Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.
Audiobooks Narrated by Liam Gerrard
Browse audiobooks narrated by Liam Gerrard, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
An indispensable guide showing IT leaders the way to balance the needs of innovation and exploration with exploitation and operational reliability
In The Accidental CIO, veteran software developer-turned-executive Scott Millett delivers an essential playbook to becoming an impactful, strategic leader at any stage of your IT leadership journey. You'll find a wealth of hands-on advice for tackling the many challenges and paradoxes that face technology leaders, from creating an aligned IT strategy, defining a target architecture, designing a balanced operating model, and leading teams and executing strategy.
After the foreword from Simon Wardley, The Accidental CIO will help you:
● Understand problem contexts you will face using the Cynefin decision making framework and how the philosophies of agile, lean, and design thinking can help manage them.
● Design an adaptive and strategically aligned operating model by applying the appropriate ways of working and governance approaches depending on each unique problem context.
● Develop and deploy an effective and aligned IT strategy using Wardley mapping based on a deep knowledge of your business architecture.
● And more
During the Age of Discovery a little-known public servant in the Venetian government, Giovambattista Ramusio, anonymously assembled and edited three volumes - over two million words - that revealed our world as never before. It was, to use a current expression, the biggest Wikileak of the Renaissance.
In an enthralling narrative, Andrea di Robilant brings to vivid life the man who used all his political skill, along with the help of conniving diplomats and spies, to ferret out a remarkable collection of journals, private letters and classified government reports, which, when taken together, showed how the world was much larger than anyone previously imagined.
A mind-bending, brain-expanding cornucopia of facts for curious minds from the bestselling author of Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze?
Own the room with this hilarious collection of fact-tastic myth-busters and jaw-dropping trivia exploring science, history, sport and lesser-known facts from across the universe.
Did you know that the Moon has a Bishop? That ostriches DON'T bury their heads in the sand? And that powdered rice was used as cement in the Great Wall of China?
What do souls weigh? What can't 60% of the human population smell? And what on earth is rhinotillexomania?
And the big one . . . are farts actually invisible?
The answers to these questions are all here.
Challenge your brain, turn your world upside down and relish the irresistible mix of wit and wisdom. It's also a perfect gift for the brainiac in your life.
For a medieval English king, delegation was a necessary evil; and nowhere more necessary – nor more potentially disastrous – than on the Anglo-Welsh borders. The Marcher lords first empowered by William I were relied upon by subsequent Norman and Plantagenet kings to protect the dangerous frontiers of the realm.
In Wales, as in Ireland, the smaller size and military weakness of divided neighbouring states encouraged conquest, with the seized lands enhancing the power of the aggressive English lords. They were granted ever greater authority by the monarch, to the point where they believed they ruled like kings. They intermarried, schemed for extra lands and snatched power in a complex and often violent political process. Owing to their resources and unparalleled military effectiveness, they soon came to overawe kings and dominate national events.
The strength of the Marcher lords would come to the fore at numerous times in the nation's history in the shape of notorious figures such as Simon de Montfort and Roger Mortimer. The civil war of King Stephen's reign, the baronial resistance to King John, the overthrow of Edward II and Richard II; all of these crises turned upon the involvement of the lords of the Marches. Timothy Venning explores their mentality and reveals the dramatic careers both of those who prospered from their loyalty to the king and those whose power was gained by treachery – from the Norman Conquest to the beginnings of the Tudor dynasty.
A concise, star-studded retelling of Italy's past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence-from a foremost author of historic Italy.
The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence-and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread.
As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome's seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan-or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome's population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification. King paints a colorful, fascinating portrait of a country that remains compelling not just to tens of millions of Italian Americans, but to the millions of Americans who visit Italy every year.
Discover the prodigious global influence of il bel paese in this star-studded retelling of Italy's past-from a foremost author of historic Italy. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced book.
The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence-and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread.
As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome's seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan-or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome's population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions of the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification. Highlighting key events and personalities, King paints a vibrant portrait of a country whose political and cultural legacies enrich our lives today.
Timothy Venning's series of alternative histories explores the pathways of British events from the Anglo-Saxon Age to the English Civil War. In this volume, he presents an in-depth analysis of the Tudor period. Venning discusses the fateful moments at which history could easily have taken a different turn.
In a fascinating series of 'what if' scenarios, Venning presents a detailed look at the possible and likely results. While speculative, the scenarios are all plausible and rooted in a firm understanding of actually events and their context. In so doing, Venning gives listeners a clearer understanding of the factors at play and why things happened the way they did, as well as a tantalizing view of what might have been.
Key questions discussed include:
- Did the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck ever have a realistic chance of a successful invasion/coup?
- If Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIIIs illegitimate son, had not died young, might he have been a suitable King?
- What if Edward VI had not died at fifteen but reigned into the 1560s and 70s?
- How might the Spanish Armada have succeeded in landing an army in England, and with what likely outcome?
With hindsight, the victory of Parliamentarian forces over the Royalists in the English Civil War may seem inevitable but this outcome was not a foregone conclusion. Timothy Venning explores many of the turning points and discusses how they might so easily have played out differently.
What if, for example, Charles I had capitalized on his victory at Edgehill by attacking London without delay? Could this have ended the war in 1642? His actual advance on the capital in 1643 failed but came close to causing a Parliamentarian collapse-how could it have succeeded and what then? Among the many other scenarios, full consideration is given to the role of Ireland (what if Papal meddling had not prevented Irish Catholics aiding Charles?) and Scotland (how might Montrose's Scottish loyalists have neutralized the Covenanters?). The author analyzes the plausible possibilities in each thread, throwing light on the role of chance and underlying factors in the real outcome, as well as what might easily have been different.
Continuing his exploration of British history, Timothy Venning examines the turning points of the period from the death of William I to the reign of Edward III and a little beyond. He discusses the crucial junctions at which history could easily have taken a different turn and analyzes the possible results. While speculative, the scenarios are highly plausible and rooted in a firm understanding of actual events and their context. Venning gives listeners a clearer understanding of the factors at play and why things happened the way they did, as well as a tantalizing view of what might so easily have been different.
Key scenarios include:
- The civil war of 1136-53, how either Stephen or Matilda might have won quick and the likely consequences.
- What if Richard the Lionheart had not gone on Crusade, leaving the inept John to rule in his place? Could the English (Angevin) Empire in France have been saved? What if that fatal crossbow bolt had missed Richard in 1199, sparing him an early death?
- What if Edward I's riding accident in 1294 had been fatal, leaving Edward II to succeed at ten years of age?
- A whole chapter with scenarios surrounding the Scottish kings.
YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO STRATEGY. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
The Financial Times Guide to Strategy is your unbeatable reference on strategy. It offers an incisive overview of both corporate level and business unit level strategy, an A to Z of the world's leading strategic thinkers, and introduces the key strategic tools and techniques you need to develop your own strategy.
Based on long experience and on conversations with leading strategists around the world, Richard Koch helps you discover each critical step in creating, delivering, and understanding successful strategy. The fifth edition of this bestselling book is your jargon-free guide to the strategic models and thinkers you really need to know about. Updated with new tools and examples, The Financial Times Guide to Strategy shows you which questions to ask, how to go about answering them, and then what action to take. This is the smartest and most accessible strategy guide available anywhere.
What would it be like if you were transported back to Athens 420 BCE? This time-traveler's guide is a fascinating way to find out . . .
Imagine you were transported back in time to Ancient Greece and you had to start a new life there. What would you see? How would the people around you think and believe? How would you fit in? Where would you live? What would you eat? What work would be available, and what help could you get if you got sick?
All these questions, and many more, are answered in this engaging blend of self-help and survival guide that plunges you into this historical environment-and explains the many problems and strange new experiences you would face if you were there.
Timothy Venning's exploration of the alternative paths that British history might easily have taken moves on to the Wars of the Roses. What if Richard of York had not given battle in vain? How would a victory for Warwick the Kingmaker at the Battle of Barnet changed the course of the struggle for power? What if the Princes had escaped from the tower or the Stanleys had not betrayed their king at Bosworth? These are just a few of the fascinating questions posed by this book.
As always, while necessarily speculative, Dr. Venning discusses all the scenarios within the benefit of a deep understanding of the major driving forces, tensions, and trends that shaped British history. In so doing, he helps the listener to understand why things panned out as they did, as well as what might have been in this tumultuous period.
