Showing results by narrator "Kris Dyer" in All Categories

We all have good days and bad days. Some days we're on form, others we can't really be bothered and feel a little lackluster. No one enjoys those slump days - so let's do away with them! The wonderful, uplifting, and funny authors of the best-selling The Art of Being Brilliant are here to show us how to get motivated, get positive, and get happy, and, most importantly, how to be all three consistently.

A shipload of migrant workers flees the pandemic-stricken UK, seeking a fresh start in Australia. For nine-year-old Cleary the journey promises adventure, for former nurse Billie it’s a chance to put a shameful mistake behind her, while struggling schoolteacher Tom hopes for a brighter future. But when a crew member is murdered and people start falling gravely ill, the Steadfast descends into chaos. Trapped on the ship, the trio must join forces to survive the journey and its aftermath.

Many people dread public speaking. And yet we all find ourselves forced to make a speech at some point in our lives and suffer the same inevitable anxieties: will my jokes fall flat? What if I freeze up? Is it okay to read notes? What if people walk out? This book will not magically transform you into a fast-talking, high-flying hotshot. But it does hope to teach you how to be adequate at public speaking - and, with a spot of luck, you might turn out to be 'rather good'.

The murder, a brutal stabbing, definitely took place on Guy Fawkes night. It was definitely by the bonfire on the village green. There were definitely a number of witnesses to a row between a group of Teddy Boys. And yet, was it definitely clear to anybody exactly what they had seen? In the writhing, violent shadows, it seems as if the truth may have gone up in smoke. 

Once again, the teens were not only faced with a ton of unanswered questions after what had happened down in that cell of death, but on top of all that, they had classes to pass! But this wasn’t the only thing that faced this misfit bunch of teenagers, because they had new powers to control and inner demons to face, a blood oath to figure out, a mechanical bad ass named Gruen out for blood...and oh yeah, a Hell’s Ring to fight. Which meant that their first year at the Afterlife school was going to be interesting all right. In fact, it might just end up being...Hell on Earth!  

Today's unprecedented pace of change leaves many people wondering what new technologies are doing to our lives. Has social media robbed us of our privacy and fed us with false information? Are the decisions about our health, security and finances made by computer programs inexplicable and biased? Will these algorithms become so complex that we can no longer control them? Are robots going to take our jobs? John Browne presents an impassioned defence of progress and innovation and argues that we need not and must not put the brakes on technological advance.

When their circus moves into a new town they soon make friends with a young boy named Tom. But Tom can't enjoy the circus because his granny has disappeared, and he's worried he'll never see her again. With the help of their astonishing circus skills can the Shortbread circus stars crack the clues and find Tom's granny?

It's often said that when tragedy strikes, the victims were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. But not Harry and Alice French. Assaulted by masked men looking for a mysterious package and a man named Renshaw, Alice and Harry manage to convince them that there has been a terrible mix-up. But nothing prepares Alice and Harry for the web they find themselves trapped in after their assailants leave. Especially as Alice hasn't been completely honest.

Elizabeth's reign is reaching its winter and England's old adversaries are fading. But in a world on the brink of change, showing any weakness can be fatal. 1598. Nicholas Shelby, physician and reluctant spy for Robert Cecil, has brought his wife and their child home from exile. But he has returned to a dangerous world. Two old enemies are approaching their final reckoning. England and Spain are exhausted by war. In London, Elizabeth is entering the twilight of her reign. In Madrid, King Philip of Spain is dying. Perhaps now is the time for one last throw of the dice.

Summertime, 1935. On a lake near Berlin, a young man is out sailing when he glimpses a woman reclining in the prow of a passing boat. Their eyes meet - and one of history's greatest conspiracies is born. Harro Schulze-Boysen had already shed blood in the fight against Nazism by the time he and Libertas Haas-Heye began their whirlwind romance. She joined the cause, and soon the two lovers were leading a network of antifascists that stretched across Berlin's bohemian underworld.

In What Do Animals Think and Feel?, the biologist Karsten Brensing has something astonishing to tell us about the animal kingdom: namely that animals, by any reasonable assessment, have developed the sophisticated systems of social organisation and behaviour that human beings call 'culture'. Dolphins call one another by name and orcas inhabit a culture that is over 700,000 years old. Chimpanzees wage strategic warfare while bonobos delight in dirty talk. Ravens enjoy snowboarding on snow-covered roofs, and snails like to spin on hamster exercise wheels.

Nigel Farage is a maverick and an outsider. But perhaps more than anyone else, he is now shaping the British political agenda. Under his leadership the United Kingdom Independence Party has been turned from a fringe organisation into a new political force, winning seats in the European Parliament and on local councils across the country. Farage has been called a "rabble-rouser", as well as "a man of the people". But he is a far more complex character than most people appreciate.

A Bookshop in Algiers celebrates quixotic devotion and the love of books in the person of Edmond Charlot, who at the age of 20 founded Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), the famous Algerian bookstore/publishing house/lending library. He more than fulfilled its motto 'by the young, for the young', discovering the 24-year-old Albert Camus in 1937.

All too often we think of the past as static, 'frozen in time', and indeed movement is not always easy to decipher from the archaeological record. With Jim Leary's expert eye we explore the tangible remains, from fossilized footprint tracks to prehistoric wooden trackways, ridgeways, holloways, droveways, green ways, corpse roads, and Roman roads. Isotope studies and archaeogenetics now allow us see the arduous journeys that people made across continents and oceans, proving that migration has been continuous throughout our past, an endless ebb and flow of populations.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. During a production of Hamlet, the actress playing the Queen is poisoned with cyanide. With castmates under suspicion, private detective Francis Quarles must unravel the threads of the Shakespeare play to find the murderer.

Uncle Willie has come to stay with the Redpaths for the holidays. It is just their luck for him to be found dead the morning after Christmas day, dressed in his Santa Claus costume, seemingly poisoned by his favourite chocolates. Or was there something sinister in the mince pies? If so, was it the ones stashed in his room or those sent to him mysteriously by post? More importantly, since his will was recently redrafted, who stands to gain by this unseasonable crime? 

A hilarious argument for change from international behavior expert Jez Rose. Do you ever wonder why achieving results is such a struggle? Do you want that to change? Let Jez show you how to train your brain differently by uncovering strategies used by some of the most successful people in the world.

London, 1556. Hal Westmecott, one of the city's most feared executioners, reckons Jack Blackjack owes him a favour - and now he's come to collect his dues. Hal has ordered Jack to track down his long-lost son. But when Jack's search draws him to the attention of a ruthless nobleman, a dead priest's vengeful brother and finally to a bloodstained body in a filthy lodging house, he comes to realise he is an unwitting pawn in a mesh of schemes dreamed up by the most powerful people in England. Just who is a friend, who is a foe - and will Jack escape with his life intact?

A naïve English graduate arrives in Greece seeking experience and perhaps an encounter with his literary hero: Nobel laureate and irascible old hell-raiser Irakles Bastounis. Agreeing to act as driver for Bastounis, the young man finds himself on a hectic, adventurous, and always challenging tour of Greece’s wonders - an apprentice in how to live life to the fullest. As the road trip progresses, the questions arise. Is Bastounis still an addict? Who is following him and why? Is he researching his final, much-anticipated novel? Who are the people he’s meeting along the way?

Who volunteers? Why? What are you willing to do? This title presents the hilarious, heartwarming adventures of a volunteering cynic. Do the feel-good rewards commensurate with the time and effort involved? When Seb Hunter accidentally picks up the phone to a charity Fundraiser one day, he faces a moment of reckoning. It isn't so much that he lacks a social conscience; but he can no longer assuage it by buying the odd copy of the Big Issue and eating Fairtrade chocolate.