Showing results by narrator "Rupert Farley" in All Categories

War against Napoleon rages across Europe, and the formidable Richard Sharpe and his men brace themselves for a cold, hard winter. Before them lies the fiercest French army they have ever encountered. There is only one way forward for Wellington's army, and it will be bloody. Major Sharpe may be in for his toughest winter yet…

Michael Barber has spent many years advising governments, businesses and major sporting teams around the world on how to achieve ambitious goals on time. In this book, he applies the wisdom he has gained from dealing with large, complex organisations and elite athletes to help anyone tackle their most challenging goals. Drawing on the stories of historic visionaries and modern heroes - from Galileo to Rosa Parks, Harold Macmillan to Paula Radcliffe - Barber uses personal anecdote and proven strategy to map the route to success and navigate the difficulties that arise along the way.

In Lessons in Stoicism, philosopher John Sellars weaves together the key ideas of the three great Roman Stoics - Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius - with snapshots of their fascinating lives, to show us how their ideas can help us today. In vivid prose, Sellars shows how the works of these three Stoics have inspired people ever since, speaking as they do to some of the perennial issues that face anyone trying to navigate their way through life.

1677 - Snatched from an Irish village by Barbary corsairs, 17 year old Hector Lynch finds himself in a bewildering world where life is cheap and only the quick- witted survive. Befriended by fellow captive Dan, they escape horrors of the slave barracks by converting to Islam; then, serving aboard a Turkish ship, their vessel is sunk at sea.

King Henry V’s victory over the French armies at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 is unquestionably one of the most famous battles in history. From Shakespeare’s ‘band of brothers’ speech to its appearances in numerous films, Agincourt rightfully has a place among a handful of conflicts whose names are immediately recognized around the world. Agincourt provides a new look at this battle. Mike Livingston goes back to the original sources, including the French battle plan that still survives today, to give a new interpretation, one that challenges the traditional site of the battlefield itself.

In lucid prose, acclaimed philosopher John Sellars takes us on a journey through Aristotle's thought, vividly bringing to life the key ideas, and demonstrating that the famous philosopher's capacity for curiosity continues to offer us all a vision of more fulfilled lives. Aristotle has lessons still to teach.

Five years after the Battle of Waterloo, Sharpe’s peaceful retirement in Normandy is shattered. An old friend, Don Blas Vivar, is missing in Chile, reported dead at rebel hands – a report his wife refuses to believe. She appeals to Sharpe to find out the truth. Sharpe, along with Patrick Harper, find themselves bound for Chile via St. Helena, where they have a fateful meeting with the fallen Emperor Napoleon. Convinced that they are on their way to collect a corpse, neither man can imagine that dangers that await them in Chile…

The battle of Crécy in 1346 is one of the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet cutting-edge research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong. In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle’s greatest secret.

For more than a century, police officers used their uniforms to control and bully criminals, which in turn led to wholesale bribery and corruption. From Victorian times up to the 1950s, this crooked atmosphere tainted the UK police image of the 'friendly Bobby'. Then came the 1960s and 1970s when the Great Train Robbery and other bigtime heists changed the rules of the 'game' forever. It was like the Wild West out there. No one knew who the good guys and who the bad guys were anymore.

Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father. By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft.

In this intimate account of Amy Winehouse's life, music, and untimely death, her father Mitch Winehouse gives readers full access to his daughter’s private life in the midst of her immensely public triumphs and tragedies. Amy Winehouse needs no introduction. A critically acclaimed recording artist, Amy touched millions with her music during her short but extraordinary life. Following her tragic death in July 2011, Mitch Winehouse wants to tell her incredible story in full. Amy, My Daughter will take the reader through her early years, her rise to stardom and to her addiction.

Deep within a cave system at the Iranian military complex of Parchin, southeast of Tehran and hidden from the prying eyes of Western satellites, scientists are working round the clock on a banned device. Acting on the orders of a renegade cell within the ultraconservative Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, their intention is to propel Iran into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations - and seal its domination of the Middle East.

For decades, it has been assumed that the United States of America was the serial killer capital of the world. Now, criminologists believe that Russia (and previously the Soviet Union) has been, secretly, the biggest home of serial killers for almost a century. In Serial Killers of Russia, Wensley Clarkson reveals the inside stories and gruesome details behind the country's most notorious and previously unknown murderers.

In this gripping account of Britain’s brutal entanglement with Brexit, Tim Shipman follows the key players as they navigate negotiations and the unfolding democratic drama that ensues. With unique access to politicians on both sides of the Brexit divide, Shipman unravels an extraordinary period of British political history. Multiple Brexit secretaries and repeated coups, the ambition, gossip and heated exchanges between Brussels and the British Brexit team are all revealed in Shipman’s unflinching and unfiltered account.

Fuelled by a degree of mid-life crisis and the need to escape, albeit temporarily, the dull routine of modern life, David and Rob set out to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, taking in French villages, beautiful scenery, and one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in Europe. Just about perfect – if you can put aside the inevitable conflict, drama, and unexpected tedium that results from two men spending over seven solid weeks in each other’s company!

Late in AD 937, four armies met in a place called Brunanburh. On one side stood the shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other side stood a remarkable alliance of rival kings - at least two from across the sea – who’d come together to destroy them once and for all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began, was enough to shock a violent age.

What makes the English English? Is it their eccentricity, their passionate love (or, indeed, hatred) of Marmite - or is it something less easily defined? Beginning at the top of a muddy Gloucestershire slope at the Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling contest and traversing a landscape of lawns and queues, coastlines and sporting arenas, Ben Fogle takes us on a journey through the peculiarly English.

Banksy, George, Jack, Mooro, Ray, Nobby, Ballie, Bobby, Martin, Roger. Geoff's ten teammates. His old friends. They've now all gone. Heroes from an era that is slipping into sepia. But it isn't all over. One of them is still here, and before he goes, Geoff wanted to get down his final thoughts about 1966. He talks about Alf - his vision, his drive, his loyalty. Also his shyness, even awkwardness. About his teammates, about Greavsie - hard workers, team players, cool heads. Geoff tells their collective story, digging below the surface, reflecting on their victory, its impact on their lives.

Joe Sealey was watching his son play for Manchester United's Under-14s when a man came up to him and said: "I've got your dad's book". Joe's father, Les, had been Manchester United's goalkeeper but had died of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 43. His death tormented Joe, who had been West Ham's reserve keeper. Joe had given up on football, slipping into an alcohol and drug addiction that almost killed him. He had forgotten what his father's voice sounded like. Now, here it was in form of a Tupperware box full of cassette tapes.

Labour has shifted from the New Left, to New Labour, to Corbynista Labour. Now, it may see power again with a most unlikely group of activists from the 1970s becoming the fourth generation to win power since 1945. Only Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair have won power from a sitting Conservative government. Of the 10 general elections since 1979, Labour has won three, all under Blair. This record of failure, if applied to any other walk of life, would raise the fundamental question of why continue to fight a losing battle?