A classic Patrick O’Brian novel, back in print after many years. When Derrick’s missionary parents are tragically murdered he is entrusted to his gruff uncle Sullivan, Captain of The Wanderer. After surviving a killer typhoon on the South China Sea, and accompanied by their eccentric elderly cousin, they set off across land to discover the treasures of Central Asia. Derrick befriends a fierce Mongol warrior and must help him battle a ruthless Chinese warlord. Given a gift of priceless jade, the group is pursued into the inhospitable mountains of Tibet where they are caught between fierce mountain monks and a terrifying unnamed creature that stalks them through the snow.

A funny, romantic, evocative novel set against the safari tourism business in East Africa, written by an award-winning journalist. After the death of his beloved, bankrupt gambler of a father, Dan Lynch follows his university degree in zoology to a run-down safari camp, where he can work as a trainee guide and, most important, be near George Sorensen, the owner. George is a wildlife genius, but no great businessman, and the camp is threatened by lack of visitors, competition from the much more luxurious set-up across the valley, and corrupt local politicians. In learning about the majestic landscape and fauna of Africa, Dan learns a lot about people – and about himself. A beautiful evocation of place, a warmly observant love story, a suspenseful battle against the odds, Rogue Lion Safaris marks the debut of a very bright new voice in fiction.

How to make it, break it, hack it, crack it. The secret history of codes and code breaking. Simon Singh’s best-selling title The Code Book now re-issued for the young-adult market. The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. Simon Singh brings life to an amazing story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles – revealing the continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret languages of others. Codes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of those who make them and those who break them. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a $20 million treasure.

A brilliant reworking of the detective story by the much-acclaimed Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’, Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books, intertwining history, legend and storytelling verve. In ‘The Final Solution’ he has crafted a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic 19th-century detective story. In deep retirement in the English countryside, an 89-year-old man, vaguely remembered by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with other people. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany with his sole companion: an African grey parrot. What is the meaning of the mysterious strings of German numbers the bird spews out – a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts perhaps? Or something more sinister? Is the solution to this last case – the real explanation of the mysterious boy and his parrot – beyond even the reach of the once-famed sleuth? Subtle revelations lead the reader to a wrenching resolution. This brilliant homage is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour. The ‘Great War’, from July 1914 to November 1918, was without parallel. It brought to an end four dynasties, ignited revolution, and forged new nations. It introduced killing on an unprecedented scale, costing an estimated nine million lives. It was the war that destroyed any notion of romance or chivalry in battle; it pulled in combatants from nations across the globe and shattered them, body and mind. The War involved all of the world’s great powers – the Central Powers, dominated by Germany and Austria-Hungary; the Triple Entente, lead by Britain, France and Russia; and America. World War One: History in an Hour explains the unprecedented battles on land, sea and in the air and describes the Home Front, espionage, and the politics behind them. This, for the first time in history, was ‘total war’. Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest sieges in history and it inflicted some of the worst civilian casualties of World War Two. When Hitler declared his intention to obliterate the key city of Leningrad on 22 September 1941, he could not have foreseen the grim determination of its citizens. Over the course of 900 days, the city resisted the Germans pounding at its gates. Its survival contributed to the defeat of Nazism. But the price was heavy – over 1 million died in Leningrad from German bombs and artillery, or from disease, the cold or starvation. In its suffering Leningrad became a source of symbolic national pride, of good conquering evil. The story of the siege is one of heroic resistance and stoical survival but it also one of unimaginable suffering and extreme deprivation. THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD: HISTORY IN AN HOUR is essential reading for all history lovers. Know your stuff: read about the Siege of Leningrad in just one hour.

A guide to mastering Visual Studio 2017 About This Book ? Focus on coding with the new, improved, and powerful tools of VS 2017 ? Master improved debugging and unit testing support capabilities ? Accelerate cloud development with the built-in Azure tools Who This Book Is For .NET Developers who would like to master the new features of VS 2017, and would like to delve into newer areas such as cloud computing, would benefit from this book. Basic knowledge of previous versions of Visual Studio is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Learn what's new in the Visual Studio 2017 IDE, C# 7.0, and how it will help developers to improve their productivity ? Learn the workloads and components of the new installation wizard and how to use the online and offline installer ? Build stunning Windows apps using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) tools ? Get familiar with .NET Core and learn how to build apps targeting this new framework ? Explore everything about NuGet packages ? Debug and test your applications using Visual Studio 2017 ? Accelerate cloud development with Microsoft Azure ? Integrate Visual Studio with most popular source control repositories, such as TFS and GitHub In Detail Visual Studio 2017 is the all-new IDE released by Microsoft for developers, targeting Microsoft and other platforms to build stunning Windows and web apps. Learning how to effectively use this technology can enhance your productivity while simplifying your most common tasks, allowing you more time to focus on your project. With this book, you will learn not only what VS2017 offers, but also what it takes to put it to work for your projects. Visual Studio 2017 is packed with improvements that increase productivity, and this book will get you started with the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2017 IDE and C# 7.0. Next, you will learn to use XAML tools to build classic WPF apps, and UWP tools to build apps targeting Windows 10. Later, you will learn about .NET Core and then explore NuGet, the package manager for the Microsoft development platform. Then, you will familiarize yourself with the debugging and live unit testing techniques that comes with the IDE. Finally, you'll adapt Microsoft's implementation of cloud computing with Azure, and the Visual Studio integration with Source Control repositories. Style and approach This comprehensive guide covers the advanced features of Visual Studio 2017, and communicates them through a practical approach to explore the underlying concepts of how, when, and why to use it.

Leverage the power of Python to collect, process, and mine deep insights from social media data About This Book ? Acquire data from various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, GitHub, and more ? Analyze and extract actionable insights from your social data using various Python tools ? A highly practical guide to conducting efficient social media analytics at scale Who This Book Is For If you are a programmer or a data analyst familiar with the Python programming language and want to perform analyses of your social data to acquire valuable business insights, this book is for you. The book does not assume any prior knowledge of any data analysis tool or process. What You Will Learn ? Understand the basics of social media mining ? Use PyMongo to clean, store, and access data in MongoDB ? Understand user reactions and emotion detection on Facebook ? Perform Twitter sentiment analysis and entity recognition using Python ? Analyze video and campaign performance on YouTube ? Mine popular trends on GitHub and predict the next big technology ? Extract conversational topics on public internet forums ? Analyze user interests on Pinterest ? Perform large-scale social media analytics on the cloud In Detail Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Pinterest, and YouTube have become part of everyday life in a big way. However, these complex and noisy data streams pose a potent challenge to everyone when it comes to harnessing them properly and benefiting from them. This book will introduce you to the concept of social media analytics, and how you can leverage its capabilities to empower your business. Right from acquiring data from various social networking sources such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and social forums, you will see how to clean data and make it ready for analytical operations using various Python APIs. This book explains how to structure the clean data obtained and store in MongoDB using PyMongo. You will also perform web scraping and visualize data using Scrappy and Beautifulsoup. Finally, you will be introduced to different techniques to perform analytics at scale for your social data on the cloud, using Python and Spark. By the end of this book, you will be able to utilize the power of Python to gain valuable insights from social media data and use them to enhance your business processes. Style and approach This book follows a step-by-step approach to teach readers the concepts of social media analytics using the Python programming language. To explain various data analysis processes, real-world datasets are used wherever required.

Mastering Drupal can lead to a mighty website - discover what Drupal 8 can really do with hidden techniques, best practices, and more! About This Book ? The most up-to-date advanced practical guide on Drupal 8 with an in-depth look at all the advanced new features such as authoring, HTML markup, built-in web services, and more ? If you are looking to dive deep into Drupal 8 and create industry-standard web apps, then this is the ideal book for you ? All the code and examples are explained in great detail to help you in the development process Who This Book Is For This book is ideally suited to web developers, designers, and web administrators who want to dive deep into Drupal. Previous experience with Drupal is a must to unleash the full potential of this book. What You Will Learn ? Discover how to better manage content using custom blocks and views ? Display content in multiple ways, taking advantage of display modes ? Create custom modules with YAML and Symfony 2 ? Easily translate content using the new multilingual capabilities ? Use RESTful services and JavaScript frameworks to build headless websites ? Manage Drupal configuration from one server to another easily In Detail Drupal is an open source content management system trusted by governments and organizations around the globe to run their websites. It brings with it extensive content authoring tools, reliable performance, and a proven track record of security. The community of more than 1,000,000 developers, designers, editors, and others have developed and maintained a wealth of modules, themes, and other add-ons to help you build a dynamic web experience. Drupal 8 is the latest release of the Drupal built on the Symfony2 framework. This is the largest change to the Drupal project in its history. The entire API of Drupal has been rebuilt using Symfony and everything from the administrative UI to themes to custom module development has been affected. This book will cover everything you need to plan and build a complete website using Drupal 8. It will provide a clear and concise walkthrough of the more than 200 new features and improvements introduced in Drupal core. In this book, you will learn advanced site building techniques, create and modify themes using Twig, create custom modules using the new Drupal API, explore the new REST and Multilingual functionality, import, and export Configuration, and learn how to migrate from earlier versions of Drupal. Style and approach This book takes a practical approach with equal emphasis on examples and illustrative screenshots.

This book covers the fundamentals of machine learning with Python in a concise and dynamic manner. It covers data mining and large-scale machine learning using Apache Spark. About This Book ? Take your first steps in the world of data science by understanding the tools and techniques of data analysis ? Train efficient Machine Learning models in Python using the supervised and unsupervised learning methods ? Learn how to use Apache Spark for processing Big Data efficiently Who This Book Is For If you are a budding data scientist or a data analyst who wants to analyze and gain actionable insights from data using Python, this book is for you. Programmers with some experience in Python who want to enter the lucrative world of Data Science will also find this book to be very useful, but you don't need to be an expert Python coder or mathematician to get the most from this book. What You Will Learn ? Learn how to clean your data and ready it for analysis ? Implement the popular clustering and regression methods in Python ? Train efficient machine learning models using decision trees and random forests ? Visualize the results of your analysis using Python’s Matplotlib library ? Use Apache Spark’s MLlib package to perform machine learning on large datasets In Detail Join Frank Kane, who worked on Amazon and IMDb’s machine learning algorithms, as he guides you on your first steps into the world of data science. Hands-On Data Science and Python Machine Learning gives you the tools that you need to understand and explore the core topics in the field, and the confidence and practice to build and analyze your own machine learning models. With the help of interesting and easy-to-follow practical examples, Frank Kane explains potentially complex topics such as Bayesian methods and K-means clustering in a way that anybody can understand them. Based on Frank’s successful data science course, Hands-On Data Science and Python Machine Learning empowers you to conduct data analysis and perform efficient machine learning using Python. Let Frank help you unearth the value in your data using the various data mining and data analysis techniques available in Python, and to develop efficient predictive models to predict future results. You will also learn how to perform large-scale machine learning on Big Data using Apache Spark. The book covers preparing your data for analysis, training machine learning models, and visualizing the final data analysis. Style and approach This comprehensive book is a perfect blend of theory and hands-on code examples in Python which can be used for your reference at any time.

This book is your guide to exploring the possibilities in the field of deep learning, making use of Google's TensorFlow. You will learn about convolutional neural networks, and logistic regression while training models for deep learning to gain key insights into your data. About This Book ? Explore various possibilities with deep learning and gain amazing insights from data using Google’s brainchild-- TensorFlow ? Want to learn what more can be done with deep learning? Explore various neural networks with the help of this comprehensive guide ? Rich in concepts, advanced guide on deep learning that will give you background to innovate in your environment Who This Book Is For If you are a data scientist who performs machine learning on a regular basis, are familiar with deep neural networks, and now want to gain expertise in working with convoluted neural networks, then this book is for you. Some familiarity with C++ or Python is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Set up your computing environment and install TensorFlow ? Build simple TensorFlow graphs for everyday computations ? Apply logistic regression for classification with TensorFlow ? Design and train a multilayer neural network with TensorFlow ? Intuitively understand convolutional neural networks for image recognition ? Bootstrap a neural network from simple to more accurate models ? See how to use TensorFlow with other types of networks ? Program networks with SciKit-Flow, a high-level interface to TensorFlow In Detail Dan Van Boxel’s Deep Learning with TensorFlow is based on Dan’s best-selling TensorFlow video course. With deep learning going mainstream, making sense of data and getting accurate results using deep networks is possible. Dan Van Boxel will be your guide to exploring the possibilities with deep learning; he will enable you to understand data like never before. With the efficiency and simplicity of TensorFlow, you will be able to process your data and gain insights that will change how you look at data. With Dan’s guidance, you will dig deeper into the hidden layers of abstraction using raw data. Dan then shows you various complex algorithms for deep learning and various examples that use these deep neural networks. You will also learn how to train your machine to craft new features to make sense of deeper layers of data. In this book, Dan shares his knowledge across topics such as logistic regression, convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks, training deep networks, and high level interfaces. With the help of novel practical examples, you will become an ace at advanced multilayer networks, image recognition, and beyond. Style and Approach This book is your go-to guide to becoming a deep learning expert in your organization. Dan helps you evaluate common and not-so-common deep neural networks with the help of insightful examples that you can relate to, and show how they can be exploited in the real world with complex raw data.

Learn everything you need to build highly scalable, robust web applications using Angular release 4 About This Book ? Apply best practices and design patterns to achieve higher scalability in your Angular applications ? Understand the latest features of Angular and create your own components ? Get acquainted with powerful, advanced techniques in Angular to build professional web applications Who This Book Is For This book is for JavaScript developers with some prior exposure to Angular, at least through basic examples. We assume that you’ve got working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. What You Will Learn ? Implement asynchronous programming using Angular ? Beautify your application with the UI components built to the material design specification ? Secure your web application from unauthorized users ? Create complex forms, taking full advantage of 2-way data binding ? Test your Angular applications using the Jasmine and Protractor frameworks for better efficiency ? Learn how to integrate Angular with Bootstrap to create compelling web applications ? Use Angular built-in classes to apply animation in your app In Detail Got some experience of Angular under your belt? Want to learn everything about using advanced features for developing websites? This book is everything you need for the deep understanding of Angular that will set you apart from the developer crowd. Angular has introduced a new way to build applications. Creating complex and rich web applications, with a lighter resource footprint, has never been easier or faster. Angular is now at release 4, with significant changes through previous versions. This book has been written and tested for Angular release 4. Angular is a mature technology, and you'll likely have applications built with earlier versions. This book starts by showing you best practices and approaches to migrating your existing Angular applications so that you can be immediately up-to-date. You will take an in-depth look at components and see how to control the user journey in your applications by implementing routing and navigation. You will learn how to work with asynchronous programming by using Observables. To easily build applications that look great, you will learn all about template syntax and how to beautify applications with Material Design. Mastering forms and data binding will further speed up your application development time. Learning about managing services and animations will help you to progressively enhance your applications. Next you’ll use native directives to integrate Bootstrap with Angular. You will see the best ways to test your application with the leading options such as Jasmine and Protractor. At the end of the book, you’ll learn how to apply design patterns in Angular, and see the benefits they will bring to your development. Style and approach This book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of development with Angular. You will learn about all the most powerful Angular concepts, with examples and best practices. This book is everything you need for the deep understanding of Angular that will set you apart from the developer crowd.

‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall be stamped upon.’ From the massively successful author that brought you exploding sheep (Before & After) comes the conspiracy theory to end them all. If you’re a cynic, you’re a sucker. ‘They’ want you to believe in aliens, UFOs and ghosts, because if you go chasing lies, you never get to the truth. ‘They’ are the ultra-secret world ‘Committee’ – the real decision makers who tell governments what to do, dictate which way the stock market’s heading, start up a few wars when things get boring. They’ve had five centuries’ experience at the top to know that nothing spreads a rumour faster than a carefully worded denial. Unfortunately, the ‘Committee’ have been so busy manipulating the entire globe they haven’t realised that they themselves are being manipulated. From opposite sides of the globe, former US commando Frank MacIntyre, and UFO enthusiast Dave Pierce, are about to stumble on the biggest conspiracy theory of all. And it’s a discovery that threatens to destabalise the whole planet. The meek have just put on their boots, and they’re ready to do a bit of stamping themselves.

The first book in a new sexy, supernatural mystery series, from New York Times bestselling urban fantasy author Vicki Pettersson. Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was back when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Fifty years later, he’s a celestial Centurion, assisting the recently, and violently, dead. Yet just because he’s an angel doesn’t mean he’s a saint. One small mistake has altered fate, and now he’s been dumped back onto to the mortal mudflat to collect another soul – Katherine “Kit” Craig, a journalist whose latest investigation is about to get her clipped. Bucking heavenly orders, Grif refuses to let this sable-haired siren with hairpin curves come to harm. Besides, protecting her offers a chance to find the truth about his own mysterious death – and wreak some vengeance for the murder of his beloved wife, Evie. Joining forces, Kit and Grif’s search for answers leads beyond the blinding lights of the Strip into the dark heart of an evil conspiracy. But a ruthless killer determined to destroy them isn’t Griffin’s biggest threat. His growing attraction to Kit could cost them both their lives, as well as the answer to the greatest mystery of his long afterlife … Who killed Griffin Shaw?

The long awaited return to Robert Low’s Oathsworn series Island of Mann, 979AD. A man lies dying with a message he cannot take to his grave, a sworn secret that must be passed on only to Olaf Tryggvasson, kin of Harald Fairhair of the Yngling line and true prince of Norway, also known as Crowbone. When the message finally arrives, so begins a quest to discover its meaning, and for Crowbone to gain what is rightfully his: the crown of Norway. With a band of Chosen Men, Crowbone begins an unforgiving journey that will see him face the challenge of new enemies and confront his suspicions of treachery from old friends. Looming over all is his ultimate rival; Gunnhild, the Witch Mother of Kings, Crowbone’s arch-enemy who will stop at nothing to prevent him from knowing what and where this secret is. In the fifth installment of his Oathsworn series, Robert Low is back to his full-blooded Viking best, this time visiting the harsh terrain of the North Sea coast, in a tale about one man’s quest for survival and the unexpected alliances that emerge, as the very bonds that tie the Oathsworn together are put to the test.

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook. Raymond West approaches the Tuesday Night Club after his visit to John Newman, a friend who is searching for the Spanish ship Otranto which was shipwrecked off the coast of Cornwall. When John Newman disappears for days, upon his return he claims that he had been abducted by the thieves who had stripped the Otranto of its gold, and that the local pub landlord had worked with them. Can Miss Marple help the club solve the mystery of the Otranto and its dangerous allure?

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook. When invited to Mr and Mrs Unkerton’s party in Greenway’s House, Mr Satterthwaite learns of a haunted window, which no matter how many times it is replaced always contains the image of a cavalier in a plumed hat. When gunshots are heard, Satterthwaite finds that two of the guests have been shot dead, which is shortly followed by a sighting of the cavalier in the newly-replaced window pane. Can Mr Quin shed light on the mystery?

Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army, this is a stunning new novel of identity and loss by Michael Morpurgo, biggest UK children’s author and the bestselling, award-winning writer of War Horse, now a smash West End and Broadway hit as well as an Oscar-nominated movie. Michael doesn’t remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war. And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn’t like to talk about her husband. But then Auntie Snowdrop gives Michael a medal, followed by a photograph, which begin to reveal a hidden history. A story of love and loss. A story that will change everything – and reveal to Michael who he really is…

The hugely popular Gareth Malone recounts the heart-warming stories and transformations behind the award-winning BBC2 series The Choir For the first time, Gareth reveals everything he has learned from working with so many groups of memorable people, including the record-breaking Military Wives and latest series of The Choir being shown this Autumn. Gareth was an unknown Choirmaster when he arrived on British TV screens five years ago. Boyish, irrepressible and determined, Gareth took on a collection of kids from the most unlikely comprehensive and turned them into a talented performing choir. This was the beginning of a national love affair with a bow-tied and undeniably charming young man, and it was also the start of a national rediscovery of the joy to be found in choirs. Since then, each series of The Choir has gone on to even more demanding challenges, taking young offenders to Glyndebourne, regenerating disparate and far from affluent communities, and finally in an extraordinarily emotional journey, Gareth took a group of women whose partners were serving in Afghanistan to a Christmas Number One. This Autumn, in a new four-part series, The Choir: Sing While you Work, Gareth will be challenging four new Choirs to compete against each other. This is his memoir of a period in which he transformed the lives of thousands but also gained a lifetime’s worth of experience in human frailty and strength. Written with real joy, emotion and amusement, the twenty chapters each deal with an individual moment – both break-throughs and disasters – or an individual character that has contributed to this extraordinary adventure. Whether he is explaining the importance of biscuits or the role of the elderly in a community undertaking, remembering the scrappy kid who never quite delivered or the mother who had most to prove this is an incredibly moving journey. It is his adventure… and ours.

The third book in the delightful series set in Carrington’s Department Store - with extra character interviews exclusive to the ebook! Georgie Hart and Carrington’s Department Store have got the world at their feet. Since a reality TV series put them both on the map, life has been amazing! Carrington’s profits are in the pink, Georgie has carved herself a place in the nation’s heart and even better, her romance with Tom, the store’s boss, has finally blossomed after a shaky start. Now summertime has come to Mulberry-on-Sea and Georgie is in great demand. The town is holding a big summer festival and she and her mates from Carrington’s are planning on making sure that Mulberry puts on the show of its life! But Georgie is about to get the offer of a lifetime – one that is just too good to turn down and something that will test her loyalties to their limits… Will Georgie be able to pull off it off once again, or has her luck finally run out?

How do you find someone who wants to be lost? Sisters Alice and Natalie were once close, but adolescence has wrenched them apart. Alice loves books and birds in equal measure whilst Natalie, the beautiful one, is sexy and manipulative, effortlessly captivating men. On their lakeside family holiday, Alice falls under the thrall of the enigmatic next-door-neighbour, a struggling young painter. Natalie seems strangely unmoved by the charismatic stranger in their midst. She tolerates the family sittings for the portrait Thomas is painting with a barely disguised distaste. But as the family portrait nears completion, the family dynamics shift irrevocably. And by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered. Four decades later, the only thing that remains of that fateful summer is a painting of the sisters. The artist is determined to take the secrets of the girls to the grave, but his close friend decides to use the painting to beat a path to the past before it closes the door on them all for good… A haunting, unforgettable debut about family, forbidden love and long-buried secrets.