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      • Biography & True Stories
        April 2017

        The Vagabond Lover

        by Garry O'Connor

        In The Vagabond Lover, author Garry O’Connor performs a delicate balancing act, writing his own life vis-à-vis that of his father, Cavan O’Connor, the famous ‘Vagabond of Song’. The result is a memoir that fully explores the father-son relationship. It’s an account that takes as its backdrop the theatrical, financial, psychological and emotional course of both lives, on a plot line threading both popular and ‘high’ culture. Older readers will remember Cavan as the legendary ‘Vagabond of Song’, who from a poor Nottingham background, after serving in the Great War, won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He married the niece of soprano Dame Maggie Teyte. His heyday coincided with the earliest days of radio, when his broadcasts reached listening figures of over thirteen million. He appeared on thousands of records under a range of different names, with the great bands of his era. As a stage performer he topped Variety bills from the late 1920s to his death at nearly a hundred. He never stopped singing. Intercut with these chapters are the author’s growing up and work, tinged with his reluctance to write his life at all. Much turns on his traumatic early days when he rounded on his family, in all its domestic tensions, the only palliative for which was in the plays he wrote, first using as a veil the characters he invented, then explicitly drawing on personal experience as the veil on those characters fell. These chapters touch on episodes surrounding the Paris Odéon Theatre siege in 1968, the scene of early love affairs entered into by the son, but in the shadow of the image and reputation of the father, by then a romantic, legendary figure. Against the family portraits, the beau monde is treated to the author’s asides and vignettes. There is the little aired affair of Harold Macmillan and Eileen O’Casey. There are further revelations of Peggy Ashcroft and Harold Pinter. We glimpse the correspondence of Margaret Drabble. There are sketches of Iris Murdoch and Samuel Beckett. As a student O’Connor was fully immersed in that great flowering famed as Cambridge’s theatrical ‘Mafia’. From that we see sketches of Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Corin Redgrave, Peter Cook, David Frost, Peter Hall, and many, many more, and are given an insight into the ethos of King’s College, Cambridge. The profound and main theme, and unifying force of the book, emerge from O’Connor’s initial reluctance to enter into his father’s life, a preference that in the end gives way to its polar opposite. The Vagabond Lover is a probing search into the nature of celebrity, and for its author reaches its catharsis in shrugging off the flaws and setbacks packaged as part of the celebrity deal. The climax is dramatic, when Cavan suffers a mighty fall.   Available at Amazon and other online retailers.

      • Warhammer Adventures: Attack of the Necron

        by Cavan Scott

        On the hive world of Targian, Zelia Lor helps her mother search for ancient tech, digging up treasures of the past on the wind-blown plains. They are happy. They are safe. All that changes when the Necrons attack. Without warning, a host of robotic ships appear in the skies above Targian and rip the planet apart. Separated from her mother, Zelia must escape the doomed world, her only hope a scrambled transmission promising safety at a mysterious place known only as the Emperor’s Seat. Launched in an escape pod, she crashes on an icy wasteland far, far from home. But Zelia is not alone. She is joined by a rag-tag group of survivors – the street-tough juve Talen, gadget-obsessed Martian boy Mekki and super-intelligent alien-ape, Fleapit.

      • Teachers' classroom resources & material

        People, Power and Democracy

        by Cavan Wood

      • Teachers' classroom resources & material

        Citizenship Assemblies Age 11 - 16

        by Cavan Wood

      • Children's & young adult fiction & true stories

        Finn's Tale

        Tale Series Book 1

        by Julie Sandilands

        Tale is a story about a young boy growing up in a mining village in the 1960s. The tale follows Finn’s life during a particular autumn within the small, rural community, and the effect the mine has had, not only on the village, but on his family and upbringing.   Finn is a sensitive, intelligent, young boy who doesn’t like school or being confined indoors. He spends most of his spare time exploring Tyndale Wood, not far from his home. Here, Finn uncovers secrets about the local mountain known as Mount Shallien, as well as his own heritage.      Finn's Tale is an uplifting story to be enjoyed by all age groups.

      • October 2020

        The Art of Pulp Horror

        An Illustrated History

        by Edited by Stephen Jones; foreword by Robert Silverberg

        The companion title to the award-winning The Art of Horror and The Art of Horror Movies, and from the same creative team behind those acclaimed illustrated volumes, this third title in the series looks at the sexy, sleazy, and sensational subject matter in books, magazines, comics, and movies, which helped to shape modern horror. Compiled by multiple award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones, and with a foreword by prolific and acclaimed author Robert Silverberg, this visual history brings together insightful and revelatory comment from some of the genre's most highly esteemed experts.

      • Biography & True Stories
        October 2013

        Going Solo on Lake Como

        by Ciara O'Toole

        Sometimes flying by the seat of your pants is the best thing you can do … When Ciara O’Toole and her husband move to Lake Como, Italy, they make plans – to run their own businesses, to learn the language and to immerse themselves in the Italian way of life. But just a few months into the adventure Ciara’s marriage ends and she finds herself alone in a country where she doesn’t speak the language. She is faced with a choice: return to Ireland or stay in Italy and make her new life work. Determined to make a go of it, she throws herself into everything – forging new friendships – whirlwind romances, attempting to eat her own weight in four-cheese pizzas … and learning to fly a seaplane! Her new passion grips her as she works tirelessly towards an all-important milestone: her first solo flight. Told with warmth, humour and disarming honesty, Going Solo on Lake Como is the inspirational story of how one woman finds her wings and takes to the skies. ‘It made me laugh, it made me cry. It is epic in scope but incredibly intimate.’ Jane Maas

      • Fantasy

        Lyre

        by Helen Harper

        Yuri, a half Japanese-half English girl, has struggled ever since her beloved father drowned when she was a child. The circumstances of his death were anything but natural - he was drawn into a storm by the sensual singing of a group of sirens and Yuri's life has been overshadowed by the threat of the gods of Olympus ever since. However, when she meets Ozzy, a soulful singer who goes on to become one of the country's biggest rockstars, she attempts to put her past behind her. Unfortunately, fate has not finished messing with her just yet. The second book in the Olympiana series, although able to be read as a stand-alone, Lyre follows the classic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.

      • Warhammer Adventures: City of Lifestone

        by Tom Huddleston

        Raised as a slave in the Darkoath camps of Aqshy, Kiri dreams of a better life. Of a city of wonders, the place of her birth… Lifestone! She despairs of ever reaching it until a fateful day arrives when her barbarian captors are attacked by Sigmar's noblest warriors, the Stormcast Eternals. Seizing her chance, Kiri flees through a mysterious realmgate that takes her far from the fiery lands of Aqshy. She arrives in the realm of Ghyran and finds the city of Lifestone. But a curse lies on this place, withering its noble spirit. Her path leads her to a special group of children who, like her, are realm-marked – the prophecised saviours of Lifestone. There's Thanis, the fighter; Alish, the inventor; Kaspar; the sneak and Elio, the healer. But dark forces are allying against the children and will do anything to stop them achieving their destiny.

      • Biography & True Stories
        April 2019

        Unseen Worlds

        Adventures at the Crossroads of Vodou Spirits and Latter-day Saints

        by Marilène Phipps

        All rights available for her second book House of Fossils.   The extraordinary life of Marilène Phipps begain in Haiti—the magical island of African Vodou gods who followed their devotees on the slave ships, and the world's first black republic—the singular cultural context and exotic milieu of the Caribbean, where hell and paradise can transfix us daily. In this powerful memoir, we enter the lives of a family who are both descendants of European aristocrats and African slaves. We meet Phipps's godfather, the rebel leader Guslé Villedrouin, and we relive her experiences with Vodou priests and spirits, a cold-eyed pope, a charismatic Muslim astrologer, Catholic monks and exorcists, American Mormon bishops, scholars and missionaries. Through it all, we are stirred by the antithetical feel of entitlement and destitution, barbarism and lyricism, infinity and insanity. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti brings a collapse to Phipps's world, but is also the start for her to find modern answers to the ancient questions, "Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?"

      • Computer science
        October 2012

        Secrets of Analytical Leaders

        by Wayne Eckerson

        Imagine spending a day with top analytical leaders and asking any question you want. In this book, Wayne Eckerson illustrates analytical best practices by weaving his perspective with commentary from seven directors of analytics who unveil their secrets of success. With an innovative flair, Eckerson tackles a complex subject with clarity and insight. Each of the book's 20 chapters is a stand-alone essay on an analytical topic, yet collectively they form a concise methodology about how to implement a successful analytics program. Wayne Eckerson has created a unique - and uniquely valuable - book in "The Secrets of Analytical Leaders." He's pulled together the insights of seven leading analytics practitioners, and combined them with his own considerable experience. The result is an interesting dialogue among some really smart and distinguished people. I'm not sure which is more interesting - the format or the content! Thomas H. Davenport Visiting Professor, Harvard Business School Co-Founder and Director of Research International Institute for Analytics Professors are hard at work molding the world's future analytical leaders - but the chasm between theoretical textbook learning and the real world is considerable. Wayne, with his customary clarity and insight, helps professors cross the chasm by delivering frameworks, commentary, and scenarios that are real, interesting, and important. Hugh Watson Professor of MIS and a C. Herman and Mary Virginia Chair of Business Administration Terry College of Business, University of Georgia and Barbara Wixom Associate Professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia Research Affiliate, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology From the Foreword by Michael Halbherr, Executive Vice President, Nokia We are living in a time of radical change. From my vantage point as head of Nokia's Location and Commerce business, I see many business and technical trends shaping our future—and all depend on a new commodity: data. In our mapping business, I see the need to evolve from a road-centric tool to something that allows people to truly understand and maneuver the complexities of a modern city. To accomplish this, we need a lot of data and ways to correlate disparate information into what we call "Smart Data." Analytics is core to what we do, and how we deliver value to customers today and in the future. I recently spoke to the Nokia board about our data, and some members questioned how we could monetize this asset. Since a few members are executives in the oil industry, I told them that data is the "oil of the future", and that you monetize this new resource the same way you monetize oil, by spending time and money refining it. In our case, we are refining data about people, locations, social interactions, traffic, musical preferences, and so on to bring maps to life. The analytical leaders profiled in this book demonstrate how to refine data for business gain and innovation. They play a pivotal role by bridging the worlds of business and technology. When supported by the business, they've delivered remarkable solutions that have given their organizations a competitive edge. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to monetize the most important resource of our time: data. It's written in language that both a CEO and a CIO can understand, and carries important lessons no matter what side of the business-technology aisle someone sits. Wayne Eckerson has been a thought leader in the business intelligence and analytics field since the early 1990s. He has conducted numerous in-depth research studies and is the author of the best-selling book Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. He is a noted keynote speaker and blogger, and he consults and conducts workshops on many topics. Wayne is the founder of BI Leadership Forum, a network of business intelligence (BI) directors who meet regularly to exchange ideas about best practices in BI and educate the larger BI community. Wayne is also director of research at TechTarget where he writes a popular weekly blog called “Wayne's World of BI” that focuses on industry trends and examines best practices in the application of business intelligence. For many years, Wayne served as director of education and research at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) where he oversaw the company's content and training programs and chaired its BI Executive Summit.

      • Fantasy
        October 2014

        The West's Awake.

        by James Kilcullen

        The public representatives in the west of Ireland, tired of being ignored by Dublin, decide to set up a separate state within the EU which is now ruled by an autocratic dictator called Count Otto who insists on uniformity in all things. When the new Galway parliament refuses to abolish the pint of Guinness and replace it with half a litre, the big Count declares war. How can Dan/Ozzy and President Ulick Joyc save their people

      • Sales & marketing
        September 2017

        The Authority Guide to Creating Brand Stories that Sell

        Smart and simple strategies to make your business irresistible

        by Jim O'Connor

        The business with the best brand story wins. Find out how to write yours. Connect with your customers and make your business impossible to resist using this sharp, practical Authority Guide that will save you time, money and frustration. Combine psychology, creativity, logic and emotion expertly into a brand story that will make your business stand out from the crowd. And using Jim O’Connor’s hard-won knowledge and vast experience give your business the focus, affinity, distinction and competitive advantage it needs to succeed and thrive.

      • Memoirs

        Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust

        by Jerry Stahl

        In September 2016, Jerry Stahl was feeling nervous on the eve of a two-week trip across Poland and Germany. But it was not just the stops at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau that gave him anxiety. It was the fact that he would he would be traveling with two dozen strangers, by bus. In a tour group. And he was not a tour-group kind of guy. The decision to visit Holocaust-world did not come easy. Stahl’s lifelong depression at an all-time high, his career and personal life at an all-time low, he had the idea to go on a trip where the despair he was feeling—out-of-control sadness, regret, and fear, not just for himself, but for our entire country—would be appropriate. And where was despair more appropriate than the land of the Six Million? Seamlessly weaving global and personal history, through the lens of Stahl’s own bent perspective, Nein, Nein, Nein! stands out as a triumph of strange-o reporting, a tale that takes us from gang polkas to tour-rash to the truly disturbing snack bar at Auschwitz. Strap in for a raw, surreal, and redemptively hilarious trip. Get on the bus.

      • History
        2019

        Irlanda y la Guerra Civil española

        Nuevas perspectivas de estudio

        by Pere Soler-Parício

        Tomando como partida investigaciones que analizaron la respuesta dada en Irlanda a la Guerra Civil española, esta obra actualiza amplía las perspectivas de estudio y abre nuevas vías de reflexión para la historiografía.

      • Horror & ghost stories

        Lynnwood

        by Thomas Brown

        FINALIST in the PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZEThe unthinkable is happening in Lynnwood – a village with centuries of guilt on its conscience.Who wouldn't want to live in an idyllic village in the English countryside like Lynnwood? With its charming pub, old dairy, friendly vicar, gurgling brooks, and its old paths with memories of simpler times. But behind the conventional appearance of Lynnwood's villagers, only two sorts of people crawl out of the woodwork: those who hunt and those who are prey. Reviews: 'A dark horror story set in a picturesque village. I would recommend this to fans of classic English horror as well as fans of Stephen King.' – Lucy O'Connor, Waterstones "A quintessentially British folk horror chiller, with an escalating power of dread that is rendered deftly. A new voice in British horror, that you'll want to read, has entered the field." – Adam Nevill > 'The plot line is new and exciting ... I was surprised more than once at what was happening. If you are looking for a good book, definitely pick up this one.' – Alison Mudge, Librarian, USA " … A dark journey not only of the mind, but of the soul. Mr. Brown's extraordinary talent is evident as he paints a virtual feast for the reader with eloquently chosen prose in this powerfully engaging novel." – Nina D'Arcangela 'An exciting, on the edge of your seat gothic that will have readers begging for more.' – Rosemary Smith, Librarian 'An exciting début from a new young writer with a dark imagination. Thomas Brown's beautifully written novel proposes a modern gothic forest far from the tourist trail, a place filled with strange events and eerie consequences.' – Philip Hoare. 'This book was great! I loved the author's writing style - the words flowed perfectly. Reading this was less like reading a book and more like watching the movie in my mind's eye. Fantastic!' – Laura Smith, Goodreads Reviewer

      • Children's & YA
        April 2013

        Gadget Girl

        The Art of Being Invisible

        by Suzanne Kamata

        Anna and the French Kiss meets Stoner & Spaz in a contemporary young adult coming-of-age novel about a girl, her struggles, and her art. Aiko Cassidy is fifteen and lives with her sculptor mother in a small Midwestern town. For most of her young life Aiko, who has cerebral palsy, has been her mother's muse. But now, she no longer wants to pose for the figures that have made her mother famous. Aiko works hard on her own dream, becoming a sought-after manga artist with a secret identity. When Aiko's mother invites her to Paris for a major exhibition of her work, Aiko resists. She'd much rather go to Japan, Manga Capital of the World, where she might be able to finally meet her father, the indigo farmer. When she gets to France, however, a hot waiter with a passion for manga and an interest in Aiko makes her wonder if being invisible is such a great thing after all.

      • Health & Personal Development
        October 2021

        Untangling you | How can I be grateful when I feel so resentful?

        by Dr Kerry Howells

        A practical guide to untangling difficult relationships, letting go of resentment and ultimately leading a happier life. No doubt you have experienced everyday resentment in your life: a sibling who appeared to be favoured by your parents; a partner who leaves you for another person; a neighbour who won’t deal with their barking dog; a workmate who is promoted ahead of you… the list goes on and on. These everyday resentments can keep simmering away, robbing us of joy and wreaking havoc on our health, relationships and workplaces. But no matter how hard we try to let it go and be the ‘bigger person’, sometimes it’s impossible to express gratitude toward someone who has wronged us. Thousands of clinical studies have demonstrated the positive benefits of gratitude to our physical, emotional and social wellbeing, but according to award-winning gratitude educator Dr Kerry Howells, it’s only when we experience the discomfort of not being able to find gratitude that a path opens for real growth and transformation. Based on 25 years of ground-breaking research, Untangling you: How can I be grateful when I feel so resentful? is the first book of its kind to discuss gratitude in terms of its conceptual opposite: resentment. Using practical strategies, tools and insights, this life-changing book will show you how to start to repair difficult relationships, improve your wellbeing, grow your resilience, and ultimately move from resentment towards deep gratitude to lead a happier and more fulfilling life. Untangling you: How can I be grateful when I feel so resentful? will help you on this journey, whether you are a leader, coach, parent, teacher, people manager, mentor, health professional, or just someone who wants to grow their character and self-efficacy.

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