Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians, journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. Most of it is commonsense, and by using a few really simple principles one can quickly see when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks which can waste millions of pounds.
Time has always been the great Given, a fact of existence which cannot be denied or wished away; but the character of lived time is changing dramatically. This book offers a look at life's ineffable element, spanning fields from biology and culture to psychoanalysis and neuroscience.
In November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station attended by the world's media. Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina are considered two of the greatest novels ever written. This book offers a fresh perspective on his extraordinary life and times.
Michel is ten years old, living in Pointe Noire, Congo, in the 1970s. His mother sells peanuts at the market, his father works at the Victory Palace Hotel, and brings home books left behind by the white guests. Planes cross the sky overhead, and Michel and his friend Lounes dream about the countries where they'll land.
A savagely ironic portrait of a couple's failing marriage set in early 90s Europe, offering fierce and timeless reflections on love, identity and desire.
Denis Hillier is an aging British agent on his last assignment. His old school friend Roper defected to the USSR long ago, to become one of the evil empire's great scientific minds. Hillier must persuade, or force, Roper to come back to England or risk losing his retirement fund. However, he hadn't foreseen the obstacles between him and his mark.