Virgin Publishing

In September 2012, a Yougov poll conducted in Britain found that the person British workers would most like as their manager was Sir Richard Branson. With over 40 years in business, Richard Branson is an inspiring pioneer of humanitarian projects and an iconic business leader. In The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead, Richard shares and distils his secrets of leadership and success. Featuring anecdotes from his own business dealings, as well as his observations of many others who have inspired him — from politicians, business leaders, explorers, scientists and philanthropists — Richard reflects on the qualities he feels are essential for success in today's world. This is not a conventional book on leadership. There are no rules — but rather the secrets of leadership that he has learned along the way from his days at Virgin Records, to his recent work with The Elders. Whether you're at the beginning of your career, or head of a Fortune 500 company — this is your guide to being your own CEO (Chief Enabling Officer) and becoming a true leader — not just a boss.

Doing good can help improve your prospects, your profits, and your business; and it can change the world. We must change the way we do business . (Richard Branson). Can we bring more meaning to our lives and help change the world at the same time? In Screw Business as Usual, Richard Branson at his brilliant and motivating best, shares some fascinating and inspiring stories about the people who are already leading the way in transforming business into a force for good, for people and for the planet. Reflecting on some of his own experiences, and those of the Virgin Group, he also shares his new vision for the future and describes how businesses can help create a more prosperous world for everyone. It's time to turn capitalism upside down — to shift our values, to switch from a just profit focus to caring for people, communities and the world and to turn our work into something we both love and are proud of. It's time to Screw Business as Usual.

Looking for advice on setting up your own company, improving your career prospects, or developing your leadership skills? Why not ask Richard Branson? In Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You in Business School, Richard distils and shares the wisdom and experience that have made him one of the world's most recognised and respected entrepreneurs. From his 'Top 5 secrets of Business Success', to hard hitting discussions about the global financial crisis, this book brings together his best advice on all things business. It's business school, the Branson way.

An Aladdin's cave of criminal slang as spoken in the UK, America and Australia. If you're scratching or set tripping, if you're viper mad or coming heavy, if the ming are on the wing and you've no idea what any of this means, then you need Gangster Speak. From the shocking to the ridiculous, Gangster Speak contains over 2,500 linguistic gems: Ghosting — the practice of transferring a troublesome prisoner to another establishment during the night without warning. Hobbit — a prisoner who complies with or sucks up to the system. Put on armour — layer oneself with magazines to deflect knife wounds in a prison fight. Hooch — 'illicit liquor'. A Bernie — a victim who might be armed and prepared to use a weapon, after Bernard Goetz who killed a robber on the subway. Providing a useful guide to the nicknames of criminals, as well as fascinating word histories and multiple definitions for different uses of a word around the globe, with Gangster Speak you'll never be lost for words.

The global icon shares his secrets of success and exciting plans for the future. Throughout my life I have achieved many remarkable things. In Screw It, Let's Do It, I will share with you my ideas and the secrets of my success, but not simply because I hope they'll help you achieve your individual goals. Today we are increasingly aware of the effects of our actions on the environment, and I strongly believe that we each have a responsibility, as individuals and organisations, to do no harm. I will draw on Gaia Capitalism to explain why we need to take stock of how we may be damaging the environment, and why it is up to big companies like Virgin to lead the way in a more holistic approach to business. In Screw It, Let's Do It I'll be looking forwards to the future. A lot has changed since I founded Virgin in 1968, and I'll explain how I intend to take my business and my ideas to the next level and the new and exciting areas — such as launching Virgin Fuels — into which Virgin is currently moving. But I have also brought together all the important lessons, good advice and inspirational adages that have helped me along the road to success. Ironically, I have never been one to do things by the book, but I have been inspired and influenced by many remarkable people. I hope that you too might find a little inspiration between these pages.

As far back as stories go, pioneers have reached for the skies. In the last two hundred years, they have mastered the air and made the modern world possible. Today they are bringing outer space within our reach. They're inventors and toymakers, amateurs and adventurers, visionaries, dreamers and, yes, crackpots. Some have called them irresponsible, even dangerous. But Richard Branson has met many of them. He has worked with them, funded them, and flown with them. He admires them, and trusts them, and thinks they and their kind are our future. In this book Richard Branson looks at the history of flight through the stories and people who have inspired him throughout his life. In these pages you will find tales of miraculous rescues; of records made and broken; of surprising feats of endurance and survival, including some of his own adventures, as well as developments in the future of air (and space) travel. It is a story of pioneers, and of course it includes the world famous Montgolfiers and the Wright brothers, but he also wants to describe some of the lesser-known trailblazers. People like Tony Jannus, who in 1914 created the first scheduled commercial flight in the world, flying his passengers over the waters of Tampa Bay at an altitude of just fifty feet! The 'bird man' Leo Valentin, who in the 1950s jumped from 9,000 feet with wooden wings attached to his shoulders. And Branson's friend Steve Fossett, who dedicated his life to breaking records and having adventures. This is their story. It is also, in a small way, his own.

»Decision Points» is the extraordinary memoir of America's 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor's Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbour; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and, behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century. President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family. A groundbreaking new brand of memoir, «Decision Points» will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on one of the most consequential eras in American history — and the man at the centre of events.

Music historian and journalist Tim Riley's biography challenges many popular assumptions about Lennon's life, from his widely misunderstood 'Working Class Hero' origins to his epic romance with Yoko Ono. Riley also explores Lennon in all his contradictions: the misogynist turned peace activist, the moralist who loved to outrage and the 'bigger than Christ' LSD enthusiast who settled down to become a house-husband. A pre-eminent scholar of Beatles music, Riley has consulted some of the most important Beatles scholarship of the past two decades. In a field littered with untrustworthy memoirs, he has culled the most reliable information from hundreds of books, and tracked down even more insightful sources among Lennon's friends, enemies, confidantes, celebrity associates and business contacts. He also writes brilliantly about the music and about Lennon's artistic and creative processes. The Beatles have just enjoyed their most successful sales decade ever, and this book will be a great gift for the Beatles fan in your life or for anyone with an interest in this British music legend.

Can we bring more meaning to our lives and help change the world at the same time? Richard Branson, at his brilliant and motivating best, reveals how with his exciting new vision for the future. It is time to turn capitalism upside down — to shift our values, to switch from a profit focus to caring for people, communities and the planet. With inspiration for everyone, Screw Business As Usual shows how easy it is for both businesses and individuals to embark on a whole new way of doing things, solving major problems and turning our work into something we both love and are proud of.

There are companies that create waves and those that ride or are drowned by them. This is a ride on the Google wave, and the fullest account of how it formed and crashed into traditional media businesses. With unprecedented access to Google's founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Ken Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined. Auletta goes inside Google's closed-door meetings, introducing Google's notoriously private founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as those who work with — and against — them. In Googled, the reader discovers the 'secret sauce' of the company's success and why the worlds of 'new' and 'old' media often communicate as if residents of different planets. It may send chills down traditionalists' spines, but it's a crucial roadmap to the future of media business: the Google story may well be the canary in the coal mine. Googled is candid, objective and authoritative. Crucially, it's not just a history or reportage: it's ahead of the curve and unlike any other Google books, which tend to have been near-histories, somewhat starstruck, now out of date or which fail to look at the full synthesis of business and technology.

As far back as stories go, pioneers have reached for the skies. In the last two hundred years, they have mastered the air and made the modern world possible. Today they are bringing outer space within our reach. They're inventors and toymakers, amateurs and adventurers, visionaries, dreamers and, yes, crackpots. Some have called them irresponsible, even dangerous. But I have met many of them. I have worked with them, and funded them, and flown with them. I admire them, and trust them, and I think they and their kind are our future.

Googled is candid and authoritative — based on extensive research including in-house at Google HQ — and doesn't flinch from outlining the negatives related to the Google worldview, as well as charting the extraordinary vision and business acumen that brought us the phenomenon of the uber search engine. And crucially, it's not just a history or reportage: it's forward-looking. This book is ahead of the curve, unlike any Google books that have gone before — which tend to have been near-histories, somewhat starstruck, now out of date, or don't look at the full synthesis of business and technology. With unprecedented access to Google's founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined. It's already being hailed as the definitive work on Google. On one level Auletta uses Google as a stand-in for the digital revolution as a whole — and goes inside Google's closed-door meetings, introducing Google's notoriously private founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as those who work with — and against — them. Apart from the fullest account ever told of Google's rise, the reader discovers the 'secret sauce' of Google's success, and shows how and why the worlds of 'new' and 'old' media often communicate as if residents of different planets. It may send chills down traditionalists' spines, but it's a crucial roadmap to how media business may be done going forward. For the Google story may well be the canary in the coal mine.

Today — six years after it was created in a Harvard dorm room — over 500 million people use Facebook regularly, in just about every country on earth. That a company this powerful and influential was started as a lark by a couple of 19-year-olds makes it a fascinating and surprising tale. That one of them, the visionary Mark Zuckerberg, had the maturity, strategic smarts and luck to keep his company ahead of its rivals anchors the tale. With exclusive inside access to all the company's leaders David Kirkpatrick tells of the vision, the tenacity, the refusal to compromise, and the vision Zuckerberg has to remake the internet. Zuckerberg has consistently focused on growth and not on profit and has remained resolute that Facebook will transform how people communicate. By all evidence it is now succeeding — spectacularly — on a global level. A brilliant and fascinating cast of characters created Facebook and Kirkpatrick has interviewed all of them. Never before have Zuckerberg and his closest colleagues told what really happened as they built their dynamo while eating fast food, staying up all night, and thumbing their noses at how things are usually done.

City Girl was watching when all the boys thought they were masters of the universe. She was there when they blew their bonuses on Lamborghinis and lap dancers. She was fighting for survival as they sent the country into the worst slump since the Great Depression. City Girl was born when she arrived in London, and joined her first merchant bank in the boom days. She worked for old-school stockbrokers in the shadow of the Bank of England and competed against the bad-boy brokers of Canary Wharf. She worked with the super-rich hedge-fund managers in the sleek streets of Mayfair. She met, married and divorced her very own City Boy. She made and lost millions of pounds. She's seen it all, done it all and lived to tell the tale. Fresh from writing The London paper's City Girl column, our heroine gives us the inside track on life in the financial capital of the world. This is her story. She's here to tell us what went wrong — and why the girls are the only ones who can put it right. The trade mark City Girl is used under licence from NI Free Newspapers Limited.

This is the bestselling autobiography of iconic entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, featuring his take on his latest business ventures, personal achievements and intrepid adventures. You'll discover how Sir Richard is committed to building a better world through responsible, holistic business practices and ventures such as the Virgin Health Bank, which is contributing to regenerative medicine, Virgin Fuels, which has pledged GBP200 million to renewable energy projects, and his company's charitable arm, Virgin Unite. You'll also learn about how Sir Richard and his company are reaching for the stars in a new era of commercial space travel with Virgin Galactic. With insights into this very public figure's personal life as well as his business successes and the lessons he's learned along the way, this is an amazing memoir, motivational business guide and inspiring story that will capture your imagination.

The 'Monster of Florence', Italy's answer to Jack the Ripper, murdered seven couples in secluded areas outside of Florence over a period often years, from 1974 to 1985; he left behind mutilated corpses and a media frenzy. United in their fascination with these chilling, unsolved murders, bestselling thriller writer Douglas Preston and Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi decided to jointly investigate the case. In their quest to identify the killer, Preston and Spezi uncovered a murky world of accusations, suspicion, a corrupt police force and a killer always one step ahead.

»Gaunty's Best of British» is one man's cheerful look at what's right — and what's wrong — with his country, and a brilliantly entertaining guide to how Britain can be Great again. Jon Gaunt embarks on a tour of the best bits of this green and pleasant land, celebrating all things British. His forthright tribute is an aptly eclectic collection, covering everything from cricket, foxhunting and the FA Cup, to great inventions like the Spitfire, the Mini and the miniskirt, and our unofficial national cuisine of fish and chips washed down with a cup of tea or a pint of real ale. Whether you live in Coventry or Cambridge, Liverpool or London, now is the time to join Gaunty and start shouting about this fantastic country and what makes it so Great.

In 1991, the collapse of the USSR seemed to signal the death of the Russian football industry, as the money, the players and the fans left. But now the oligarchs who profited from the post-Soviet turmoil are supporting the nation's football clubs and their dreams of glory, resulting in unprecedented success. Along this journey into the heart of Russian football, Marc Bennetts meets the managers, oligarchs, players, pundits and fans that define the Russian Premier league, now the fastest-growing and most intriguing football league in the world. From Andrei Arshavin and the national team's adventures at Euro 2008 to the symbolism of a club from war-torn Chechnya lifting the Russian FA Cup, «Football Dynamo» uncovers shocking revelations about corruption, hooliganism and racism, but also the true beauty of the game and the country.

Stephen Colbert was «The Daily Show's» longest-running and most memorable correspondent. His right-wing, super-patriotic persona, his insight and general rightness led to «The Colbert Report», a half-hour TV platform for his views on the issues of the day and, more importantly, why everyone else's views are just plain wrong.»I Am America (And So Can You!)» features Stephen's most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on everything from The Family to Race and Immigration and provides the ultimate satirical guide to the glorious marvel that is American Life. He bravely takes on the forces aligned to destroy America — whether they be terrorists, environmentalists, or brand-name breakfast cereals — and tackles difficult issues like religion, sexuality, and nature ('I've never trusted the sea. What's it hiding under there?'). With hilarious illustrations and charts ('Things That Are Trying to Turn Me Gay', 'Sports to Ignore' and many more) and a complete transcript of Colbert's infamous speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, this is a brilliant read as well as a very clever commentary on America today.

Henry Chinaski, an outcast, a loner and a hopeless drunk, drifts around America from one dead-end job to another, from one woman to another and from one bottle to the next. Uncompromising, gritty, hilarious and confessional in turn, his downward spiral is peppered with black humour. «Factotum» follows Charles Bukowski's bestselling «Post Office», his highly autobiographical first novel. Bukowski's Beat Generation writing reflects his slum upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of low life urban America. He died in 1994 and is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinctive writers of the last fifty years. Neeli Cherkovski was a close friend of Bukowski and is the author of «Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski» (Random House, 1991).

Charles Bukowski’s brilliant, fantastical pastiche of a detective story. Packed with wit, invention and Bukowski’s trademark lowlife adventures, it is the final novel of one of the most enjoyable and influential cult writers of the last century. Nicky Belane, private detective and career alcoholic, is a troubled man. He is plagued not just by broads, booze, lack of cash and a raging ego, but also by the surreal jobs he’s been hired to do. Not only has been hired to track down French classical author Celine – who’s meant to be dead – but he’s also supposed to find the elusive Red Sparrow – which may or may not be real.

'Fear makes me a writer, fear and a lack of confidence'. Charles Bukowski chronicled the seedy underside of the city in which he spent most of his life, Los Angeles. His heroes were the panhandlers and hustlers, the drunks and the hookers, his beat the racetracks and strip joints and his inspiration a series of dead-end jobs in warehouses, offices and factories. It was in the evenings that he would put on a classical record, open a beer and begin to type...Brought up by a violent father, Bukowski suffered childhood beatings before developing horrific acne and withdrawing into a moody adolescence.Much of his young life epitomised the style of the Beat generation — riding Greyhound buses, bumming around and drinking himself into a stupor. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including the novels «Post Office», «Factotum», «Women and Pulp». His novels sold millions of copies worldwide in dozens of languages. In this definitive biography Barry Miles, celebrated author of «Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats», turns his attention to the exploits of this hard-drinking, belligerent wild man of literature.

»The Economic Naturalist» is back with a whole batch of intriguing new questions and answers, drawn from his «New York Times» columns, that reveal how we really behave when confronted with economic choices. Do tax cuts for business owners really stimulate employment? Why shouldn't we just leave everything to the market? And why do we all save so little? Discover the answers to these and many more questions. With his trademark plain-speaking wit and insight, Robert Frank shows through dozens of examples how our personal choices about everything from paying for food and housing to large-scale policy decisions about taxation and the regulation of markets all boil down to the same simple economic principles, often resulting in the same wasteful mistakes. He shows that while our desires may be boundless, the resources necessary to satisfy them remain limited and argues that choices are always best made pragmatically — by carefully weighing the costs and benefits of competing options. This is a fascinating, entertaining and revealing collection full of insights that have more bearing than ever on our bank balances and our personal happiness.

In the late 1960s, Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, set out to turn an ordinary book into a piece of pop art. He said that he wanted to create a 'bad' novel 'because doing something the wrong way always opens doors'. The result was this astonishing account of the famously influential group of artists, superstars, addicts and freaks who made up the world of Warhol's Factory. A: A Novel was created from audiotapes recorded in and around the Factory between August 1965 and May 1967 and transcribed verbatim, complete with typos and missing words. It begins with the fabulous Warhol superstar Ondine popping pills and follows its characters as they converse with inspired, speed-driven wit and cut swathes through the clubs, coffee shops, hospitals and whorehouses of 1960s Manhattan. This is a unique conceptual project — part novel, part artwork — and is the perfect literary manifestation of Andy Warhol's pop art sensibility.