Showing results by narrator "Kris Dyer" in All Categories

Trend forecaster James Wallman reveals the world's growing sense of stuffocation – and how we can move away from it. We have more stuff than we could ever need - clothes we don't wear, kit we don't use, and toys we don't play with. But having everything we thought we wanted isn't making us happier. It's bad for the planet. It's cluttering up our homes. It's making us feel 'stuffocated' and stressed - and it might even be killing us.

Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is 'The Hidden Half' - those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world. We humans are very clever creatures - but we're idiots about how clever we really are. In this entertaining and ingenious book, Blastland reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result - from GDP figures to medicine - is that experts know a lot less than they think.

From technical wizardly that goes disastrously wrong, to underwater warfare with a sting in its tail, this new book by Tony Matthews delves into a wide range of top-secret stories, including black propaganda missions, calamitous Resistance operations and accounts of espionage activities at the very highest level. Spies, Saboteurs and Secret Missions of World War II is a fascinating insight into some of the most astonishing clandestine activities of the Second World War.

To imagine - to see that which is not there - is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the pictures in our minds. Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps - from the first Homo sapiens to the present day.

Australia's funniest new author for kids is back with a fresh batch of stories about the mysterious Mr Bambuckle and the class of room 12B. Meet your new assistant principal - Miss Frost! Uh-oh, that's not good. At least we're away on camp. Mr Bambuckle lets us eat marshmallows before dinner! Is that a spark-maker beetle? Shh! What was that noise? The class in room 12B are having fun in the wilderness. Until Miss Frost crashes camp....

LONDON, 1590. Queen Elizabeth I's control over her kingdom is wavering. Amidst a tumultuous backdrop of Spanish plotters, Catholic heretics and foreign wars threatening the country's fragile stability, the body of a small boy is found in the City of London, with strange marks that no one can explain. When idealistic physician Nicholas Shelby finds another body displaying the same marks only days later, he becomes convinced that a killer is at work, preying on the weak and destitute of London.

Economics may seem like a modern field, but its object of study is ancient. Resources have been exchanged and distributed since the dawn of history, and the economies that arose from those transactions were more complex than you might expect. In this panorama of the development of trade and industry, Economist columnist Philip Coggan tracks the development of the world economy starting with the first obsidian blades that made their way from Turkey to what is now the Iran-Iraq border 7,000 years before Christ, and ending with the Sino-American trade war that we are in right now.

When a distressed young woman arrives at their station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to come back and 'claim her next', detectives Carrigan and Miller are thrust into a terrifying new world of stalking and obsession. Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities resurfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what these two women have been subjected to?

Do you have an idea in you? A hobby, a project, a product...something that could change your life? The Idea in You is a bulletproof system for finding the right idea and shaping it in to a success - on your own terms. With advice from the people behind the likes of Pizza Pilgrims, Parkrun and Decoded, The Idea in You will show you what to expect, how to think and what to do when launching your own venture.

It's 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in. With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to keep their precarious grip on a hostile wilderness. And yet he is haunted by the memories of the Cadigal warriors who will one day come to claim him as one of their own.

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?

A young man wakes from a coma to find himself targeted by the men who killed his parents, while someone is impersonating a notorious New Zealand serial killer... the latest chilling, nerve-shredding, twisty thriller from the author of The Quiet People... How do you catch a killer... When the only evidence is a dream? James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma.

The world's 'Big Four' accountancy firms - PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG - have become a gilded elite. Up in the high six figures, an average partner salary rivals that of a Premier League footballer. But how has the seemingly humdrum profession of accountancy got to this level? And what is the price we pay for their excesses? Leading investigative journalist Richard Brooks charts the profession's rise to global influence and offers a gripping exposé of the accountancy industry.

Marshmallow Marmaduke Vanilla-Bean Sugar-Pie Fluffington-Fitz-Noodle is a big, fluffy (and grumpy) cat. He loves the easy life: lazing in the sunshine, eating shrimp crunchies and annoying Buster, the dog downstairs. His new owner, Amelia Lime, has grand plans to turn Pie into a star...but Pie thinks he’s a star already, to be honest! Told in the hilarious voice of Marshmallow Pie himself....

Don't be a cliché. Don't stay in your bedroom grunting and grumbling. How about getting motivated, energized, and start making a difference?! The Art of Being a Brilliant Teenager teaches you how to become your very best self - and how to figure out who that is, exactly. Stay cool under all the pressures you're facing, and plot a map for the future that takes you wherever it is you want to go. Become proactive, determined, successful, and most importantly: happy!

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.

For some, there is a high price to pay for ambition and success. The toll it can take on our mental health can be significant, particularly if we are born with the "Worry" gene. In Beat Stress at Work, management trainer Mark Simmonds helps you understand the effects stress and anxiety can have on your mental health and provides tools and advice to find your way through work-induced struggles. Mark sheds light on the difficulty of discussing mental health with colleagues and employers and identifies the best ways for navigating your way through a mental health crisis.

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.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. When playwright James Annixter is hit by a taxi and forgets the ingenious resolution of his locked room mystery play, he struggles to find the mysterious man he explained it to...

Marshmallow Pie, a big, fluffy cat with an even bigger personality, is off to Hollywood to star in a movie! Pie is loving his trip - the glamourous people, the luxurious hotel, not to mention the tasty snacks! But most of all, he is dazzled by his new friend Madison: a charming, famous young girl not much older than his owner, Amelia. Madison is desperate to spend time with Pie and show him around town. So why doesn’t Amelia seem so sure about her?