Showing results by narrator "Peter Noble" in All Categories

The story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family’s bonds and traditions begin to disintegrate. As Mann charts the Buddenbrooks’ decline from prosperity to bankruptcy, from moral and psychic soundness to sickly piety, artistic decadence, and madness, he ushers the listener into a world of stunning vitality, pieced together from births and funerals, weddings and divorces, recipes, gossip, and earthy humor.

Risk management has become a standard part of the strategic tool kit, providing leaders with a forward-looking radar to scan the future and give early warnings of approaching threats and opportunities. However, even best-in-class organizations can falter in the face of extreme risk exposure. Special circumstances demand special responses, and extreme risk exposure needs very careful handling. Routine risk management approaches will fall short, but businesses that demonstrate high flexibility and resilience will have the competitive advantage and the ability to thrive where others fail.

A young white boy and a Zulu teen grow up together, building an extraordinary friendship as they explore the rugged Drakensberg mountains around a remote South African hotel during the apartheid era. Jock and Papin forge an indelible bond while learning to love and appreciate each other’s cultures. Despite whispers from intolerant guests, the boys are oblivious to the consequences of their friendship—until society’s impossible expectations wrench them apart, leaving bitter disappointment and soul-deep wounds that will not heal.

The story of dealers of Old Masters, champions of modern art, and victims of Nazi plunder. Since the late-1990s, the fate of Nazi stolen art has become a cause célèbre. In Belonging and Betrayal, Charles Dellheim turns this story on its head by revealing how certain Jewish outsiders came to...

First published in January 1845, the poem is noted for its musicality, stylised language and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further distress the protagonist with its constant repetition of the word nevermore. The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious and classical references.

It is a fictionalised account of the first expedition across the Western Wilderness, crossing the Rocky Mountains. The journal chronicled a 1792 expedition led by Julius Rodman up the Missouri River to the Northwest. This 1792 expedition would have made Rodman the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains. The detailed journal chronicles events of the most surprising nature and recounts '[T]he unparalleled vicissitudes and adventures experienced by a handful of men in a country which, until then, had never been explored by "civilised man"'.

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

The complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe's poems, read by Audie Award-winning actor Peter Noble. Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

First published in 1931 by The Adelphi, this essay describes the execution of a criminal during Orwell's time in Burma. Britain ruled over Burma for 62 years (1824-86), during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars were fought and Britain incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Britain administered Burma as an Indian province until 1937, when it became a separate, self-governing colony. Burma declared independence in 1948.

In April 1945, as Hitler’s Third Reich was unravelling, George Orwell published 'Anti-Semitism in Britain'. The short essay sketches the contours of British anti-Semitism, an essentially non-virulent, though a tenaciously pervasive, societal attitude that ran deep and cut across class and ideological differences.

According to biographer D. J. Taylor, the young Orwell displayed ‘an enthusiasm for poetry that in [his] formative years seems to have been as least as strong as any desire to write fiction’. Orwell’s poetry is not among his best known - or most highly praised - work but nonetheless shares similar concerns to (and displays the dry sense of humour present in) his prose. Mere foothills in the range of Orwell’s work perhaps - but building up to the summits later scaled.

Books v Cigarettes is a funny and irreverent essay comparing the costs of reading to other forms of recreation including smoking. Originating from the experience of an editor friend who was firewatching during the Second World War, who was told by factory workers that they had no interest in literature because they could not afford books, the essay first appeared in Tribune in 1946.

Published a mere two and a half months after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Orwell’s 'You and the Atomic Bomb' is notable as one of the first efforts to divine the social and political implications of a new weapon of previously unimaginable power. Its fame arises from Orwell’s coinage of a new term for the permanent standoff the bomb would foster between two great powers, the United States and the Soviet Union: the 'cold war'.

In this insightful and politically powerful essay, Orwell attempts to evaluate non-violence as a method of political leverage outside of the unique circumstances in which Gandhi successfully deployed his method. He discusses the particular context that gave Satyagraha political force: the struggle for national self-determination in colonial India, and looks to Gandhi’s method as a reference for what he feels is a necessary discussion of alternative methods of political resistance.

Cambridge Archaeology Professor Alex Harker is drawn back into the twisted clutches of the Mithras, who are seeking to unearth a knowledge lost to humankind since the dawn of civilization. His journey will take him from the Bay of Bengal to the murky depths of the Gibraltar strait, from the Swiss Alps to an island untouched for over 30,000 years, all in pursuit of this fateful knowledge.

At a remote farmhouse outside Turin, a mysterious religious exorcism goes horribly wrong, setting in motion a series of catastrophic events, that threatens to bring the world to its knees... Meanwhile, Professor Alex Harker is settling into his new life in the Templar Brotherhood, when he is suddenly whisked away to the Tower of London. There he learns of a disturbing murder, and a strange riddle hinting at a sinister truth.

For many of us, what lies beyond conventional portrayals of mental illness is often shrouded in mystery, misconception and fear. Dr Sean Baumann spent decades as a Psychiatrist at Valkenberg Hospital and, through his personal engagement with patients’ various forms of psychosis, he describes the lived experiences of those who suffer from schizophrenia, depression, bipolar and other disorders. The stories told are authentic, mysterious and compelling, representing both vivid expressions of minds in turmoil and the struggle to give form and meaning to distress.

In A Man Apart Richard Steyn once again brings to life a South African icon. Louis Botha was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, a union he did much to create in the decade after the devastation of the Anglo-Boer War. During the war Botha was a brilliant young Boer general who through his battlefield strategy won significant victories over the British in the early stages of the war.

Health and wellness entrepreneur Peter Darrow thought he had life all figured out. A native of the posh and privileged Upper East Side, the young millennial lived large, attending elite schools, throwing lavish birthday parties, and spending summers in the Hamptons. Then one day, his seemingly perfect, polished life came crashing down. Over the course of three hellish years, his father died, he inherited and burned through a shit-ton of money, his girlfriend dumped him, and his first business floundered.

Too many businesses miss opportunity after opportunity to design, plan, and achieve intentional business change. Why? Because they charter projects focused on delivering software products: IT projects. But as this groundbreaking book points out, there’s no such thing as an IT project - or at least there shouldn’t be. It’s always about intentional business change, or what’s the point? It’s time to stop providing simplistic, one-dimensional, all-you-gotta-do panaceas.