The word 'tickbox' emerged recently as a cynical angle on official or corporate incompetence. They had 'ticked the box' - people said - but failed to act. It is increasingly used to describe this gap between official spin and reality.Yet, says David Boyle in this powerful expose of tickbox culture, that is just the tip of a vast tickbox iceberg. The only people who remain blind to this gap are those rich or powerful enough to run the world, and behind Tickbox lies an insidious phil...

Universal change is often the result of an individual’s lightbulb moment – an invention that triggers a ripple effect across countries, continents, or even out into space. Great Inventions in 30 Seconds looks at fifty of these groundbreaking innovations – great ideas that really did change the world. It covers a wide range, from early days (the wheel) through materials (the invention of steel, for example, or plastic) to communications (the alphabet, the printing press, the Worldw...

GET SH!T DONE was written for the leader who ends every week exhausted but somehow still feels behind. The one who's involved in everything, deciding everything, fixing everything - and watching the business move slower because of it, not faster. That's not a talent problem. That's a leadership problem.David Boyle has spent decades in business, automotive, management, and leadership, and what he's seen over and over is the same pattern: as companies grow, leaders get buried. The wo...

Never before have we attempted to measure as much as we do today. Why are we so obsessed with numbers? What can they really tell us?Too often we try to quantify what can’t actually be measured. We count people, but not individuals. We count exam results rather than intelligence, benefit claimants instead of poverty. The government has set itself 10,000 new targets. Politicians pack their speeches with skewed statistics: crime rates are either rising or falling depending on who is d...

Only our limited idea of money is keeping us poor. David Boyle introduces us to alternative cash and people who can conjure money – that is, spending power – out of nothing.Until recently, the growth of alternative cash had been the province of big business: phone cards, stamps, air miles and Tesco’s clubcard points all have purchasing power, yet are not cash as we know it. Now, locally created money systems like ‘time dollars’, ‘Womanshare’ and ‘Ithaca hours’ are being invented by...

Dotty finds herself in Browntown and saves the world with the help of a cow, a salmon and a small dog - a modern version of the Oz tale.

English culture is confused, muddled and often borrowed. The purpose of this book is to give the reader a complete grounding in the idiosyncrasies of the English and to pin down the absurdities and warmth of Englishness at its best.Featured in this book are such established English cultural behemoths as the Beatles, Big Ben and the Last Night of the Proms alongside less celebrated quirks such as meat pies and the working man’s have...

If you thought being middle-class meant your own home, something set aside for the kids and a comfortable retirement – think again.For the first time ever, today’s middle classes will struggle to enjoy the same privileges of security and comfort that their grandparents did. How did this situation come about? What can be done about it?In this beautifully shaped inquiry, David Boyle questions why the middle classes are diminishing and how their status, independence and values...

A Brexit thriller where Adrian Matison, junior Treasury mandarin, follows the clues left by his friend, murdered on the Pilgrim's Way and discovers a forgotten government agency, founded in Henry VIII's time, is behind the efforts to leave Europe.

On his way back from the crusades, one of England's most famous and romantic medieval kings was ship-wrecked and stranded near Venice. Trying to make his way home in disguise, he was arrested and imprisoned and effectively disappeared. He didn't return home for another fifteen months, and at enormous cost - a quarter of the entire wealth of England was paid to win his release.The extraordinary events surrounding Richard the Lionheart's disappearance provides the background to some ...

Abandoned in the Dark is a collection of unnerving stories which are grounded in reality, journeys that promise to keep you awake at night and get your heart pound- ing. "Abandoned in the Dark" and "Close Call," among other similar stories collected here, delve into our universal feeling of dread and will ruthlessly steal your breath away. "Behind the Curtain," a uniquely unsettling sexual tale ridden with disturbing undertones and unforgettable imagery, is certain to haunt parents in part...

The background to the strange collapse of rail services in Southern England and what it means for other services.