Search results for ""profile books ltd""

CHOSEN BY GAIL HONEYMAN ON BBC RADIO 4 A GOOD READ 'Sad, funny and full of charm - a delight' Gail Honeyman, author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD A lost little girl with her notebook and toy monkey appears on the CCTV screens of the Green Oaks shopping centre, evoking memories of junior detective Kate Meaney, missing for 20 years. Kurt, a security guard with a sleep disorder, and Lisa, a disenchanted deputy manager at Your Music, follow her through the centre's endless corridors - welcome relief from the tedium of their lives. But as this after-hours friendship grows in intensity, it brings new loss and new longing to light.

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When the pioneering naturalist Gilbert White (1720-93) wrote The Natural History of Selborne (1789), he created one of the greatest and most influential natural history works of all time, his detailed observations about birds and animals providing the cornerstones of modern ecology. In this award-winning biography, Richard Mabey tells the wonderful story of the clergyman - England's first ecologist - whose inspirational naturalist's handbook has become an English classic.

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A new, revised and completely updated edition of the bestseller about what it takes to be an effective and inspiring leader - from the author of the The Tao of Coaching Leadership can be learned. This practical and compelling guide offers the tools and techniques to help you build the necessary skills. It will enable any manager and executive to hone their skills in leading teams, departments, divisions and indeed whole corporations. At a time when leadership is not the exclusive territory of the CEO - each of us is placed in a position of having to lead something at sometime - this book is relevant to practically anyone, especially those who are in positions of management or aspire to it. Landsberg argues that anyone who personally engages with his team to create Vision and Inspiration and Momentum will almost certainly be regarded as a leader. This book shows you how to do that.

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From the bestselling author of The Tao of Coaching comes a book on how to motivate and inspire others - and yourself! Motivation is much more than just a few words of praise. It is an essential skill which anyone can learn, and with which you can have an indelible, positive impact on yourself and others. Yet most of us are never taught this crucial life skill. In this book, bestselling author Max Landsberg fills that gap, providing simple tools, tips and techniques that really work. One of the key points of the book is, you cannot motivate someone else if you are not motivated yourself. Landsberg examines what it takes to motivate yourself, at work and at home, as the basis for inspiring and motivating those around you.

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Everyone knows that building your product or service into a bona fide brand is the only way to stand out in today's insanely crowded marketplace. The only question is how do you do it? This is the definitive text on branding, distilling complex theories and principles behind this key marketing term into in twenty-two easy-to-read vignettes including: The Law of Contraction A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus The Law of the Word A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer The Law of Fellowship In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands World-renowned marketing guru Al Ries and his daughter and business partner Laura Ries examine brand-blazing strategies from the world's best, including Coca-Cola, Xerox, BMW, Federal Express and Starbucks, to provide you with the expert insight you need to build a world-class brand.

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The Alhambra, the 'red fort' on its rocky hill above Granada, with its fountained courts and gardens, and intricate decoration, has long been a byword for exotic and melancholy beauty. In a stimulating new book in the 'Wonders of the World' series Robert Irwin, Arabist and novelist, examines its engrossing and often mysterious history. Built by a bloody and threatened dynasty of Muslim Spain, it was preserved as a monument to the triumph of Christianity. Much of what we see is the invention of later generations. Its highly sophisticated decoration is not just random but full of hidden meaning. Even its purpose - palace or theological college - is not always clear. Its influence on art, and on literature, orientalist painting and Granada cinemas, Washington Irving and Borges, has been significant. Robert Irwin enables us to understand that history fully. The Wonders of the World is a series of books that focuses on some of the world's most famous sites or monuments. Their names will be familiar to almost everyone: they have achieved iconic stature and are loaded with a fair amount of mythological baggage. These monuments have been the subject of many books over the centuries, but our aim, through the skill and stature of the writers, is to get something much more enlightening, stimulating, even controversial, than straightforward histories or guides.

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An axe-wielding psychopath carves young Dora Suarez into pieces and smashes the head of Suarez's friend, an elderly woman. On the same night, in the West End, a firearm blows the top off the head of Felix Roatta, part-owner of the seedy Parallel Club. The unnamed narrator, a sergeant in the Metropolitan Police's Unexplained Deaths division, develops a fixation on the young woman whose murder he investigates. And he discovers that Suarez's death is even more bizarre than suspected: the murderer ate bits of flesh from Suarez's corpse and ejaculated against her thigh. Autopsy results compound the puzzle: Suarez was dying of AIDS, but the pathologist can't tell how the virus was introduced. Then a photo, supplied by a former Parallel hostess, links Suarez to Roatta, and inquiries at the club reveal how vile and inhuman exploitation can become. I Was Dora Suarez is the fourth book in the Factory series

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Didier Daeninckx?s chilling novel created uproar when it was first published in France in 1984. It is set against the backdrop of a demonstration in Paris in 1961, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Algerians at the hands of the police. In Daeninckx?s story, Roger Thiraud, a young history teacher, is also mysteriously killed during this demonstration. Twenty years later, Bernard, his son, is murdered in Toulouse while on holiday with his girlfriend. To find the connection between the murders, Daeninckx?s hero Inspector Cadin must delve into the secret history and devastating compromises of wartime politics. Murder in Memoriam is a tense and unsettling indictment of France?s hidden past.

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It doesn't matter if you're a caveman, a time traveller or a regular person. Sooner or later, someone's going to break your heart. The sketches in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and - if you've ever been in love - all too familiar. From the invisible man stalking his ex, to Sherlock Holmes' only blind spot, The Last Girlfriend on Earth is always enchanting, often sweet, though occasionally awkward. Just like love itself. 'The Last Girlfriend On Earthis silly, surreal, sometimes sad and always laugh-out-loud funny. This collection will have you giggling/crying/squirming in recognition, and wondering what exactly Simon Rich has eaten to dream all this stuff up ... pulls off the tough trick of being both heart-warming and hilarious - it's a must-read if you've ever so much as had a crush on someone' Heat 'Pithy, occasionally bonkers' Time Out 'Truly hilarious' Eva Wiseman, Observer

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Set on a struggling farm in a fiercely beautiful colonial country teetering on the brink of civil war, this second novel by one of international literature's rising young stars weaves a brilliant tale of family drama and political turmoil. Since his mother's death ten years earlier, Tom and his father have fashioned a strained peace on their family farm. Everything is frozen under the old man's vicious, relentless control - even, Tom soon discovers, his own future. When a young woman named Carine enters their lives, the complex triangle of intrigue and affection escalates the tension between the two men to breaking point. After a catastrophic volcanic eruption ignites the nation's smoldering discontent into open revolution, Tom, his father and Carine find themselves questioning their loyalties to one another and their determination to salvage their way of life.

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'Part Moulin Rouge, part Alfred Hitchcock' Grazia 'A sly, erotic thriller concerned with doubleness and duplicity' Guardian Mesdames et Messieurs, presenting La Petite Mort, or, A Little Death ... A silent film, destroyed in a fire in 1914 at the Pathé studio, before it was seen even by its director. A lowly seamstress, who makes the costumes she should be wearing, but believes her talent - and the secret she keeps - will soon get her a dressing room of her own. A famous and dashing creator of spectacular cinematic illusions - husband to a beautiful, volatile actress, the most adored icon of the Parisian studios. All fit together, like scenes in a movie. One with a twist that will leave you breathless ...

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Designed as a companion to The Economist Style Guide, the best-selling guide to writing style, The Economist Numbers Guide is invaluable for everyone who has to work with numbers, which in today's commercially focussed world means most managers. In addition to general advice on basic numeracy, the guide points out common errors and explains the recognised techniques for solving financial problems, analysing information of any kind, forecasting and effective decision making. Over 100 charts, graphs, tables and feature boxes highlight key points, and great emphasis is put on the all-important aspect of how you present and communicate numerical information effectively and honestly. At the back of the book is an extensive A-Z dictionary of terms covering everything from amortisation to zero-sum game. Whatever your business, whatever your management role, for anyone who needs a good head for figures The Economist Numbers Guide will prove invaluable.

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First published privately in 1929 as The Middle Parts of Fortune, Her Privates We is the novel of the Battle of the Somme told from the perspective of Bourne, an ordinary private. A raw and shockingly honest portrait of men engaged in war, 'that peculiarly human activity', the original edition was subject to 'prunings and excisions' because the bluntness of language was thought to make the book unfit for public distribution. This edition restores them. An undisputed classic of war writing and a lasting tribute to all who participated in the war, Her Privates We was originally published as written by 'Private 19022'. Championed by Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot and TE Lawrence, it has become recognised as a classic in the seventy years since its first publication. Now republished, with an introduction by William Boyd, it will again amaze a new generation of readers with its depiction of the horror, the ordinariness and the humanity of war.

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For as long as people have been migrating to London, so has their music. An essential link to home, music also has the power to shape communities in surprising ways. Black music has been part of London's landscape since the First World War, when the Southern Syncopated Orchestra brought jazz to the capital. Following the wave of Commonwealth immigration, its sounds and styles took up residence to become the foundation of the city's youth culture. Sounds Like London tells the story of the music and the larger-than-life characters making it, journeying from Soho jazz clubs to Brixton blues parties to King's Cross warehouse raves to the streets of Notting Hill - and onto sound systems everywhere. As well as a journey through the musical history of London, Sounds Like London is about the shaping of a city, and in turn the whole nation, through music. Contributors include Eddy Grant, Osibisa, Russell Henderson, Dizzee Rascal and Trevor Nelson, with an introduction by Soul2Soul's Jazzie B.

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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.

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London in the aftermath of WW2 is a beaten down, hungry place, so it's no wonder that Regine Milner's Sunday house parties in her Hampstead home are so popular. Everyone comes to Reggie's on a Sunday: ballet dancers and cabinet ministers, left-over Mosleyites alongside flamboyant homosexuals like Freddie Buckingham. And when Freddie turns up dead on the Heath one Sunday night there is no shortage of suspects. War Damage is both a high-class thriller and a wonderful evocation of Britain staggering back to its feet after the privations of the War. And in Regine Milner it possesses a truly memorable heroine. She's full of secrets - just what did happen in Shanghai before the war? - and surprises - Reggie's living proof that sexual experimentation was alive and well long before the sixties.

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Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.

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Simon Bradley traces the history of the station, introducing us to the men behind the architecture and looks at its new international status. This fine new edition includes a fascinating chapter on the new hotel and some timely revisions bringing it fully up to date. 'A marvellous piece of social, aesthetic and technological history... it is impossible to praise Bradley's book too highly' A. N. Wilson, Daily Telegraph 'Brilliantly and with deft hand, Simon Bradley makes sense of it all ... fabulous' Sunday Telegraph 'A masterpiece of historical context ... immensely readable' Sunday Times 'This fine book examines the history of both the church that gave the station its name and the railway terminus ... unexpectedly compelling' Daily Mail

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In Hello Everybody! a bestseller in his native Holland, Joris Luyendijk tells the story of his five yearsas a reporter in the Middle East. Young and inexperienced but fluent in Arabic, he speaks to stone throwers and soldiers, taxi drivers and professors, victims and aggressors chronicling first-hand experiences of dictatorship, occupation and war. But the more he witnesses, the less he understands and he becomes increasingly aware of the yawning gap between what he sees on the ground and what is later reported in the media. As a correspondent he is privy to the multitude of narratives with conflicting implications, yet again and again the media favours those stories that will confirm and reinforce the oversimplified beliefs of the West.Hello Everybody! Is a story of disillusionment and enlightenment, by turns hilarious and despairing, but most importantly it is a powerful wake up call to the way the media gives us a filtered and manipulated version of reality in the Middle East.

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Imperial Triumph presents the history of Rome at the height of its imperial power. Beginning with the reign of Hadrian in Rome and ending with the death of Julian the Apostate on campaign in Persia, it offers an intimate account of the twists and often deadly turns of imperial politics in which successive emperors rose and fell with sometimes bewildering rapidity. Yet, despite this volatility, the Romans were able to see off successive attacks by Parthians, Germans, Persians and Goths and to extend and entrench their position as masters of Europe and the Mediterranean. This books shows how they managed to do it. Professor Michael Kulikowski describes the empire's cultural integration in the second century, the political crises of the third when Rome's Mediterranean world became subject to the larger forces of Eurasian history, and the remaking of Roman imperial institutions in the fourth century under Constantine and his son Constantius II. The Constantinian revolution, Professor Kulikowski argues, was the pivot on which imperial fortunes turned - and the beginning of the parting of ways between the eastern and western empires. This sweeping account of one of the world's greatest empires at its magnificent peak is incisive, authoritative and utterly gripping.

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Nearly a century had passed since Languedoc had been put to the sword in the Albigensian Crusade, but the stain of Catharism still lay on the land. Any accusation of Catharism invited peril. But repression bred resentment and it was in Carcassonne that resistance began to stir. In 1300 a great orator emerged who brought together the currents of resistance. Three years later the terrible prisons were stormed and the inmates set free. The orator was a Franciscan friar, Bernard Délicieux. The forces ranged against Delicieux included the ruthless Pope Boniface VII, the Machiavellian French King Philip IV and the grand inquisitor of Toulouse Bernard Gui (the villain of The Name of the Rose). This magnificent book, which forms a kind of sequel to Stephen O'Shea's bestselling The Perfect Heresy, tells his inspiring life and tragic story.

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In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome

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Freya is an ordinary girl living in modern Britain, but with a twist: people still worship the Viking gods. One evening, stuck with her dad on his night shift at the British Museum, she is drawn to the Lewis Chessmen and Heimdall's Horn. Unable to resist, she blows the horn, waking three chess pieces from their enchantment; the slaves Roskva and Alfi, and Snot the Berserk. They are all summoned to Asgard, land of the Viking gods, and told they must go on a perilous journey to restore the gods to youth. If Freya refuses she will be turned into an ivory chess piece but, if she accepts her destiny and fails, the same terrible fate awaits her.

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Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2012 Between the Orinoco and the Amazon lies a fabulous forested land, barely explored. Much of Guiana seldom sees sunlight, and new species are often tumbling out of the dark trees. Shunned by the conquistadors, it was left to others to carve into colonies. Guyana, Suriname and Guyane Française are what remain of their contest, and the 400 years of struggle that followed. Now, award-winning author John Gimlette sets off along this coast, gathering up its astonishing story. His journey takes him deep into the jungle, from the hideouts of runaway slaves to penal colonies, outlandish forts, remote Amerindian villages, a 'Little Paris' and a space port. He meets rebels, outlaws and sorcerers; follows the trail of a vicious Georgian revolt, and ponders a love-affair that changed the face of slavery. Here too is Jonestown, where, in 1978, over 900 Americans, members of Reverend Jones's cult, committed suicide. The last traces are almost gone now, as the forest closes in. Beautiful, bizarre and occasionally brutal, this is one of the great forgotten corners of the Earth: the Wild Coast.

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'It is said that failed politicians make the best diarists. In which case I am in with a chance.' Chris Mullin Chris Mullin has been a Labour MP for twenty years, and despite his refusal to toe the party line - on issues like 90 days detention, for example - he has held several prominent posts. To the apoplexy of the whips, he was for a time the only person appointed to government who voted against the Iraq War. He also chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee and was a member of the Parliamentary Committee, giving him direct access to the court of Tony Blair. Irreverent, wry and candid, Mullin's keen sense of the ridiculous allows him to give a far clearer insight into the workings of Government than other, more overtly successful politicians. He offers humorous and incisive takes on all aspects of political life: from the build-up to Iraq, to the scandalous sums of tax-payers' money spent on ministerial cars he didn't want to use. His critically acclaimed diary will entertain and amuse far beyond the political classes.

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The follow-up to global bestseller What Got You Here Won't Get You There (the Amazon.com no.1 bestseller for 2007 on Leading People) addresses the vital phases of gaining mojo (tough), maintaining it (tougher) and recapturing it after you lose it (toughest of all, but not impossible) This is vital in any competitive arena, whether business, sport or politics. Goldsmith draws on new research, as well as his extensive experience with corporate teams and top executives, to provide compelling case studies throughout. Readers will learn the 26 powers that are within us all and will come away with a new, hyper-effective technique to define, track and ensure future success for themselves and their organisations. Goldsmith's one-on-one training usually comes with a six-figure price tag. Now his advice is available without the hefty fee.

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* FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GIRL IN TRANSLATION * 'Kwok is an impressive talent' - KARIN SLAUGHTER 'A beautiful, propulsive story' - LAURA DAVE 'A hugely atmospheric and suspenseful mystery' - LUCY FOLEY 'I will find my daughter. No matter the cost...' Jasmine Yang thought her daughter was dead at birth. But five years after she was taken from her arms, she learns that her controlling husband sent the baby to America to be adopted, a casualty of China's one-child-policy. Fleeing her rural Chinese village, Jasmine arrives in New York City with nothing except a desperate need to find her daughter. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she's forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her child. Meanwhile, Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardise not only Rebecca's job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble. Two women in a divided city, separated by wealth and culture, yet bound together by their love for the same child. And when they finally meet, their lives will never be the same again...

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''One of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers'' Claudia Rankine''An unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom'' New YorkerIn this radical re-evaluation of American history, Saidiya Hartman draws together a striking portrait of nineteenth-century slavery and its many afterlives. Through close examination of a variety of ''scenes'', ranging from the auction block and the minstrel show to plantation diaries and legal cases, Scenes of Subjection investigates the interconnected nature of historical enslavement and present-day racism. With bold and persuasively argued possibilities for Black resistance and transformation, this book shows how far we have yet to go to dismantle the pervasive legacy of slavery.

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This overview of the financial history of St John's College, Oxford from the College's foundation in 1555 up until 1980 documents in detail how the richest college in Oxford very nearly lost everything. As well as providing a window on the past, Intellectual Capital also gives historical perspective to challenges the College faces today. Drawing on three main data sources - including the College's own archives and the Ministry of Housing and local government records available at the National Archives - Intellectual Capital establishes a quantitative overview of College's financial history and investigates in depth the financial decision-making behind, and consequences of, the development of North Oxford. Despite St John's' extensive records and a more varied financial history than almost any other Oxbridge college, this is the first time the finances of St John's have received such detailed attention.

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''Shockingly real, twisty and dark'' - INDEPENDENT''Tense, thrilling and darkly comedic'' - HEAT''The feminist update to Rosemary''s Baby we all needed'' - ANDREA BARTZI wanted this baby so badly.But she may be the death of me...Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her public life as an actress with a gruelling IVF regime, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Medicines are lost. Appointments are moved. She''s sure she''s being followed. And when she finally does get pregnant, someone steals the precious ultrasound photograph of her baby. But despite everything she''s gone through, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her. Then her doctors tell her she''s lost the baby. Despite her grief, Anna ignores them - because she can still feel the baby moving, can see the toll it''s taking on her body. Isolated in a remote snowbound town, Anna is sure that w

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A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' 'Fascinating ... you'll never look at a Hello Kitty or a Pokémon the same way again' Mail on Sunday Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to Disney characters? Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have - the ones that elicit our care and protection - but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards. Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of cuteness studies, explains how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from pop brands to Lolita fashion, kids' cartoons and the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. Irresistible delves into the surprisingly ancient origins of Japan's kawaii culture, and uncovers the cross-cultural pollination of the globalised world. Understanding the psychology of cuteness can help answer some of the biggest questions in evolutionary history and the mysterious origins of animal domestication. This is the fascinating cultural history of cuteness, and a revealing look at how our most powerful psychological impulses have remade global style and culture.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER ~ NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ~ WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 'An astonishing account of love, resilience and survival' Sunday Times 'A remarkable book' New York Times 'An extraordinary tale through the generations' Guardian In 1850s South Carolina, Rose, an enslaved woman, faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few items. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language. That, in itself, is a story. But it's not the whole story. How does one uncover the lives of people who, in their day, were considered property? Harvard historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women's faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward. All That She Carried gives us history as it was lived, a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds.

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Navigate the unexpected in pregnancy with the New York Times bestselling author of CRIBSHEETHalf of us might experience complications during pregnancy. Conditions such as pre-term birth, pre-eclampsia, miscarriage and postpartum depression can be isolating. What''s the best approach to take when you''re faced with uncertainty? In the years since she launched her data-driven approach to parenting, Emily Oster kept hearing questions from readers about dealing with pregnancy after complications. Offering parents the clarity they need, Oster provides practical advice and insight alongside foetal medicine specialist Dr Nathan Fox, as well as with data on recurrence and treatments shown to lower risk. Laying out the road map for a better birthing process, THE UNEXPECTED promises to make the hardest parts of pregnancy that little bit easier.

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This is a pocket-sized compendium of the world''s most useful tests - and a vital tool for anyone seeking to understand themselves and others. From leadership style to personality type, from IQ to EQ to MBTI, this little book provides the tools to analyse every trait you need to thrive.The bestselling authors of The Decision Book have brought together the best diagnostic tests for your career, relationships and business, distilling the wisdom and updating the science behind each in order to help you discover not just what your skills are, but how well you''re utilising them too. With analysis of the history, strengths and weaknesses of each test and what your answers mean for you, this book is the quickest and most entertaining way to equip yourself for happiness and success.

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A parent''s eczema care guide to soothe the itch and calm your childEczema affects 1 in 5 children, causing itchy, sensitive, easily-damaged skin that flares-up painfully. The Calm Skin Guide offers an overview of all the treatment approaches on offer, giving you everything you need to formulate your own management plan for your child, and the tools to adapt when things change. It includes clear guidance on:- Eczema and the itch-scratch cycle- Doctor and pharmacy-based treatments, including emollients, steroids and antihistamines- Alternative treatments, how to assess them and how to use them- Identifying triggers in the home like dust, humidity, skincare products, detergents and foods - The relationship between eczema, asthma and allergies, and how to manage these conditions together- An emergency flare-up chapter - what to do firstWith tips on washing and laundry routines, practical ideas for ensuring comfortable, itch-free sleep, and guidance from GPs and dermatologists, here is fri

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Whether you''re standing up in front of a crowd at a conference or chatting with a colleague on Zoom, storytelling is the most effective way to get your point across. It works in 90 second Superbowl TV spots, it works in 10 second social media formats, and it works in that email you have to fire off in 5 seconds flat.Why? The short answer is that people don''t make decisions based on logic. They make decisions based on emotions. To persuade, influence and inspire, you need to make an emotional connection. And storytelling is the best way of doing that.Journalist-turned-business coach Mark Edwards has developed his own methodology - SUPERB - for telling compelling stories at work. From the classic Hero''s Journey to why we all need to Save a Cat, Best Story Wins shows how storytelling will make better communicators of us all.

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''Aches with hard-won hope and bruised tenderness'' Colin Walsh, author of Kala''An intoxicating debut from a compelling new voice'' Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant SmileNeef and Danny. Danny and Neef. They were inseparable for all those years. Outsiders in their rural Yorkshire town, they clung to an imagined future achieved through Neef''s talent for storytelling and Danny''s for gardening. But as they grew older, their dreams strained against the same forces that held their families hostage: substance abuse, poverty, racism. They began to lose sight of their future and each other.Now, Neef works in a café in London and calls herself Jennifer. Jennifer is sober and determined to stay anonymous, until Danny''s father shows up looking for his missing son. As the memories she once fled resurface, Neef is forced to face the decisions she''s made and the person she''s become. Heartbreaking and hopeful, Wild Ground is an achingly tender novel of first love and second c

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''We could all use a Jodi in our lives'' The New York Times''A splendid book, full of warmth and understanding'' Mail on Sunday''This book will provide greater acceptance and understanding'' Temple Grandin, New York Times bestselling author of Visual ThinkingJodi Rodgers, on-screen autism specialist from Netflix''s Love On the Spectrum, draws on three decades of experience as a teacher and counsellor to help neurodivergent and neurotypical people find ways to communicate, connect, and thrive.Blending the latest research on the neurology of the autistic brain with intimate, heart-warming stories about the incredible humans Jodi has worked with during her career, How to Find A Four-Leaf Clover helps us use this knowledge to better understand not only the behaviour of autistic people, but our own. Highlighting how we are more similar than we are different, and that everyone is deserving of love and connection, this inspiring book will help us become more empathetic and curious about all t

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'Destined to become a classic of its kind' Maggie Nelson 'One of the most compulsive voices I've read in years' Olivia Laing, Observer When Constance told her ex-husband that she was dating women, he made a string of unfounded accusations that separated her from her young son, Paul. Laurent trained Paul to say he no longer wants to see his mother, and the judge believed him. She approaches this new life with passionate intensity and the desire for an unencumbered existence, certain that no love can last. Apart from cigarettes, two regular lovers and women she has brief affairs with, Constance's approach is monastic and military - she swims daily, reads, writes, and returns to small or borrowed rooms for the night. A starkly beautiful account of impossible sacrifices asked from mothers, Love Me Tender is a bold novel of defiance, freedom and self-knowledge.

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An Oprah Magazine Book of the Year 2023''A magical, endearing memoir ... the literary romance of the year'' Oprah''This book pulses with a defiant wonder at the living world, as wild and unruly as our feathered hero'' Polly Morland, author of A Fortunate WomanThen, just in time, before I swung the spade again, I saw, right by the blade and camouflaged by the leaves on the ground, a magpie chick. It squatted belligerently, peering up at me with miniature magpie fury. George.When Frieda Hughes moved to the depths of the Welsh countryside, she was expecting to take on a few projects: planting a garden, painting and writing her poetry column for the Times. But instead, she found herself rescuing a baby magpie, the sole survivor of a nest destroyed in a storm - and embarking on an obsession that would change the course of her life. As the magpie, George, grows from a shrieking scrap of feathers and bones into an intelligent, unruly companion, Frieda finds herself captivated - and apprehens

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Selected by Seán Hewitt as a Granta Book of the Year In trailblazing poet, essayist, teacher and activist June Jordan's poems, love is a vision of revolutionary solidarity, crossing borders both emotional and literal with an outstretched hand. Haruko traces the faltering arc of a passionate love affair with another woman while Love Poems encompasses relationships with men and women, political resistance, the need for self-care in a demanding, uncaring world and apocalyptic visions of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. A contemporary of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, June Jordan's spectacular poetry remains profoundly politically potent, lyrically inventive and breathtakingly romantic. First published in 1994, Haruko/ Love Poems is a vitally important modern classic.

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'The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture, as subtle as it is seething' Sunday Times 'There were other women, how many other women, who had felt and wanted what I'd felt and wanted, and felt and wanted differently too. Anywhere I've been and will go next, there they will be.' Twelve weeks pregnant for the first time, Anna speaks to her sister on the other side of the country and learns she has just miscarried her second child. As this loss strains their bond, and complications with Anna's own pregnancy emerge, her tenuous steps towards motherhood are shadowed and illuminated by the women she meets along the way, whose stories of the babies they have had, or longed for, or lost, crowd in. The Long Answer is a stunning novel of secrets kept and secrets shared. Deeply empathetic and hugely absorbing, it unravels the intimate dynamics of female friendship, sisterhood, motherhood and grief, and the ways in which women are bound together and pulled apart by their shared and contrasting experiences of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage and infertility.

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LEARN THE TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO STOP PROCRASTINATING AND START GETTING THINGS DONE Every day we begin new projects, or try to find pleasure in the ones we're working on - and above all, we hope one day we'll finish them! But in a disjointed, distracting world it's often hard to find the motivation and focus necessary. This compact book brings together 41 of the best productivity models. From world-famous techniques to the best-kept secrets of the professionals, this book is full of big ideas that actually work - distilled to their essence. You'll find out how to achieve deep work, compartmentalise tasks and identify your priorities - as well as how to build confidence, find your circle of competence and even learn to work with difficult people. Stylish and compact, this little book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to pull off a new project, assess what you've achieved so far, or even just understand your own working habits, this unique book has all the tools you need.

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THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANES A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAIL AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 WOMAN'S HOUR AND START THE WEEK Plunge into this rich, surprising and stunningly designed A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and present, the psychological and social, the personal and the political. 'Fascinating ... Phobias and manias create a magical space between us and the world' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No. 1 bestseller The Ruin of All Witches 'Fascinating' Observer 'An endlessly intriguing book ... All the bibliomanes (book nutters) I know will love it' Daily Mail

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'Great characterisation and plenty of genuine suspense in a psychological thriller par excellence' Guardian 'Absorbing and original ... The writing is pitch perfect. A very smart tale packed with jeopardy' Daily Mail 'Terrifying and amusing ... keeps you guessing till the very end' The Times A nephew. An uncle. A psychopath - but which of them is it? Gil knows his nephew Matthew is dangerous. The signs were there early - on a family holiday Gil's daughter was discovered nearly drowning at the bottom of a swimming pool, while Matthew looked on from the deck. Now seventeen, Matthew is orphaned when his parents die in a car crash. He must leave his life on the Upper East Side of Manhattan behind, to live with Gil, his wife and daughters in rural Vermont. He is insolent, bored, disconnected. At least that's Gil's take. To the women in the family he is charming, intelligent, wry. But when he disdainfully joins Gil's writing classes at the local university, Matthew's fiction shows a vivid and macabre imagination spilling onto the page. Matthew is clearly announcing his intentions to Gil, taunting him before he does something awful to his family. But why is Gil the only one who can see this? As Gil begins to follow Matthew around, his own behaviour becomes increasingly unstable. Is he losing his mind? Could it be that he is really the one his family need to fear?

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ONE OF THE TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Perfect for a quick fix of golden-age crime.. well worth reading by candlelight before turning in on Christmas Eve...' - JANICE HALLETT, THE SUNDAY TIMES It's only the afternoon, but dusk is already falling and a log fire burning in the grate. Outside, frost coats the tree branches and snow sparkles on the ground. And somewhere in the darkness, a murderer is making plans ... Here are ten classic crime stories for the winter months, from the greatest minds of the mystery genre. So bundle up, grab a glass of mulled wine, and get ready to be puzzled, astonished and entertained by these festive stories of murder and mayhem.

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