ruth's fearless cousin Dora, they defy the conditions of their visas and risk being sent back to Germany in order continue their dangerous resistance work. But with each breathtaking act of courage and every person that they trust, they cannot help but risk betrayal and deceit. And then, one day, they face the chilling realisation that Hitler's reach extends much further than they had thought, even to London itself.Inspiring, tragic and based on real events, All That I Am is a masterful and devastating novel of bravery and betrayal, of the risks and sacrifices that people endure to protect their beliefs and of discovering remarkable heroism hidden in the most unexpected of places.
In Georgian London: Into the Streets, Lucy Inglis takes readers on a tour of London's most formative age - the age of love, sex, intellect, art, great ambition and fantastic ruin. Travel back to the Georgian years, a time that changed expectations of what life could be. Peek into the gilded drawing rooms of the aristocracy, walk down the quiet avenues of the new middle class, and crouch in the damp doorways of the poor. But watch your wallet - tourists make perfect prey for the thriving community of hawkers, prostitutes and scavengers. Visit the madhouses of Hackney, the workshops of Soho and the mean streets of Cheapside. Have a coffee in the city, check the stock exchange, and pop into St Paul's to see progress on the new dome.This book is about the Georgians who called London their home, from dukes and artists to rent boys and hot air balloonists meeting dog-nappers and life-models along the way. It investigates the legacies they left us in architecture and art, science and society, and shows the making of the capital millions know and love today.'Read and be amazed by a city you thought you knew' Jonathan Foyle, World Monuments Fund'Jam-packed with unusual insights and facts. A great read from a talented new historian' Independent'Pacy, superbly researched. The real sparkle lies in its relentless cavalcade of insightful anecdotes . . . There's much to treasure here' Londonist'Inglis has a good ear for the outlandish, the farcical, the bizarre and the macabre. A wonderful popular history of Hanoverian London' London HistoriansIn 2009 Lucy Inglis began blogging on the lesser-known aspects of London during the Eighteenth Century - including food, immigration and sex- at GeorgianLondon.com. She lives in London with her husband. Georgian London is her first book.
Mar a Due as's million copy best-selling tale of adventure, tragedy, love and war, The Seamstress, a Richard and Judy 2012 book club pick.Spain, 1936 and the brink of civil war.Aged twelve, Sira Quiroga was apprenticed to a Madrid dressmaker. As she masters the seamstress's art, her life seems to be clearly mapped out - until she falls passionately in love and flees with her seductive lover.But in Morocco she is betrayed and left penniless. As civil war engulfs Spain, Sira finds she cannot return and so turns to her one true skill - and sews beautiful clothes for the expat elite and their German friends.With Europe rumbling towards war, Sira is lured back to Franco's Nazis-friendly Spain. She is drawn into the shadowy world of espionage, rife with love, intrigue and betrayal. And where the greatest danger lies. . . 'Mar a Due as is a true storyteller. Read this book and prepare to be transported' Kate Morton, author of The House at Riverton'A wonderful novel with intrigue, love, mystery and tender, audacious and clean-cut characters' Mario Vargas Llosa'A magnificent novel that flawlessly brings together history and intrigue' Juan G mez-Jurado, author of The Moses ExpeditionMar a Due as holds a PhD in English Philology and is currently a professor at the University of Murcia. She has also taught at American universities, is the author of several academic articles, and has participated in various educational, cultural and editorial projects. She is currently writing her second novel.
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