New Releases by Ian Macdonald

''The masterpiece The Beatles deserved'' Vox ''The finest piece of Fabs scholarship ever published'' MOJO

The Work of Management demonstrates how the concepts, models and tools of Systems Leadership can be applied, enabling you to become a more effective manager by improving your own work to create a more positive and effective organisation. Positive organisations, where people come together to achieve a productive and personally satisfying purpose, and which provide the basis for a good society, do not occur by chance. They are created by the work of leaders and members who are dependent upon the way the organisation is designed and operates – its structure and systems. While the theory is explained, this book primarily presents the practical aspects – the specific values, methods and tools – that can be used to improve work and the work performance of direct reports. Building on the bestselling book Systems Leadership, this book provides leaders with a manual for the application of concepts as well as an introduction to Systems Leadership Theory, a method that has been used successfully by businesses from large multinational firms and banks, to SMEs, public agencies and NGOs. It provides a predictive capability, allowing a leader to predict what will work well and what is likely to fail, according to the context. It gives the benefit of foresight as decisions must be made. Designed as a leader’s manual for the application of the concepts around Systems Leadership, this book is for people who want to improve their own, and their organisation’s, work practices and performance.

In the turbulent period from 2018 to 2021, Canada saw a majority government reduced to minority standing, a political dynasty tainted by scandal, a neighbouring nation’s struggle to transfer power, and a paradigm-changing pandemic. Political insider L. Ian MacDonald, recognized for his clear-minded commentary on national and world political issues salient to all Canadians, guided his readers through it all. In this third collection of columns and articles from Policy magazine, the Montreal Gazette, and iPolitics, MacDonald focuses on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s uneven leadership at home, the Canada-US relationship with Donald Trump in the White House, and Ottawa’s management of health and economic policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapters on prime ministers past and present, hot-button issues such as pipeline protests and the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, and analysis of major elections show these standalone pieces as components of a cohesive body of political commentary. In these last four years, everything happened at high speed. Politics & Players ably navigates the terrain.

"For as long as history has been with us, religion has been a feature of human life. There is no known culture for which we have an ethnographic or an archaeological record that does not have some form of religion. Even in the secular societies that have become more common in the past few centuries, there are people who consider themselves religious and aspire to practise the rituals of their religion. These religions vary in form, style and size from small cults numbering a few hundred people centred around a charismatic leader to worldwide organizations numbering tens, or even hundreds, of millions of adherents with representations in every country. Some, like Buddhism, take an individualistic stance (your salvation is entirely in your own hands), some like the older Abrahamic religions view salvation as more of a collective activity through the performance of appropriate rituals, and a few (Judaism is one) have no formal concept of an afterlife. Some like Christianity and Islam believe in a single all- powerful God,

As a young man in Glasgow''s underworld, Ian ''Blink'' MacDonald earned a reputation for fighting and stabbing his enemies. After refusing to work for Arthur "The Godfather" Thompson, he tried to steal £6 million in a high-risk armed bank robbery. While serving 16 years, Blink met the torture-gang boss Eddie Richardson, the serial killer Archie Hall, notorious lifer Charles Bronson and members of the Krays. After his release, his drug-fuelled violent lifestyle created conflict with the police and rival gangsters. Rearrested several times, he was the target of a gruesome assassination attempt. During filming for Danny Dyer''s Deadliest Men, a bomb was discovered under Blink''s car and the terrified camera-crew members fled from Scotland. In Scotland''s Wildest Bank Robber, Blink provides a jaw-dropping account of how he survived gangland warfare, prisons, stabbings and bombs.

After Bert complains that his jobs are hard, he and his wife Darla decide to swap roles for the day. Darla picks turnips in the fields while Bert looks after the house and the baby. But Bert quickly learns that there is more to do at home than he thought and Darla''s jobs are hard work too! Cow on the Roof is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band.Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features useful notes and activities to support reading at home as well as comprehension questions to check understanding. Reading age: 5-6 years

Captain Gunn and the rest of his pirate crew are sailing in search of treasure. On an island in the middle of the ocean, they begin to dig where X marks the spot, but all they find is a rusty chain. What will happen when Bad Harry decides to give it a tug? Pirate Gold is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features.

The new edition of this influential and bestselling book is concerned with how people come together to achieve a productive purpose. Survival and success in business and social terms have always depended upon our ability to form and sustain social organisations. People have a deep need to be creative and to belong. By creating positive organisations we can fulfil these needs and build a worthwhile society. One of the failures of organisations is precisely the lack of efficient and effective social organisation, which is what this whole book is about. Poor social organisation, including poor leadership, are major drivers of poor productivity and lead people to give up or retreat into a minimalist approach of just doing what is needed to get by and survive. The authors provide a language for developing, discussing, thinking and working with propositions about organisations and management. They do not tell you what decision to make but rather present tools to help you consider, analyse and predict the consequences of your decisions. This new edition is much broader in its application areas – public, private and not-for-profit sectors. It contains new models and propositions with regard to types of social organisation, domains of work and the nature and use of authority. It contains a range of new case studies, and throughout looks at how these ideas can be used to achieve an organisation’s purpose while encouraging creative working. It is not a book about fads or fashion but an integrated approach that offers the user the benefit of foresight.

If journalism is the first draft of history, it’s equally important to see how the work stands the test of time. If the writing isn’t prescient and perspicacious, it doesn’t meet that test. This collection of columns and articles by L. Ian MacDonald – a sequel to Politics, People & Potpourri – meets that test. Much has happened in the politics of Canada and Quebec, as well as to the leaders who have defined and shaped the first two decades of the twenty-first century, since the first collection was published in 2009. The successful election campaigns of Harper and Trudeau form the political bookends of the present decade in Canada and the opening chapters of the book. Between these governments, there are the events, personalities, and issues that have shaped the political narrative and policy debate, from fiscal frameworks to clean energy and pipelines, from the Senate expense scandal and democratic reform to national security at home and the mission against ISIS abroad. In his columns, and longer pieces from Policy Options and Policy magazines, MacDonald provides clear-minded commentary on political issues salient to all Canadians – including the election of Donald Trump in the United States. He also profiles a diverse group of political figures, and writes moving tributes to departed, nationally respected figures such as Jean Béliveau, Jim Flaherty, Jack Layton, and Tom Van Dusen. This intelligent and entertaining collection presents MacDonald at his best, and offers a captivating view of Canadian politics and life.

Rocket Phonics reading books are fully decodable phonics books allowing children to practise their phonic skills in context, developing emerging reading skills. When the otters of Larch Class go pond dipping, they are hoping to find pond skaters and dragonflies, so are surprised when they see a scary pond monster ... Or is the monster just their classmate, Dell, playing a trick on them? Reading age: 5-6 years

"e;I hate having no breakfast!"e; cried Baby Bear. "e;I hate making the beds every day!"e; added Mama Bear. "e;And I hate mending broken chairs!"e; said Papa Bear. "e;ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"e; This series is based around famous fairy tales, but not in the form the reader might expect. These tales have been tweaked to enchant and amuse a modern audience, including a princess who prefers frogs to princes, an intergalactic Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks the vandal, a ragtag band of characters forming a superhero league and more. The balanced combination of low word count with imaginative plots ensures that reluctant readers are stimulated and drawn in to stories that they can realistically comprehend, providing much needed confidence going forwards.

A pediatrician takes a novel approach to parenting by stressing the setting of certain goals and the creation of a mission statement over trying to tackle each individual issue as it crops up. Original.

Gems is a series of books written specifically for struggling girl readers. In this title Shareen is the star of the school''s football team. She''s also the only girl on it! Despite her strong friendship with the boys, a popular girl, Georgia, labels her ''out'' and uncool. When Shareen''s football boots go missing, she has a prime suspect in mind. Angry about the stolen shoes, Shareen stumbles upon Georgia being teased by some older pupils. Will she step in and stop the bullies? How can she use her football skills to help? Challenging expectations and finding friends in unlikely places, Pink Football Boots scores all the right goals for girls who are more than the ordinary.

This book grew from small beginnings as I began to find unexpected patterns emerging from the data in the literature. The more I thought about the way in which primate social systems worked, the more interesting things turned out to be. I am conscious that, at times, this has introduced a certain amount of complexity into the text. I make no apologies for that: what we are dealing with is a complex subject, the product of evolutionary forces interacting with very sophisticated minds. None the less, I have done my best to explain every thing as clearly as I can in order to make the book accessible to as wide an audience as possible. I have laid a heavy emphasis in this book on the use of simple graphical and mathematical models. Their sophistication, however, is not great and does not assume more than a knowledge of elementary probability theory. Since their role will inevitably be misunderstood, I take this opportunity to stress that their function is essentially heuristic rather than explanatory: they are designed to focus our attention on the key issues so as to point out the directions for further research. A model is only as good as the questions it prompts us to ask. For those whose natural inclination is to dismiss modelling out of hand, I can only point to the precision that their use can offer us in terms of hypothesis-testing.

Scottish nursemaid Janet Smith was the victim of a 1924 tragedy that ignited racial tension in a very young Vancouver. At the core of the issue were the mysterious circumstances surrounding Smith''s death, particularly the fact that the only other adult in the house at the time was the Chinese houseboy. When Smith''s death was followed by the assassination of Davie Lew, a well-known Chinese man, it only strengthened the European view that Vancouver''s Asian community was a hotbed of violence and corruption. Newspaper editors and most of Vancouver''s white community raised an outcry, charging the police with incompetence and demanding arrests, while Presbyterian indignation called for law and order as well as an end to Chinese immigration. Before the summer was over, the tongs of Chinatown and the clans of Canada''s West Coast were set to defend their own, and one Scottish minister went so far as to declare it a time of "holy war."

This lively biography of Bishop Edward Cridge and his wife Mary paints a vivid picture of early Victoria as it developed from an isolated Hudson''s Bay Company post into the bustling capital of British Columbia. Recruited from England by Governor James Douglas in 1854 to be the Church of England chaplain of Fort Victoria, Edward Cridge became an important figure in the spiritual life of the city as the rector of Christ Church.The Cridges also became two of Victoria''s foremost social reformers, leaving an indelible mark on British Columbia''s social institutions. Living through the terrible smallpox and black measles epidemics, the latter taking four of their own children, the inseparable pair worked to create the first hospital, beginning with a few beds in a rented cottage and living to see it transformed into the Royal Jubilee. As the first superintendent of education, Cridge played an essential role in B.C.''s early school system. When abandoned children were left at the parsonage door, Mary created Victoria''s first orphanage.The biography also tells of Cridge''s very public argument with Bishop Hills, a dispute that caused him to break with the Church of England to found and build the Church of Our Lord, a Reformed Episcopal church, which is today an historic Victoria landmark. Included also are cameos by many of the notable people of the day, such as Emily Carr, who as a young girl lived opposite the Cridge family.

Controversial and captivating, this uniquely accessible guide explores what happens when evolutionary theory is applied to human behaviour.

The ideas in Robin Dunbar''s previous book, Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, have since become scientific orthodoxy, and this looks set to make an even bigger splash Incredibly influential and popular; all of Dunbar''s events for the hardback were sell-outs, and there''s much more publicity to come Attractive new cover treatment to appeal to the broad popular science/psychology readership of Robert Winston and Desmond Morris

Wild mercury: a tale of two Dylans - Marvellous Marvin reconsidered - John and Paul: the start of a partnership - The Stones in the sixties - Chic: elegance and alienation - Cream: Those Were the Days - Retire the fences: The Beach Boys from gimmick to gospel - Jimi Hendrix: transcending the blues - The Band''s Music from the Big Pink - The psychedelic Beatles: love and drugs - Bob Marley and the message of Rastafarianism - Lenny Bruce: timebound topicality - America''s John: the radical Lennon - Love''s Forever Changes - Decadent diversions: Steally Dan''s Gaucho - The artistry of Laura Nyro - Tropic of Gemini: Miles Davis''s Filles de Kilimanjaro - White lines, black magic: Bowie''s dark doings - Pulse of the Machine - Simon and Garfunkel: polite rebellion - Not a revolution: Jefferson Airplane from play-power to power-play - The elusive Spirit - John Fahey: minstrel of the mysterious - Randy Newman''s debut album - Minimalism and the corporate age - Homage to the Supremes - Pink Floyd''s Echoes - The people''s music - Exiled from heaven: the unheard message of Nick Drake.

Why do people resort to plastic surgery to look young? Why are stepchildren at greatest risk of fatal abuse? Why do we prefer gossip to algebra? Why must Dogon wives live alone in a dark hut for five days a month? Why are young children good at learning language but not sharing? Over the past decade, psychologists and behavioral ecologists have been finding answers to such seemingly unrelated questions by applying an evolutionary perspective to the study of human behavior and psychology. Human Evolutionary Psychology is a comprehensive, balanced, and readable introduction to this burgeoning field. It combines a sophisticated understanding of the basics of evolutionary theory with a solid grasp of empirical case studies. Covering not only such traditional subjects as kin selection and mate choice, this text also examines more complex understandings of marriage practices and inheritance rules and the way in which individual action influences the structure of societies and aspects of cultural evolution. It critically assesses the value of evolutionary explanations to humans in both modern Western society and traditional preindustrial societies. And it fairly presents debates within the field, identifying areas of compatibility among sometimes competing approaches. Combining a broad scope with the more in-depth knowledge and sophisticated understanding needed to approach the primary literature, this text is the ideal introduction to the exciting and rapidly expanding study of human evolutionary psychology.

The primates are said to have given rise to human beings. This book, based upon the BBC television series of the same name, explores the latest theories about their behaviour and evolution.

Starting in July 1955 and carrying through to the spring of 1956, the Tupper Inquiry, which was investigating the activities of Chief Constable Walter Mulligan and the Vancouver Police Department, was front-page news. Every evening at 6:10 p.m. precisely, virtually every radio that could pick up the signal turned the dial to Jack Webster on CJOR. Could Mulligan really be in cahoots with local bookies? Could Vancouver''s chief constable be a ''top cop on the take?" The Mulligan affair had everything it takes to make headlines: death, graft, bootleggers, bookies, corruption, hookers, gambling, cops and politicians with memory loss and a veiled mystery lady.

Arguing that gossiping is vital to a society, and that there is no such thing as idle gossip, this book disputes the assumption that language developed in male-male relationships. The author believes that, on the contrary, language evolved among women, and contends that, although men are just as likely to natter as women, women gossip more about other people, thus strengthening the female-female relationships that underpin society.

Robin Dunbar asks whether science really is unique to Western culture, even to humankind. He suggests that our "trouble with science" may lie in the fact that evolution has left our minds better able to cope with day-to-day social interaction than with the complexities of the external world.

Leven en werk van de Russische componist (1906-1975).