Rob Thompson

Clubland by Pete Brown is a captivating read that takes the reader on a journey through the evolution of the UK's club culture. The book is a testament to the creative and innovative spirit of the UK's club scene and how it has become a defining part of its cultural identity.

One of the strengths of this book is the author's ability to paint a vivid picture of the club scene, from its early days to its current state. Brown provides a comprehensive history of the UK's club culture, exploring the various genres, styles, and trends that have emerged over the years. The book is rich with anecdotes and personal stories, giving the reader a real sense of the atmosphere and energy of the clubs.

What I particularly appreciated about Clubland is the way Brown gives a voice to the people who have been a part of the club scene for decades. Through interviews and first-hand accounts, he captures the essence of what it means to be a part of this subculture, and the deep connection that many people feel to the music, the community, and the atmosphere of the clubs.

The book is well-researched and written, and I found myself fully engaged from start to finish. Whether you're a fan of club culture or simply interested in the evolution of popular music, Clubland is must-read. It's a comprehensive, insightful, and entertaining look at the UK's club scene, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in music, culture, and the history of nightlife.

Overall, Clubland is an excellent book that celebrates the UK's club culture and provides a fascinating look at how it has shaped the country's musical heritage. If you're looking for a well-written, engaging, and informative book about the evolution of the UK's club scene, look no further than Clubland by Pete Brown.

Thunderhead is an Indiana Jones style of thriller novel by American writers Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book showcases what Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child do so well. This is combining technology, mystery and the unexplained. The book is not part of their main story-line involving FBI Special Agent Pendergast. However, two of the characters in this book can be found in the Pendergast series of books.

It's a suspenseful story of discovery, greed, and beauty that sees anthropologist Nora Kelly finding a letter that was written sixteen years ago, but mysteriously sent to her only recently. The letter is written by her father, long believed dead. The letter states that he had found the lost city of gold, Quivira. Kelly organises an expedition into a harsh, remote corner of Utah's canyon country. The details of the expedition are exceptionally well drawn and the characters all contributing to the realistic atmosphere of life on the trail. A portion of the team learns that the city of Quivira held not gold, but micaceous, golden coloured pottery, and that it also was a centre for an Aztec death cult, which had enslaved the native Anasazi people. The Aztec rulers used black magic, aided by a powder of the fungus Coccidioides immitis which could kill by causing Coccidioidomycosis. Kelly's teammate, Sloane, attempts to kill Kelly to be the sole person who can claim the find, not suspecting what Kelly has learned about the fungal infection, and neither parties revealing until very late that they are being tracked by contemporary practitioners of the cult, who have enhanced their ability to stalk and fight with traditional hallucinogens such as psilocybin, mescaline, and datura.

Judging by the blend of detailed archaeology and the hint of the supernatural it's clear that have put in a lot of cultural and religious research. The attention paid to description of places ground the story in reality. And the discussions amongst the expedition team, explore the nature of archaeology as a destructive endeavour.

Interesting settings and landscapes with a wide ranging cast of characters who compliment or oppose each other to create dynamics to the story. Recommended if you enjoy thrilling and suspenseful adventures, with touches of horror thrown in for good measure. I look forward to working my way through the rest of their books.

“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”

If you're struggling with Shakespeare, SmartPass is a really worthwhile way to spend fifteen pounds.

One of the things that puts a lot of people off Shakespeare is his wonderful but difficult to understand use of the English language. In this comprehensive and useful narrated study guide the student can grasp not only the complexities of the language and its use but also the events and themes too. This actors don't make the play too complex and they also don't dumb it down too much either.

SmartPass provides clear and incisive explanations, critical analysis and commentaries of each scene. Any tricky meanings, references and words are discussed too. To get the most of out any Shakespeare play you can't go wrong with SmartPass. You'll end up with a much more thorough understanding of where the Bard was coming from.

I listened to this in conjunction with Chop Bard podcast. Between this and SmartPass you've got hours and hours of enjoyable, in depth explanations and discussions.

This fast paced adventure takes elements of early 1970s kung-fu chop chop action movies and merges them with the bloody violence of pulp novels. This is the first novel in a very lengthy series of books (more than 150 to date) and while it doesn't feature Remo's Yoda-like teacher Chuin all that much as I understand it he became a more prominent character in later novels. So this book focuses on Remo almost exclusively; who is as tough as nails, but still fairly likeable bloke. However, saying this he isn't the sharpest tool in the toolbox as while he's been trained in ‘Sinanju', the ‘sun source' of all martial arts and therefore has superhuman abilities at times he acts like an overgrown child.

For me, the most interesting part of the series is Sinanju; according to Chiun, other martial arts are all diluted imitations of Sinanju. He compares the other arts to rays of sunshine with Sinanju being the sun itself. Some of the specific teachings are worth repeating:

Let your opponent point to you the way to overcome him.The most dangerous man is he who does not appear dangerous.A man who cannot apologize is no man at all.Everything is a weapon in the hands of a man who knows.One cannot sew a silk purse from a sow's ear.One cannot fit the ocean into a brandy snifter.One cannot make a diamond out of river mud; be happy with a brick.

Overall a fun book: chewing gum for the brain.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
- William Shakespeare

If you're struggling with Shakespeare, SmartPass is a really worthwhile way to spend fifteen pounds.

One of the things that puts a lot of people off Shakespeare is his wonderful but difficult to understand use of the English language. In this comprehensive and useful narrated study guide the student can grasp not only the complexities of the language and its use but also the events and themes too. This actors don't make the play too complex and they also don't dumb it down too much either.

SmartPass provides clear and incisive explanations, critical analysis and commentaries of each scene. Any tricky meanings, references and words are discussed too. To get the most of out any Shakespeare play you can't go wrong with SmartPass. You'll end up with a much more thorough understanding of where the Bard was coming from.

I listened to this in conjunction with Chop Bard podcast. Between this and SmartPass you've got hours and hours of enjoyable, in depth explanations and discussions.

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger” (III, i, 1-6).”

This play celebrates one of history's most amazing military upsets. This was the English victory over the French at Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. We get a some small amounts of comic relief as the action progresses but there are no major sub-plots.

Saying that there is a reasonable amount of ambiguity in the play. This has led to diverse interpretations in performance. Laurence Olivier's 1944 film, made during the Second World War, emphasises the patriotic side. It ignores the fact that the enemy of the play, the French, were in fact allies in that conflict. Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film stresses the horrors of war. A 2003 Royal National Theatre production featured Henry as a modern war general, ridiculing the Iraq invasion.

The play is the final part of a teratology, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character. Henry was depicted in the Henry IV plays as a wild, undisciplined lad known as “Prince Harry” and by Falstaff as “Hal”. In Henry V, the young prince has become a mature man and embarks on a successful conquest of France.

In analysing it, I found it easier to divide it into four parts:

1. the events leading up to the war between the English and French forces,
2. preparations for battle,
3. the actual battles, and
4. the aftermath of the war.

And here are a few of the main themes that I noticed:

What is means to be a King

Henry V investigates the relationship between a monarch and his people. Henry takes on many roles as the play progresses. These include an absolute ruler, a merciful Christian, a warrior, a patriot, an optimist, and an eloquent orator. Perhaps the most important role Henry takes is that that of a vulnerable human? He imagines how it would feel to sleep the peaceful sleep of a common man, unburdened by kingly responsibility. This responsibility includes a decision to go to war. For me Henry based this on some dubious reasoning. He vindicates his decision to invade another country by some obscure genealogical interpretation.

Also, Henry's bloodthirsty speech at the siege of Harfleur, and his order to kill the French prisoners, is morally unjustifiable. He also rejects his friend Falstaff. He allows Bardolph, to be hung. Does he embody the four cardinal virtues of justice, fortitude, temperance, and prudence? Maybe not?

Modern readers such as myself tend not to view war as a glorious or heroic. We distrust our leaders, and condemn wars of aggression. In this context he appears to be a good leader but perhaps not an ideal king? The play suggests that the qualities that define a good king are not the same qualities that define a good person.

The Need and Nature of War

In Henry V, appearances shift time and again. The characters on stage struggle with falseness, for example is Henry a hero or a villain? The Chorus highlights that even the stage itself isn't what it seems, it is nothing but:

“the flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object”.

So, does Henry V glorify war? Or does it show the ugliness and inhumanity of war?

On the one hand the play seems to celebrate Henry's invasion of France and valorises military might. On the other it can be read as an anti-war portrayal.

The Chorus refers to the looked-for military triumphs of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in the fifth act. Henry V himself is sometimes seen as an ambivalent representation of the stage machiavel. He combines sincerity with a willingness to use deceit and force to meet his ends.

Warfare makes up the entire dramatic arc of Henry V but uses many (male only) perspectives to examine events. For examples, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry V and his advisors, army officers and common soldiers to name but a few. This allows the examination of several views on war. Henry also links religion to war too, using the argument that the war is just as it is Gods will. This is at odds to the perspective of the common man and ordinary soldier. Unconvinced by appeals to war's godliness intelligent and courageous men, such as Michael Williams, distrust his motives. It is often seen as a measure of Henry's integrity that he is able to tolerate Williams's type of dissent with magnanimity.

These perspectives from many social classes and nationalities paint a diverse portrait of England. Monarchy is critical, borders and geography are malleable, its is a multicultural melting pot. There is a fluid, functional way in which the characters react to cultural differences. These merge or rupture depending on the situation. And because of the continual movement of England's boundaries; national character and patriotism a common identity is everything.

Ironically, belief in the justness of war's does not equate to war's efficacy. Chorus reminds us that the effects of that victory were undone by the next generation.

Conclusion
Shakespeare's play has an uncanny ability to reflect the spirit of the times. The reader should not only see a production of the play but seek out and explore the play's contradictions. Enjoy deciding for yourself.

Twenty-five stories of fantasy and science fiction, in one low priced volume. Editor Philip Harbottle selected these from Wildside Press's Fantasy Adventure anthology series. This series consisted of both original stories and classic reprints by veteran British SF and fantasy writers. Well written fantastic, escapist fiction. Bigger-than-life heroes, pretty girls, exotic places, strange and mysterious villains all stalk these pages. For the price, this cannot be beaten. Great to dip into during a spare half hour. Included are:

* INTRODUCTION by Philip Harbottle
* THE CALL OF THE GRAVE by Brian Ball
* THE WARLORD OF KUL SATU by Brian Ball
* THE BROKEN SEQUENCE by Antonio Bellomi
* FINAL CONTACT by Sydney J. Bounds
* SUNSKIMMER by Sydney J. Bounds
* A TIME FOR CONTACT, by Sydney J. Bounds
* WRITER FOR HIRE by Sydney J. Bounds writing as David Somers
* THE TAPESTRY OF TIME by Eric Brown
* UNCERTAIN WORLD by Eric Brown
* I'LL KISS YOU GOODNIGHT by Frederick H. Christian
* ASSASSIN by Andrew Darlington
* PRISONER OF TIME by John Russell Fearn
* THE HOUSE ON THE MOORS, by John Glasby
* THE MARTIAN ENIGMA by John Glasby
* NIGHTFALL ON RONAN by John Glasby writing as A. J. Merak
* THE DRAINPIPE by Philip E. High
* THE GUNMAN by Philip E. High
* THE WISHING STONE by Philip E. High
* SOMETHING IN THE AIR by Gordon Landsborough
* THE DILETTANTES by E. C. Tubb
* EMERGENCY EXIT by E. C. Tubb
* THE GREATER IDEAL by E. C. Tubb
* YOU GO, by E. C. Tubb
* SEA CHANGE by Peter Oldale
* BRIDES FOR MARS by Eric C. Williams

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
- William Shakespeare

One of the things that puts a lot of people off Shakespeare is his wonderful but difficult to understand use of the English language. In this comprehensive and useful study guide the student can grasp not only the complexities of the language and its use but also the events and themes too. This study guide isn't too complex and it isn't too dumbed down either.

It provides clear and incisive explanations, critical analysis and commentaries of each scene. The book also has a glossary for any tricky meanings, references and words. To get the most of out any Shakespeare play you can't go wrong with York Notes. You'll end up with a much more thorough understanding of where the Bard was coming from.

You'll struggle to spend a five pounds in a more worthwhile way.

A fleeting peak into the life of a cryptic spy-masterThe subtitle of this fascinating biography proclaims that Maxwell Knight to the MI5's greatest spy-master. While this may or may not be the case, Knight - a leading light at MI5 between the 1930s and 1950s was incontrovertibly the strangest. Charismatic, funny and possessed of an instinctive talent for the arcane act of running spies, Knight was also an animal obsessive who in his 50s became a well known BBC natural history presenter. He shared his home with a reeking menagerie - with various exotic pets including a Himalayan monkey and a bear named Bessie. He had three marriages, but consummated none of them, probably because he was terrified of sex. And despite helping them break up Nazi spy rings during the War, he was himself an enthusiastic fascist who maintained such sympathies until at least the 1930s. Henry Hemming has done a superb job of peeling back the layers covering this most veiled of spies, even if he doesn't quite solved the conundrum posed by his subject.Knight's espionage career had unlikely origins. After a stint in as a dissolute jazz musician, he was recruited in his early 20s by a private intelligence agency, who set him the task of infiltrating the British Fascisti, the UK's first self-proclaimed fascist party. Knight rose quickly, becoming the party's director of intelligence and helping to recruit a young William Joyce (later the Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw). The fact that he sympathized with the views of those on whom he reported must have made his rise easier. In 1931, aged 31, he was recruited by MI5, and negotiated permission to run his section - M section from his flat, with his monkeys in attendance Hemming's thoughtful biography brings to life an endearing figure whose fame within MI5 lasted well into the Cold War.Actually, despite his reputation as a master spook, Knight's record was patchy. He was easily distracted by his hobbies, which also included writing pulp fiction and dabbling in the occult. And as section head at MI5 he failed, for instance, to expose the Cambridge spies recruited by the Soviets. While Hemming's biography is rich in sub-plot and cameo characters, its main character remains shadowy. Ironically, it is only in fiction that Knight today stands in plain sight. As one of the models for Ian Fleming's ‘M' and for Jack Brotherhood in [a:John le Carré 1411964 John le Carré https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234571122p2/1411964.jpg]'s [b:A Perfect Spy 19001 A Perfect Spy John le Carré https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348765215s/19001.jpg 2492347].

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger” (III, i, 1-6).

One of the things that puts a lot of people off Shakespeare is his wonderful but difficult to understand use of the English language. In this comprehensive and useful study guide the student can grasp not only the complexities of the language and its use but also the events and themes too. This study guide isn't too complex and it isn't too dumbed down either.

It provides clear and incisive explanations, critical analysis and commentaries of each scene. The book also has a glossary for any tricky meanings, references and words. To get the most of out any Shakespeare play you can't go wrong with York Notes. You'll end up with a much more thorough understanding of where the Bard was coming from.

Journey Into Space is a BBC Radio science fiction programme written by BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Each half-hour episode ends with a dramatic cliffhanger. This was a ploy to increase the audience's incentive to tune into the next episode.

The series is set in 1965, the year in which Chilton believed humans would first walk on the Moon. It was first broadcast in 1953–1954 .

Jet's father (Sir William Morgan) launches his A.24 rocket from the Rocket Research Station at Poker Flats. But something goes wrong, and the rocket heads towards Las Vegas, out of control. The rocket hits Las Vegas, killing at least 35 people. The result is the closure of the Poker Flats site.. Meanwhile, Jet joins Mitch in his Operation Luna project – a rocket to reach the Moon.Jet is the rocket's pilot, and he and Lemmy travel to Australia to meet Mitch at the secret Operation Luna base. On arrival, Mitch takes them to meet Smitty, the team's doctor. But he's dead!Doc Matthews replaces Smitty (who died from a coronary), and Lemmy is to be the radio operator. Mitch spots a plane flying around the launch site, suspects spies are active, and advances the launch date.The rocket "Luna" sets off for the Moon with Jet, Doc, Mitch and Lemmy aboard. The crew loses radio contact with Earth. Lemmy hears odd 'music' on the radio. Contact is resumed, and a tiny meteor hits Luna. While the ship does no sustain damage Lemmy hears the strange music again outside the ship and panics.Luna turns for the Moon landing, and Lemmy hears the 'music' again during the final approach. The crew narrate their first moonwalk by radio to Earth on October 22, 1965. While exploring a crater, Jet vanishes from sight.The crew experience strange things. Jet has visions of the past and the future. The music disturbs Lemmy again. Doc sees a strange dome over a crater, and writes an odd diary entry without realising. Their last week on the moon passes without incident, but as they prepare to leave for home, the ship completely loses all power.The crew are stuck on the Moon and unable to trace what has caused the power failure. A fortnight passes, with the air temperature rising in the absence of air-conditioning. The crew sees a UFO on the televiewer on the seventh day. They hear strange noises on the tenth. When they have just enough oxygen to reach home, power is restored to the ship. The UFO lands outside.Mitch is inquisitive and enters the UFO, where an alien intelligence posseses him. Luna takes off and orbits the Moon; on the far side, the crew encounter a fleet of UFOs, which pursues them.The UFOs accelerate Luna to an incredible speed, and the crew blacks out. On recovering, they find themselves out in deep space, with no sign of the Earth or Moon. In the distance, a planet is approaching.The crew land Luna on the planet and discover that it shares many of Earth's characteristics. For example, oxygen atmosphere, drinkable water, carbon-based vegetation and ice-caps at both the poles. After studying the stars one night, Jet deduces that they in fact are on Earth, but that they've travelled thousands of years through time. Jet discovers a prehistoric stone knife near Luna. This suggests that they've travelled back in time. But there is some confusion over this when the crew discover the tracks of a great tank-like machine near their ship. One morning, a UFO exactly like the one seen on the moon lands nearby, and a voice asks: "Hello Luna!" The crew talk with 'the voice'. They learn that the strange music they've been hearing is from a strange, omnipresent power that 'the voice' and his people use to drive their ships. 'The voice' warns them that they are in great danger, and persuades them to enter the UFO, which takes off. Eventually it lands again, in a city of domed buildings. They learn more about 'the voice' and his people. They are a peaceful, scientific race from the opposite side of the universe. They learnt to travel through time when their solar system was threatened by its expanding sun. The crew explore the city, and are disturbed by a close encounter with a sabre-toothed tiger. The creature does not attack them, but they now realise that they have travelled back through time instead of forward. They enter a domed building, walk down a long dark tunnel, and emerge in a huge underground city. They are invited into another building to meet 'the voice', but are terrified by what they find inside...'The voice' consoles the crew, who are embarrassed by their shock, and guides them to another dome where they have a meal and beds to sleep in. Next morning, 'the voice' tells the crew about the Earth's native 'forest creatures'. They are destructive and hostile animals, and promises to help the crew get back to their own time. While preparing Luna for take-off, the crew are horrified to realise that the 'forest creatures' are, in fact, prehistoric humans.'The voice' is not pleased to learn that the crew are descended from the 'forest creatures', but in the end agrees to help them as arranged. Luna takes off and is accelerated by the UFOs; the crew blacks out. They start to ponder on the nature of time. They become concerned about their shortage of fuel, and whether they will remember their adventures when they reach their own time.The crew return to the Moon in 1965, but with no memory of their adventure on prehistoric Earth. Their rations have been replaced by water and an unknown bread-like substance. Doc's diary contains a detailed account; and there's a prehistoric stone knife on board Luna.

A great slice of nostalgia. Dramatic music and hammy acting. Recommended if you like old school pulp sci-fi, with moralistic overtones.

Saint Overboard is a 1936 mystery novel by Leslie Charteris, one of a long series of novels featuring Charteris' creation Simon Templar, alias “The Saint”. It was originally published in magazines as The Pirate Saint; some paperback editions append the article The to the title (The Saint Overboard).

Simon Templar, alias The Saint, is enjoying a pleasure cruise along the French coast aboard his yacht, the Corsair when he is awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of gunfire and shouting from another vessel (the Falkenberg) anchored nearby.The source of the commotion is a group of men pursuing a young woman who is swimming frantically away from the other ship. Templar rescues the woman who, after some considerable hesitation, identifies herself as Loretta Page, a private detective who is investigating the mysterious disappearance of sunken treasure from the Atlantic. When she learns her rescuer is The Saint, she enlists his help in tracking down a group of modern-day pirates. These pirates, led by Kurt Vogel, are using newly developed bathyscape technology to reach the sea floor and scour recent shipwrecks for gold and other booty before officially sanctioned salvage operations arrive. And Vogel is not against committing cold-blooded murder to keep his operation going.Hampered by Loretta's detective firm superior, who harbors a deep distrust of Templar, as well as Simon's growing love for Loretta, The Saint sets out to stop Vogel's operation. In the process he reunites with some of his colleagues from previous adventures Roger Conway and Peter Quentin. Orace, Templar's longtime manservant, makes his first major appearance since the very first Saint novel, Meet - The Tiger!. And it is Orace who complicates Templar's mission when he accidentally kills one of Vogel's men, which leads to Vogel forcing Templar (on pain of Loretta's possible death) to take the dead man's place on a salvage operation in the Channel Islands.Today, Saint Overboard seems one of the most dated of all the Saint stories. It relies heavily for plot and atmosphere on a form of technology which has undergone great development in the past sixty years - diving equipment. In the late thirties, diving suits were cumbersome and expensive; neither the aqualung nor the wetsuit had been invented, and the diver relied on massive metal helmets connected to the surface by an all important air hose which could easily become entangled or cut. Diving was not, as it is today, something which could be undertaken as a leisure activity by any reasonably fit person after a short course of training; it was the province of specialists.Saint Overboard is probably the earliest mainstream thriller to use what was to become a fairly commonplace plot: a conflict between legitimate and criminal attempts to salvage treasure from a wreck, in this case from the strongroom of the Chalfont Castle, on the seabed near Guernsey. Simon Templar becomes involved when he rescues a pretty girl, an investigator for maritime insurers Ingerbecks. There is a strong romantic element in the novel, as indeed there was in the previous one in the series (The Saint In New York); no mention is made of Simon's long time companion Patricia Holm. In The Saint in New York, romance plays an important part in the plot, but here it is more of an encumbrance, and it is not the sort of writing which suited Charteris.

A fun if somewhat predictable thriller.

A robot cop arrives at a small police department on Mars. The police force only possesses one legitimate officer, the protagonist. The mechanical officer of the law is assigned menial tasks while the local gangsters pay off the Chief of Police. All this changes when the robot to see some action.

While, the robot isn't a RoboCop sort of character this isn't a bad thing. This entertaining short story gallops along at a fair pace. The characters are colourful and the narrative is humorous. Easy to read, perhaps during your lunch hour or morning commute.

Recommended!

About the book: If you feel trapped in your job or long for more fulfilling work, you're not alone. How to Find Fulfilling Work explores the core components of what makes work meaningful and full of purpose, detailing exactly which steps you need to take to find work that brings out the best in you and keeps you truly happy.

About the author: The Observer named author Roman Krznaric one of Britain's leading popular philosophers. He teaches at The School of Life, of which he's a founding member, and is a counselor to organizations such as Oxfam and the United Nations. His other works include Empathy and The Wonder Box.

My highlights:
We're dissatisfied when our expectations about work aren't met. The dissatisfaction we feel at work often stems from the fact that our expectations are higher than ever before.
Either lower your expectations (supporters of this approach say that work has always been tedious and never a joy, and that therefore we should lower our expectations and look for fulfillment outside of work) or you can join those who think finding fulfilling work is possible, if perhaps challenging.The latter approach encourages you to pursue your dreams, instead of regretting that you never tried to free yourself from the shackles of your unfulfilling job.
In today's world, there is an overwhelming number of job choices. we're haunted by the possibility that our choice was the wrong one.
We're haunted by the possibility that our choice was the wrong one.
We're haunted by the possibility that our choice was the wrong one.
It's not easy to leave the career path we're already on – but if it isn't fulfilling, make a change! we feel bound by our educational past.
If you want to make a career change, you have to change your mindset and overcome this psychological hurdle. Think of it as a decision between two types of regret: you'll either regret that you abandoned the career you invested so much time and energy in, or you'll regret that you never had the guts to quit and set out in pursuit of a more fulfilling future.Perhaps this will help you choose: psychological research has shown that the regret of not taking action on things that are really important to you is one of the most corrosive emotions you can experience.
Money and status aren't as fulfilling as we think. there is no clear relationship between happiness and monetary wealth. While evidence shows that money contributes to your well-being up to a certain point – the meeting of your basic needs – it gives but little satisfaction once you earn beyond this point. This is due to a psychological mechanism called the “hedonic treadmill”
Making a difference gives you a sense of meaning, though it's not easy to combine with enterprise. There are different core elements that make up fulfilling work. One of these elements is the sense that your work has meaning. That is, your work imparts a feeling of contributing to the world in a positive way.
Following your passions and finding your flow experiences will make you happy. to find out what you're passionate about, set aside some time to mull over what gives you a flow experience.Flow is a state of total focus and concentration where you're so absorbed in your activity that you forget about everything else. Engaging in what you love is usually accompanied by this feeling.
The flow experience is crucial to happiness in life and work because it gives us a gratifying sense of being able to fully access our potential.
Observe yourself and your flow experiences by keeping a flow diary.
If you want fulfilling work, you should seek freedom. A core element proven to be part of job satisfaction is to have a “span of autonomy,” that is, some time where you're at liberty to make your own decisions. The more freedom you experience, the happier you'll be.
Find freedom outside the office by working less.
To find fulfilling work, you should abandon meticulous planning and test it out. A far more effective approach is adopting the mantra “act first, and reflect later” – meaning it's better to try out several jobs than to fritter away the hours in search of the perfect position in print or online. Recent research has shown that substantial change is best seen by “experiential learning.”
A less radical approach is the “temporary assignment.”
Take your time: vocation can't be found overnight – it slowly grows within you. vocation is something that gives purpose to your work in its entirety. It's a broader goal that you are pursuing, the thing that gets you out of bed every day.
The perfect vocation; instead, it germinates within you, slowly growing as your sustained work nurtures it.
It really does pay, then, not to demand that your vocation be revealed to you immediately. Instead, allow it to form through your experience.
Final summary good pay and social status are no longer good enough. We want our work to be purposeful, meaningful and rich with freedom and flow. In order to find exactly that, we must abort meticulous planning, try things out, take some risks and learn from our experiences.

Leon Vardis' is out for revenge. After his mother is burnt as a witch on the primitive planet of Rhome he wreaks vengeance on the peasants responsible. Next, are the contemptuous sophisticates who rescued him from certain death. They toyed with him for their own amusement and then, uncaring, cast him aside on the metropolitan planet of Joslen.

But first his apprenticeship - as peasant farmer on Pharos, as space mercenary on more planets then you'd care to name. Then independence, as a stellar trader. And at last an opportunity to act as Fate, slowly, and with ironically sophisticated enjoyment, For in the hypnotic jewels of far Shergol lay the seeds of a truly cosmic vengeance.

The story is well-paced, episodic and full of action but bleak. This isn't a Dumarest novel. At least Dumarest had principles and values which precluded being cruel. Leon becomes more ruthless as the novel progresses, and in some ways this is a tale of someone corrupted by violence. Recommended as one of Tubb's best.

Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also created the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. The script editor was Chris Boucher. The main character, at least initially, was Roj Blake, played by Gareth Thomas. The series was inspired by various fictional media, including Robin Hood, Star Trek, Passage to Marseille, The Dirty Dozen, Brave New World and classic Western stories, as well as real-world political conflicts in South America and Israel.

Blake's 7 was popular from its first broadcast, watched by approximately 10 million in the UK and shown in 25 other countries. Although many tropes of space opera are present, such as spaceships, robots, galactic empires and aliens, its budget was inadequate for its interstellar theme.

In this audio drama, an alien fleet stands poised to invade Federation space. The only vessel available to hold it back is the Liberator, commanded by Roj Blake and his crew. As an intergalactic war breaks out, old enemies become allies, and friends will become separated. And Blake will be forced to leave behind all that matters to him...

The story here fills in the action after season two's epic finale “Star One”. With a deadly alien fleet poised to unleash destruction across the Federation, the only thing standing in its way is the Liberator, but the crew has plenty of other problems on their hands – including an attack from alien limpet-mines, and the dangerous attentions of Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce).

Warship captures the correct mix of edgy characterisation and charmingly dated sci-fi, fitting seamlessly with the style of the original series while also giving the cast plenty to do. Paul Darrow once again steals the show as the brainy and amoral Avon, but while this is certainly a must-buy for fans, it's also extremely talky, and the multi-stranded story struggles to cohere at times. There's an unavoidable sense of “joining the narrative dots” to Warship , but despite its flaws there's still plenty of nostalgic, old-fashioned SF entertainment to be found here.

To his credit, Anghelides doesn't just provide a filler between seasons. While it is a logical sequel or companion to second series finale Star One, he introduces enough new, fresh elements into the narrative to make it engaging and exciting while still keeping the writing tight. Warship has all the hallmarks of a studiobound B7 episode (the major setpiece being the Liberator itself), with the action played out mainly between the core characters. Anghelides, though, doesn't shy away from giving the story a celestial, expansive feel and his climax is of such Hollywood blockbuster-style proportions that it would have been well beyond the scope of a TV episode. (Well, the climax could – and probably would - have been attempted on TV but the result would have been decidedly shaky on a 1970s budget!

Fans of all the characters won't be disappointed – there are great scenes for each of them, with some classic Blake/Avon and Avon/Vila moments. Alastair Lock steps into Peter Tuddenham's shoes for both Zen and Orac and there's an important, if not huge, role for Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan, giving one final stand-off between her and Blake.

The accompanying documentary is also interesting, particularly as it gives some of the history of the Big Finish work on the franchise, and it's good to hear the actors' views on the revival of their characters after so long. Let's hope that we can have some more of these full-cast stories soon.

Dumarest of Terra is a 33-volume series of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth. Dumarest is a galactic adventurer, sometime bodyguard, mercenary, gladiator, prospector, hunter, gambler and starship jack of all trades. Dumarest, as he is most often referred to in the books, is on a quest to return to the lost planet of his birth amongst the diverse and disparate worlds of the milky way galaxy. His home planet is Earth. In all of the books the notion of there being a planet called Earth is laughable to most of the people he meets, and for those who have heard the name, it is only as a myth from the deep past

The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.

It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.

Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.

In this book Dumarest is on the planet Toy. On Toy is the most powerful computer in the galaxy, and Dumarest hopes it will know the location of Earth.

Toy isn't just home to the computer. There is also a huge arena there, and before long Dumarest is fighting for his life therein this arena. Unfortunately, this is a common location for Earl. He seems to spend most of the 33 Dumarest books there. He realises Toy is a place that gives away nothing for free. Before Dumarest can gain the information he needs, he must take part in the Toy Games - must fight like a tin soldier in a vast nursery.

And there is nothing playful about the Games on Toy. The pain is real enough; the wounds, the blood - and death.

This is a slightly average entry in the series. Readable and fast paced as usual.

Dumarest of Terra is a 33-volume series of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth. Production of a television version of the series is set to begin in 2018.

The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.

It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.

Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.

In Kalin, Earl Dumarest manages to forget the lost of his first love Derai when he meets a troubled woman named Kalin, who has the ability to see into the future. Lost in a life bubble after surviving a botched hijacking attempt that destroys the ship they were travelling on, Dumarest and Kalin are rescued by a slaver. Though Dumarest has enough money to keep them from being sold on the auction block, they instead find themselves dropped on the planet Chron; a miserable mining planet where the mines run on slave labour and there is no other way to earn a living. Dumarest must find a way to keep both himself and his new love alive while finding a way off the planet. Meanwhile, on another planet, the Cyclan sends one of their order to offer his services to a local noble, despite the fact that their world is too poor to afford their services. What is it that they seek there?

The fourth book in the Dumarest Saga, this is where the series settles down into the pattern it will maintain from now on.

“No Sleep Till Saltburn”, by author, broadcaster and commercial voice artist [a:Mark Gregory 37774 Susanna Gregory https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1316288895p2/37774.jpg] examines the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene of the early to mid-1980s in and around my neck of the woods, the North East of England. His excellent book chronicles his adventures as a fan, a fanzine magazine publisher, concert promoter, band manager and milk man. This was an era when I had long messy hair, ripped skin-tight jeans, denim and bikers jackets with obscure band patches and an even more obscure band t-shirts. I was there when Metallica played Newcastle Mayfair 1986, with Cliff Burton (see my photos of that gig here and a bootleg here) on bass but even at that point Metallica had been around for a few years as they themselves had been influenced by the likes of Diamond Head and Raven (who recorded some seminal albums at Neat Records in my home town of Wallsend). So, Mark's book helped me to conceptualize the first several years of the metal scene in region, the years where I was just a little too young to go to gigs, drink beer, jump around the place and miss my last bus home.Mark has a real love of the subject and this shines through in his writing  which is full of depreciating humour. Easy to read and therefore enjoy I devoured this book in one day. This is a must read for all heavy metal and rock fans and having briefly met Mark at gigs he comes across as a really nice guy; here's hoping Mark writes a follow-up book! Check out the official Facebook page for more information and read a great interview with the man himself!Visit Marks Blog

Omid was born in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself. The first significant success of his stand-up comedy career was at 1995's Edinburgh Fringe. This was in “Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son”. He followed this with “The Arab and the Jew” in 1996. Djalili has also appeared in many films, most notably Gladiator. Others include The Mummy, The World Is Not Enough, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Sex and the City 2.

With such a varied background, you would expect his autobiography to be full of hilarious anecdotes. And it is! His book covers his birth through to the awful TV show, Splash! If you've ever seen Omid you'll notice he tends to keep intimate life stories out of his stand-up. And the opposite is true in this book: he keeps most of his comedy out of his life story. Saying that, Omid does have a skill of pulling together various tales and details, that are at first unrelated. However, these ultimately come together and to form an inspiring message. This is persistence and being a nice guy, in the long run, pays off.

If you've ever seen Omid you'll notice he tends to keep intimate life stories out of his stand-up. And the opposite is true in this book: he keeps most of his comedy out of his life story.

An entertaining read which I recommend.

The abridged version is available from the BBC here

Dumarest of Terra is a 33-volume series of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth. Production of a television version of the series is set to begin in 2018.

The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.

It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.

Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.

In Zenya, the eleventh in the Dumarest series, it sees Dumarest on the planet Paiyar. There he meets a lady named Zenya. And fall into the schemes of her grandfather. One of the ruling elite of the planet. Who needs Dumarest to lead an army for him.

This is one of the weaker novels in the series. Several of the charcters aren't all that interesting in this somewhat convoluted plot, which take a while to kick in. It would have been better if Tubb focused on developing the Dumarest-Lisa-Zenya love triangle.

But Tubb keeps a few surprises back for the very end. A little underwhelming, bit readable nonetheless.

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger” (III, i, 1-6).

One of the things that puts a lot of people off Shakespeare is his wonderful but difficult to understand use of the English language. In this comprehensive and useful study guide the student can grasp not only the complexities of the language and its use but also the events and themes too. This study guide isn't too complex and it isn't too dumbed down either.

It provides clear and incisive explanations, critical analysis and commentaries of each scene. To get the most of out any Shakespeare play you can't go wrong with SmartPass. You'll end up with a much more thorough understanding of where the Bard was coming from.

Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image, hellraiser lifestyle, and “tough guy” roles. Notable films include The Trap (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner Oliver! (1968), Women in Love (1969), Hannibal Brooks (1969), The Devils (1971), portraying Athos in The Three Musketeers (1973), Tommy (1975), Lion of the Desert (1981), Castaway (1986), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and Funny Bones (1995).



At the peak of his career, in 1971, British exhibitors voted Reed 5th most popular star at the box office. An alcoholic, Reed's issues with drink were well publicised. He had the dubious distinction to be described by Bette Davis as:

‘possibly one of the most loathsome human beings I have ever had the misfortune of meeting'

Sellers has written several books on celebrities, but this is his most enjoyable. He has interviewed Reed's family and ex-wives/girlfriends to get behind the image he produced for the public. The book contains numerous anecdotes exist, such as Reed and 36 friends of his drinking in one evening: 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of scotch, 17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine, and a bottle of Babycham. He subsequently revised the story, claiming he drank 106 pints of beer on a two-day binge before marrying Josephine Burge:

‘The event that was reported actually took place during an arm-wrestling competition in Guernsey about 15 years ago, it was highly exaggerated.'

Steve McQueen told the story that in 1973 he flew to the UK to discuss a film project with Reed and suggested the two men visit a London nightclub. They ended up on a marathon pub crawl during which Reed got so drunk he vomited on McQueen.

Reed became a close friend and drinking partner of The Who's drummer Keith Moon in 1974 while working together on the film version of Tommy. With their reckless lifestyles Reed and Moon had much in common, and both cited the hard drinking actor Robert Newton as a role model. Christopher Lee, a friend and colleague of Reed, commented on his alcoholism in 2014:

‘when he started, after [drink] number eight, he became a complete monster. It was awful to see.'

All in all an enjoyable read about a great of British cinema, Oliver Reed. Simultaneously a gentleman, an alcoholic, an eccentric, a bully, a misogynist, and an underrated actor. A man who found it impossible to control his inner demons. What is interesting are the comments made by people who were saying how much they adored and admired Ollie when he was sober. It's sad to think of how much more he could have made of life and relationships if he didn't hide his true nature behind drink. Should the reader be amused by his sometimes violent ‘pranks'. I'm not so sure.

The book is fairly repetitive and reminded me of White Line Fever in some ways. A monotonous cycle: Ollie made a movie, done a bunch of crazy stuff while intoxicated, then made another movie. In between his drinking spiralled out of control, the people around him suffered, and his health declined. Perhaps we could have got more depth from his family, friends and acquaintances? If you know little of Ollie you'll be shocked, appalled and bored by his tiresome behaviour without the depth of insight this biography needed to balance it.

However, even after years of abuse for playing Antonius Proximo, an old, gruff gladiator trainer in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) in what was his final film, Reed was posthumously nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

He was perhaps the last hellraiser of his generation and they don't make them like Ollie anymore. And maybe that isn't such a bad thing?

RIP, Ollie.

A brutally honest insight into highs and lows of being in a band

Scott Ian is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist, backing and additional lead vocalist, and the only remaining founding member of the thrash metal band Anthrax. He also writes the lyrics on all their albums. Ian is also the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death (SOD).

Born Scott Ian Rosenfeld in 1963 (name has since been legally changed) to a Jewish family in the Bayside section of the New York City borough of Queens, he has a younger brother named Jason (who was involved briefly with Anthrax) and a half-brother named Sean. Scott attended Bayside High School, with classmates (and future Anthrax bandmates) Dan Lilker and Neil Turbin of the graduating class of 1981.

Witnessing Kiss live at Madison Square Garden in 1977 made a huge impact on Ian, who has been vocal about his love for the band. Ian went on to be influenced by British heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Judas Priest, as well as the punk rock band, the Ramones as an influence. Ian then discovered at the age of 12 that he knew he could become a famous hard rock/heavy metal star. The musical style of his playing and songwriting including fast alternate picking was also largely influenced by the German metal band Accept.

Personally, I've always found Anthrax to be a fairly run of the mill thrash band. A band who showed some promise in the 1980s but then fizzled out as time went on. However, they have managed to string early wins along to the present day. And there is no doubt whatsoever that this has been due to the incredible drive and commitment of Scott. This has allowed Anthrax to continue standing some 36 years later as a respected and active originator of one of heavy metal's most important sub-genres.

I did think that this autobiography wouldn't be up to much. After all, there have been more successful bands in the thrash genre. I couldn't have been more wrong. It not only details the story of how Anthrax came to be and survived for all this time, which is an interesting and inspiring read in itself, but more importantly, it takes us through every conceivable aspect of Scott Ian's life outside of Anthrax as well. Scoot is brutally honest about people, places, and events. Scott also reflects on his decisions, in a very self-critical way. He's not beyond saying that he was wrong. He recognises his mistakes and take responsibility for them.

This all makes for a great autobiography as opposed to the one recently published by Bruce Dickinson. Bruce's read more of a list of activities he liked to do and was passionate about, kind of like an extended interview. This is where Scott's autobiography wins hands down over Bruce's and as such I really liked this book.

We get to hear about his musical projects outside of Anthrax, such as the aforementioned S.O.D. and The Damned Things. We are also told about his dysfunctional home life, abusive childhood, his previous marriages, alcohol binges (not many drugs), affairs, and what he was paid for album deals. It reveals that nothing happens in isolation, how his musical career affected his personal life, and vise-versa. Its amazing just how thin the line between triumph and failure is, not just in the world of music, but in life in general.

In some respects though, Scott is just too honest. What with two failed marriages and his personal relationships in between, the reader is treated to a blow by blow exposition of his love life. At times I thought that this was a little too much of a distraction from the musical aspects of the book. But this is a minor quibble.

Well-written, humorous, moving and downright crazy in places you don't have to be a fan of heavy metal to enjoy this book. “I'm The Man” is a solid four-star effort from Scott Ian. Keep on thrashing, guys!