Showing results by narrator "Tom Lawrence" in All Categories

What exactly are the weird and the eerie? In this new essay, Mark Fisher argues that some of the most haunting and anomalous fiction of the 20th century belongs to these two modes. The weird and the eerie are closely related but distinct modes, each possessing its own distinct properties. Both have often been associated with horror, yet this emphasis overlooks the aching fascination that such texts can exercise. The weird and the eerie both fundamentally concern the outside and the unknown, which are not intrinsically horrifying, even if they are always unsettling.

In coaching, questions are the route to progress. Questions enable the people being coached to arrive at their own solutions and, crucially, to 'own' them as well. The effectiveness of this tool applies to anyone in a coaching role, whether as a leader, a professional coach or a people management executive. The audiobook explains the guiding principles behind great questions, as well as the pitfalls to avoid, serving as a practical guide to becoming a highly effective questioner.

In 1946, Italy became a democratic Republic, thereby entering the family of modern Western nations. But deep within Italy there lurked a forgotten curse: three major criminal brotherhoods, whose methods had been honed over a century of experience. As Italy grew, so did the mafias. Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the camorra from Naples, and the mysterious 'ndrangheta from Calabria stood ready to enter the wealthiest and bloodiest period of their long history. Italy made itself rich by making scooters, cars and handbags.

1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper's doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.

Mention Milton Jones to most people and the first thing they think is 'Help!' So he's set out on a mission to help anyone, anywhere—whether they need it or not. Armed with a new motto, 'No problem too problemy', and accompanied by his faithful assistant Anton and landlady Pauline, he sets out to assist people in any way he can.

The Sicilian mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is far from being Italy's only dangerous criminal fraternity. The south of the country hosts two other major mafias: the camorra, from Naples and its hinterland and the 'ndrangheta, the mafia from the poor and isolated region of Calabria that has now risen to become the most powerful mob of all. Each of these brotherhoods has its own methods, its own dark rituals, its own style of ferocity and corruption. Their early history is little known, indeed some of it has been entirely shrouded in myth and silence until now.

We begin in the turbulent times of the medieval friar, William of Occam, who first articulated the principle that the best answer to any problem is the simplest. This theory, known as Occam's razor, cut through the thickets of medieval metaphysics to clear a path for modern science. We follow the razor in the hands of the giants of science, from Copernicus to Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Rubin and Higgs. Its success suggests that we live in the simplest possible habitable universe and supports the revolutionary theory that our cosmos has evolved.

Gideon and Luke are spending some quality family time, playing at being normal teenagers. They have no reason to use their telekinetic powers in the small seaside town, and they have enough bodyguards to keep them safe, right? Wrong. A brutal killer is stalking them, and he has Gideon and Luke in his sights. The second in a sensational new series about a group of teenagers with special powers, from best-selling author Ali Sparkes.

Will is sleepwalking through life - he’s working in a dead-end job and volunteers at a crisis line, hiding behind the phone and helping others to avoid sorting out his own life, which is stuck in a rut. Annie thought she had a five-year plan all figured out with her steady job and even steadier boyfriend. But when everything starts falling apart, she reaches out for help and just needs someone to listen. Will enjoys talking to the woman who calls herself Pia, and together they start to encourage each other to do brave things and rebuild their lives.

Tim thinks he has the most boring family in the world. There's no way that the sparkly Sophie in his class is ever going to look at him. School is boring. And then the graffiti starts appearing - and it's all about chickens. Who is writing it all?

In this dramatic reading of Little Women, we follow the lives of four sisters–Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March–as they embark on the journey from childhood to womanhood. The sisters live with their mother while their father fights in the American Civil War. The family, headed by their beloved mother Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and wealthy neighbor, Mr. Laurence, and his high-spirited grandson Laurie.

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945. Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows, watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen.

Four men gather in Stockholm. Each has existed on the fringes of Stockholm society. Each has a past that just won't let him go. Then a plan falls into their laps. A plan to steal millions from the largest cash facility in Sweden. At first the scheme seems foolproof, every contingency covered, every detail planned perfectly. But is everyone involved who they say they are? Can they ever really hope to pull off such an extraordinary crime?

It was one of the most extraordinary takeovers British football has known. In February 2021, Ryan Reynolds joined with Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham AFC, a non-league team in North Wales. Wrexham, a former coal and steel town dealing with its post-industrial legacy, suddenly found itself at the centre of global attention, with broadcast networks around the world descending to discover what was going on. Tinseltown tells the story of this extraordinary, unpredictable and often surreal football takeover and the remarkable events that followed.

Primed for a life of ambition and achievement, Paul Richardson fled the conventions of his middle-class upbringing to learn to live on the land in a rough-and-tumble village on the edge of Europe. Immersing himself in the rural culture of his remote Spanish community, he learned the traditional arts of animal husbandry and vegetable growing, wine-making and home distilling, and made bread from the rye he sowed on the stone-walled terraces of his twelve-acre farm.

A breath-taking debut from an author whose vision is both acerbic and tender. Seb's beautiful, beloved wife Leda has been killed by a swan. With a name like that, with a bizarre family history like hers, it isn't really surprising. Seb has a grip on her story and its aesthetics; he knows how it should go. Except that he doesn't. Sorting through her belongings after her death, he comes across a packet of unopened letters from a man whom Leda has never mentioned.

A collection of four novellas: each taking place in 1998, each set in the world of Six Four and each centreing around a mystery and the unfortunate officer tasked with solving it. Prefecture D continues Hideo Yokoyama's exploration of the themes of obsession, saving face, office politics and interdepartmental conflicts. Placing everyday characters between a rock and a hard place and then dialling up the pressure, he blends and balances the very Japanese with the very accessible, to spectacular effect.

Jake is sure he's going to hate the village where he's moved with his mum and twin sister, Jenna. There are only about ten houses and a green - boring. But when Jenna spots the ghost of a cute-looking beagle with a lead in its mouth, Jake and Jenna begin to realize that the village might not be as boring as it first seemed and that there are some very spooky goings-on...not least, the deserted derelict house and the creepy noises that are coming from somewhere inside it....

Edited and with an introduction by philosopher Tom Whyman, this new abridged version The German Ideology sheds new light on one of the most difficult, disputed texts in Marx’s oeuvre. Written in 1846 and subsequently abandoned by Marx and Engels, only to be rescued in the 1930s by researchers in the USSR, The German Ideology is the high point of Marx’s philosophical thought: A brilliantly insightful, still thrillingly radical work of materialist philosophical therapy.

May 1944, the Royal Armoured Corps prepares for the invasion of north-west Europe. Young and conscientious, Michael Brook is quickly promoted to tank commander. He must overcome not only his own fear, but the dissent and doubts of his ever-changing crew, as the war takes them over the Rhine and into Germany. The men encounter both jubilant civilians and stiff enemy resistance as the conflict exacts a heavy toll. Based on Peter Elstob's own wartime experience, Warriors for the Working Day brilliantly evokes the particular ferocity, heat and terror of tank warfare.