Showing results by publisher "Orion Publishing Group Limited" in All Categories

Medicine in the early 1800s was a brutal business. Operations were performed without anaesthesia while conventional treatment relied on leeches, cupping and toxic potions. It was said of one surgeon, 'His surgical acquirements were very small, his operations generally very badly performed and accompanied with much bungling, if not worse.' It was lucky, for the doctor at least, that his deafness made him immune to his patients' dying groans. Into this milieu came John Elliotson, the dazzling new hope of the medical world.

John Lennon was a writer as well as a musician. It was entirely natural for him to put pen to paper whenever he had an idea, a thought, a reaction, or a desire to communicate. He lived - and died - in an age before emails and texts. Pen and ink was what he turned to. John wrote letters and postcards all of his life, most of which were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished, and sometimes heart-breaking. For the first time, John's widow, Yoko Ono, has given permission to publish a collection of his letters.

Elvis Cole has to face up to a crime that takes place far too near home. His girlfriend's only child has been kidnapped, and it seems that something from his own past has come back to haunt him.

Many nations, peoples and special interest groups believe that violence will advance their cause. Warfare has changed greatly since the Second World War; it continued to change during the late 20th century, and this process is still accelerating. Political, technological, social and religious forces are shaping the future of warfare, but most Western armed forces have yet to evolve significantly from the Cold War era when they trained to resist a conventional invasion by the Warsaw Pact.

Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still 'la reine mechante', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: 'let them eat cake'. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.

The world is on the brink of apocalypse. Zero Day has come. The only thing more terrifying than millions of spiders is the realisation that those spiders work as one. But among the government, there is dissent: do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer's theory that we need to kill only the queens?

A mysterious boy is the focus of a novel that takes us from the September Massacres of 1792 to the death of Robespierre four years later. After rescuing Sido, the young daughter of an aristocrat, he flees to England, making secret journeys back to France to smuggle out refugees.

May 1992, and after four LAPD officers were acquitted after the savage beating of Rodney King, Los Angeles is ablaze. As looting and burning take over the city, law and order are swept away in a tidal wave of violence. But under threat of their lives, homicide detectives like Harry Bosch are still stubbornly trying to do their job. With no effective police presence on the streets, murder just got a whole lot easier - and investigating them got a whole lot harder.

It begins with a phone call. Gordon Reeve's brother has been found dead in his car in San Diego; the car was locked from the inside, and he had a gun in his hand. In the US to identify the body, Gordon comes to realise that his brother has in fact been murdered. What's more, it is soon obvious that his own life is in danger.

This epic account of the events of 1918 is the first major reappraisal of the end of the war for more than 20 years, and describes what is in some respects a forgotten chapter in history. The soldiers who returned to Britain in November 1918 were not the martyrs or victims of popular memory - they were a victorious army and were greeted as heroes.

Hometown Tales is a series of books pairing exciting new voices with some of the most talented and important writers at work today. Some of the tales are fiction and some are narrative nonfiction - they are all powerful, fascinating and moving and aim to celebrate regional diversity and explore the meaning of home.

A practical guide to understanding and coping with anxiety, depression, addiction and suicide. Flagging The Problem: A New Approach to Mental Health investigates how the mood system in the brain and the body works and how problems in this system contribute to anxiety, depression, addiction and suicide. Best-selling author and GP Dr Harry Barry reveals a pioneering system using a coloured flag which represents a particular mental state or area of concern.

Meet the Railway Rabbits! Join this irrepressible rabbit family as they get in and out of scrapes, meet new friends, perform daring rescues, and explore the ancient castle on the hill... But watch out for the wily buzzard, always on the lookout for naughty rabbits who stray too far from home.Heartwarming, hilarious, and charmingly illustrated, this is a brilliant new animal adventure series from a best-selling children's author.

Learning is the soul of our species. From our first steps to our last words, we are what we learn. Our education predicts our earnings, our contentment, even how long we'll live. But for all its obvious importance, learning has lost touch with human progress. We live in an information age, work in a knowledge economy, yet our schools remain relics of an industrial era. No more. In Natural Born Learners, Alex Beard takes us on a dazzling tour of the future of learning.

Leaving London to return home to rural South Wales, Robyn finds that it's her old life - same teddy bears resting on her pillow, their bodies tucked under the duvet; same view of the garages behind which she'd had her first cigarette and first kiss - but so much has changed. Her dad, the proud, charmingly intelligent self-made man who made people laugh, was in the grip of early onset Alzheimer's. His brilliant mind, which saw him building power stations and literally bringing light into the lives of others, had succumbed to darkness.

Çeda's mission is partly complete...so now she must continue to uncover the riddles her mother has left - especially when those scattered clues are incomplete. The answers lie in the desert, where the few remaining members of the Thirteenth Tribe are hidden, and though they doubt she can make a stand against the Kings, they are prepared to help her in her quest. The remaining Kings, however, have not been idle. One of their own has been murdered, and the hunt is on to find the culprit.

Charlotte Church burst onto the music scene when she was only 12 years old. She went straight to the top of the charts with Voice of an Angel and sang for the Pope, the US president, and royalty across the world. She has released five classical albums, received numerous accolades, and garnered more column inches than Jordan and Victoria Beckham put together. And yet we are still continually fascinated by this Welsh star.

It was supposed to be "a lovely break". As their mutual friend, Helena, is the toast of Broadway, stand-up comedian Cissie O'Brien, who is the nation's darling with her popular television series, decides to take the beautiful and troubled actress Maggie Salt to New York to see her. But Maggie, a destructive whirlpool of a personality, is cracking up fast - "out of her tree" - and on arrival, she suddenly disappears into the freezing February night, no one knows where.

In this candid autobiography, Katherine Jenkins reveals how her passion to make her dream reality transformed her from a trainee teacher to one of the most famous classical singers in the world. This is the story behind that beautiful and angelic voice.

Twenty years ago, KGB and CIA agents worked together to bring down The Matarese, a dynasty of killers who threatened the world. But the terrifying group has regained its power. CIA officer Cameron Pryce is hot on the trail of the new Matarese alliance. His only chance to terminate its ruthless activities is to follow the trail of blood money and stone-cold killers. Then he gets a lucky break.