Addictions to iphones, painkillers, cupcakes, alcohol and sex are taking over our lives. Our most casual daily habits can quickly become obsessions that move beyond our control. Damian Thompson, who has himself struggled with a range of addictions, argues that human desire is in the process of being reshaped. Shunning the concept of addiction as disease, he shows how manufacturers are producing substances like ipads, muffins and computer games that we learn to like too much and supplement tradition addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling. He argues that addictive behaviour is becoming a substitute for family and work bonds that are being swept away by globalisation and urbanisation. This battle to control addiction will soon overshadow familiar ideological debates about how to run the economy, and as whole societies set about “fixing” themselves, the architecture of human relations will come under strain as never before. The Fix offers a truly frightening glimpse of the future and is essential reading for fans of Naomi Klein’s ‘No Logo’, Oliver James’s ‘Affluenza’ and Francis Wheen’s ‘How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World’.

Get to grips with 3D printing and learn to model designs using Blender About This Book From the author who brought you the first practical look at 3D printing with 3D Printing Blueprints Get a comprehensive coverage of the prototyping techniques you need to know to start printing your own 3D designs Rekindle your mathematical genius to design personalized objects for complex puzzles Who This Book Is For If you’re new to the world of 3D printing, this is the book for you. Some basic knowledge of Blender and geometry would be helpful, but is not necessary. What You Will Learn Get to know about the different types of 3D printers and their limitations See how Y, H, and T shapes illustrate different ideas of successful 3D design for home 3D printers Set up and configure Blender to model a file for 3D printing Understand material characteristics, printing specifications, tolerances, and design tips Work through the techniques of editing complex meshes, smoothing, combining shapes, and exporting them into STL files for printing Break down complex geometries into multiple simple shapes and model them in layers using Blender Design, manipulate, and export 3D models for 3D printing with Blender Master the art of creating meshes, scaling, subdivision, and adding detail with the Boolean modifier as well as sculpting a custom shape Cut a model into small pieces and understand how to design complex interlocking joints that form a part of a jigsaw puzzle In Detail 3D printing has revolutionized the way that global industries conceptualize and design products for mass consumption. Considered as the next “trillion-dollar” business, every industry is in the race to equip its personnel with techniques to prototype and simplify complex manufacturing process. This book will take you through some simple to complex and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. There is a comprehensive coverage of projects such as a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder, which will teach you how to add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. Furthermore, you’ll learn to use various techniques to derive measurements for an object, model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object with the help of a 3D printable SD card holder ring design project. The final project will help you master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. Through the course of the book, we'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender to create objects. You’ll move, rotate, and scale the object, and manipulate the view. You’ll edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. By the end of the book, you will have gained thorough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a real-world 3D printable object of your choice. Style and approach This is a hands-on guide to the world of 3D printing. With the help of simple to complex projects, you'll learn various techniques to design 3D printable objects using Blender.

Over 75 practical recipes to confidently design an efficient virtual datacenter with VMware vSphere 6.x About This Book Get the first book on the market that helps you design a virtualized data center with VMware vSphere 6 Achieve enhanced compute, storage, network, and management capabilities for your virtual data center Exciting and practical recipes help you to design a virtual data easily by leveraging the features of VMware vSphere 6 Who This Book Is For If you are an administrator or consultant interested in designing virtualized datacenter environments using VMware vSphere 6.x or previous versions of vSphere and the supporting components, this book is for you. It will help both new and experienced architects deliver professional VMware vSphere virtual datacenter designs. What You Will Learn Identify key factors related to a vSphere design and apply them to every step of the design process Mitigate security risks and meet compliance requirements in a vSphere design. Create a vSphere conceptual design by identifying technical and business requirements Determine the type of database to use based on the deployment size. Design for performance, availability, recoverability, manageability, and security Map the logical resource design into the physical vSphere design Create professional vSphere design documentation to ensure a successful implementation of the vSphere design Leverage the latest vSphere 6.x features to ensure manageability, performance, availability, and security in a virtual datacenter design In Detail VMware is the industry leader in data center virtualization. The vSphere 6.x suite of products provides a robust and resilient platform to virtualize server and application workloads. With the release of 6.x a whole range of new features has come along such as ESXi Security enhancements, fault tolerance, high availability enhancements, and virtual volumes, thus simplifying the secure management of resources, the availability of applications, and performance enhancements of workloads deployed in the virtualized datacenter. This book provides recipes to create a virtual datacenter design using the features of vSphere 6.x by guiding you through the process of identifying the design factors and applying them to the logical and physical design process. You’ll follow steps that walk you through the design process from beginning to end, right from the discovery process to creating the conceptual design; calculating the resource requirements of the logical storage, compute, and network design; mapping the logical requirements to a physical design; security design; and finally creating the design documentation. The recipes in this book provide guidance on making design decisions to ensure the successful creation, and ultimately the successful implementation, of a VMware vSphere 6.x virtual data center design. Style and Approach The book follows a recipe-based approach that consists of practical recipes to effectively design a virtual data center.

Master the art of building analytical models using R About This Book Load, wrangle, and analyze your data using the world's most powerful statistical programming language Build and customize publication-quality visualizations of powerful and stunning R graphs Develop key skills and techniques with R to create and customize data mining algorithms Use R to optimize your trading strategy and build up your own risk management system Discover how to build machine learning algorithms, prepare data, and dig deep into data prediction techniques with R Who This Book Is For This course is for data scientist or quantitative analyst who are looking at learning R and take advantage of its powerful analytical design framework. It’s a seamless journey in becoming a full-stack R developer. What You Will Learn Describe and visualize the behavior of data and relationships between data Gain a thorough understanding of statistical reasoning and sampling Handle missing data gracefully using multiple imputation Create diverse types of bar charts using the default R functions Familiarize yourself with algorithms written in R for spatial data mining, text mining, and so on Understand relationships between market factors and their impact on your portfolio Harness the power of R to build machine learning algorithms with real-world data science applications Learn specialized machine learning techniques for text mining, big data, and more In Detail The R learning path created for you has five connected modules, which are a mini-course in their own right. As you complete each one, you'll have gained key skills and be ready for the material in the next module! This course begins by looking at the Data Analysis with R module. This will help you navigate the R environment. You'll gain a thorough understanding of statistical reasoning and sampling. Finally, you'll be able to put best practices into effect to make your job easier and facilitate reproducibility. The second place to explore is R Graphs, which will help you leverage powerful default R graphics and utilize advanced graphics systems such as lattice and ggplot2, the grammar of graphics. You'll learn how to produce, customize, and publish advanced visualizations using this popular and powerful framework. With the third module, Learning Data Mining with R, you will learn how to manipulate data with R using code snippets and be introduced to mining frequent patterns, association, and correlations while working with R programs. The Mastering R for Quantitative Finance module pragmatically introduces both the quantitative finance concepts and their modeling in R, enabling you to build a tailor-made trading system on your own. By the end of the module, you will be well-versed with various financial techniques using R and will be able to place good bets while making financial decisions. Finally, we'll look at the Machine Learning with R module. With this module, you'll discover all the analytical tools you need to gain insights from complex data and learn how to choose the correct algorithm for your specific needs. You'll also learn to apply machine learning methods to deal with common tasks, including classification, prediction, forecasting, and so on. Style and approach Learn data analysis, data visualization techniques, data mining, and machine learning all using R and also learn to build models in quantitative finance using this powerful language.

Advance your skills in efficient data analysis and data processing using the powerful tools of Scala, Spark, and Hadoop About This Book This is a primer on functional-programming-style techniques to help you efficiently process and analyze all of your data Get acquainted with the best and newest tools available such as Scala, Spark, Parquet and MLlib for machine learning Learn the best practices to incorporate new Big Data machine learning in your data-driven enterprise to gain future scalability and maintainability Who This Book Is For Mastering Scala Machine Learning is intended for enthusiasts who want to plunge into the new pool of emerging techniques for machine learning. Some familiarity with standard statistical techniques is required. What You Will Learn Sharpen your functional programming skills in Scala using REPL Apply standard and advanced machine learning techniques using Scala Get acquainted with Big Data technologies and grasp why we need a functional approach to Big Data Discover new data structures, algorithms, approaches, and habits that will allow you to work effectively with large amounts of data Understand the principles of supervised and unsupervised learning in machine learning Work with unstructured data and serialize it using Kryo, Protobuf, Avro, and AvroParquet Construct reliable and robust data pipelines and manage data in a data-driven enterprise Implement scalable model monitoring and alerts with Scala In Detail Since the advent of object-oriented programming, new technologies related to Big Data are constantly popping up on the market. One such technology is Scala, which is considered to be a successor to Java in the area of Big Data by many, like Java was to C/C++ in the area of distributed programing. This book aims to take your knowledge to next level and help you impart that knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees. Most of the data that we produce today is unstructured and raw, and you will learn to tackle this type of data with advanced topics such as regression, classification, integration, and working with graph algorithms. Finally, you will discover at how to use Scala to perform complex concept analysis, to monitor model performance, and to build a model repository. By the end of this book, you will have gained expertise in performing Scala machine learning and will be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala. Style and approach This hands-on guide dives straight into implementing Scala for machine learning without delving much into mathematical proofs or validations. There are ample code examples and tricks that will help you sail through using the standard techniques and libraries. This book provides practical examples from the field on how to correctly tackle data analysis problems, particularly for modern Big Data datasets.

A practical, indispensable security guide that will navigate you through the complex realm of securely building and deploying systems in our IoT-connected world About This Book Learn to design and implement cyber security strategies for your organization Learn to protect cyber-physical systems and utilize forensic data analysis to beat vulnerabilities in your IoT ecosystem Learn best practices to secure your data from device to the cloud Gain insight into privacy-enhancing techniques and technologies Who This Book Is For This book targets IT Security Professionals and Security Engineers (including pentesters, security architects and ethical hackers) who would like to ensure security of their organization's data when connected through the IoT. Business analysts and managers will also find it useful. What You Will Learn Learn how to break down cross-industry barriers by adopting the best practices for IoT deployments Build a rock-solid security program for IoT that is cost-effective and easy to maintain Demystify complex topics such as cryptography, privacy, and penetration testing to improve your security posture See how the selection of individual components can affect the security posture of the entire system Use Systems Security Engineering and Privacy-by-design principles to design a secure IoT ecosystem Get to know how to leverage the burdgening cloud-based systems that will support the IoT into the future. In Detail With the advent of Intenret of Things (IoT), businesses will be faced with defending against new types of threats. The business ecosystem now includes cloud computing infrastructure, mobile and fixed endpoints that open up new attack surfaces, a desire to share information with many stakeholders and a need to take action quickly based on large quantities of collected data. . It therefore becomes critical to ensure that cyber security threats are contained to a minimum when implementing new IoT services and solutions. . The interconnectivity of people, devices, and companies raises stakes to a new level as computing and action become even more mobile, everything becomes connected to the cloud, and infrastructure is strained to securely manage the billions of devices that will connect us all to the IoT. This book shows you how to implement cyber-security solutions, IoT design best practices and risk mitigation methodologies to address device and infrastructure threats to IoT solutions. This book will take readers on a journey that begins with understanding the IoT and how it can be applied in various industries, goes on to describe the security challenges associated with the IoT, and then provides a set of guidelines to architect and deploy a secure IoT in your Enterprise. The book will showcase how the IoT is implemented in early-adopting industries and describe how lessons can be learned and shared across diverse industries to support a secure IoT. Style and approach This book aims to educate readers on key areas in IoT security. It walks readers through engaging with security challenges and then provides answers on how to successfully manage IoT security and build a safe infrastructure for smart devices. After reading this book, you will understand the true potential of tools and solutions in order to build real-time security intelligence on IoT networks.

Over 140 practical recipes to help you make sense of your data with ease and build production-ready data apps About This Book Analyze Big Data sets, create attractive visualizations, and manipulate and process various data types Packed with rich recipes to help you learn and explore amazing algorithms for statistics and machine learning Authored by Ivan Idris, expert in python programming and proud author of eight highly reviewed books Who This Book Is For This book teaches Python data analysis at an intermediate level with the goal of transforming you from journeyman to master. Basic Python and data analysis skills and affinity are assumed. What You Will Learn Set up reproducible data analysis Clean and transform data Apply advanced statistical analysis Create attractive data visualizations Web scrape and work with databases, Hadoop, and Spark Analyze images and time series data Mine text and analyze social networks Use machine learning and evaluate the results Take advantage of parallelism and concurrency In Detail Data analysis is a rapidly evolving field and Python is a multi-paradigm programming language suitable for object-oriented application development and functional design patterns. As Python offers a range of tools and libraries for all purposes, it has slowly evolved as the primary language for data science, including topics on: data analysis, visualization, and machine learning. Python Data Analysis Cookbook focuses on reproducibility and creating production-ready systems. You will start with recipes that set the foundation for data analysis with libraries such as matplotlib, NumPy, and pandas. You will learn to create visualizations by choosing color maps and palettes then dive into statistical data analysis using distribution algorithms and correlations. You’ll then help you find your way around different data and numerical problems, get to grips with Spark and HDFS, and then set up migration *s for web mining. In this book, you will dive deeper into recipes on spectral analysis, smoothing, and bootstrapping methods. Moving on, you will learn to rank stocks and check market efficiency, then work with metrics and clusters. You will achieve parallelism to improve system performance by using multiple threads and speeding up your code. By the end of the book, you will be capable of handling various data analysis techniques in Python and devising solutions for problem scenarios. Style and Approach The book is written in “cookbook” style striving for high realism in data analysis. Through the recipe-based format, you can read each recipe separately as required and immediately apply the knowledge gained.

Finding Mr Right and saying ‘yes’ was just the beginning. A delightfully romantic read for fans of Trisha Ashley and Chris Manby. After listening to her friends’ latest travails in love, parenting, and careers, superstitious bride-to-be Nicole sets to work planting silver charms into her wedding cake, each of which will bring its recipient the magical assistance needed to change her destiny. There is one for Melissa, still ringless after dating the same man for six years. Another for Seema, who is in love with her best male friend Scott. And recently laid off journalist Nic should get one too, to help her get her career back on track. Nicole does everything she can to control who gets which silver keepsake, but when the place settings are mysteriously shifted around, mayhem ensues! *Please note that this is the UK edition - in the US, the title of this book is ‘There’s Cake in My Future’*

You can’t choose your family… When Sally and her family have to move back to Candle Lane to look after her grandmother, the cracks in their family soon begin to show. Another compelling family drama from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lost Angel and Nobody's Girl. CRUEL When her beloved Gran has a stroke, Sally and her family move back home in order to look after her. But Sadie's illness has made the wise woman they once knew bigoted and bad-tempered. Sadie is testing everyone's patience, including Sally's mum Ruth, and her husband Arthur. CALLOUS Their problems are nothing compared with Tommy, the little ruffian next door. With an absentee father and an alcoholic mother, Tommy has a hard life. However, Ruth sees the good in him and takes him under her wing, but his unpredictable and violent mother has other ideas. CRISIS Meanwhile, the stress of living cheek-by-jowl with Sally's family is starting to push Arthur away. As cracks in their marriage begin to appear, both Sally and Arthur must work out where their priorities lie before it's too late… Another compelling family drama from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lost Angel and Nobody's Girl.

There’s more backstabbing and drama as loyalties are tested to the limit in the third episode of the high life at elite riding school, Blainford Academy. Georgie tests her skills on the polo field in the latest from the author of the Uk’s bestselling pony series ‘Pony Club Secrets’. Georgie Parker has come out on top after her first term at Blainford ‘All-Stars’ Academy. But after excelling in the showjumping ring can Georgie outclass her rivals on the polo pitch too? And is Kennedy Kirkwood out to cause trouble again? Find out in the latest instalment of Blainford gossip, drama and horse-riding hijinks!

The third part of Aprilynne Pike’s extraordinary faerie tale of magic and mystery, romance and danger, described by Stephenie Meyer as ‘a remarkable debut’. On the first day of Laurel’s senior year there are two new arrivals. Tamani — the electrifying faerie with whom she shares an undeniable connection — appears, posing as a foreign exchange student. And even more disturbing is another foreign exchange student named Yuki whom Laurel quickly realises is a faerie, though the new girl doesn’t seem to have any idea who or what she really is. Laurel is determined to figure out how Yuki fits into the picture, and what connection she may have to the ever-increasing threats to her family and Avalon. Meanwhile, Laurel struggles to maintain a balance between her human boyfriend David and Tamani, with whom she shares a passionate past. But balancing two worlds is becoming more and more complicated. When the threat to Avalon grows ever stronger, Laurel’s illusion of control of the situation shatters and she must confront a danger even greater than the trolls.

Eliza Benedict’s past returns to haunt her when the serial killer she escaped from as a young girl walks back into her life. The nail-shredding novel from New York Times bestseller, Laura Lippman. 25 years ago, he stole her innocence. Now he wants to get in touch. Eliza Benedict cherishes her quiet existence with her successful husband and children in the leafy suburbs of suburban Washington. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects – or wants – to hear from: Walter Bowman. In the summer of 1985 when she was fifteen-years-old, Eliza was kidnapped by serial killer Walter Bowman, who targeted young girls like Eliza in a sexually motivated killing spree. Now facing lethal injection on death row, Walter is keen to make contact with Eliza, seemingly motivated by a desire to atone for his sins before he finally meets his maker. Carefully, with some reluctance, she lets Walter enter her life, first by letter, then in person. Walter is keen to convince Eliza that he has changed but it becomes clear that Walter has more of an agenda than he first revealed. Cunning and manipulative, Walter is never more dangerous than when he can't get what he wants, and he wants something very badly. Disturbingly, he seems to have an ally working in the outside, one who seems to know everything about Eliza's life – including where she lives. As Walter once again manages to exert his malign influence, Eliza must draw on all of her reserves of wisdom and strength as the battle of predator and prey once more plays out and she must face the past head on if she is to survive. A taut and mesmerizing novel by the highly-acclaimed author of Life Sentences and Every Secret Thing.

A tv tie-in with Lorraine Pascale, the model baker. Supermodel turned patisserie chef Lorraine Pascale is the BBC's new home baking heroine. In this gorgeous new cookbook to accompany the series, Lorraine shares her expertise, passion and her all time favourite sweet and savoury recipes. Baking is back and as a qualified baker with years of experience in some of the country's hottest restaurants, Lorraine knows just how to create modern, delicious and inspiring recipes. Here you'll find 100 mouth watering recipes for every kind of baked goody – including breads, cakes, tarts, pies and much much more. Lorraine draws on her training to reveal all her top baking shortcuts, cheats, confessions and tips on how to create wonderful tasting food that will inspire both seasoned cooks and novices. Whether for time crunch suppers, dinner parties for your closest friends, laid back tea parties or lazy breakfasts for your loved one, there are recipes for every occasion. You'll find new twists on old favourites – like Lorraine 's Incredibly Naughty Mini Toad-in-the-Hole or her Baked Alaska with Champagne Strawberries, along with modern classics like Parmesan Lollipops and Pumpkin and Chestnut Empanadas. So, whether you're a kitchen adventurer or cautious cook, get the oven on, it's time to discover the modern delights of baking. Urban, sexy, independent and effortlessly stylish Lorraine will be a breath of fresh air to the world of cookery.

Unleash the power of Python and its robust data science capabilities About This Book Unleash the power of Python 3 objects Learn to use powerful Python libraries for effective data processing and analysis Harness the power of Python to analyze data and create insightful predictive models Unlock deeper insights into machine learning with this vital guide to cutting-edge predictive analytics Who This Book Is For Entry-level analysts who want to enter in the data science world will find this course very useful to get themselves acquainted with Python’s data science capabilities for doing real-world data analysis. What You Will Learn Install and setup Python Implement objects in Python by creating classes and defining methods Get acquainted with NumPy to use it with arrays and array-oriented computing in data analysis Create effective visualizations for presenting your data using Matplotlib Process and analyze data using the time series capabilities of pandas Interact with different kind of database systems, such as file, disk format, Mongo, and Redis Apply data mining concepts to real-world problems Compute on big data, including real-time data from the Internet Explore how to use different machine learning models to ask different questions of your data In Detail The Python: Real-World Data Science course will take you on a journey to become an efficient data science practitioner by thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Python. This learning path is divided into four modules and each module are a mini course in their own right, and as you complete each one, you’ll have gained key skills and be ready for the material in the next module. The course begins with getting your Python fundamentals nailed down. After getting familiar with Python core concepts, it’s time that you dive into the field of data science. In the second module, you'll learn how to perform data analysis using Python in a practical and example-driven way. The third module will teach you how to design and develop data mining applications using a variety of datasets, starting with basic classification and affinity analysis to more complex data types including text, images, and graphs. Machine learning and predictive analytics have become the most important approaches to uncover data gold mines. In the final module, we'll discuss the necessary details regarding machine learning concepts, offering intuitive yet informative explanations on how machine learning algorithms work, how to use them, and most importantly, how to avoid the common pitfalls. Style and approach This course includes all the resources that will help you jump into the data science field with Python and learn how to make sense of data. The aim is to create a smooth learning path that will teach you how to get started with powerful Python libraries and perform various data science techniques in depth.

Master the art of getting the maximum out of your machine data using Splunk About This Book A practical and comprehensive guide to the advanced functions of Splunk,, including the new features of Splunk 6.3 Develop and manage your own Splunk apps for greater insight from your machine data Full coverage of high-level Splunk techniques including advanced searches, manipulations, and visualization Who This Book Is For This book is for Splunk developers looking to learn advanced strategies to deal with big data from an enterprise architectural perspective. It is expected that readers have a basic understanding and knowledge of using Splunk Enterprise. What You Will Learn Find out how to develop and manage apps in Splunk Work with important search commands to perform data analytics on uploaded data Create visualizations in Splunk Explore tweaking Splunk Integrate Splunk with any pre-existing application to perform data crunching efficiently and in real time Make your big data speak with analytics and visualizations using Splunk Use SDK and Enterprise integration with tools such as R and Tableau In Detail Master the power of Splunk and learn the advanced strategies to get the most out of your machine data with this practical advanced guide. Make sense of the hidden data of your organization – the insight of your servers, devices, logs, traffic and clouds. Advanced Splunk shows you how. Dive deep into Splunk to find the most efficient solution to your data problems. Create the robust Splunk solutions you need to make informed decisions in big data machine analytics. From visualizations to enterprise integration, this well-organized high level guide has everything you need for Splunk mastery. Start with a complete overview of all the new features and advantages of the latest version of Splunk and the Splunk Environment. Go hands on with uploading data, search commands for basic and advanced analytics, advanced visualization techniques, and dashboard customizing. Discover how to tweak Splunk to your needs, and get a complete on Enterprise Integration of Splunk with various analytics and visualization tools. Finally, discover how to set up and use all the new features of the latest version of Splunk. Style and approach This book follows a step by step approach. Every new concept is built on top of its previous chapter, and it is full of examples and practical scenarios to help the reader experiment as they read.

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Now, for the first time, they are available in electronic book format, so a whole new generation of readers can be swept away on the adventure of a lifetime. This is the seventeenth book in the series. Jack Aubrey’s long service is at last rewarded: he is promoted to the rank of Commodore and given a squadron of ships to command. His mission is twofold – to make a large dent in the slave trade off the coast of Africa and, on his return, to intercept a French fleet set for Bantry Bay with a cargo of weapons for the disaffected among the Irish. Invention and surprise follow at every turn in this tale of nineteenth-century seamanship, as rich, as compelling, as masterly as any of its predecessors.

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Now, for the first time, they are available in electronic book format, so a whole new generation of readers can be swept away on the adventure of a lifetime. This is the nineteenth book in the series. Following the extraordinary success of The Yellow Admiral, this latest Aubrey-Maturin novel brings alive the sights and sounds of North Africa as well as the great naval battles in the days immediately following Napoleon’s escape from Elba. Aubrey and Maturin are in the thick of the plots and counterplots to prevent his regaining power. Coloured by conspiracies in the Adriatic, in the Berber and Arab lands of the southern shores of the Mediterranean, by night actions, fierce pursuits, slave-trading and lion hunts, The Hundred Days is a masterpiece. ’O’Brian is far and away the best of the Napoleonic storytellers and The Hundred Days is one of the best of the series: a classic naval adventure, crammed with incident, superbly plotted and utterly gripping…This is O’Brian at his brilliant, entertaining best and when he is on this form the rest of us who write of the Napoleonic conflict might as well give up and try a new career. Fans of the series will need no encouragement to buy this book, but if you are new to Aubrey and Maturin then this is as splendid an introduction as you could wish for.’ Bernard Cornwell

At the time of his death, Patrick O'Brian had begun to write a novel to follow on from Blue at the Mizzen, the twentieth book in the classic series. These are the chapters he had completed of the final voyage of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Now they are available for the first time in electronic book format. The story picks up from the end of ‘Blue at the Mizzen’ when Jack Aubrey receives the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. This novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of O’Brian’s death, would have been a chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The chapters left on O’Brian’s death are presented here both in printed version – including his corrections to the type* – and a facsimilie of his manu*, which goes several pages beyond the end of the type* and includes marginal notes by O’Brian. And so this great ‘roman fleuve’ comes to an end with Jack, with his ‘sacred blue flag’, sailing through fair, sweet days – Stephen with his dissections and new love, Killick muttering darkly over the toasted cheese… Of course, we would rather have had the whole story; instead we have this proof that O’Brian’s powers of observation, his humour and his understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end.

A strange old theatre at the end of the pier is the setting for the next fantastic adventure full of magic and mayhem with unbeatable double act, Esme & Monty Pepper, and their madcap Uncle Potty… The Pepper twins, Esmé and Monty and their uncle Potty have been summoned to the Sea Spray Theatre on the end of Crab Pie Pier. They’re on a mission to keep the old theatre from closing and must perform the show of a lifetime to reel in the crowds. But not everyone wants the theatre to survive and a certain someone is determined to sabotage the show, whatever the cost… Add a strange island hideaway full of zany inventions (including the Great Crab Pie flytrap and the Banana-Powered Test Your Strength machine), a hair-raising helicopter rescue-mission, some dodgy fortune-telling and the world’s biggest goldfish bowl and the Peppers are in for an unforgettable summer.

Have you ever wondered if there is there life after death? If so, where do people go when they die? Whether it’s possible to keep in contact with your loved ones after they die? And are they able to help you? Will you meet them again? There Are No Goodbyes provides answers and comfort for all of these questions, and more. What happens to us when we die is bound to be a matter of curiosity for most, if not all people. Some believe that when you're dead, you're dead. Others believe that we go on - but to what? There Are No Goodbyes provides reassurance and answers to this and many other questions. The main object is to help people go through their existence on Earth secure in the knowledge that life continues as an adventure towards complete freedom of spirit, so that there's no reason whatever to be afraid of death. For decades, Paddy McMahon has acted as a bridge between the spiritual and human realms, helping people to connect with their angels, or spirit guides. He believes that we are born with spiritual connections to one or more angels, and if we want their help in life we need to be open to receiving their assistance.

If you’re a man of a certain age you’ll know there comes a point in life when getting a sports car and over-analysing your contribution to society sounds like a really good idea. With a good job in sales and marketing and a nice house in Manchester that he shared with his wife and kids, John Bishop was no different when he turned the dreaded 4-0. But instead of spanking a load of cash on a car that would have made him look like a senior stylist at Vidal Sassoon, he stumbled onto a pathway that ultimately lead him to become one of the nation’s best loved comedians. It was a gamble, but boy, did it pay off. How Did All This Happen? is the story of how a boy who, growing up on a council estate dreaming of ousting Kenny Dalglish from Liverpool FC’s starting line-up, suddenly found himself on stage in front of thousands of people nationwide, at an age when he should have known better. In his own inimitable style, John guides us through his life from leaving the estate and travelling the globe on a shoe string, to marriage, kids and the split that led him to being on a stage complaining to strangers one night – the night that changed his life and started his journey to stardom. Wonderfully entertaining and packed with colourful reminiscences and comical anecdotes, this is a heart-warming, life-affirming and ultimately very, very funny memoir from one of the nation’s greatest comedians.