Rupert Farley

Michael Barber has spent many years advising governments, businesses and major sporting teams around the world on how to achieve ambitious goals on time. In this book he applies the wisdom he has gained from dealing with large, complex organizations and elite athletes to help anyone tackle their most challenging goals. Drawing on the stories of historic visionaries and modern heroes - from Galileo to Rosa Parks, Harold Macmillan to Paula Radcliffe - Barber uses personal anecdote and proven strategy to map the route to success and navigate the difficulties that arise along the way. Whatever it is that you aspire to do - run a marathon, transform a school or provide a business of public service to millions - this book will inspire you to get going and to bridge the gap between hope and reality.

King Henry V's victory over the French armies at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 is unquestionably one of the most famous battles in history.

The English invasion of France in 1415 saw them take the French port of Harfleur after a long siege, following which Henry was left with a sick and weakened army, which he chose to march across Normandy to the port of Calais against the wishes of his senior commanders. The French had assembled a superior force and shadowed the English Army before finally blocking its route. The battle that followed was an overwhelming victory for the English, with the French suffering horrific casualties.

Agincourt provides a new look at this famous battle. Mike Livingston goes back to the original sources, including the French battle plan that still survives today, to give a new interpretation, one that challenges the traditional site of the battlefield itself.

What might have happened if Poland was never invaded? Or if Hiroshima never happened? Or if the great evacuation at Dunkirk was scrapped? Would the war have turned out differently? Would Hitler have won? ARMCHAIR GENERAL airdrops you the reader into the key historical moments and turning points of WWII - from the outbreak of war to D-Day - and thrusts you into the role of decision-maker. Taking the chair of Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Montgomery, General Eisenhower and other leaders and soldiers from the Allied Forces, you will be primed with the contemporaneous intelligence that real leaders would have been presented with during the war - including maps and secret dossiers. Once you have examined the evidence, you the reader will then have to make key decisions that have the power to affect the war - and the fate of history. How far should you parachute behind enemy lines? Should you fight on or try to make peace? Will you send more troops in or hold them back? Do you wait or do you act? Each decision will take you to an alternate chapter in the book, and to either the truth, or to an alternate but highly plausible new reality.

Everyone has their own 'bad science' moments, encompassing everything from the useless pie charts on the back of cereal boxes to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics adverts. Ben Goldacre takes the reader on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of bad science.

Genghis Khan has united the warring tribes but now finds trouble brewing west of the Mongolian plains so he sends his sons out to quell the rebellions. This also serves to diffuse the rivalries between his sons and shows him which should succeed him.  Book 3 of series.

1677 - snatched from an Irish village, 17-year-old Hector Lynch finds himself in a world where life is cheap and only the quick-witted survive. Befriended by Dan, they escape the horrors of the slave barracks by converting to Islam.  Book 1 of series.

The battle of Crécy in 1346 is one of the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet cutting-edge research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong.

In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle's greatest secret: the location of the now quiet fields where so many thousands died.

Crécy: Battle of Five Kings is a story of past and present. It is a new history of one of the most important battles of the Middle Ages: a compelling narrative account of the battle of Crécy that still adheres to the highest scholarly standards in its detail. 

What makes the English English? Is it their eccentricity, their passionate love (or, indeed, hatred) of Marmite - or is it something less easily defined? The archetypal Englishman - lover of Labradors and Land Rovers yet holder of two passports - Ben Fogle, applauds all things quintessentially English while also paying tribute to the history, culture and ideas adopted with such gusto that they have become part of the fabric of the country.

A place of exceptional diversity, rapid change, and high energy, for the past 100 million years Europe has literally been at the crossroads of the world. By virtue of its geology and geography, evolution in Europe proceeds faster than elsewhere. The continent has absorbed wave after wave of immigrant species over the millennia, taking them in, transforming them, and sometimes hybridising them. Flannery's exploration of the nature of Europe reveals a compelling intellectual drama, with a cast of heroic researchers - of whom Tim Flannery is the most recent - whose discoveries have changed our understanding of life itself.

In Lessons in Stoicism, philosopher John Sellars weaves together the key ideas of the three great Roman Stoics - Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius - with snapshots of their fascinating lives, to show us how their ideas can help us today.

In vivid prose, Sellars shows how the works of these three Stoics have inspired readers ever since, speaking as they do to some of the perennial issues that face anyone trying to navigate their way through life. Their works, fundamentally, are about how to live - how to understand one's place in the world, how to cope when things don't go well, how to manage one's emotions and how to behave towards others. 

Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father. By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft. Thomas prides himself on being a rational, modern man, but as he unravels the mystery of what has happened, he uncovers not a tale of superstition but something dark and ancient, linked to a shipwreck years before. Something has awoken, and now it will not rest. 

When forty-something Vaughan suffers total memory loss, he is told that his breakdown has probably been triggered by his marital problems. But then he comes face to face with the stranger he's supposed to be divorcing - and promptly falls head over heels in love with her.

Israel (a vegetarian, Jewish, librarian) finds himself living in an old mobile library in Northern Ireland when his new job falls through: the library has been shut down and 15,000 books are missing. Israel wants to know where they are, and where can he get a decent cappuccino?

Late in AD 937, four armies met in a place called Brunanburh. On one side stood the shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other side stood a remarkable alliance of rival kings. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England.

For centuries, its location has been lost. But today, an extraordinary effort may well have found the site of the long-lost battle of Brunanburh, over a thousand years after its bloodied fields witnessed history.

This groundbreaking new book tells the story of this remarkable discovery and delves into why and how the battle happened. Most importantly, though, it is about the men who fought and died at Brunanburh, and how much this forgotten struggle can tell us about who we are and how we relate to our past.

Peter, a brilliant scientist, is told that he will lose everything he loves. His husband. His family. His friends. His ability to travel the world. All will be gone. But Peter will not give up. He vows that this will not be the end and instead seeks a completely new beginning . . . Peter has Motor Neurone Disease, a condition universally considered by doctors to be terminal. He is told it will destroy his nerve cells and that within an average of two years, it will take his life too. 

But, face-to-face with death, he decides there is another way. Using his background in science and technology, he navigates a new path, one that will enable him not just to survive, but to thrive. This is the astonishing true story behind the primetime Channel 4 documentary, about Peter Scott-Morgan the first person to combine his very humanity with artificial intelligence and robotics to become a full Cyborg. His discovery means that his terminal diagnosis is negotiable, something that will rewrite the future. And change the world. By embracing love, life and hope rather than fear, tragedy and despair he will become Peter 2.0.

Labour has shifted from the New Left, to New Labour, to Corbynista Labour. Now, it may see power again with a most unlikely group of activists from the 1970s becoming the fourth generation to win power since 1945. Only Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair have won power from a sitting Conservative government. Of the ten general elections since 1979, Labour has won three, all under Blair. This record of failure, if applied to any other walk of life, would raise the fundamental question of why continue to fight a losing battle? For Labour, it asks whether it is a party of protest - designed only to be a voice from opposition, commenting on the flaws and falsities of Conservative police - or a party of power?

In his quest to discover the truth about the disappearance of the Donna Louisa Vivar's husband, Richard Sharpe is taken to Chile, where he soon finds himself caught up in the rebellion against Spanish rule and fighting alongside the flamboyant rebel admiral, Lord Thomas Cochrane.  Book 21 of series.

The newly promoted Captain Richard Sharpe clashes with an incompetent colonel, leads his men in the battle of Talavera and earns himself a dangerous enemy. As Sharpe leads his men in to battle, he knows he must fight for the honour of the regiment and his future career. Soldier, hero, rogue - Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.  Book 8 of series.

Major Sharpe, newly promoted, is given the task of rescuing a group of well-born women, held hostage high in the mountains by a rabble of deserters. And one of the renegades is Sergeant Hakeswill, Sharpe’s bitter enemy.  Book 15 of series.

In September of 1810, just before repulsing the French army, Sharpe battles on, this time getting trapped by Portuguese traitors even as his company tries to save their country from French invasion.  Book 10 of series.

In the winter of 1811 the war seemed lost. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again. Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana.  Book 11 of series.

An unfinished duel, a midnight murder, and the treachery of a beautiful prostitute lead to the imprisonment of Sharpe. Caught in a web of political intrigue for which his military experience has left him fatally unprepared, Sharpe becomes a fugitive, a man hunted by both ally and enemy alike.  Book 16 of series.

Sharpe's men are in mortal danger, not from the French, but from the bureaucrats of Whitehall. Determined not to see his regiment die, Sharpe returns to England where he is forced into the most desperate gamble of his life and not even the Prince Regent's influence may be enough to save him.  Book 17 of series.

Sharpe's French nemesis, Major Ducos, has stolen a fortune from Napoleon and framed Sharpe for the crime. As fugitives from the British Army and the restored French royalist regime, Sharpe, Frederickson and Harper travel across France and into Naples to find Ducos and clear themselves.  Book 19 of series.

It's 1809, and Napoleon's army is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the 95th Rifles. He must lead them to safety-and the only way of escape is a treacherous trek through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain.  Book 6 of series.

The invasion of France is under way and the British Navy has called upon the services of Major Richard Sharpe. He and a small force of riflemen are to capture a fortress and secure a landing on the French coast - one of the most dangerous missions of his career.  Book 18 of series.

Colonel Leroux is killing Britain's most valuable spies, and it's up to Richard Sharpe to stop him. Thrust into the unfamiliar world of political and military intrigue, Sharpe relentlessly pursues Leroux, determined to exact his revenge with the cold steel of his sword.  Book 14 of series.

Just as he comes face-to-face with his estranged wife and her lover at a grand society ball, news comes that the British-Prussian link is under attack. In the Battle of Waterloo, Sharpe once again plays a pivotal role in the outcome of a great British triumph.  Book 20 of series.

Michael is a broken man. He's waiting for the 09.46 to Gloucester, so as to reach Crewe for 11.22, where he can walk easily into the path of a high-speed train to London. He's planned it all. He longs to silence the voices in his head; ex-partners, colleagues, and the unbearable memories of work and school. What Michael hasn't factored in, however, is a twelve-minute delay. He's going to miss his connection - and make a few new ones...