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Silence: In the Age of Noise
by Erling KaggeTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERThis breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour.'Quietly, wisely, Silence makes a case for dumbing the din of modern life, and learning to listen again' Robert MacfarlaneWhat is silence?Where can it be found?Why is it more important than ever?Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge once spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica, his radio broken.In this charming, quietly life-changing book - now an international publishing phenomenon - he takes us on a journey to unlock the power of silence. And he shows us how to find perfect silence in our daily lives, however busy we are.'A bestseller on why finding inner silence is the key to happiness . . . bound to hit our sweet spot for wanting to unplug and disconnect from the world' Evening Standard'Fascinating' The Times'As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted. This breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour' Sir Ranulph Fiennes'Erling Kagge is a philosophical adventurer - or perhaps an adventurous philosopher' New York Times
The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture
by Scott BelskySilicon Valley is full of start-up success stories; every day stories emerge of a new company with the potential for a billion-dollar valuation and plans for global domination.But what can we really learn from these stories? How many of these start-ups are genuinely successful in the long term? When nine out of ten start-ups end in spectacular burnout, how can we ensure our own success story?While most books and press focus on the more sensational moments of creation and conclusion, The Messy Middle argues that the real key to success is how you navigate the ups-and-downs after initial investment is secured. It will give you all the insights you need to build and optimize your team, improve your product and develop your own capacity to lead. Building on seven years' of meticulous research with entrepreneurs, small agencies, start-ups and billion-dollar companies, Scott Belsky offers indispensable lessons on how to endure and thrive in the long term.
Birds, Beasts and Relatives (The Corfu Trilogy #2)
by Gerald DurrellThe follow up to My Family and Other Animals and the second book in The Corfu Trilogy, the beloved books that inspired ITV's television series The Durrells.In this second collection of tales concerning the Durrell family on the island of Corfu, young Gerry continues to be captivated by the fascinating flora and fauna of their adopted home - much to the bemusement and upset of his long suffering siblings and mother.Whether it's lamp fishing by night or roving the countryside with his mentor Theodore, Gerry encounters intoxicated hedgehogs, tarantulas, dung beetles, water spiders and other animals, some of which become the family's very unwanted pets.
The Garden of the Gods: My Family And Other Animals; Birds, Beasts And Relatives; And The Garden Of The Gods (The Corfu Trilogy #3)
by Gerald DurrellThe third book in The Corfu Trilogy (after My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts and Relatives), the beloved books that inspired ITV's television series The Durrells.Just before the Second World War the Durrell family decamped to the glorious, sun-soaked island of Corfu where the youngest of the four children, ten-year-old Gerald, discovered his passion for animals: toads and tortoises, bats and butterflies, scorpions and octopuses. Through glorious silver-green olive groves and across brilliant-white beaches Gerry pursued his obsession . . . causing hilarity and mayhem in his ever-tolerant family.
See What You're Missing: 31 Ways Artists Notice the World – and How You Can Too
by Will GompertzHow might we see ourselves more clearly? Consult Rembrandt.Who can encourage us to see more intimately? Tracey Emin is the expert.What about helping us see through pain? Look no further than Frida Kahlo.Too often we move through life on autopilot, blind to the life-affirming beauty of our strangeworld. But it doesn’t have to be this way.In this masterclass on how an appreciation of art can help us lead fuller lives, Will Gompertz takes us into the minds and work of thirty-one astounding artists. Each has their own unique way of seeing: with their help, we learn how to expand our own vision of life and its endless possibilities – how to look, feel and think more clearly.‘Offers a tide lesson in not just getting more from art, but more from life itself’ The Times‘Art can amaze us into changing our minds. This remarkable book teaches us how’ Es Devlin‘Highly engaging and thought-provoking’ Philip Hook, author of Breakfast at Sotheby’s‘Will Gompertz is the best teacher you never had’ Guardian
Everything I Know About Love: The Sunday Times Top 5 Bestseller
by Dolly Alderton'A wonderful writer, who will surely inspire a generation the way that Caitlin Moran did before her' Julie Burchill'If Nora Ephron is the cool aunt you wish you'd had, Dolly Alderton is your favourite cousin. I loved it and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't; it's a genuine delight' Kristen Roupenian, author of Cat Person'I can say with absolute certainty that you have to add it to your 2018 book list' The PoolWhen it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown up, journalist and former Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod-Stewart themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you've ever been able to rely on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of every messy night out. It's a book about bad dates, good friends and - above all else - about recognising that you and you alone are enough.'With courageous honesty, Alderton documents her life up to now, the highs and the lows - the sex, the drugs, the nightmare landlords, the heartaches and the humiliations. Deeply funny, sometimes shocking, and admirably open-hearted and optimistic. A brilliant debut.' Daily Telegraph'This is the book we will thrust into our friends' hands, the book that will help heal a broken heart. She feels like a best friend and your older sister all rolled into one and her pages wrap around you like a warm hug' Evening Standard'It's so full of life and laughs - I gobbled up this book. Alderton has built something beautiful and true out of many fragments of daftness' Amy Liptrot
Life in the Garden
by Penelope Lively'Rich and unusual, a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style, intelligence and depth. Moves between Lively's own horticultural life and a broad history of gardening' Observer'Wonderful. A manifesto of horticultural delight' Literary Review'Beautiful. Perfect for literary garden lovers' Good Housekeeping'Exquisite and original' Daily Telegraph 'Enchanting. Reading this book is like walking with a wise, humorous guide through a series of garden rooms . . . and finding that vistas suddenly open out, on to history, fashion, politics, reflections on time and the taming of nature' Tablet'A perfect bedside book. In part it's a memoir of the gardens in Lively's life, starting with the exotic Egyptian garden of her childhood and continuing up to her small present-day garden in a north London square' Sunday Express'A gentle survey of the garden's place in Western culture, which morphs into a personal meditation on time, memory and a life well lived' i'Scholarly bedtime reading' The Times, Books of the Year
Alfie: The Life and Times of Alfie Byrne
by Trevor WhiteThe first biography of the beloved long-time Lord Mayor of DublinAlfie Byrne was that rarest of things: a genuinely popular politician. He is still a figure of legend in Dublin, where he was elected Lord Mayor ten times. He was also a TD and a Senator; and only a backroom deal prevented him from contesting the race to become the first President of Ireland - a race he would have been favourite to win. Rising from inner-city Dublin to become known as the 'Lord Mayor of Ireland', he was a truly remarkable figure. And yet there has never been a biography of Alfie Byrne - until now.Trevor White's sparkling book tells the story of a man of many parts and contradictions. He was an urbane man of the world who left school at thirteen. He was a teetotal publican. He was a Parnellite who opposed violence, but he was sympathetic to the Easter rebels. His politics were fundamentally conservative, but he was deeply devoted to the poor of his native city.This is the story of an energetic young man who offered to lead his community and refused to stop governing for forty years. His ambition and charm won admirers in the great cities of the world - and in the tenements of Ireland's capital. At his best, he represented and encouraged a broader understanding of what it means to be Irish. And, through it all, he was a great personality, the living embodiment of Dublin.'Not just the definitive biography of the definitive Dubliner, Alfie is a wonderfully written social, political and cultural history of the country through the capital's most famous son through a tumultuous half century. At last, justice has been done to the legend that was Alfie Byrne.' Joe Duffy'Trevor White brings [Alfie Byrne] vividly to life in the pages of his elegant new biography' Leo Varadkar, Sunday Independent'White has found a deliciously rich seam to mine in Alfie Byrne ... Byrne's Dublin is revived in glorious Technicolor, and with much affection. It's a lively, boisterous, contradictory, occasionally maddening place, Much like the man himself, really.' Irish Times'Hugely entertaining ... This is the first proper account of his life, and it's bolstered by White's access to Byrne's family papers' Irish Independent'Peppered with delectable anecdotes ... Well researched and spryly written, this is an elegant account of one of our capital city's half-forgotten sons' Sunday Business Post'This enormously enjoyable biography doesn't seek to canonise Alfie, or to demonise him. It does what all good biographies should, which is simply to tell us the protagonist's true story; and it does what all great biographies should do, which is to make that story a delight to read.' Irish Daily Mail'Alfie could easily have been a sentimental rags-to-riches story about the son of a docker who escaped Sean O'Casey's "long haggard corridors of rottenness and ruin" to become a minor power broker among the bankers and lawyers while living in a Dublin 6 pile. Instead, White , who admires his quarry, doesn't pull punches when it comes to describing how the career of the genial Byrne eventually lost steam.' Sunday Times'Brilliantly told ... an inimitable portrait of Dublin for the forty-two years, 1914-56, that Alfie dominated the political scene' Cara'Trevor White has done today's citizenry some service in providing us with a balanced and well-researched account of the phenomenon that was Dublin's own Alfie Byrne' Dublin Review of Books
Night Train: A Biography of Sonny Liston
by Nick Tosches'Dazzling... An unforgettable journey to some of boxing's darkest places' Steve Bunce, author of Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British BoxingShortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2000A breathtakingly brutal and evocative account of the life of infamous boxing world champion Sonny Liston Sonny Liston is one of the most controversial men the boxing world has ever seen. He rose from a childhood of grinding poverty to become 1962's heavyweight world champion. He spent time in prison, he was known to have mob connections, he was hated and vilified by his public. And after he lost the world title to Cassius Clay in a spectacular fall from grace, he died under mysterious and never fully explained circumstances.Sonny Liston's life story is an unsolved mystery and an underappreciated tragedy. In uncompromising detail, Nick Tosches captures the shadowy figure of Liston, this most mesmerising and enigmatic of boxing antiheroes.
My Family and Other Animals (The Corfu Trilogy #Vol. 3)
by Gerald DurrellMy Family and Other Animals is the first book in The Corfu Trilogy, the inspiration for ITV'sThe Durrells. The bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald DurrellEscaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu.But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies.Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood.'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph'A bewitching book' Sunday Times
We Were Eight Years in Power: 'One of the foremost essayists on race in the West' Nikesh Shukla, author of The Good Immigrant
by Ta-Nehisi CoatesTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'I've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates' Toni Morrison'Searing. One of the foremost essayists on race in the West... [He] is responsible for some of the most important writing about what it is to be black in America today' Nikesh Shukla, editor of The Good ImmigrantFinalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize 2018Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence 2018Powerful and necessary, a state-of-the-nation portrait of America under Obama from the prize-winning, bestselling author of Between the World and MeFrom 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race, equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so, that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President.In this essential new book, Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era, speaking authoritatively from political, ideological and cultural perspectives, drawing a nuanced and penetrating portrait of America today.RAVE READER REVIEWS:'Brilliantly written, incisive, and extremely relevant. Read it with your families, use it in your classrooms, give copies to your friends' (Liz)'Coates thinks more deeply and writes more clearly about the national tragedy and disgrace that is our collective failure to confront the legacy of White Supremacy than just about anyone... I can't recommend it highly enough' (Worddancer Redux)'Every white person who wants to really know how it looks from 'the other side' should take on the responsibility of reading Coates' eye-opening, informative book... A must read for everyone of every colour' (Indy JV)'A masterful understanding of how the USA really works' (shedgirl)'If you want to know the wellsprings of racism in America - then read this book!' (David C. R. Hancock)
The Gifts of Reading
by Robert MacfarlaneFrom the acclaimed author of The Old Ways and Landmarks -- an essay on the joy of reading, for anyone who has ever loved a bookEvery book is a kind of gift to its reader, and the act of giving books is charged with a special emotional resonance. It is a meeting of three minds (the giver, the author, the recipient), an exchange of intellectual and psychological currency, that leaves each participant enriched. Here Robert Macfarlane recounts the story of a book he was given as a young man, and how he managed eventually to return the favour, though never repay the debt.From one of the most lyrical writers of our time comes a perfectly formed gem, a lyrical celebration of the transcendent power and humanity of the given book.
Whatever Happened to Margo? (Isis Large Print Ser.)
by Margaret DurrellIn 1947, returning to the UK with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell starts a boarding house in Bournemouth. But any hopes of respectability are dashed as the tenants reveal themselves to be a host of eccentrics: from a painter of nudes to a pair of glamorous young nurses whose late-night shifts combined with an ever-revolving roster of gentleman callers leading to a neighbourhood rumour that Margo is running a brothel. Margo's own two sons, Gerry and Nicholas, prove to be every bit as mischievous as their famous Uncle Gerald - and he himself returns periodically with weird and wonderful animals, from marmosets to monkeys, that are quite unsuitable for life in a Bournemouth garden.
The Glossy Years: Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs
by Nicholas Coleridge'The most entertaining book of the year' Sunday Times _____________________________________________________Diana touched your elbow, your arm, covered your hand with hers. It was alluring. And she was disarmingly confiding."Can I ask you something? Nicholas, please be frank..."Over his thirty-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce; on Margaret Thatcher's clothes legacy, and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague. Cara Delevingne, media tycoons, Prime Ministers, Princes, Mayors and Maharajas - all cross his path.His career in magazines straddles the glossies throughout their glorious zenith - from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to the digital iterations of the 21st century. Having cut his teeth on Tatler, and as Editor-in-Chief of Harpers & Queen, he became the Mr Big of glossy publishing for three decades.Packed with surprising and often hilarious anecdotes, The Glossy Years also provides perceptive insight into the changing and treacherous worlds of fashion, journalism, museums and a whole sweep of British society. This is a rich, honest, witty and very personal memoir of a life splendidly lived.__________________________________________________________'I adored it. Coleridge is both self-deprecating and shrewd as he regales us with his rollicking ride as editor and tastemaker in the world of British glossy magazines: an irresistible read' Tina Brown'An entertaining whirlwind' Evening Standard
How to Treat People: A Nurse at Work
by Molly Case'Open, loving, bold, inquisitive, caring . . . the cycle of life and death is recounted fearlessly by a modern woman' The Times _______________________________The hand of a stranger offered in solace. A flower placed on a dead body as a mark of respect. A gentle word in response to fear and anger. It is these moments of empathy, in the extremis of human experience, which define us as people.Nobody knows this better than a nurse and Molly Case has witnessed countless such moments. In How to Treat People, she documents these extraordinary points, when two people truly connect. In rich, lyrical prose, she introduces us to patients with whom we share the pain, but also the experience of illness when life is at its most vivid. And when her father is admitted to the high dependency unit on which she works, Molly confronts care in a whole new way, when two worlds - the professional and the personal - suddenly collide.Weaving together medical history, art, memoir and science, How to Treat People beautifully illustrates the intricacies of the human condition and the oscillating rhythms of life and death. Most of all, it is a heart-stopping reminder that we can all find meaning in being part, even for a moment, of the lives of others.__________________________________'Molly Case reminds us that humanity and moments of true care are as healing as the medicine modern science can deliver' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works'Beautifully written and passionate tales from the nurse you would choose for yourself' Stephen Westsaby, author of Fragile Lives'A profound reflection on the way we live and die' Bookseller'How to Treat People gets to the heart of who we are' Nina Stibbe'Intense, powerful, moving and very enlightening' Gerard Woodward'Fascinating and erudite' Jo Brand
The Hurt: The Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year
by Dylan Hartley'Rugby is great for the soul,' he writes, 'but terrible for the body.'Rugby hurts. It demands mental resilience and resistance to pain. It explores character, beyond a capacity to endure punishment. Dylan Hartley, one of England's most successful captains, tells a story of hard men and harsh truths. From the sixteen-year-old Kiwi who travelled alone to England, to the winner of ninety-seven international caps, he describes with brutal clarity the sport's increasing demand on players and the toll it takes on their mental health, as well as the untimely injury that shattered his dreams of leading England in the 2019 World Cup.The Hurt is rugby in the raw, a unique insight into the price of sporting obsession. 'Few have had more twists and turns in a pro rugby career' Robert Kitson, Guardian'Anyone who cares about the game, in which he won 97 caps for England and played 250 times for Northampton, should read Hartley's book' Don McRae, Guardian
The Unknown Matisse: Man of the North: 1869-1908
by Hilary SpurlingAstonishing and essential, the biography that reclaimed Henri Matisse from history's slanders and restored his place in the canon of the 20th century's greatest artistsBefore acclaimed biographer Hilary Spurling turned her attention to Henri Mattise, precious few facts were known about his life - and those few were distorted by inaccuracy, misunderstanding and glaring gaps. The Unknown Matisse investigates the secret life of The Wild Beast (as he was known), whose early paintings shocked and enraged his contemporaries. It tells the story of an innovative genius, born in war-torn, poverty-stricken Flanders who finally overcame hardship and disaster to fulfil Van Gogh's prophecy: 'The painter of the future will be such a colourist as has never yet been.'
Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: 1909-1954
by Hilary SpurlingWinner of the Whitbread Book of the Year 2005Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2005The second in Hilary Spurling's sweeping, two-volume biography of Henri Matisse, one of the most influential and beloved artists of the twentieth centuryThis fascinating exploration of Matisse's world uncovers the secret life of the artist, whose paintings shocked his contemporaries while paving the way for modern art. Tracing the artist's story through growing maturity and success, Matisse the Master unveils the intimate relationship between his life and his work. Spanning from 1909 to 1954, this triumphant second volume in Spurling's essential biography captures the glory years of Henri Matisse.
Where Reasons End: A Novel
by Yiyun Li'Profoundly moving. An astonishing book, a true work of art' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers 'Heart-wrenching, fearless, and unlike anything you've ever read' Esquire'I sit here shaken and, I think, changed by this work' Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers'A devastating read, but also a tender one, filled with love, complexity, and a desire for understanding' Nylon'The most intelligent, insightful, heart-wrenching book of our time' Sean Andrew Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less'Captures the affections and complexity of parenthood in a way that has never been portrayed before' The Millions'Ethereal and electric, radiating unthinkable pain and profound love' BuzzfeedFrom the critically acclaimed author of The Vagrants, a devastating and utterly original novel on grief and motherhood'Days: the easiest possession. The days he had refused would come, one at a time. They would wait, every daybreak, with their boundless patience and indifference, seeing if they could turn me into an ally or an enemy to myself.'A woman's teenage son takes his own life. It is incomprehensible. The woman is a writer, and so she attempts to comprehend her grief in the space she knows best: on the page, as an imagined conversation with the child she has lost. He is as sharp and funny and serious in death as he was in life itself, and he will speak back to her, unable to offer explanation or solace, but not yet, not quite, gone.Where Reasons End is an extraordinary portrait of parenthood, in all its painful contradictions of joy, humour and sorrow, and of what it is to lose a child.Praise for Yiyun Li:'A masterpiece...[Puts] you in mind of Tolstoy or Chekhov' Sunday Times on The Vagrants'This is a book of immense power and it will leave you reeling' New Statesman on The Vagrants'Controlled understatement, scrupulous and unsparing lucidity... A work of great moral poise and dignity.I have not read such a compelling work in years' Independent
Essays: Reading And Writing (Essays Ser.)
by Lydia DavisLydia Davis's writing is a masterclass in control: wry, lucid, penetrating, every word placed deliberately. Here she presents a dazzling collection of literary essays, each one as beautifully formed, thought-provoking, playful and illuminating as her critically acclaimed short fiction. Ranging across her many creative influences, including Thomas Pynchon, Michel Leiris, Maurice Blanchot, Lucia Berlin and Joan Mitchell, she returns again and again to her own writing process, joyfully interrogating the limits of literature and the ways in which we can challenge and reinvent it.
The Two Popes: Official Tie-in to Major New Film Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins
by Anthony McCartenOn 28 February 2013, a 600-year-old tradition was shattered: the conservative Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement. He would resign. Reeling from the news, the College of Cardinals rushed to Rome to congregate in the Sistine Chapel to pick his successor. Their unlikely choice? Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,200 years, a one time tango club bouncer, a passionate football fan, a man with the common touch. From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour, The Pope is a fascinating, revealing and often funny tale of two very different men whose destinies converge with each other - they both live in the Vatican - and the wider world. How did these two men become two of the most powerful people on Earth? What's it like to be the Pope? What does the future hold for the Catholic Church and its 1 billion followers? The Pope is a dual biography that masterfully combines these two popes' lives into one gripping narrative. From Benedict and Francis' experiences of war in their homelands - when they were still Joseph and Jorge - and the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the Church to its foundations, to the intrigue and the occasional comedy of life in the Vatican, The Pope glitters with the darker and the lighter details of life inside one of the world's most opaque but significant institutions.
Einstein's War: How Relativity Conquered Nationalism and Shook the World
by Matthew StanleyHow an unknown German and an Englishman on opposite sides of WWI created a scientific revolutionIn 1916, Arthur Eddington, a war-weary British astronomer, opened a letter written by an obscure German professor named Einstein. The neatly printed equations on the scrap of paper outlined his world-changing theory of general relativity. Until then, Einstein's masterpiece of time and space had been trapped behind the physical and ideological lines of battle, unknown. Many Britons were rejecting anything German, but Eddington realized the importance of the letter: perhaps Einstein's esoteric theory could not only change the foundations of science but also lead to international co-operation in a time of brutal war.Few recognize how the Great War, the industrialized slaughter that bled Europe from 1914 to 1918, shaped Einstein's life and work. While Einstein never held a rifle, he formulated general relativity blockaded in Berlin, literally starving. His name is now synonymous with 'genius', but it was not an easy road. This was, after all, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton.Its victory was far from sure. Einstein spent a decade creating relativity and his ascent to global celebrity, which saw him on front pages around the world, also owed much to against-the-odds international collaboration, including Eddington's crucial, globe-spanning expedition of 1919 - which was still two years before they finally met - to catch a fleeting solar eclipse for a rare opportunity to confirm Einstein's bold prediction that light has weight.We usually think of scientific discovery as a flash of individual inspiration, but here we see it is the result of hard work, gambles and wrong turns. Einstein's War is a celebration of how bigotry and nationalism can be defeated and of what science can offer when they are. Using previously unknown sources and written like a thriller, it sheds light on science through history: we see relativity built brick-by-brick in front of us, as it happened 100 years ago.
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell
by John PrestonA LITERARY HIGHLIGHT FOR 2021 IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER'The best biography yet of the media magnate Robert Maxwell - by turns engrossing, amusing and appalling' Robert Harris, Sunday Times'Electrifying... the supreme chronicler of modern British scandals' Mail on SundayFrom the bestselling author of A Very English Scandal, the jaw-dropping life story of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell.In February 1991, the media mogul and former MP Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour aboard his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival, taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand and children asked for his autograph. But just ten months later, Maxwell disappeared from the same yacht off the Canary Islands, only to be found dead in the water soon afterward.Maxwell was the embodiment of Britain's post-war boom. Born an Orthodox Jew, he had escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in World War 2, and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But on his death, his empire fell apart, as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly.What went so wrong? How did a war hero and model of society become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck? In this gripping book, John Preston delivers the definitive account of Maxwell's extraordinary rise and scandalous fall.'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times
Lessons from a Warzone: How to be a Resilient Leader in Times of Crisis
by Louai Al Roumani'A remarkable book telling business leaders what to do when disaster strikes' The TimesA STORY OF HOPE, PERSEVERANCE AND RESILIENCE IN THE MIDST OF WAR Louai Al Roumani was head of finance and planning at one of the largest banks in Syria, when the war broke out in 2011.In Lessons from a Warzone, Al Roumani shares his very personal account of coping with the day-to-day realities of leading an organization in dangerous and hostile conditions. His story shows how inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places - from the timeless wisdom of merchants in ancient souks to the changing patterns of military checkpoints. During that time, not only did the bank remain robust when others faltered - it thrived and became the undisputed leading bank as people's trust in its capability to safeguard their life-long savings strengthened.In this book, Al Roumani distils the knowledge and skills he and his colleagues developed while steering the bank through four impossible years into ten lessons applicable to any leader facing a crisis today. His valuable, and often counterintuitive, advice - ranging from resisting over-planning to hacking your own IT department to cutting costs (but not morale) - will help anyone understand how to be resilient even in the most challenging of times.
Philosophy for Polar Explorers: What They Don't Teach You In School
by Erling KaggeThe secret to a good life, seen from the ice, is to keep your joys simple. 'Erling Kagge transforms and consoles us' Alain de Botton ____________________________Erling Kagge was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth's poles by foot - the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In Philosophy for Polar Explorers he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance.This is the essential guide to the art of exploration. In sixteen meditative but practical lessons - from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to find focus and comfort in solitude - Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed. ____________________________'As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted' Sir Ranulph Fiennes'Erling Kagge is a philosophical adventurer - or perhaps an adventurous philosopher' The New York Times'An author for our noisy times, full of a rare and deeply redemptive languor and perspective' Alain de Botton