Showing results by narrator "Kris Dyer" in All Categories

Mars is back. Suddenly everyone - from Elon Musk to Ridley Scott to Donald Trump - is talking about going to the Red Planet. When the Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon in 1969, many people imagined Mars would be next. However NASA’s Viking 1, which landed in 1976, was just a robot. The much-anticipated crewed mission failed to materialise, defeated by a combination of technological and political challenges.

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?

With the divisiveness of public discourse and the complexities of modern business, it is more difficult than ever to be sure that you're making the right decision. Adair provides a clear pathway to improving your judgment, beginning with an exploration of the machinations behind decision-making, before demonstrating how you can develop a stronger understanding and control of your judgment. This is an essential companion for any business leaders interested in making the best decisions for them and their organisation.

After his success on the silver screen, Marshmallow Pie—a big, fluffy cat with an even bigger personality—has an exciting opportunity to act on stage in a grand theatre. It will be his first time in front of a live audience! The bad news is, he has to share the stage with his unbearable neighbour and arch-enemy, Buster the dog. Pie is convinced Buster is out to ruin it for him! But there’s a mystery to solve both on the stage and off, and Pie’s refusal to trust Buster could have some unexpected consequences.

Christie Malry is a simple man. As a young accounts clerk at a confectionery factory in London, he learns the principles of double-entry bookkeeping. Frustrated by the petty injustices that beset his life - particularly those caused by the behaviour of authority figures - he determines a unique way to settle his grievances: a system of moral double-entry bookkeeping.

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.

These 25 new stories mark Graham Swift's return to the short form after seven acclaimed novels and confirm him as a master storyteller. They unite into a richly peopled vision of a country that is both a crucible of history and a maze of contemporary confusions.

Bachelor John Marcher is haunted by the premonition that something terrible lies in store for him, like a "beast in the jungle" lying in wait. So he spends his life in idleness, unable to carry out his dreams or desires, while his friend May Bartram, curious to see how this spectacular fate will manifest, helps watch out for the arrival of the beast.

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.

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?

Having conquered the world's taste buds and established itself as a staple in our daily lives, coffee has mirrored the moods and movements of society for centuries - yet, how much do we know about its history? In his riveting new book, A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr investigates the fascinating history behind the global obsession with coffee, from its Ethiopian origins, the legends, myths, geographical locations and somewhat eccentric characters that have helped make it the staple that it is today.

In 2005 London, two teenage boys commit a crime so horrendous that the entire nation is shocked and outraged. When Abigail Riley's body is found in an underground shelter, DS Fraser Harvey finds himself hunting her killers--whose depravity is matched only by their naivety. Eleven years later, when the young murderers are released to faraway countries with new identities, Harvey remains haunted by the case, convinced that one--or both--will kill again.

August 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest, ruthless thieves, and a devious Dean who's determined to see the back of Jack. That suits Jack just fine - he wants to leave! So when wealthy merchant Wolfe, offers passage to London via sea, Jack jumps at the chance...and unwittingly into further danger!

Since highland cattle ransacked his grandmother's vegetable patch when he was six, Roger Morgan-Grenville has been fascinated by cows. So at the age of 61, with no farming experience, he signed on as a part- time labourer on a beef cattle farm to tell their side of the story. The result is this lyrical and evocative book. For 10,000 years, cow and human lives have been intertwined. Cattle have existed alongside us, fed and shod us, quenched our thirst, and provided a thousand other tiny services, and yet most of us know little about them.

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.

Kim is not your average member of Her Majesty's palace staff – but then he shouldn't be on the staff at all. He's in fact a Sun staff reporter who's wormed his way into Buckingham Palace to pick up every bit of dirt and gossip that he can lay his hands on. Along the way, Kim is faced with many surprising aspects of Palace life that even he didn't see coming. Based on the true story of the tabloid hack who became a Queen's footman, Palace Rogue is a charming, uplifting and utterly outrageous story of love and secrets – all of it set in the heart of one of the world's most famous houses.

"And these are they. My final moments. They say a warrior must always be mindful of death, but I never imagined that it would find me like this . . . Japanese teenager Sora is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Lonely and isolated, Sora turns to the ancient wisdom of the samurai for guidance and comfort. But he also finds hope in the present; through the internet he finds friends that see him, not just his illness. This is a story of friendship and acceptance, and testing strength in an uncertain future.

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.

Scarlett Point is a short story from the best-selling author of Safe House. Cutler is a man with a secret, camping by the coast on the Isle of Man. Luke is a young boy hunting for an elusive treasure from an incomplete map. Their lives collide at Scarlett Point in a story about trust, redemption and how sometimes you find what you most need when you’re searching for something else.

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.