Showing results by narrator "Peter Noble" in All Categories

India is in transition. Since the publication of Culture Smart's first guide to India in 2003, the nation has been transformed from a developing third-world country into the world's fastest growing economy. This completely new and up-to-date volume by American author Becky Stephen is unrivalled.

Why do we keep sheep? Alex Lindén ruminates as he watches his sheep ruminating. Naive and inexperienced, he has ditched his doctoral studies in order to move to a fully working farm in the country with his family, where he is tasked with the responsibility of caring for a herd of sheep. Lindén records his new life in his diary as he tries to manage life on the farm, the ever-escaping sheep and the trials and tribulations that come with being a shepherd - shearing, lambing and confronting the slaughterhouse. 

June 1554. Professional assassin Jack Blackjack has been dispatched to the palace of Woodstock, where Queen Mary's half sister, Princess Elizabeth, is being kept under close guard. Jack's employer has reason to believe that a spy has been installed within the princess' household, and Jack has been ordered to kill her. Jack has no choice but to agree. But he arrives at Woodstock to discover that a murder has already been committed. 

Jean Garnier lives on the fringes - a lonely nobody who has lost everything dear to him. His girlfriend was killed in an unexplained accident, his mother has just been sent to prison - he has even lost his job after the sudden death of his boss. In one last, desperate cry for help, Jean sets up seven lethal bombs, hidden all over Paris and timed so that one will explode every 24 hours. After the first detonation, Jean gives himself up to the police. He has one simple demand: his mother must be released, or the daily explosions will continue.

January, 1554. Light-fingered Jack Blackjack knows he's not going to have a good day when he wakes with a sore head next to a dead body in a tavern's yard. But when he discovers what's in the dead man's purse, his day is set to get much worse. The purse explains why the mysterious man with the broad-brimmed hat wants to catch him. But so does the Lord Chancellor, as does the enigmatic Henry. In fact almost everyone seems to be after Jack Blackjack.

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs, and behavior in the Philippines, ensuring that you arrive aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. This concise guide tells you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. The inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

From perilous early years through clashes with the BBC and BT, not to mention the News Corporation bid for full control that failed in the wake of 2010's phone hacking scandal, there has been no shortage of drama in Sky’s history - nor in its likely future. The organisation is now the target of bids from two true titans of the global media industry - Disney and Comcast - who are fighting it out for ultimate ownership.

Brussels. A panorama of tragic heroes, manipulative losers, involuntary accomplices. In his new novel, Robert Menasse spans a narrative arc between the times, the nations, the inevitable and the irony of fate, between petty bureaucracy and big emotions. As the 50th anniversary of the European Commission approaches, the Directorate-General for Culture is tasked with planning and organising a fitting celebration. The project will serve the wider purpose of revamping the commission's image at a time of waning public support....

London, 1942. A killer going by the name of "Crimson Jack" is stalking the wartime streets of London, murdering women on the exact dates of the infamous Jack the Ripper killings of 1888. Has the Ripper returned from the grave? Is the self-styled Crimson Jack a descendant of the original Jack—or merely a madman obsessed with those killings? In desperation Scotland Yard turns to Sherlock Holmes. Surely he is the one man who can sift fact from legend to track down Crimson Jack. As Holmes and Watson tread the blacked-out streets of London, death waits just around the corner.

Years ago, one starship and its crew discovered an alien entity which changed everything. Its discovery finally bought an end to the interstellar war being fought between the masses of humanity and the few pockets of genetically engineered colonists. An uneasy peace was negotiated as the human race realised there was something else sharing our universe. Something that had plans for us. But the aliens have remained silent. The earthers have begun to test the edges of the peace treaty.

Adeline, a mute who takes refuge in a convent, haunted by memories of her past; Sebastien, a young Jewish banker whose love for the beautiful Isabelle will change the course of his life dramatically; Tristan, a nine-year-old boy whose family moves from Paris to settle in a village that is seemingly untouched by war. Utterly compelling and with a shocking true story at its core, The Silent Hours is an unforgettable portrayal of love and loss.

Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy, and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

Child psychiatrist Dr Mike Shooter sheds light on the painful issues and universal experience of growing up, through the stories of his patients and their families. Growing up isn't easy. We can be at our most vulnerable and confused. And the right help isn't always there when we need it most. For over 40 years, psychiatrist Mike Shooter has listened to children and adolescents in crisis, helping them to find their stories and begin to make sense of their lives.

South Africa, 1987. Apartheid. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard working on death row, commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court's sentence - seems a foregone conclusion. Hotshot lawyer John Weber reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case. A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation's most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions....

Tony Blair's decision to back George W. Bush in his attack on Iraq will go down as a defining moment for Blair - and for Britain. As Ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock was centre stage in the dramatic months leading up to the Iraq War. After the war he was Special Envoy for Iraq, the UK's highest authority on the ground, and he worked side by side with Paul Bremer, the US administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, in Baghdad and saw firsthand the impact of the divisive turf wars back in Washington.

I’m lying here in a bed, my head full of regret, with only a little bird flitting through a tree to comfort me. Friends want to visit, but I refuse them. So my carer, Sheila, has given me a task to keep me occupied. An A to Z list. Think of a part of my body for each letter. Tell a little tale about it. When I reach H for heart, what will I say? How we loved to string crocheted hearts in trees? How our hearts steadily unravelled? So I begin with A. Adam’s apple. Will you be there to catch me when I fall?

Cut adrift by British Intelligence at the end of the Cold War, Jack Case is called back into service following 9/11. In a quiet Alaskan backwater, a man named Danny Lewin has committed suicide. But this was no ordinary suicide. This was an agent who held secrets. A man haunted by his past interrogating prisoners in Iraq. And British Intelligence fear that he put his secrets down on paper. Before long Case is drawn into a manhunt that drags him into the murky underworld of contemporary espionage and leaves him questioning who his allies and who his enemies are. The rules of the game have changed since the Cold War, and now Case must impose his own rules....

Humanity has been split into three different species. Mutual incomprehension has fractured the globe. As humans race to be the first of their kind to reach the stars, another Great War looms. For you that means returning to Yorkshire and the town of your birth, where factories churn out the parts for gigantic spaceships. You're done with the pretentions of the capital and its unfathomable architecture. You're done with the people of the Bund, their easy superiority and unstoppable spread throughout the city of London and beyond.

The gripping story of a young boy and his family, driven from their home by war and indiscriminate violence. Like millions of others, they attempt the treacherous journey across their war-torn continent, trying to reach the safety of Europe. The truth is, Europe doesn't want them, and thousands die every month at the hands of thieves and profiteering men to whom life is cheap. Kalu believes that he can lead his family to safety. They have money and a plan, and Kalu is, after all, the smartest man in Monguno.

In a remote city, a renowned performance artist commits suicide on video; from a long-abandoned space station comes impossible footage of a dead body; and in an isolated outpost, a secretive cult believes they are communing with the ancient alien Masters. How are they connected? Inspector Keon is trying to investigate, but once again his life has been flipped upside down. His wife, Alysha, is alive. His long search is over. Or so he thinks.