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Yes! No! But Wait…! is the most straightforward book on writing a novel ever published.

It is also the most practical, honest and useful.

Tim Lott admits he can’t teach someone how to write a novel (that’s one of the myths propagated by the novel-writing industry).

But he can help anyone construct a solid platform on which they can stand to discover whether they have the talent, will and imagination required of any novelist.

A distillation of a lifetime’s reading, writing and thinking about stories and how to tell them, Yes! No! But Wait…! is the one book any aspiring author needs.

How games are being harnessed as instruments of exploitation – and what we can do about it

Warehouse workers pack boxes while a virtual dragon races across their screen. If they beat their colleagues, they get an award. If not, they can be fired. Uber presents exhausted drivers with challenges to keep them driving. China scores its citizens so they behave well, and games with in-app purchases use achievements to empty your wallet.

Points, badges and leaderboards are creeping into every aspect of modern life. In You’ve Been Played, game designer Adrian Hon delivers a blistering takedown of how corporations, schools and governments use games and gamification as tools for profit and coercion. These are games that we often have no choice but to play, where losing has heavy penalties. You’ve Been Played is a scathing indictment of a tech-driven world that wants to convince us that misery is fun, and a call to arms for anyone who hopes to preserve their dignity and autonomy.

‘A thoughtful, serious and well-written book that tackles an immensely important subject’ – Observer

How many avoidable deaths are there in the NHS every week?

150.

What figure should we aim for?

Zero.

The NHS is the pride of Britain. It’s an army of highly skilled and talented healthcare professionals, armed with the most cutting-edge therapies and medicines, and a budget bigger than the GDP of most countries in the world.

Yet avoidable failures are common. And the result is tragic deaths up and down the country every day.

Jeremy Hunt, the longest-serving Health Secretary in history, knows exactly what the cost is. In the letters he received from bereaved family members, he was constantly confronted by the heart-breaking reality of slip-ups and mistakes.

There is increasing conflict between public pride in the NHS and the exhausted daily reality for many doctors and nurses, now experiencing burnout in record numbers. Waiting lists are up, staffing numbers inadequate, and all the while an ageing population and medical advances increase both demand and expectations. With pressures like these, is it surprising that mistakes start to creep in?

This great British institution is crying out for renewal. In Zero, taking the broadest approach, thinking through everything from staffing to technology, budgets to culture, Hunt presents a manifesto for that renewal.

Mistakes happen. But nobody deserves to become a statistic in an NHS hospital. That’s why we need to aim for zero.

‘A masterful introduction to the state of the art in managerial decision-making. Surprisingly, it is also a pleasure to read’ – Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

A lively, research-based tour of nine common decision-making traps – and practical tools for avoiding them – from a professor of strategic thinking We make decisions all the time. It’s so natural that we hardly stop to think about it. Yet even the smartest and most experienced among us make frequent and predictable errors. So, what makes a good decision? Should we trust our intuitions, and if so, when? How can we avoid being tripped up by cognitive biases when we are not even aware of them?

You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake! offers clear and practical advice that distils the latest developments in behavioural economics and cognitive psychology into actionable tools for making clever, effective decisions in business and beyond.

Yang Jisheng’s The World Turned Upside Down is the definitive history of the Cultural Revolution, in withering and heartbreaking detail.

As a major political event and a crucial turning point in the history of the People’s Republic of China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) marked the zenith as well as the nadir of Mao Zedong’s ultra-leftist politics. Reacting in part to the Soviet Union’s “revisionism” that he regarded as a threat to the future of socialism, Mao mobilized the masses in a battle against what he called “bourgeois” forces within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This ten-year-long class struggle on a massive scale devastated traditional Chinese culture as well as the nation’s economy.

Following his groundbreaking and award-winning history of the Great Famine, Tombstone, Yang Jisheng here presents the only history of the Cultural Revolution by an independent scholar based in mainland China, and makes a crucial contribution to understanding those years’ lasting influence today.

The World Turned Upside Down puts every political incident, major and minor, of those ten years under extraordinary and withering scrutiny, and arrives in English at a moment when contemporary Chinese governance is leaning once more toward a highly centralized power structure and Mao-style cult of personality.

Asher Baum is quietly losing his mind. Can you blame him?

‘Maybe what I really want is to make sense of all people’s lives. Of everything, the whole shebang’

A middle-aged Jewish journalist turned novelist and playwright, consumed with anxiety about everything under the sun, Baum’s turgid philosophical books receive tepid reviews and his prestigious New York publisher has dropped him. His third marriage is on the rocks and he suspects his handsome and successful younger brother may have seduced his Harvard-educated wife. He is uneasy with her close relationship with her son, a more successful author than he, and suspicious of her closeness with their neighbour in Connecticut. And in a moment of irrationality, he has impulsively tried to kiss a pretty young journalist during an interview that she is about to go public with.

Is it any wonder Baum has started talking to himself? Strangers shake their heads and walk around him on the street. Meanwhile he learns a startling secret that could cause havoc should he expose it. Should he keep it to himself or reveal it and blow up his marriage?

What’s with Baum? is Woody Allen’s first novel and it is everything you would expect of him–and more. A portrait of an intellectual crippled by neurotic concerns about the futility and emptiness of life; an amusing glimpse into the New York publishing establishment; above all, a highly entertaining, tightly plotted, beautifully wrought piece of fiction from one of America’s greatest and most versatile cinematic and literary talents.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE FROZEN RIVER, BASED ON A TWISTED TRUE MURDER MYSTERY

‘Inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery, this mesmerizing novel features characters that make a lasting impression’ People

‘This fun, fast-paced novel has it all: speakeasies, gangsters, show girls, and not one, not two, but three women scorned. A real page-turner’ Melanie Benjamin, bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife

‘Vivid and unsettling, with a finale as startling as the pop of a gun’ Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Pictures of You 

One summer night in 1930, Judge Joseph Crater steps into a New York City cab and is never heard from again. Behind this great man are three women, each with her own tale to tell: Stella, his fashionable wife, the picture of propriety; Maria, their steadfast maid, indebted to the judge; and Ritzi, his showgirl mistress, willing to seize any chance to break out of the chorus line.

As the twisted truth emerges, Ariel Lawhon’s wickedly entertaining debut mystery transports us into the smoky jazz clubs, the seedy backstage dressing rooms, and the shadowy streets beneath the Art Deco skyline.

FIVE STAR RAVE READER REVIEWS

An unparalleled group of prominent scholars from wide-ranging disciplines detail ongoing efforts to impose ideological restrictions on science and scholarship throughout western society.

From assaults on merit-based hiring to the policing of language and replacing well-established, disciplinary scholarship by ideological mantras, current science and scholarship is under threat throughout western institutions. As detailed by this group of prominent scholars – who range across many different disciplines and political leanings – the very future of free inquiry and scientific progress is at risk.

Many who have spoken up against this threat have lost their positions, and a climate of fear has arisen that strikes at the heart of modern education and research. Banding together to finally speak out, this brave and unprecedented group of scholars issues a clarion call for change.

Contributors: Richard Dawkins; Alan Sokal; Niall Ferguson; Gad Saad; Anna Krylov; Jay Tanzman; John Armstrong; Jerry Coyne; Luana Maroja; Sally Satel; Geoff Horsman; Alessandro Strumia; Roger Cohen; Amy Wax; Alex Byrne; Moti Gorin; Judith Suissa; Alice Sullivan; Dorian Abbot; Steven Pinker; Nicholas Christakis; Richard E. Redding.

‘Wonderfully written, infused with positive energy and solid information. All parents of children who have ADHD should buy it’ – Edward Hallowell, MD

What if you could work with your child, motivating and engaging them in the process, to create positive change once and for all? In this insightful and practical book, veteran psychologist Sharon Saline shares the words and inner struggles of children and teens living with ADHD—and a blueprint for achieving lasting success by working together. Based on more than 25 years of experience counseling young people and their families, Dr. Saline’s advice and real-world examples reveal how parents can shift the dynamic and truly help kids succeed. Topics include:

With useful exercises and easy-to-remember techniques, you’ll discover a variety of practical strategies that really work, creating positive change that will last a lifetime.

‘An excellent summation of the life and times of Winston Churchill’ Andrew Roberts

‘Caddick-Adams understands the two world wars, and his subject’s role in them, superbly’ Simon Heffer, New Statesman

‘A witty and enjoyable political biography of Winston Churchill … Brilliantly done’ The Past

In Winston Churchill, veteran historian Peter Caddick-Adams gives us an overview of Churchill’s life, from his early days as a soldier and part-time journalist through to the Second World War and beyond.

Caddick-Adams argues that the recipe for Churchill’s success during his wartime premiership of 1940-45 can be found in the First World War. The nation, and its leaders, had undergone a ‘dress rehearsal’ in 1914-18: conscription, rationing, convoys, air raids, mass production, women’s uniformed services, coalitions and war cabinets had all happened before, and Churchill had been there when they did. This experience, combined with Churchill’s extraordinary abilities (along with some foibles), were what enabled Britain to survive.

READER REVIEWS