Audiobooks narrated by John Sackville

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet Audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin. In this masterful work, one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today shares his wisdom on how to be the change we want to see in the world. In these troubling times we all yearn for a better world. But many of us feel powerless and uncertain what we can do. Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) is blazingly clear: there's one thing that we have the power to change-and which can make all the difference: our mind. How we see and think about things determines all the choices we make, the everyday actions we take (or avoid), how we relate to those we love (or oppose), and how we react in a crisis or when things don't go our way. Filled with powerful examples of engaged action he himself has undertaken, inspiring Buddhist parables, and accessible daily meditations, this powerful spiritual guide offers us a path forward, opening us to the possibilities of change and how we can contribute to the collective awakening and environmental revolution our fractured world so desperately needs. 'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time © Thich Nhat Hanh 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Thich Nhat Hanh (Author), John Sackville, True Dedication (Narrator)

Audiobook

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER TLS, OBSERVER, SUNDAY TIMES, FT, GUARDIAN, DAILY MAIL AND EVENING STANDARD BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, read by John Sackville. Includes a bonus PDF of graphs and diagrams. Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why its absence is so damaging to our health. Compared to the other basic drives in life - eating, drinking, and reproducing - the purpose of sleep remained elusive. Now, in this book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves in to everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence. 'Vital ... a life-raft' Guardian 'A top sleep scientist argues that sleep is more important for our health than diet or exercise' The Times 'It had a powerful effect on me' Observer 'I urge you all to read this book' Times Higher Education

Matthew Walker (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Why We Eat (Too Much): The New Science of Appetite

Brought to you by Penguin. Articulate, clear, a joy to read, this is a book that really needed written' Joanna Blythman, author of Swallow This 'Highly persuasive ... a radical approach to weight' Sunday Times A practical, accessible guide to understanding the diet myth and the secret to lasting weight loss. For over two decades, weight loss surgeon Dr Andrew Jenkinson has treated thousands of people who have become trapped in the endless cycle of dieting. Why We Eat (Too Much), combines case studies from his practice and the new science of metabolism to illuminate how our appetite really works. Debunking the great myths of the body, and systematically explaining why dieting is counter-productive, this unflinching book investigates every aspect of nutrition. From the difference between good and bad fats to the impact of genes and genetic mutation on our weight and what happens to our hormones long after a diet ends, Dr Jenkinson explores the fields of agriculture, pharma, anthropology and medicine to uncover the truth behind our bad food habits and the escalating obesity crisis. © Dr Andrew Jenkinson 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Andrew Jenkinson (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Us Against You: From The New York Times Bestselling Author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Us Against You by Fredik Backman, read by John Sackville. A small, broken town sits on the edge of a frozen lake surrounded by a forest, its wounds still raw from a tragedy that tore its fragile community in two. Beartown has lost its way. Now the cold and dark that surround the snowbound town creep in, and so do new conflicts and tensions. What was once a friendly rivalry with the neighbouring town is beginning to turn sinister and Beartown braces itself for another tragic blow. How far will the people of Beartown go to preserve their reputations for a second, deadly time? Us Against You is a spell-binding exposition of small-town life in all its flawed complexity.

Fredrik Backman (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Urban Jungle: Wilding the City, from the author of Metropolis

Brought to you by Penguin. Our modern-day cities might seem to represent our separation from the natural world. In fact, as Ben Wilson reveals in this captivating re-examination of urban landscapes around the world, nature has always been at the heart of the city. Wilson explores the wild side of cities, past, present and future: the middens, abandoned sites and strips of land alongside railway lines. For much of history, wild patches in cities provided essential food, fuel, medicine and places of recreation and escape for city-dwellers, and the dividing line between city and countryside was blurred. Even our post-industrial cities are much wilder places that we might imagine, with booming animal and plant populations, if we know where to look. In today's urbanised planet, natural forces - be they floods, storms, droughts or pandemics - look set to determine the future of our cities. In a time of climate crisis, cities that once built walls and towers to defend against attack; now they have to become greener to protect themselves from external threats. Our future - and that of the planet - will be made in the city. Only by looking deep in to the past, examining the present and casting an eye to the future can we really begin to understand the bountiful potential and wonder of our extraordinary urban ecosystems. © Ben Wilson 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Ben Wilson (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Upshift: Turning Pressure into Performance and Crisis into Creativity

From a leading international crisis management expert, a breakthrough book about performance under pressure that will change the way you think about stress When we experience too much stress, we often feel like shutting down and escaping the source: we ‘downshift’. With too little stress, we become apathetic and disengaged. But what happens in the middle zone – when we experience what psychologists call ‘positive stress’ – and how can we use it to overcome extraordinary barriers and perform at our peak? From his role as a globally recognised change-maker at the likes of the United Nations, the International Red Cross and the World Bank, Ben Ramalingam has a unique vantage point from which to identify the key principles that can enable anyone to use stress as an opportunity for change. We learn how a switch in mentality helps musicians dazzle huge crowds against all odds; how astronauts focus on originality to overcome life-threatening incidents; and how discovering a sense of purpose allows emergency health workers and aid experts to deal with unprecedented crises. Through a sweep of fascinating interviews, in-depth research and inspiring human stories, Upshift provides us with an everyday toolkit that can help to improve our work, relationships and mindset, and places us on the road to success. Taking readers on an epic journey from early humans’ survival of the Ice Age to how modern social movements emerge and propagate in the digital world, Upshift is a reminder that creative solutions to complex problems will always exist – as long as we’re ready to innovate.

Ben Ramalingam (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J. M. W. Turner

The life of one of Western art's most admired and misunderstood painters J.M.W. Turner is one of the most important figures in Western art, and his visionary work paved the way for a revolution in landscape painting. Over the course of his lifetime, Turner strove to liberate painting from an antiquated system of patronage. Bringing a new level of expression and color to his canvases, he paved the way for the modern artist. Turner was very much a man of his changing era. In his lifetime, he saw Britain ravaged by Napoleonic wars, revived by the Industrial Revolution, and embarked upon a new moment of Imperial glory with the ascendancy of Queen Victoria. His own life embodied astonishing transformation. Born the son of a barber in Covent Garden, he was buried amid pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral. Turner was accepted into the prestigious Royal Academy at the height of the French Revolution when a climate of fear dominated Britain. Unable to travel abroad he explored at home, reimagining the landscape to create some of the most iconic scenes of his country. But his work always had a profound human element. When a moment of peace allowed travel into Europe, Turner was one of the first artists to capture the beauty of the Alps, to revive Venice as a subject, and to follow in Byron’s footsteps through the Rhine country. While he was commercially successful for most of his career, Turner's personal life remained fraught. His mother suffered from mental illness and was committed to Bedlam. Turner never married but had several long-term mistresses and illegitimate daughters. His erotic drawings were numerous but were covered up by prurient Victorians after his death. Turner's late, impressionistic work was held up by his Victorian detractors as example of a creeping madness. Affection for the artist’s work soured. John Ruskin, the greatest of all 19th century art critics, did what he could to rescue Turner’s reputation, but Turner’s very last works confounded even his greatest defender. TURNER humanizes this surprising genius while placing him in his fascinating historical context. Franny Moyle brilliantly tells the story of the man to give us an astonishing portrait of the artist and a vivid evocation of Britain and Europe in flux. From the Hardcover edition.

Franny Moyle (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J. M. W. Turner

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Turner by Franny Moyle, read by John Sackville. The extraordinary life of J. M. W Turner, one of Britain's most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artists J. M. W. Turner is Britain's most famous landscape painter. Yet beyond his artistic achievements, little is known of the man himself and the events of his life: the tragic committal of his mother to a lunatic asylum, the personal sacrifices he made to effect his stratospheric rise, and the bizarre double life he chose to lead in the last years of his life. A near-mythical figure in his own lifetime, Franny Moyle tells the story of the man who was considered visionary at best and ludicrous at worst. A resolute adventurer, he found new ways of revealing Britain to the British, astounding his audience with his invention and intelligence. Set against the backdrop of the finest homes in Britain, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, this is an astonishing portrait of one of the most important figures in Western art and a vivid evocation of Britain and Europe in flux. Set against this spectacular and ultimately controversial career, Moyle also excavates the private Turner. Psychologically wounded as a child, by a family torn apart by death and mental illness, she suggests a man who could not embrace relationships fully until the very end of his life. Only then did he succumb to his love for the widowed Sophia Booth, concealing this all too human aspect of his life behind an assumed identity. She mines the poignancy of his final years, when, with his health ailing, Turner sought solace in a secret private life that had eluded him before and that he knew would scandalise the new generation of Victorians.

Franny Moyle (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Titanic Lives

Marking the centenary of the Titanic disaster, Titanic Lives is an utterly compelling exploration of the lives on board the most famous ship in history.On the night of 14 April 1912, midway through her maiden voyage, the seemingly unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg, sustaining a 300-feet gash as six compartments were wrenched open to the Atlantic Ocean. In little over two hours, the palatial liner nose-dived to the bottom of the sea. More than 1,500 people perished in the freezing waters. But who were they?In Titanic Lives, Richard Davenport-Hines brings to life in fascinating and absorbing detail the stories of the men who built and owned the ship, the crew who serviced her and the passengers of all classes who sailed on her. The Titanic was a floating microcosm of Edwardian society - at the bottom of the ship was third class, filled with economic migrants and political and religious refugees hoping for a better life in the New World. Above them were hundreds of second-class passengers buoyed up by their prosperous respectability. On the upper decks were the hereditary rich and those of inconceivable wealth - American titans of industry such as John Jacob Astor IV, who was found with $4000 in sodden notes in his pockets. In this epic, sweeping history we are introduced to this broad cast of characters, from every class and every continent, as we follow their lives on board the ship through to the supreme dramatic climax of the disaster itself.Published to coincide with the centenary of the sinking, Titanic Lives is an impeccably researched and utterly riveting history which re-creates the complexities, disparities and tensions of life one hundred years ago.

Richard Davenport-Hines (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources

Brought to you by Penguin. Meet the traders who supply the world with oil, metal and food - no matter how corrupt, war-torn or famine-stricken the source. 'This jaw-dropping study shows how much money and global influence is concentrated in the hands of a tiny group . . . As the authors roam from oilfield to wheatfield, they reveal information so staggering you almost gasp.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Fascinating and revealing . . . A gripping book.' ECONOMIST 'The definitive, eye-opening story of the most powerful and secretive traders in the world.' BRADLEY HOPE, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale The modern world is built on commodities - from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones. We rarely stop to consider where they come from. But we should. In The World for Sale, two leading journalists lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the economy: the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy, hoard and sell the earth's resources. It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets: enabling an enormous expansion in international trade, and connecting resource-rich countries - no matter how corrupt or war-torn - with the world's financial centres. And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power, right under the noses of Western regulators and politicians - helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil, fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring, and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin in spite of strict sanctions. The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy, as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works. A Financial Times Best Read of 2021. 'Blas and Farchy shine light on what's long been the financial markets' darkest corner - the crucial, yet underappreciated, role commodity traders play in global finance and geopolitics . . . The World For Sale is a fascinating, eye-opening read.' GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, author of The Man Who Solved the Market 'The World for Sale draws back the covers on a sector where civil wars, dubious regimes and the collapse of states have often been just another business opportunity . . . Intriguing and, at times, alarming.' HELEN THOMAS, Business Editor, BBC Newsnight 'Javier Blas and Jack Farchy should be awaiting the call from Hollywood. The World for Sale contains at least half a dozen narrative threads that would form the basis of a good thriller. But the authors' main achievement is to subject the biggest commodity players, and their impact on the real world, to proper critical scrutiny.' REUTERS 'A remarkable book . . . The colour is fantastic . . . Tracking down some of the biggest names in the business to their German castles and stud farms and persuading them to talk is a rare scoop.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Javier Blas and Jack Farchy deftly peel back the curtain on the amoral swashbucklers of capitalism who trade in commodities . . . The World for Sale is a gripping account of how they achieved their stranglehold over the world economy, and their troubling influence on global politics.' BRAD STONE, author of The Everything Store © Javier Blas, Jack Farchy 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Jack Farchy, Javier Blas (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

The World Before Us: How Science is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins

Brought to you by Penguin. 50,000 years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements - in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example - that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters. © Tom Higham 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Tom Higham (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Unfakeable Code®: Take Back Control, Lead Authentically and Live Freely on Your Terms

So magnificent, yet so out of control – Your true essence is hidden behind 'masks' created by transient personas that have hijacked your authentic, genuine, and unfakeable being. You are encouraged and taught to see reality as you are, but the problem with this is that you create a distorted view of actuality. Step forward a fresh new way to dissolving mental, emotional and physical blockages, and becoming unafraid to dive deeper into life's true nature and use it as a platform to unveil the true depths of our unfakeable being, its knowledge and infinite potential in order to achieve even our most ambitious goals in life and become the best, truest version of ourselves. 'The Unfakeable Code® is much more than a simple self-help guide. Within the Book, Selimi explains how perception is merely the tip of the iceberg in how we experience life and its nature. The author, Tony J. Selimi guides readers through a five-step method (many of the principles which Tony has used himself and with others) in order to dissolve the detrimental beliefs, energies, skewed perceptions and habits gathered through our experiences and gained passive knowledge, while simultaneously bestowing the knowledge of life's true secrets and 'how they operate [both] within us and [within] our environment' - a process that regularly occurs for each and every one of us, but mostly goes unseen due to the distraction, obstructions and noise in our lives. In this way, 'The Unfakeable Code®' is an exploration of the intricate network that ties our authentic self together within our environments, and how recognizing the delicate connections between these aspects can help anyone - no matter their past experiences - to grow and flourish in every key area of life.

Tony Jeton Selimi (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by John Sackville