Roger Davis has narrated 34 audiobooks on Listento.it by 33 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 99 ratings. The most-rated is Tank Action.
Tank Action
Summary
A gripping account of the Second World War, from the perspective of a young tank commander. In 1944, David Render was a 19-year-old second lieutenant fresh from Sandhurst when he was sent to France. Joining the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry five days after the D-Day landings, the combat-hardened men he was sent to command did not expect him to last long. However, in the following weeks of ferocious fighting in which more than 90 per cent of his fellow tank commanders became casualties, his ability to emerge unscathed from countless combat engagements earned him the nickname of the 'Inevitable Mr Render'. In Tank Action Render tells his remarkable story, spanning every major episode of the last year of the Second World War from the invasion of Normandy to the fall of Germany. Ultimately it is a story of survival, comradeship and the ability to stand up and be counted as a leader in combat. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.
©2019 Captain David Render and Stuart Tootal (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
Summary
A lively history seen through the 50 inventions that shaped it most profoundly, by the best-selling author of The Undercover Economist and Messy.
Who thought up paper money? What was the secret element that made the Gutenberg printing press possible? And what is the connection between The Da Vinci Code and the collapse of Lehman Brothers?
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
Invention by invention, Harford reflects on how we got here and where we might go next. He lays bare often unexpected connections: how the bar code undermined family corner stores and why the gramophone widened inequality. In the process, he introduces characters who developed some of these inventions, profited from them, and were ruined by them, as he traces the principles that helped explain their transformative effects. The result is a wise and witty book of history, economics, and biography.
©2017 Tim Harford (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Oversubscribed
Summary
Don't fight for customers; let them fight over you! Have you ever queued for a restaurant? Preordered something months in advance? Fought for tickets that sell out in a day? Had a hairdresser with a six-month waiting list? There are people who don't chase clients; clients chase them. In a world of endless choices, why does this happen? Why do people queue up? Why do they pay more? Why will they book months in advance? Why are these people and products in such high demand? And how can you get a slice of that action? In Oversubscribed, entrepreneur and best-selling author Daniel Priestley explains why and, most importantly, how. This book is a recipe for ensuring demand outstrips supply for your product or service, and you have scores of customers lining up to give you money. Oversubscribed shows leaders, marketers, and entrepreneurs how they can get customers queuing up to use their services and products while competitors are forced to fight for business; it explains how to become oversubscribed, even in a crowded marketplace; it is full of practical tips alongside inspiring examples to alter our mind-sets and get us bursting with ideas. It is written by a successful entrepreneur who's used these ideas to excel in the ventures he has launched.
©2015 Daniel Priestley (P)2015 Audible, Ltd
Sarum
Summary
The towering story of five families through 100 centuries of turmoil, tyranny, passion and prosperity from Edward Rutherfurd, the author of London, Russka and New York. In a novel of extraordinary richness the whole sweep of British civilisation unfolds through the story of one place, Salisbury, from beyond recorded time to the present day. The landscape - as old as time itself - shapes the destinies of the five families. The Wilsons and the Shockleys, locked in a cycle of revenge and rivalry for more than 400 years. The Masons, who pour their inspired love of stone into the creation of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. The Porters, descended from a young Roman soldier in exile. And the aristocratic Norman Godefrois, who will fall to the very bottom of the social ladder before their fortunes revive.
©2011 Edward Rutherford (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Elemental
Summary
Selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the Daily Mail. In 2016, with the addition of four final elements - nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson - to make a total of 118 elements, the periodic table was finally complete, rendering any pre-existing books on the subject obsolete. Tim James, the secondary-school science teacher we all wish we'd had, provides an accessible and wonderfully entertaining 'biography of chemistry' that uses stories to explain the positions and patterns of elements in the periodic table. Many popular science titles tend to tell the history of scientific developments, leaving the actual science largely unexplained; James, however, makes use of stories to explain the principles of chemistry within the table, showing its relevance to everyday life. Filled with humour, this is the perfect audiobook for students wanting to learn chemistry or for parents wanting to help, but it is also for anyone who wants to understand how our world works at a fundamental level. The periodic table, that abstract and seemingly jumbled graphic, holds (nearly) all the answers. As James puts it, elements are 'the building blocks nature uses for cosmic cookery; the purest substances making up everything from beetroot to bicycles.' Whether you're studying the periodic table for the first time or are simply interested in the fundamental building blocks of the universe - from the core of the sun to the networks in our brains - Elemental is the perfect guide.
©2018 Tim James (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK
Radical Uncertainty
Summary
In a changing world, forecasts and numbers usually represent bogus quantification. Kay and King tell us how to think smarter. Radical uncertainty changes the way we should think about decision-making. For over half a century economics has assumed that people behave rationally by optimizing among well-defined choices. Behavioral economics questioned how far people are rational, pointing to the cognitive biases that seem to describe actual behavior. Radical Uncertainty is a bold, paradigm-shifting book that takes us past standard and behavioral economics, completely shifting our understanding of the role economics can play in decision-making. We can never have the information required to optimize. But the failure to come to terms with this reality has led us to build our largest financial organizations, develop major policy decisions, and create business structures on shifting sands - the false belief that the numbers provided by economic models give us the answer. They don't. The best managers in the public and private sectors rely on narratives, not numbers.
©2020 John Kay; Mervyn King (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK
Malta Spitfire
Summary
25,000 feet above Malta - that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis and Reggianes as they swept eastwards in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath - the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed "Screwball," who in 14 flying days destroyed 27 German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing originally from Canada, after hard training and combat across the Channel, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day climbed to the top of the hill to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. The listener has almost the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill and heroism. A classic, first published in 1943.
©2011 Grub Street (P)2017 Grub Street
Agent Jack
Summary
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year - 2019 "An appealing mix of accessibility and research. [Hutton] has illuminated a fascinating and often appalling side of the war at home." (Wall Street Journal) The never-before-told story of Eric Roberts, who infiltrated a network of Nazi sympathizers in Great Britain in order to protect the country from the grips of fascism. June 1940: Europe has fallen to Adolf Hitler’s army, and Britain is his next target. Winston Churchill exhorts the country to resist the Nazis, and the nation seems to rally behind him. But in secret, some British citizens are plotting to hasten an invasion. Agent Jack tells the incredible true story of Eric Roberts, a seemingly inconsequential bank clerk who, in the guise of “Jack King”, helped uncover and neutralize the invisible threat of fascism on British shores. Gifted with an extraordinary ability to make people trust him, Eric Roberts penetrated the Communist Party and the British Union of Fascists before playing his greatest role for MI5: Hitler's man in London. Pretending to be an agent of the Gestapo, Roberts single-handedly built a network of hundreds of British Nazi sympathizers - factory workers, office clerks, shopkeepers - who shared their secrets with him. It was work so secret and so sensitive that it was kept out of the reports MI5 sent to Winston Churchill. In a gripping real-world thriller, Robert Hutton tells the fascinating story of an operation whose existence has only recently come to light with the opening of MI5’s World War II files. Drawing on these newly declassified documents and private family archives, Agent Jack shatters the comforting notion that Britain could never have succumbed to fascism and, consequently, that the world could never have fallen to Hitler. Agent Jack is the story of one man who loved his country so much that he risked everything to stand against a rising tide of hate.
©2019 Robert Hutton (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
The Silver Spitfire
Summary
A brilliantly vivid Second World War memoir by one of 'the Few' Spitfire fighter pilots. Following the D-Day landings, Battle of Britain hero Tom Neil was assigned as an RAF liaison to an American fighter squadron. As the Allies pushed east, Neil commandeered an abandoned Spitfire as his own personal aeroplane. Erasing any evidence of its provenance and stripping it down to bare metal, it became the RAF's only silver Spitfire. Alongside his US comrades, he took the silver Spitfire into battle until, with the war's end, he was forced to make a difficult decision. Faced with too many questions about the mysterious rogue fighter, he contemplated increasingly desperate measures to offload it, including bailing out mid-Channel. He eventually left the Spitfire at Worthy Down, never to be seen again. The Silver Spitfire is the firsthand, gripping story of Neil's heroic experience as an RAF fighter pilot and his reminiscences with his very own personal Spitfire.
©2019 Wg Cdr Tom Neil (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It
Summary
Can we map success? Successful people typically don't plan their success. Instead they develop a unique philosophy or attitude that works for them. They stumble across strategies that are shortcuts to success and latch onto them. Events hand them opportunities they could not have anticipated. Often their peers with equal or greater talent fail while they succeed. It is too easy to attribute success to inherent, unstoppable genius. Best-selling author and serial entrepreneur Richard Koch charts a map of success, identifying the nine key attitudes and strategies that can propel anyone to new heights of accomplishment. With this book, you can embark on a journey toward a new, unreasonably successful future.
©2020 Richard Koch (P)2020 Gildan Media
The Birdwatcher
Summary
Police Sergeant William South has a good reason to shy away from murder investigations: He is a murderer himself. Long-listed for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year A methodical, diligent, and exceptionally bright detective, South is an avid birdwatcher and trusted figure in his small town on the rugged Kentish coast. He also lives with the deeply buried secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man. When a fellow birdwatcher is found murdered in his remote home, South's world flips. The culprit seems to be a drifter from South's childhood. The victim was the only person connecting South to his early crime, and a troubled, vivacious new female sergeant has been relocated from London and assigned to work with South. As our hero investigates, he must work ever harder to keep his own connections to the victim and his past a secret. The Birdwatcher is British crime fiction at its finest: a stirring portrait of flawed, vulnerable investigators, a meticulously constructed mystery, and a primal story of fear, loyalty, and vengeance.
©2017 William Shaw (P)2017 Hachette Audio
A Brief History of Portugal
Summary
This is a comprehensive history of Portugal that covers the whole span, from the Stone Age to today. An introduction provides an understanding of geographical and climatic issues, before an examination of Portugal's prehistory and classical Portugal, from the Stone Age to the end of the the Roman era. Portugal's history from AD 420 to the 13th century takes in the Suevi, Visigoths and Moors. Then, a look at medieval Portugal, covers the development of Christian Portugal culminating with the expulsion of the Moors, with a focus on key sites. A subsequent section on Spanish rule, between 1580 and 1640, explains why Spain took over and why Spanish rule collapsed. There is a significant focus on Portugal's global role, particularly during the age of exploration, or expansion, in the 15th century to 1580: Manueline Portugal, Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama and Belém. Portugal was the first of the Atlantic empires, with territory in the Azores, Madeira, West Africa and Brazil, and it remained a major empire until the 1820s, retaining an African empire until the 1970s. Its empire in Asia - in Malacca, Macao, Goa and Timor - continued even longer, until the 1990s. Black shows how Portugal had a global impact, but the world, too, had an impact on Portugal. Baroque Portugal, between 1640 and 1800, is explored through palaces in Mafra, Pombal and elsewhere and the wealth of Brazil. The 19th century brought turmoil in the form of a French invasion, the Peninsular War, Brazilian independence, successive revolutions, economic issues and the end of the monarchy. Republican Portugal brought further chaos in the early years of the 20th century, then the dictatorship of Salazar and its end in the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Portugal's role in both world wars is examined, also its wars in Africa. From the overthrow of autocracy to a new constitution and the leadership of Soares, contemporary, democratic Portugal is explored, including the fiscal crisis of recent years. Throughout Black introduces the history and character of the country's principal regions, including the Azores, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands. He looks at key national sites, at Portuguese food and wine and the arts, with special sections devoted to port, Portugal's famous tiles and the university established at Coimbra in 1290.
©2020 Jeremy Black (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK
Aces Falling
Summary
How the age of the great WWI aces came to an end in the skies over the Western Front. At the beginning of 1918, the great aces seemed invincible. Flying above the battlefields of the Western Front, they cut a deadly swathe through the ranks of their enemies, as each side struggled to keep control of the air. Some were little more than boys when they started to fly, yet they were respected and feared as some of the deadliest killers in the sky. But as the press of fighting increased with the great offensives of 1918, nervous stress and physical exhaustion finally began to take their toll - and one by one the aces began to fall. This audiobook charts the rise and fall of the WWI aces in the context of the vast battles that were taking place in 1918. It shows the vital importance of reconnaissance, and how large formations of aircraft became the norm - bringing an end to the era of the old, heroic 'lone wolves'. As the First World War came to a close very few of the aces survived. This epic history of the final year of the air war is both a chronicle of the ways in which 1918 changed aerial combat forever, and a requiem for the pioneers of aerial combat who eventually became the victims of their own brilliant innovations. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
©2019 Peter Hart (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
Simplify
Summary
For the past 40 years, Richard Koch has wanted to uncover the simple, elemental, elegant and parsimonious principles that are needed to create great new businesses. To qualify, a principle must be so overwhelmingly powerful that anyone can reliably use it towards extraordinary results. Is there any principle that can tell you how to do that consistently and with a high chance of success? Working with venture capitalist Greg Lockwood, his coauthor on Superconnect, and supported by research from the elite firm of OC&C Strategy Consultants, Koch has the answer. The principle Koch and Lockwood have discovered behind extraordinarily successful businesses is simplifying. Some simplify on price - take Ryanair's budget flights, which still take you from A to B but so cheaply that nearly everyone can afford them, multiplying the size of their market - and some simplify on proposition, such as Apple's decision to cut down on the number of their product lines and focus on perfecting only a few devices. With case studies of famous companies in all different industries from finance to fast food, the authors show how anyone can analyse their business' potential to become a simplifier and which route they should take to maximise the impact.
©2017 Richard Koch, Greg Lockwood (P)2017 Little Brown Book Group
Riding in the Zone Rouge
Summary
The Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the First World War. It covered 2,000 kilometres and was raced in appalling conditions across the battlefields of the Western Front, otherwise known as the Zone Rouge. The race was so tough that only 21 riders finished, and it was never staged again. With one of the most demanding routes ever to feature in a bicycle race, and plagued by appalling weather conditions, the Circuit des Champs de Bataille was beyond gruelling, but today its extraordinary story is largely forgotten. Many of the riders came to the event straight from the army and had to ride 18-hour stages through sleet and snow across the battlefields on which they had fought, and lost friends and family, only a few months before. But in addition to the hellish conditions there were moments of high comedy, even farce. The rediscovered story of the Circuit des Champs de Bataille is an epic tale of human endurance, suffering and triumph over extreme adversity. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
©2019 Tom Isitt (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Bomber Boys
Summary
A gripping account of the everyday heroism of British bomber crews in 1943 - the year when Bomber Command believed it could win WWII by bombing alone. In 1943 the RAF began a bombing campaign against Germany, the likes of which had never before been seen. Over the next 12 months, tens of thousands of aircrews flew across the North Sea to drop their bombs on German cities. They were opposed not only by the full force of the Luftwaffe but by a nightmare of flak, treacherously icy conditions and constant mechanical malfunction. Most of these crews never finished their tour of operations but were either shot down and killed or taken prisoner by an increasingly hostile enemy. Kevin Wilson has interviewed hundreds of former airmen about what their lives were like in 1943: the stomach-churning tension of flying repeatedly over hostile territory, the terror at being shot down or captured and the peculiar mixture of guilt and pride at unleashing such devastation on Germany. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
©2019 Kevin Wilson (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660
Summary
From the death of Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485 to the execution of Charles I, after the Civil Wars of 1642-48, England was transformed by two Dynasties. Firstly the Tudors, who won the crown on the battlefield and changed both the nature of kingship but also the nation itself. England became a Protestant nation and began to establishment itself as a trading power; facing down impossible odds it defeated its enemies on land and sea. Yet after a century Elizabeth I died with no heir and the crown was passed to the Stuarts, who were keen to remould the kingdom in their own image. Leading Historian, Ronald Hutton brilliantly recreates the political landscape over this early modern period and shows how the modern nation was forged in these anxious, transformative years. Combining skilful pen portraits of the leading figures, culture, economics and accounts of everyday life, he reveals insights in this key era in our nation's story. This the second book in the four volume Brief History of Britain which brings together some of the leading historians to tell our nation’s story from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the present-day. Combining the latest research with accessible and entertaining story telling, it is the ideal introduction for students and general readers.
©2012 Ronald Hutton (P)2012 Audible Ltd
The Chief Financial Officer
Summary
From back-office accountant to front-line executive, the rapid rise of the chief financial officer is unrivalled by any other corporate role. With access to every facet of the business, CFOs now wield a level of influence matched only by chief executives. This book explains how CFOs earned their privileged position, and what the future may hold for them. It describes their ever-expanding role, and how they are transforming their departments to help them deal with it. With insights from current and former CFOs, it benefits from a firsthand perspective on finance leaders' aspirations and doubts. It is a useful reference for finance chiefs to learn from peers and benchmark their own performance; those looking to build a career in corporate finance; managers seeking to improve their relationship with the finance department; and service providers - banks, accountancies, and consulting firms - and anyone who wants to get on the good side of the keeper of the corporate chequebook.
©2014 Jason Karaian (P)2014 Audible Ltd
The Inquest
Summary
In the time of Vespasian, just after Rome has crushed the Jewish Revolt, Julius Varro, a Roman Questor (an investigating magistrate ) is commissioned to investigate the story that a Jew rose from the dead after being crucified in Jerusalem. Because the fast-growing Nazarene sect founded by the martyr's followers is becoming a threat to the stability of the region, there is much riding on debunking the story. Questor Varro has to deal with the evidence that goes back 40 years, with most witnesses long dead and the living ones lying to protect themselves. But he is intent on producing a report that will demolish the claims of these religious fanatics. His investigation stirs intrigue, religious passion, and violence, to say nothing of an attraction to a beautiful Jewish slave girl. Questor Varro's report methodically destroys the myth fueling the newborn Christian movement. But then an extraordinary event occurs that changes everything.
©2005 2005 by Stephen Dando-Collins, This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Open Cockpit
Summary
Thanks to a broken leg during flight school, Arthur Stanley Gould Lee gained valuable additional time flying trainers before he was posted to France during World War I. In November 1917, during low level bombing and strafing attacks, he was shot down three times by ground fire. He spent eight months at the front and accumulated 222 hours of flight time in Sopwith Pups and Camels during a staggering 118 patrols - being engaged in combat 56 times. He lived to retire from the RAF as an air vice-marshal in 1946. Author of three books, this is by far his best. Lee puts you in the cockpit in a riveting account of life as a fighter pilot at the front. At times humorous and dramatic, this thoughtful, enlightening, true account is a classic to be ranked with Winged Victory by W. V. Yeates, also published by Grub Street.
©2013 Grub Street Ltd (P)2015 Grub Street Ltd