Showing results by publisher "Bloomsbury Publishing Plc" in All Categories

The hilarious trials and tribulations of stand-up comedian Paul Tonkinson as he attempts to beat the much lauded three-hour mark at the London Marathon. With a supporting cast of fellow comedians, this is a warmly written and wonderfully honest adventure-through-sport that will both entertain and inspire. Along the way, we are introduced to the characters helping Paul with his quest. Celebrity names such as Bryony Gordon, Russell Howard, Roisin Conaty and Vassos Alexander pop up with wit and wisdom....

One hundred and sixty-five million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. Sixty-six million years ago was the first melody. Forty thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story.

Bloomsbury presents The Way of St Benedict by Rowan Williams, read by Peter Noble. With typical eloquence and wisdom, in The Way of St Benedict Rowan Williams explores the appeal of St Benedict’s sixth-century Rule, showing it to be a document of great relevance to present day Christians and non-believers at our particular moment in history.

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 - at least two from across the sea – who’d come together to destroy them once and for all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began, was enough to shock a violent age.

It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and barbarians, generals and politicians squabbled over dwindling scraps of power, two men—former comrades on the battlefield—rose to prominence on opposite sides of the great game of empire. Roman general Flavius Stilicho, the man behind the Roman throne, dedicated himself to restoring imperial glory, only to find himself struggling for his life against political foes.

A teacher is dead, murdered by two of his students in front of the whole school. Right in front of Jackson Jones. But Mr. Joseph was a good man - people liked him, respected him. How could those boys stab him and jog away like nothing had happened? Unable to process what he has seen, Jackson begins his own investigation: everyone knows who did it, but as Jackson uncovers more about the boys, he becomes convinced that people need to understand why.

Briseis’s mother is dead, but there is one chance to bring her back: find the last piece of the deadly Absyrtus Heart. If Bri is to locate the missing piece, she must turn to the blood relatives she’s never known, learn of their secret powers and take her place in their ancient lineage. But Bri is not the only one who wants the Heart, and her enemies will stop at nothing to fulfil their own ruthless plans. Strengthened by the sisterhood of ancient magic, can she harness her power to save the people she loves most?

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow — for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door.

By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset.

Malika “Boog” Wilson and her best friends have grown up idolising The Vanquishers, a group of heroic vampire hunters who wiped out the last horde of the undead decades ago. Nowadays, most people don't take even the most basic vampire precautions - the days of garlic wreaths and early curfews are long gone - but Boog’s parents still follow the old rules, much to her embarrassment. When a friend goes missing, Boog isn't sure what to think. Could it be the school counsellor, Mr Rupert, who definitely seems to be hiding something? Or could it be something more dangerous?

Meri Pebble, professional spy mermaid, has a new mission. She’s going to be a personal assistant to the Sushi Sisters (famous for their notorious appearance on reality TV programme Catwalk Prawn, and for driving around in a submarine shaped like a giant bit of sushi). Beattie, Mimi, Zelda and Steve the talking seahorse are coming along for the ride as the least convincing glam squad ever.

As the country bakes under the relentless summer sun, a young doctor is found brutally murdered at his home in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village. Is his death connected to his private life - or his professional one? Dr Joshua Ainsworth worked at an all-female detention centre, one still recovering from a major scandal a few years before. Was he the whistle-blower - or an instigator? As Detective Sergeant Ferreira and Detective Inspector Zigic begin to painstakingly reconstruct Dr Ainsworth’s last days, they uncover yet more secrets and more suspects.

The 'Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club' was the tongue-in-cheek nickname of the US Seventh Fleet that was stationed off the coast of Vietnam and this book tells the full story of the US Naval air campaign in the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975.

Fionn Boyle has been Storm Keeper of Arranmore for less than six months when thousands of terrifying Soulstalkers arrive on the island. The empty-eyed followers of the dreaded sorceress Morrigan have come to raise their leader, and Fionn is powerless to stop them. The Storm Keeper's magic has deserted him and with his grandfather's memory waning, Fionn must rely on his friends Shelby and Sam to help him summon Dagda's army of merrows. But nobody else believes the ferocious sea creatures even exist.

Kate wasn’t expecting much when she wrote to her wealthy estranged uncle to ask for a birthday present. Certainly she wasn’t expecting a colossal steam train called the Silver Arrow to arrive on her doorstep. Despite parental misgivings, curiosity overwhelms Kate and her brother, Tom, and they climb aboard, only for the train’s engine to roar into life. Soon they reach a train station where an assortment of strange and beautiful creatures are waiting with tickets in their mouths, and Kate and Tom begin to understand that their job will be to see them safely home - if they can.

Join Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around Britain in search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in the 21st century. Like many of her generation, Sophie Pavelle is determined to demand action on climate change. In her hilarious and thought-provoking first audiobook, she describes the trips she took to see ten rare native species: species that could disappear by 2050 and be forgotten by the end of the century if their habitats continue to decline.

According to head teacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt, 4B is the worst class in the world. She says school is not about footling or fiddle-faddling or fun. It is about learning, and it is high time 4B tried harder to excel at it. But Stanley and Manjit didn’t literally mean to flood the toilets when they should have been monitoring the playground. And they definitely didn’t literally mean to bring a penguin home from the zoo on their school trip. These things just happened even though they had a foolproof plan to get away with them.

Born in the postwar East End of London, young Michael’s life is changed when he is spotted in a school play, cast in Lionel Bart’s Oliver! and is transported to the glittering West End. Acting on stage and screen into adulthood, he finds his most defining role as Colin in Eastenders, making television history as one half of the first gay kiss ever broadcast on a British soap. But it is a chance encounter in a Butlins resort that leads Michael to the great love of his life: Paul Cottingham, who would become his husband and partner of 31 years.

Just Me is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Sheila, whether facing down burglars and Easyjet staff or making friends with waiters and taxi drivers, whether unearthing secrets in Budapest, getting arrested in Thailand, exulting in the art of Venice or searching for a decent cup of coffee in Dorset, is never less than stimulating company.

Part narrative, part practical, this adventure takes you to the foothills of Ethiopia and the ‘town of runners’; to the training grounds of world-record-holding marathon runners in Kenya; racing across the Arctic Circle and the mountains of Europe, through the sweltering sands of the Sahara and the hostility of a winter traverse of the Pennine Way, to witness the incredible natural movement of runners in these environments.