Search results for ""Profile Books Ltd""
Profile Books Ltd The Economist Guide To Investment Strategy 4th Edition: How to understand markets, risk, rewards and behaviour
The classic guide for the individual investor, The Economist Guide to Investment Strategy sets out the basic - and the not-so-basic - principles for putting your wealth to work. It looks at risk, pointing out the hazards for those who wish to explore a variety of investment approaches. It also teaches the importance of sophisticated self-knowledge in finance, distilling insights from behavioural analysis as well as the principles of traditional finance. It highlights how habitual patterns of decision-making can lead any of us into costly mistakes, and it stresses how markets are most dangerous when they appear to be most rewarding. This fourth edition includes new material on private investment and non-standard asset classes - art, wine, collectibles and the like - helping readers to navigate those areas in which prudence meets passion.
£15.00
Profile Books Ltd Running with Sherman: The Donkey Who Survived Against All Odds and Raced Like a Champion
When barefoot running guru Christopher McDougall takes in a neglected donkey, his aim is to get Sherman back to reasonable health. But Sherman is ill-tempered, obstinate and uncooperative - and it's clear his poor treatment has made him deeply fearful of humans. Christopher knows that donkeys need a purpose - they are working, pack animals - and so when he learns of the sport of Burro Racing or running with donkeys, he sets out to give Sherman something worth living for. With the aid of Christopher's menagerie on his farm in rural Pennsylvania, his wife Mika and their friends and neighbours including the local Amish population, Sherman begins to build trust in Christopher. To give him a purpose, they start to run together. But what Sherman gains in confidence and meaning is something we all need: a connection with nature, the outdoors, with movement. And as Christopher learns, the side benefits of exercise and animal contact are surprising, helping with mental and physical health in unexpected ways.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Bluebird, Bluebird
WINNER OF THE CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 'Thoughtful, piercing storytelling with the power to transport' - FINANCIAL TIMES 'An expertly plotted triple whodunit' - SUNDAY TIMES Southern fables usually go the other way around. A white woman is killed or harmed in some way, real or imagined, and then, like the moon follows the sun, a black man ends up dead. But when it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules - a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger working the backwoods towns of Highway 59, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about his home state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. So when allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he is drawn to a case in the small town of Lark, where two dead bodies washed up in the bayou. First a black lawyer from Chicago and then, three days later, a local white woman, and it's stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes - and save himself in the process - before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. 'A winning literary thriller' - MAIL ON SUNDAY 'America's most interesting crime writer' - DAILY TELEGRAPH
£8.99
Profile Books Ltd From Global To Local: The making of things and the end of globalisation
For the past thirty years or more, the global economy has been run based on three big assumptions: globalisation will continue to increase; trade is the route to growth and development; and economic power is moving from West to East. But what if all these are wrong? From Global to Local shows how the world trading structure has already begun to shift, with irrevocable consequences for the global economy. Volatile oil prices, the pressures of sustainability and the availability of new technologies - such as 3D printing and automation - mean that companies, from General Electric to Apple, are beginning to move production away from distant countries and back home. If robots can make everything, why would companies use Chinese workers? Power is shifting, trade is shrinking and making things is revolutionising. Finbarr Livesey explores the making of this new world economic order, revealing the processes that lie behind it and showing how no one will be left untouched by its arrival.
£14.99
Profile Books Ltd Where the Line is Drawn: Crossing Boundaries in Occupied Palestine
As a young boy, Raja Shehadeh was entranced by a forbidden Israeli postage stamp in his uncle's album, intrigued by tales of a green land beyond the border.He couldn't have known then what Israel would come to mean to him, or to foresee the future occupation of his home in Palestine. Later, as a young lawyer, he worked to halt land seizures and towards peace and justice in the region. During this time, he made close friends with several young Jewish Israelis, including fellow thinker and searcher Henry. But as life became increasingly unbearable under in the Palestinian territories, it was impossible to escape politics or the past, and even the strongest friendships and hopes were put to the test. Brave, intelligent and deeply controversial, in this book award-winning author Raja Shehadeh explores the devastating effect of occupation on even the most intimate aspects of life. Looking back over decades of political turmoil, he traces the impact on the fragile bonds of friendship across the Israel-Palestine border, and asks whether those considered bitter enemies can come together to forge a common future.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation
It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it ... There have long been debates about 'correct' pronunciation in the English language, and Britain's most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the record straight. Sounds Appealing tells us exactly why, and how, we pronounce words as we do. Pronunciation is integral to communication, and is tailored to meet the demands of the two main forces behind language: intelligibility and identity. Equipping his readers with knowledge of phonetics, linguistics and physiology - with examples ranging from Eliza Doolittle to Winston Churchill - David Crystal explores the origins of regional accents, how they are influenced by class and education, and how their peculiarities have changed over time.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd The Signalman: A Ghost Story
On the 9th of June 1865, Charles Dickens was travelling aboard the Folkestone to London Boat Train with his mistress and her mother, when it derailed while crossing a viaduct near Staplehurst in Kent. The train plunged down a bank into a dry river bed, killing ten passengers, and badly wounding forty. Dickens was profoundly affected by the disaster, and a year later, he published The Signalman, a supremely atmospheric ghost story in which the narrator, while investigating a dank and lonely railway cutting, meets the signalman who works there. His new acquaintance appears to live under the shadow of an unbearable secret, haunted by an apparition whose appearance prefigures terrible rail accidents. Drawing on Dickens own experiences, and introduced by Simon Bradley, author of The Railways, The Signalman is both an important piece of rail history, and a sinister tale which will make you think twice next time you enter the quiet carriage.
£5.76
Profile Books Ltd The Idea of the Brain: A History: SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020
Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize A New Statesman Book of the Year This is the story of our quest to understand the most mysterious object in the universe: the human brain. Today we tend to picture it as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the its deepest secrets once and for all? Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge. Our latest theories allow us to create artificial memories in the brain of a mouse, and to build AI programmes capable of extraordinary cognitive feats. A complete understanding seems within our grasp. But to make that final breakthrough, we may need a radical new approach. At every step of our quest, Cobb shows that it was new ideas that brought illumination. Where, he asks, might the next one come from? What will it be?
£12.99
Profile Books Ltd We Need To Talk About Kevin
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2010 ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of a boy named Kevin who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband Franklyn about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. How much is her fault? In Lionel Shriver's hands this sensational, chilling and memorable story of a woman who raised a monster becomes a metaphor for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd The Lady in the Van
In 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken down van into Alan Bennett's garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennett, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifteen years. This account of those years was first published in 1989 in the London Review of Books. The play premiered in 1999, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Dame Maggie Smith, who reprise their roles in this new film adaptation. Shot on location at Bennett's house, Alex Jennings plays the author, alongside household names including Frances de la Tour, Jim Broadbent and Dominic Cooper.
£7.54
Profile Books Ltd The Test Book: 38 Tools to Lead You to Success
This pocket-sized compendium of sixty four of the world's most useful tests is a vital tool for anyone looking to gauge their abilities and improve their performance. From intelligence to personality type via creativity and leadership skills, Krogerus and Tschäppeler will help you see how you fare on every essential trait you need to succeed. Beyond your own abilities, The Test Book also provides sample diagnostic tests for your career, relationship and business, sketching out not just what your skills are but how well you're utilising them too. Some are old favourites - GMAT, MBTI, IQ, EQ - and many more are little-known tests with genuinely new insights. Every single one has been condensed to just a few pages, leading you to the quickest route to self-knowledge. With in-depth analysis of the history, strengths and weaknesses of each test and what your answers mean for you, The Test Book is the fastest and most entertaining way to equip yourself for happiness and success.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Beyond Infinity: An expedition to the outer limits of the mathematical universe
Even small children know there are infinitely many whole numbers - start counting and you'll never reach the end. But there are also infinitely many decimal numbers between zero and one. Are these two types of infinity the same? Are they larger or smaller than each other? Can we even talk about 'larger' and 'smaller' when we talk about infinity? In Beyond Infinity, international maths sensation Eugenia Cheng reveals the inner workings of infinity. What happens when a new guest arrives at your infinite hotel - but you already have an infinite number of guests? How does infinity give Zeno's tortoise the edge in a paradoxical foot-race with Achilles? And can we really make an infinite number of cookies from a finite amount of cookie dough? Wielding an armoury of inventive, intuitive metaphor, Cheng draws beginners and enthusiasts alike into the heart of this mysterious, powerful concept to reveal fundamental truths about mathematics, all the way from the infinitely large down to the infinitely small.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation
The decoding of Linear B is one of the world's greatest stories: from the discovery of a cache of ancient tablets recording a lost prehistoric language to the dramatic solution of the riddle nearly seventy years later, it exerts a mesmerising pull on the imagination. But this captivating story is missing a crucial piece. Two men have dominated Linear B in popular history: Arthur Evans, the intrepid Victorian archaeologist who unearthed Linear B at Knossos and Michael Ventris, the dashing young amateur who produced a solution. But there was a third figure: Alice Kober, without whose painstaking work, recorded on pieces of paper clipped from hymn-sheets and magazines and stored in cigarette boxes in her Brooklyn loft, Linear B might still remain a mystery. Drawing on Kober's own papers - only made available recently - Margalit Fox provides the final piece of the enigma, and along the way reveals how you decipher a language when you know neither its grammar nor its alphabet as well as the stories behind other ancient languages, like the dancing-man Rongorongo of Easter Island.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All ideas that have revolutionised science - and that were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped: here, Michael Brooks, bestselling author of 13 Things that Don't Make Sense, investigates the new wave of unexpected insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery. Through eleven radical new insights, Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our history of the universe, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines how the underrepresentation of women in clinical trials means that many of the drugs we use are less effective on women than men and more likely to have adverse effects, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out if there is such a thing as the will to live. When we think about science, we often think of iron-clad facts. But today more than ever, our unshakeable truths have been shaken apart. As Michael Brooks reveals, the best science is about open-mindedness, imagination and a love of mind-boggling adventures at the edge of uncertainty.
£8.99
Profile Books Ltd The Vital Question: Why is life the way it is?
Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four billion years of life on earth-and all complex life shares many strange properties, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be the same or completely different? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: how all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning. In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we are, and why are we here at all? This is ground-breaking science in an accessible form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.
£12.99
Profile Books Ltd A House in Flanders
In 1951 Michael Jenkins, then 14 years old, spent the summer with 'the aunts in Flanders'. His 'aunts' were a group of elderly women whose connection to his family had never been explained but they immediately embraced him and he quickly became entwined in the lives of an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins. The warmth of their life awakes Michael to the complicated world of relationships as he falls in love for the first time. Michael Jenkins's vivid memoir of a summer that changed his life has become a much-loved classic, with its evocative portraits of his aunts, the raw memories of two world wars that still scar the Flanders plain and Michael's unraveling of the secret at the heart of this family.
£12.99
Profile Books Ltd A Taste for Death: (Modesty Blaise)
* THE FOURTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING MODESTY BLAISE SERIES * 'The finest escapist thrillers ever written' THE TIMES 'Before Buffy, before Charlie's Angels, before Purdy and Emma Peel, there was Modesty Blaise' - OBSERVER Dinah Pilgrim and her sister Judy are vacationing in Panama when they're attacked on a lonely beach by a pair of gunmen. Judy is killed and Dinah is almost taken prisoner, and only the intervention of Willie Garvin - loyal lieutenant to Modesty Blaise - saves her. But with the entire Panamanian underworld searching for them, Willie and Dinah must go into hiding. It's not enough - Dinah is brutally kidnapped. Modesty and Willie must travel to Algeria and The Sahara to rescue her. But they're up against the most formidable opponents they've ever crossed swords with, quite literally. In the high reaches of an abandoned Foreign Legion fort, Modesty will find herself in a duel to the death with a swordmaster who has no mercy...
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness
A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 'A thrilling deep-dive through our evolutionary past, and a witty and learned commentary on why we are the way we are - and what wisdom we've lost along the way' Cal Flynn, author of Islands of Abandonment 'A wild ride: brave, outrageous, hilarious, helpful and urgent ... essential reading' Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Lives What kind of creature is a human? If we don't know what we are, how can we know how to act? Charles Foster sets out to understand what a human is, inhabiting the sensory worlds of humans at three pivotal moments in our history. Foster begins his quest with his son in a Derbyshire wood, trying to find a way of experiencing the world that recognises the deep expanse of time when we understood ourselves as hunter-gatherers, and when modern consciousness was first ignited. From there he travels to the Neolithic, a way of being defined by fences, farms, sky gods and slaughterhouses, and finally to the Enlightenment, when we decided that the universe was a machine and we were soulless cogs within it.
£11.09
Profile Books Ltd Mysteries: Classic Edition
'Knut Hamsun founded the modernist and postmodernist novel at once' writes James Wood in his introduction to this seminal work by a Nobel Prize-winning writer who has been recognised as one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. A young man called John Nagel arrives to spend a summer in a small Norwegian coastal town, a stranger in a loud yellow suit who begins to behave very curiously. He shocks, bewilders and beguiles with his open defiance and erratic self-revelations. Nagel's presence acts as a catalyst for the hidden impulses, concealed thoughts and darker instincts of the townsfolk. Cursed with the ability to understand the human soul, especially his own, Nagel can foresee, but cannot prevent, his own destruction.
£10.51
Profile Books Ltd The Gunners
'Moments of high tension - involving closeted sexuality, unrequited love and hidden parentage - erupt from a narrative that wrongfoots you with its careful pace' Daily Mail What's the point in friends, if you can't share your secrets? The Gunners used to be inseparable. A gang of latchkey kids, they took their name from the doorbell of the abandoned house they played in as children - and drank in as teenagers. Together they navigated the difficult journey from childhood to adolescence and learnt their first vital lessons about becoming adults; Mikey, Sam, Lynn, Alice, Jimmy and Sally are more like a family than just friends. One day, Sally suddenly stopped speaking to them and wouldn't explain why. Years later, Sally's suicide forces the Gunners back together for her funeral. All of them have secrets they are reluctant to share, secrets which mean they must reassess their happy memories and finally be honest about the reasons Sally left. This is a generous and poignant novel about the difficulty - and the joy - of being a true friend.
£12.99
Profile Books Ltd The Medal Factory: British Cycling and the Cost of Gold
55 Olympic medals. 6 Tour de France victories. Countless world records and world championship victories. Since the year 2000, British Cycling, Team Sky and INEOS have dominated the sport of cycling to an unprecedented degree. But at what cost? Did Sir David Brailsford, Peter Keen and the other brains behind British Cycling's massive and sudden dominance in the modern era find a winning "Moneyball" formula? Or did their success come down to luck and personal chemistry? Did this organisation, founded on relentless, ruthless efficiency contain contradictions which threatened to overwhelm it, amid accusations of drug-taking, bullying and sexism? The Medal Factory tells the full story from amateurish beginnings through a sports-science revolution to an all-conquering, yet flawed, machine. Through interviews with Brailsford and Keen, Shane Sutton, Fran Millar, Chris Boardman, Sir Chris Hoy and many other key players, Kenny Pryde interrogates the parts of the story - lottery funding, marginal gains - that we think we know, and reveals others that have remained hidden, until now.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd How to Spend a Trillion Dollars: The 10 Global Problems We Can Actually Fix
If you had a trillion dollars and a year to spend it for the good of the world and the advancement of science, what would you do? It's an unimaginably large sum, yet it's only around one per cent of world GDP, and about the valuation of Google, Microsoft or Amazon. It's a much smaller sum than the world found to bail out its banks in 2008 or deal with Covid-19. But what could you achieve with $1 trillion? You could solve the problem of the pandemic, for one, and eradicate malaria, and maybe cure all disease. You could end global poverty. You could settle on the Moon and explore the solar system. You could build a massive particle collider to probe the nature of reality like never before. You could build quantum computers, develop artificial intelligence, or increase human lifespan. You could even create a new life form. Or how about transitioning the world to clean energy? Or preserving the rainforests, or saving all endangered species? Maybe you could refreeze the melting Arctic, launch a new sustainable agricultural revolution, and reverse climate change? How to Spend a Trillion Dollars is the ultimate thought experiment but it is also a call to arms: these are all things we could do, if we put our minds to it - and our money.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of How We Navigate
"A NATURAL STORYTELLER" Mary Roach "BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING" Matthew Gavin Frank "CAPTIVATING ... WILL ALTER THE WAY YOU SEE AND MOVE THROUGH THE WORLD" M. R. O'Connor "AS ENTERTAINING AS IT IS ENLIGHTENING" Geographical Magazine, Book of the Month Within our heads, we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have - older even than language - and in Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do. From the secrets of supernavigators to the strange, dreamlike environments inhabited by people with 'place blindness', he will explore the myriad ways in which we find our way. Kemp explains the cutting-edge neuroscience that is transforming our understanding of it - and tries to answer why, for a species with a highly-sophisticated internal navigation system that evolved over millions of years, do humans get lost such a lot? "I WAS THRILLED TO DISCOVER THIS BOOK" Robert Moor
£15.29
Profile Books Ltd When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids
An urgent and necessary book by prominent child psychologist Dr Abi Gewirtz, When the World Feels Like a Scary Place brings solutions to a universal problem - how bad things happening in the world affect our children, and how we can raise engaged and confident kids in spite of them. To say we live in an age of anxiety is an understatement. The problem is, most children can't put things in perspective, and parents (who are often anxious themselves) can have a hard time talking to their kids without making it worse. Dr Gewirtz offers clear and practical advice for having the kind of tough conversation with your kids that really helps. Through conversation scripts, talking points, prompts and insightful asides, When the World Feels Like a Scary Place is an indispensable guide to talking to our kids about the big things that worry them - making us calmer parents with more resilient children.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd Country Matters: A Countryside Companion: 74 tips, tales and talking points
Everything you wanted to know about the countryside, but were too afraid to ask 'A joyful companion with surprises and delights on every page' Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs 'Highly readable and scrupulously balanced' John Wright, author of The Forager's Calendar 'Lovely, luminous' Bella Bathurst, author of Field Work Need advice on how to raise a chicken or pluck a pheasant? Wondering how to train your dog, catch a mole or sneak through a field of cows? Perhaps you're after the secret to the fattest pumpkin, the wormiest compost, the classiest snowdrop? Or are you simply in love with our captivating landscapes, keen to unlock the history and culture of our woods and fields, our footpaths and boundaries, our meadows and moors? In this delightful and eye-opening book, Meg Clothier and her father, Jonny, combine decades of practical know-how with a passion for literature and lore - braced up by a keen understanding of the conundrums of the contemporary countryside. From hedges and holloways to henges and ha-has, Country Matters brings the world beyond our towns and cities - its pleasures and perplexities, its dilemmas and delights - to entertaining and illuminating life.
£16.19
Profile Books Ltd We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir
A FINALIST FOR THE US NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2023 FOR NONFICTION 'Profoundly personal as well as historically significant ... In his moral clarity and baring of the heart, Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi' Hisham Matar, New York Times Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognise his father's courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja's own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably. This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians, but a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Chorus
'You don't have to go back. You will stay here at home, with me. This is where you belong.' One afternoon, in a little farmhouse in rural Virginia, the ailing Marie Shaw dies in ambiguous circumstances and nothing is ever the same again for the seven young children she left behind. Spanning from the Great Depression to the burgeoning of US counterculture in 1959, Chorus sensitively traces the divergent paths taken by the grieving Shaw siblings as they grow together and apart over the decades. Henry, Jack, Maeve, Lane, Sam, Wendy and Bette get married and divorced, go to war and give birth to children of their own, break down and pick themselves up again. Chorus is a hopeful story of family, of loss and recovery, of complicated relationships forged between brothers and sisters as they move through life together, and of the unlikely forces that first drive them away and then ultimately back home.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd Will Europe Work
A look at changing employment trends across Europe.
£10.64
Profile Books Ltd LRB Diary for 2025 London AZ and back again
When I cross the river, the sword that divides me from pleasure and money, I go North. That is, I take the Northern Line ''up West'', as we say: that is, to the West End. My London consists of all the stations on the Northern Line, but don''t think I scare easily: I have known the free and easy slap-and-tickle of Soho since toddlerhood ... nothing between Morden and Camden Town holds terror for me - Angela CarterThe clue is in the name: the London Review of Books has never been anything other than Bloomsbury-based, and though its outlook remains as international as ever, after 46 years you come to know a few things about your own patch. Next year''s LRB Diary duly takes an alphabetical tour, week by week, through 52 subjects indelibly inked into the capital''s literary (and not so literary) past, present and future, via the magazine''s archive. From Ackroyd to Zadie, carnival to cottaging, gentrification to the Great Stink, Keats to the Krays, Wren to Windrush.
£13.49
Profile Books Ltd The Disenchantment
'A shimmering, sexy, thrilling tale of intrigue and desire, and the dark paths we walk to keep our secrets safe. Bell has written a shining debut' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree A Best Historical Fiction of 2023 selection in The Times An Evening Standard Ones to Watch for 2023 pick Everyone connected to the court of Louis XIV has something to hide. For the Baroness Marie Catherine, it is the pleasures she seeks outside of her unhappy marriage, indulging in a more liberated existence of decadent salons and discussions with writers and scholars. At the centre of her illicit freedom is her lover Victoire Rose de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti, the androgynous, self-assured countess. When Victoire's devotion results in an act of murder to save Marie Catherine, the pair must escape from the clutches of Paris' overzealous chief of police. As they attempt to outwit him, they are led to the darkest corners of Paris and Versailles, discovering lies, mysticism, and people with secrets they too would kill to keep. Fast-paced, opulent and hypnotically absorbing, Celia Bell's debut is a love story to die for.
£16.99
Profile Books Ltd The Social Lives of Animals: How Co-operation Conquered the Natural World
'Any writer who can evoke the existential sadness of a lonely cockroach, or make krill thrilling, or describe a snorkelling colleague being engulfed in a "gargantuan cetacean bum detonation" is a real gift to science communication ... thought-provoking' Guardian Everything you ever wanted to know about how animals live together, and what that means for us Some animal societies hold a mirror up to the human world: elephants hold funerals for departed family members. Pinyon jays run collective creches. Rats will go out of their way to help a cold, wet stranger. Other lifestyles can seem intensely alien. Take locusts, surging over the land in their millions, unable to slow down for a moment because the hungry ranks behind will literally bite their legs off if they don't stay one step ahead (actually, you might know a few people like that). But no matter how offputting an animal might be, behavioural scientist Ashley Ward can usually find something worth celebrating. Travelling the world from the Serengeti to the frozen Antarctic ocean, with stops in the muddy fields and streams of his native northern Yorkshire, he brings his curious eye and infectious humour right down to their level. The result is a world-expanding, myth-busting tour of some of nature's greatest marvels, in delightfully broad-minded company.
£20.00
Profile Books Ltd Fyneshade: A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of 2023
*A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF 2023* 'A dark, inventive story' - SUNDAY TIMES 'A gloriously foreboding Gothic tale' - HEAT Many would find much to fear in Fyneshade's dark and crumbling corridors, its unseen master and silent servants. But not I. For they have far more to fear from me... On the day of her beloved grandmother's funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to Pritchard's ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of Derbyshire. All is not well at Fyneshade. Marta's pupil, little Grace, can be taught nothing, and Marta takes no comfort from the silent servants who will not meet her eye. More intriguing is that Sir William is mysteriously absent, and his son and heir Vaughan is forbidden to enter the house. Marta finds herself drawn to Vaughan, despite the warnings of the housekeeper that he is a danger to all around him. But Marta is no innocent to be preyed upon. Guided by the dark gift taught to her by her grandmother, she has made her own plans. And it will take more than a family riven by murderous secrets to stop her... Perfect for readers of Laura Purcell, Jessie Burton and Stacey Halls, Fyneshade is a dark and twisted gothic novel unlike any you've read before... 'A thrillingly dark page-turner' - MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Marta is Jane Eyre's black-hearted alter ego' - THE TIMES
£16.99
Profile Books Ltd Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our World
Financial crime seems horribly complicated but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In fact, there are four. A veteran regulatory economist and market analyst, Dan Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit. Along the way you'll find out how to fake a gold mine with a wedding ring, a file and a shotgun. You'll see how close Charles Ponzi, the king of pyramid schemes, came to acquiring his own private navy. You'll learn how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy. And you'll discover whether you have what it takes to be a white-collar criminal mastermind, if that's what you want. (Which you don't. You really, really don't.)
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd No Secrets: a totally gripping serial killer thriller from the bestselling author of Cry Baby
'So chillingly addictive you'll forget to breathe' CHRIS WHITAKER, author of WE BEGIN AT THE END THEY BELIEVE HIS LIES. SHE KNOWS THE TRUTH. You can't lie to Izzy Lambert. Her highly developed empathic abilities allow her to read people's emotions with terrifying accuracy - and consequences. As a child her insights sparked her parents' divorce. As an adult she avoids getting too close to people for fear of what she might learn. But now young girls are going missing in her town. The police have no suspects but, seeing her old school caretaker interviewed on the news about the story, Izzy comes to a chilling realisation: he knows where the missing girls are. When the police won't take her seriously despite the lives at stake, she will risk everything to uncover the truth. Perfect for fans of Steve Cavanagh, Adrian McKinty and Harlan Coben, No Secrets will keep you turning the pages until the very last line. 'Hitchcockian suspense' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Intriguing, absorbing, with a great twist that I genuinely didn't see coming' MANDASUE HELLER 'David Jackson is the master of the unputdownable thriller' MICHAEL WOOD 'A proper page turner, dark, thrilling, twisty and full of surprises' NADINE MATHESON
£14.99
Profile Books Ltd A Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries: From Piddocks and Lynchets to Witch’s Broom
BEST NATURE BOOKS OF 2021 - COUNTRYFILE 'Highly readable ... Apart from his ready knowledge of nature, [John Wright] has a sharp eye, a ready wit and a keen nose for a good story. Superb.' Countryfile Magazine From the bestselling author of THE FORAGER'S CALENDAR - a beautifully illustrated, practical and entertaining guide that illuminates and explains those mysterious details of the countryside you've always wondered about. Discover the mysteries of the countryside in all their pleasure, intrigue and beauty... Ever wondered about the masses of twigs in bare-branched trees that look like abandoned nests? Seen fuzzy red balls on roses? A stranded pond on a hilltop? Or even considered the shaded ways we walk along? One of Britain's best-known naturalists, John Wright here introduces us to the natural (and unnatural) mysteries of the countryside, giving us the tools to identify Witch's Broom, Robin's Pincushion, Dew ponds and Hollow Ways, and also their histories, how they come to be, and where to find them. From the enormous to the truly tiny he illuminates the oddities that pepper our countryside and the pleasure of spotting and understanding them. Beautifully illustrated, practical and entertaining, this is for anyone who has wondered what is that? or simply longs to get outside.
£17.77
Profile Books Ltd Outrageous Horizon
'A beautiful book about the best minds of a generation and the devastation of war - an outrageous voyage from the past that speaks eloquently to our present' Deborah Levy March 1941. A converted cargo ship, the Paul-Lemerle, left Marseille on a voyage to the Caribbean, fleeing Vichy France and the devastation of the war. The ship was filled with immigrants from the East, exiled Spanish Republicans, Jews, stateless persons and decadent artists. Among them were Claude Lévi-Strauss, the painter Wifredo Lam, the writers Anna Seghers and André Breton, and the Russian revolutionary Victor Serge. Can we know the taste of pineapple from listening to travellers' tales? asks Bosc in the follow-up to his bestselling debut. Can we ever feel the sensation of history? Mixing the documentary techniques of history, the imaginative leaps of fiction and the cool analysis of the essay, Bosc takes us from Marseille to Casablanca to Martinique and on to New York, to tell an evocative story of migration, cultural crisis and the intellectual cost of the rise of fascism.
£14.99
Profile Books Ltd The Concise 33 Strategies of War
From bestselling author Robert Greene comes a new guide to the strategies of war that can help us gain mastery in the modern world. Spanning world civilisations, and synthesising dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts, The Concise 33 Strategies of War is a guide to the subtle social game of everyday life. Based on profound and timeless lessons, it is abundantly illustrated with examples of the genius and folly of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher and Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as diplomats, captains of industry and Samurai swordsmen.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd Da Vinci Notebooks
A dazzling array of invention, insight and observation from perhaps the greatest genius of Western civilisation. Towering across time as the painter of the Mona Lisa, forever famous as a sculptor and an inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of both the Italian Renaissance and Western civilisation. His celebrated notebooks display the astonishing range of his genius. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in Leonardo and his complex and enquiring intelligence. This brand-new selection of sketches, diagrams and writings from the notebooks is a beautiful and varied record of Leonardo's theories and observations, embracing not only art but also architecture, town planning, engineering, naval warfare, music, medicine, mathematics, science and philosophy. Complete with a short biographical essay describing Leonardo's life and achievements, this is the perfect introduction to a mysterious and endlessly fascinating genius.
£8.99
Profile Books Ltd Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
At the heart of Born to Run lies a mysterious tribe of Mexican Indians, the Tarahumara, who live quietly in canyons and are reputed to be the best distance runners in the world; in 1993, one of them, aged 57, came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing a toga and sandals. A small group of the world's top ultra-runners (and the awe-inspiring author) make the treacherous journey into the canyons to try to learn the tribe's secrets and then take them on over a course 50 miles long. With incredible energy and smart observation, McDougall tells this story while asking what the secrets are to being an incredible runner. Travelling to labs at Harvard, Nike, and elsewhere, he comes across an incredible cast of characters, including the woman who recently broke the world record for 100 miles and for her encore ran a 2:50 marathon in a bikini, pausing to down a beer at the 20 mile mark.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Co-Opetition
Co-opetition offers a new way of thinking that combines competition and cooperation. It is the first book to adapt game theory to the needs of CEOs, managers and entrepreneurs. Though often compared to games like chess or poker, business is different - people are free to change the rules, the players, the boundaries, even the game itself. The essence of business success lies in making sure you are in the right game. Actively shaping which game you play, and how you play it, is the core of the innovative business strategy laid out in Co-opetition. Barry Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger, professors at Yale and Harvard, are pioneers in the practice of applying the science of game theory to the art of corporate strategy. They have devised a practice-oriented model to help you break out of the traditional win-lose or lose-lose situations. Dozens of companies - including Intel, Nintendo, American Express and Nutrasweet - have been using the strategies of co-opetition to change their game and enjoy the benefits of win-win opportunities.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd The 48 Laws Of Power
THE MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'If power is your ultimate goal, this is the book you need' The Times Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distils three thousand years of the history of power into forty-eight well-explicated laws. As attention-grabbing in its design as it is in its content, this bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun-tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other great thinkers. Some laws require prudence ("Law 1: Never Outshine the Master"), some stealth ("Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions"), and some the total absence of mercy ("Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally"), but like it or not, all have applications in real-life situations. Illustrated through the tactics of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissenger, P T Barnum, and other famous figures who have wielded - or been victimised by - power, these laws will fascinate any reader interested in gaining, observing or defending against ultimate control.
£18.99
Profile Books Ltd The Rosetta Stone: and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt
What does the Rosetta Stone tell us about the past? What treasures of Egyptian literature can now be read, thanks to its decipherment? What does it tell us about the history of writing and the story of our own alphabets? How do decipherments work and how can we know if they are right? Who owns the Rosetta Stone and what happens if we start to return pieces of the past to countries who claim them? These are some of the fascinating questions which are explored in this introduction to one of the true Wonders of the World.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
A window into a life of insatiable desire and uninhibited sex - this is Parisian art critic Catherine M.'s account of her sexual awakening and her unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. From the glamorous singles clubs of Paris to the Bois de Boulogne, she describes her erotic experiences in precise and beautiful detail. A phenomenal bestseller throughout Europe, The Sexual Life of Catherine M., like Fifty Shades of Grey, breaks with accepted ideas of sex and examines many alternative manifestations of desire. Told in spare, elegant prose, her story will shock, enlighten and liberate you.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd The Book of Disquiet
Sitting at his desk, Bernardo Soares imagined himself free forever of Rua dos Douradores, of his boss Vasques, of Moreira the book-keeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy, even the cat. But if he left them all tomorrow and discarded the suit of clothes he wears, what else would he do? Because he would have to do something. And what suit would he wear? Because he would have to wear another suit. A self-deprecating reflection on the sheer distance between the loftiness of his feelings and the humdrum reality of his life, The Book of Disquiet is a classic of existentialist literature.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd Venice is a Fish: A Cultural Guide
'Every year, hundreds of books on the city are published, but none resembles this one' - Independent 'This gem of a book offers practical advice but in a distinctly lyrical tone. If you are lucky enough to be going there, take Venice is a Fish and you will want for nothing' - Sunday Telegraph Built on an inverted forest, paved with a tortoiseshell of boulders, Venice is a maze of tiny alleys, bridges and squares. Tiziano Scarpa wanders through the city, recounting the customs and secrets that only Venetians know. With everything from practical advice for aspiring Venetian lovers to hints at where to find the best bacaro, Scarpa waves the tourist in the right direction and, without naming a single restaurant, hotel or bar, relates the secret language needed to experience the real Venice. So ignore the street signs - why fight the labyrinth? Venice, the fish, is ready to swallow you whole.
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World
'If there were a Nobel Prize in History, Colley would be my nominee' Jill Lepore, New Yorker 'One of the most exciting historians of her generation, but also one of the most interesting writers of non-fiction around' - William Dalrymple, Guardian 'Colley takes you on intellectual journeys you wouldn't think to take on your own, and when you arrive you wonder that you never did it before' - David Aaronovitch, the Times 'A global history of remarkable depth, imagination and insight' Tony Barber, Financial Times Summer Books Starting not with the United States, but with the Corsican constitution of 1755, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen moves through every continent, disrupting accepted narratives. Both monarchs and radicals play a role, from Catherine the Great of Russia, with her remarkable Nakaz, to Sierra Leone's James Africanus Horton, to Tunisia's Khayr-al-Din, a creator of the first modern Islamic constitution. Throughout, Colley demonstrates how constitutions evolved in tandem with warfare, and how they have functioned to advance empire as well as promote nations, and worked to exclude as well as liberate. Whether reinterpreting Japan's momentous 1889 constitution, or exploring the significance of the first constitution to enfranchise all adult women on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific in 1838, this is one of the most original global histories in decades.
£12.99
Profile Books Ltd Sleights of Mind: What the neuroscience of magic reveals about our brains
What can magic tell us about ourselves and our daily lives? If you subtly change the subject during an uncomfortable conversation, did you know you're using attentional 'misdirection', a core technique of magic? And if you've ever bought an expensive item you'd sworn never to buy, you were probably unaware that the salesperson was, like an accomplished magician, a master at creating the 'illusion of choice'. Leading neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde meet with magicians from all over the world to explain how the magician's art sheds light on consciousness, memory, attention, and belief. As the founders of the new discipline of NeuroMagic, they combine cutting-edge scientific research with startling insights into the tricks of the magic trade. By understanding how magic manipulates the processes in our brains, we can better understand how we work - in fields from law and education to marketing, health and psychology - for good and for ill.
£10.99
Profile Books Ltd How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region
Until the catastrophic economic crisis of the late 1990s, East Asia was perceived as a monolithic success story. But heady economic growth rates masked the most divided continent in the world - one half the most extraordinary developmental success story ever seen, the other half a paper tiger. Joe Studwell explores how policies ridiculed by economists created titans in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and are now behind the rise of China, while the best advice the West could offer sold its allies in South-East Asia down the economic river. The first book to offer an Asia-wide deconstruction of success and failure in economic development, Studwell's latest work is provocative and iconoclastic - and sobering reading for most of the world's developing countries. How Asia Works is a must-read book that packs powerful insights about the world's most misunderstood continent.
£10.99