Showing results by narrator "John Telfer" in All Categories

In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world - a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in the Islamic world, is not as well known as he should be, and his ideas are widely misunderstood. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography, Robert Irwin provides an engaging and authoritative account of Ibn Khaldun's extraordinary life, times, writings, and ideas.

What would be the practical implications of caring more about others than about yourself? This is the radical theme of this extraordinary set of instructions, a training manual composed in the fourteenth century by the Buddhist hermit Ngulchu Thogme, here explained in detail by one of the great Tibetan Buddhist masters of the twentieth century, Dilgo Khyentse. In the Mahayana tradition, those who have the courage to undertake the profound change of attitude required to develop true compassion are called bodhisattvas.

How do I reduce crime in my police command? How do I tackle chronic crime problems? How do I address the long-term issues that have plagued my community? How do I analyze crime and criminal behaviour? How do I show evidence of success in crime reduction? What works, what doesn’t, and how do we...

This essential guide helps teachers refine their approach to fundamental challenges in the classroom. Based on research from cognitive science and formative assessment, it ensures teachers can offer all students the support and challenge they need and can do so sustainably.Written by an...

This selection of essays by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) demonstrate the varied power of his genius. Compiled from his lecture tours, newspaper articles, essays and epigrams, these writings show that beneath his trademark wit and love of paradox, Oscar Wilde was an original and remarkably modern writer.

From the local to the global level, religion is – more than ever – an important and hotly debated part of modern life in the twenty-first century.From silver rings to ringtones and from clubs to headscarves, we often find the cultural role and discussion of religion in unexpected ways.Now in...

What makes human language unique?Do women speak differently from men?Just what is the meaning of "meaning"?Language: The Basics provides a concise introduction to the study of language. Written in an engaging and entertaining style, it encourages the reader to think about the way language works...

One of the greatest locked-room murder mysteries of all time, hailing from 1938, returns to baffle a new bevy of armchair detectives. James Answell, visiting his father-in-law Avery Hume in his locked study, has the misfortune to wake up from a drugged-Whisky swoon to find his host dead, skewered with an arrow. He is, of course, prime suspect.

Ancient Egypt wasn't all pyramids, sphinxes and gold sarcophagi. For your average Egyptian, life was tough, and work was hard, conducted under the burning gaze of the sun god Ra. During the course of a day in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor), Egypt's religious capital, we meet 24 Egyptians from all strata of society - from the king to the bread-maker, the priestess to the fisherman, the soldier to the midwife - and get to know what the real Egypt was like by spending an hour in their company.

In these five tales, Sherlock Holmes is shown at the height of his powers: he co-operates with a young Winston Churchill in the famed Siege of Sydney Street, helps defeat a plan for a German invasion outlined in the Zimmerman Telegram, establishes a link between two missing lighthouse keepers and the royal treasures of King John, contends with a supernatural curse places upon an eccentric aristocrat, and discovers a lost epic of Lord Byron.

In the aftermath of the mysterious death of their lead singer, the young members of a now-legendary British acid folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient English country house with its own dark secrets. There they record Wylding Hall, the album that makes their reputation but at a terrifying cost when Julian Blake, their new lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again.

Bloomsbury presents Playwriting by Dan Rebellato, read by John Telfer This book is ideal for anyone keen to understand how contemporary plays and playwrights work, particularly those wanting to write for the stage themselves. Drawing heavily on contemporary practice, it considers moments from a...

'There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W.8, on Wednesday, July 31st, at 5 p.m. Precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested.' The note was delivered to New Scotland Yard, its words evoking a cold murder case and its unsolved mystery of the ten teacups found beside the body. Scrambling to prevent a second killing, the police set up a watertight cordon at Berwick Terrace. But gunfire rings out from the top floor at 5 p.m.

Throughout the twentieth century, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was regarded as an important sociological and economic text, continuing into the twenty-first century, when extreme capitalism has continued to come under fire. Weber's work provided a history, from where the profit motive could be ethically justified. Max Weber combined his interests in sociology, political economy and history to give perspective to his analysis. Concentrating principally on the experience of the West, he returned to the time when religion, its concepts and practice, dominated society.

Berlin, 1940. The city is paralysed by fear. But one man refuses to be scared.Otto, an ordinary German living in a shabby apartment block, tries to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when he discovers his only son has been killed fighting at the front he's shocked into an extraordinary act of resistance, and starts to drop anonymous postcards attacking Hitler across the city. If caught, he will be executed.

For a world that over the past century has witnessed horrors the like of which could not have been imagined by earlier generations, Job’s cries of despair and incomprehension are all too recognisable. The visionary psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung understood this and responded with this remarkable book, in which he set himself face to face with 'the unvarnished spectacle of divine savagery and ruthlessness'.

Max Seager was the best there was. His skills sharpened in the midst of a brutal African civil war, he was at once a policeman, soldier and detective - a tracker of men. He thought he’d left that life behind him, but then he learns that his particular expertise is required again. Two teenage girls have been abducted and are being held to ransom, hidden deep within the Zimbabwean bush that was once his hunting ground. The mother of one of the girls begs him to help and, unable to walk away, Max returns to Africa with a handpicked team of former comrades-in-arms.

"Have you ever seen a ghost, Mr. Holmes?" asks Victoria Temple, and Sherlock Holmes, at the height of his powers in 1898, must face a new challenge, one that plunges the great detective into the realm of the supernatural. Miss Temple has been found guilty - but also insane - at her trial for murdering a child under her care. She is locked away in the Broadmoor lunatic asylum, and worse still, she believes fully in her own guilt....

As a powerful insurgent army closes on Liberia's capital, London is forced to act, and HMS Beaufort is despatched to West Africa to pull British nationals from the teeth of encroaching danger. But when the volatile situation ashore unravels, the frigate's crew must draw deep on reserves of skill, ingenuity and sheer bloody mindedness to save it. And with time running out Beaufort's Captain makes the decision to take his ship up river....