Heidi Perks is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Now You See Her, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Come Back for Me, Three Perfect Liars, The Whispers and The Other Guest. The Last Resort is her sixth novel. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime and thrillers and is fascinated by the darker side of our closest relationships. Heidi lives in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.

Heidi Perks

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Meik Wiking

Meik Wiking understands happiness better than anyone. In his role as Founder and CEO of the world's only Happiness Research Institute, he has travelled the globe interviewing the world's happiest people to discover the key components of happiness. 
 
In The Key to Happiness, Meik explores the hidden treasures which can improve your happiness, and divides them into the six building blocks of happiness; togetherness, money, health, kindness, trust and freedom. For each happiness block he offers practical tips: for togetherness he encourages setting up a mini-library in your apartment building or starting a tool-sharing programme in your street; for kindness he suggests leaving a surprise gift on a stranger's doorstep, helping a tourist find their way or telling someone who means a lot to you that they do. 
 
Drawing on social science, case studies and Meik's original research, this practical guide shows us that you can find happiness in a simple way of life. While Meik has travelled across the globe to discover the secrets of the world's happiest people, this book shows us that you can be just as happy where you are. 
 
This book is the perfect guide on how to survive and navigate the modern world with a smile on your face.

The Key to Happiness

How to Find Purpose by Unlocking the Secrets of the World's Happiest People

Sharmadean Reid

‘Many self-help books will instruct women how to navigate the system as is, but Reid rallies for the ways to break it all down and start anew.’ Cosmopolitan 
 
Sharmadean Reid’s 51 methods will empower you to become the person you want to be. Instead of shrinking to fit into a system that wasn’t built for you, she wants you to know yourself better, thrive, succeed and get what you want out of every aspect of life. 
 
As a founder, creative director and mentor, Sharmadean has moved beyond ‘girlbossing’ into a new era of being unapologetically herself in work and life. Her fierce new perspectives on work, self, friendship, parenthood and relationships interweave the lessons she’s learned with a diverse range of thinkers, ideas and stories that have informed her approach. 
 
Full of practical advice on identifying what is holding you back (sometimes the system, sometimes yourself), building community, using data for decision-making and holding a vision for your future, these are the 51 tools you need to achieve the change you want.

New Methods for Women

51 Lessons for the Life You Want

49 lessons for the life you want

Ping Fu

Ping Fu was born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution; aged just eight she was taken from the arms of her loving family. She suffered appalling treatment and was denied an education. For ten years she lived in bleak dormitories, while protecting her younger sister from Mao's Red Guards. 
 
She survived, even succeeding in gaining admission to university. Yet, her education brought unwanted political attention and she was forced into exile. Arriving in the United States, speaking just three words in English, she set about making her fortune ... 
 
Bend, Not Break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from the dogmatic anticapitalism of Mao's China to the high-stakes world of technology start-ups in the US. It is a tribute to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience.

Bend, Not Break

From Mao's China to the White House

Sháá Wasmund

Have you ever dreamt of doing something new - setting up a business, getting in shape, or writing a novel - but haven't gotten round to actually doing it? Does 'now' never feel like a good time to start? The time has come. 
 
In January 2015, entrepreneur and bestselling author Sháá Wasmund made a decision: to finally get what she wanted. Years after packing in her business (and her salary) to take the plunge, life is everything she hoped it would be. As she discovered, the key to getting what you want is within reach. 
 
Building on her many years of professional experience and inspired by her own personal challenges and sh*t-fixing moments, How to Fix Your Sh*t is your pocket life coach. In this simple and systematic guide, Wasmund will empower you to conquer fear, ditch the excuses and start living your best life today.

How to Fix Your Sh*t

A Straightforward Guide to a Better Life

Andy Molinsky

Is it easy for you to deliver bad news? Do you look forward to speaking in public? Do you enjoy networking? If you answered no to any of these questions, Reach can help. 
 
What often sets successful people apart is their willingness to do things most of us fear. What's more, we have the false notion that successful people like to do these things, when the truth is that successful people have simply found their own way to do them. In Reach, Andy Molinsky breaks down the five key challenges underlying our avoidance tendencies and illuminates the path towards enjoying what you once feared. 
 
Short, prescriptive, and based not only on the author's ground-breaking research, but on his own personal experience, Reach will help you take the thing you are most afraid of doing and make it a proud part of your personal repertoire.

Reach

How to Build Confidence and Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Amy Smilovic

'Almost Reckless isn't just a book, it's a permission slip. It's about the courage it takes to step off the algorithm's path, the clarity that comes from defining your own principles, and the joy of building something that feels unmistakably yours.' Will Guidara, bestselling author of Unreasonable HospitalityAmy Smilovic's cult fashion brand, Tibi, was a thriving $70 million dollar business when she realized she was working towards someone else's idea of success. So she threw out the rulebook of how things should be done and went with her gut instead. 
 
Today Tibi is more successful than ever, and all on Smilovic's groundbreaking entrepreneurial terms.In Almost Reckless, she invites you to get comfortable with embracing smart risks in pursuit of your own vision. Sharing her story and drawing on her years of helping others identify their values and principles, Smilovic teaches you to hone your gut, and your trust in it.With humour and practicality she coaches you in how to determine what success means to you, including: 
<ul><li>why you don’t have to listen to the data guys</li><li>why you should be a Creative Pragmatist</li><li>why sticking to your principles isn’t incompatible with success</li><li>why work/life balance is bullshit</li></ul>Almost Reckless is the essential blueprint for entrepreneurs, leaders, creatives and for anyone who wants a working life that feels aligned with who they truly are.

Almost Reckless

A Creative and Pragmatic Approach to Taking Risks

Happiness is just around the corner with this practical guide from happiness researcher Meik Wiking - author of the international bestseller The Little Book of Hygge 
 
Lykke (Luu-kah) (n): Happiness 
 
Meik Wiking understands happiness better than anyone. In his role as Founder and CEO of the world's only Happiness Research Institute, he has travelled the globe interviewing the world's happiest people to discover the key components of happiness. 
 
This captivating read features case studies from Bhutan to Australia, South Korea to Canada, France to Denmark, taking the reader on a happiness treasure hunt. Written in the same warm tone as Meik's phenomenal bestseller The Little Book of Hygge, this easy-to-understand book will change the way you think about how you relate to your neighbours, the rituals around cooking and eating dinner, and when to book your next holiday - and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. 
 
This book is the perfect guide on how to survive and navigate the modern world with a smile on your face. 
 
'It is a happy book about happiness, written with a twinkle and packaged with Danish style' (John Helliwell, Economist and Editor of the World Happiness Report)

The Little Book of Lykke

The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

Stylist Magazine

If you could share one lesson from your life with every woman, what would it be? 
 
Stylist magazine has asked that question of remarkable women from the worlds of entertainment, politics, sport and fashion. With honesty, wit and a serious no-BS attitude, their lessons address the challenges every woman faces today, from climbing the career ladder and finding inner fulfilment, to forging authentic relationships and overcoming life's setbacks. 
 
Each of these impressive women, including actress Romola Garai and comedian Francesca Martinez, has a tale to tell and an experience to share. Empowering, engaging and unapologetically impassioned, their incisive observations will make you think, reflect - and kick serious ass. These are life lessons for women, by women.

Life Lessons from Remarkable Women

Tales of Triumph, Failure and Learning to Love Yourself

Brené Brown

Every time we are introduced to someone new, try to be creative, or start a difficult conversation, we take a risk. We feel uncertain and exposed. We feel vulnerable. Most of us try to fight those feelings - we strive to appear perfect. 
 
In a powerful new vision Brené Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability, and dispels the widely accepted myth that it's a weakness. She argues that, in truth, vulnerability is strength and when we shut ourselves off from vulnerability - from revealing our true selves - we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. 
 
Daring Greatly is the culmination of 12 years of ground-breaking social research, across every area of our lives including home, relationships, work, and parenting. It is an invitation to be courageous; to show up and let ourselves be seen, even when there are no guarantees. 
 
This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.

Daring Greatly

How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Nancy Kline

What if all it took to counter political polarisation, relationship problems and workplace rivalries was a single promise? 
 
For the past few decades, Nancy Kline has been investigating the optimal conditions that lead to independent thinking. Building on her 'thinking environment' framework, here she reveals the many ways in which the pressures of conformity, inequality and technology prevent us from having meaningful, life-enhancing conversations. 
 
Guided by the science of attention, she shares exercises and case studies of students and employees who have improved their performance through guided thinking sessions as well as families and couples who bonded after making - and enforcing - the promise. 
 
I Won't Interrupt You is a practical and systematic guide to how promising to reduce interruptions will lead to better relationships and calmer lives.

The Promise That Changes Everything

I Won’t Interrupt You

Schuyler Bailar

Gender is a human experience, not just a trans experience. Every single one of us has a relationship to gender, so how can we change the way we talk about it, challenge misconceptions, and become better allies? 
 
Schuyler Bailar is the first transgender athlete to compete on the Harvard University Swim team. His difficult choice - to transition while potentially giving up the prospect of being a national champion - was historic. HE/SHE/THEY will provide readers with essential trans and gender literacy through empowering and informative stories from his own experiences, and those of other trans and non-binary individuals around the world. This urgent, hopeful guide will cover everything from understanding what gender is and how to talk about it, to gender in the world and how to be a better ally. 
 
HE/SHE/THEY will provide readers - no matter age or gender - with the language, education, and tools needed to help make the world a better, kinder, and safer place for all trans and gender diverse people. 2020 and 2021 saw record-breaking instances of anti-trans legislation worldwide - and the highest rates of anti-trans violence on record. HE/SHE/THEY will inspire much-needed positive change and encourage and enable personal reflection and exploration so that every human can be the most compassionate, most authentic version of themselves - and importantly, become better trans allies in the process.

He/She/They

How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters

Sean Young

We all have bad habits - whether it's a weakness for junk food, a smartphone addiction or a lack of exercise. But change is hard. Forty percent of dieters quit within a week. Eighty percent of New Year's resolutions don't last beyond January. How can we kick bad habits - and stick with it? 
 
According to psychologist and behaviour researcher Dr Sean Young, the answer is to stop trying to change the person, and instead change the process. In Stick With It, Dr Young draws on his own research and that of other leading experts to explain how the mind often interferes with breaking bad habits, and how we can outsmart it, increasing the likelihood of lasting change by 300%. 
 
Packed with practical exercises and real-life case studies, Stick With It shows that it is possible to control spending, stick to a diet, exercise regularly and overcome problem behaviours - forever.

Stick with It

The Science of Lasting Behaviour

Laura Huang

What sets the most successful people apart? While hard work is certainly a factor, Professor Laura Huang's extensive research – spanning entrepreneurs, investors, Olympic athletes and Pulitzer Prize winners – reveals that their greatest asset is something less tangible: intuition. That instinctive ‘gut feeling’ often determines who seizes opportunities and who misses them. 
 
In You Already Know, Laura breaks down the science behind intuition, explaining how it is formed from external data, accumulated wisdom and the subconscious insights we don’t even realise we have. What follows is a gut feeling, which shifts our perspective and drives us to act. 
 
Grounded in Huang’s pioneering research and enriched with insights from hundreds of illuminating interviews, this book offers a practical model for becoming better at recognising, understanding and enhancing your intuition to accomplish your most ambitious goals. What’s stopping you from unlocking your full potential? You already know.

You Already Know

The Science of Mastering Your Intuition

Eddie Murphy

When you find yourself in a good place in your life, how do you make sure you stay there? Or, if you're in a bad place in your life, how do you get out of it? Here's how ... 
 
Dr Eddie Murphy knows what makes people tick. In Becoming Your Real Self, Eddie shares his methods for building and maintaining mental fitness - from identifying behavioural patterns to coping with the demands of a busy lifestyle; from dismissing faulty thinking to challenging emotional eating. 
 
In this book, you will learn how to transform: 
 
· Stress into relaxation 
· Anxiety into freedom 
· Low self-esteem into self-worth 
· Anger into calm 
 
With Becoming Your Real Self as your handbook, you can release yourself from the tyranny of negative emotions and embrace a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Becoming Your Real Self

A Practical Toolkit for Managing Life's Challenges

Tiffany Dufu

An inspirational and insightful guide for those who want to get it all by doing less 
 
For women, a glass ceiling at work is not the only barrier to success - it's also the increasing number of obligations they face once they leave the office. Women have become accustomed to delegating, advocating and negotiating for themselves in the workplace, but when it comes to managing home life, they are still juggling too many balls. A simple solution is staring them in the face: use these skills to negotiate in their personal lives. 
 
In Drop The Ball, Tiffany Dufu urges the reader to embrace imperfection, to expect less of themselves and more from others - enabling them to flourish at work and develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home.

Drop the Ball

Expect Less from Yourself and Flourish in Work & Life

Expect Less from Yourself, Get More from Him, and Flourish at Work & Life

Susan Cain

The Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon Quiet has forever changed how we see introverts and how introverts see themselves. This companion journal will help you to harness your secret strengths, improve communication at home and at work, and nurture your best self. 
 
This guided journal takes you on the Quiet journey to becoming a stronger, more confident person. In part one, you'll learn more about your own temperament through a self-assessment quiz, which will teach you to make progress towards self-awareness, and realize your own authentic qualities and worth. Part two will then empower you to put that knowledge to practice with prompts for taking action in every aspect of life. This is the perfect practical resource for introverts or the people who want to better understand and support them.

Quiet Journal

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

In our 24-7 global economy, rest feels like a luxury at best and a weakness at worst. We see work and rest as competitors - but what if they're actually partners in a productive, balanced life? 
 
Blending rigorous scientific research with examples of writers, painters and thinkers - from Darwin to Stephen King - Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang exposes how we've underestimated the power of rest for our success. Though it's as natural as breathing, it's also a skill we can all learn to boost our creativity and productivity. 
 
Full of tips for upping our downtime, from sleep to hobbies to vacation, Rest is a new roadmap for finding renewed energy and inspiration, and getting more done.

Rest

Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

Jennifer Petriglieri

Every couple wants a happy relationship and a meaningful career but how do we balance both at the same time? 
 
In Couples that Work, Professor Jennifer Petriglieri shifts away from the language of sacrifice and trade-offs and focuses on how couples can successfully tackle the challenges they will face throughout their lives--together. The book explores key questions like: 
 
Can you and your partner have equally important careers or must you prioritise one over the other? 
How can you juggle children or family commitments without sacrificing your work? 
Does every decision require compromise or can you find solutions that benefit you both? 
 
Identifying common triggers and traps working couples face, and offering resolution and reflection through tools and engaging exercises, this book will help every couple design their own unique way to combine love and work at every stage of their journey. 
 
Finding fulfilment in both love and work may just be easier than you think.

Couples That Work

How To Thrive in Love and at Work

Bill Beswick

We all love stories. They make us feel, help us connect, relate to one another, and make sense of our lives. Bill Beswick is a storyteller who has 20 powerful life lessons to share from his work with his clients at the top of their fieldsto help us all overcome our fears, boost our performance and achieve success. 
 
Leading sports and performance psychologist, Bill Beswick, sees sport as a story of human connection. When faced with physical challenges, pressure and fatigue, the mind is the athlete and the body is simply the means. Changing Your Story explores how the way we think and feel is vital for releasing positive energy and improving our performance. Beswick's 20 lessons will bestow resilience and guide you through the process of harnessing the full power of your physical abilities. 
 
This is a book about change. Bill Beswick's advice is guaranteed to equip you with new, more efficient ways to think. Through his powerful storytelling, he will help you let go of a negative mind-set and embrace a much stronger, positive and determined one. 
 
Anything is possible when you realise it's never too late to switch direction and change your story.

Changing Your Story

How To Take Control Of Your Life, Create Change And Achieve Your Goals

Is your life how you imagined it would be, or is the reality more stressful than you planned? Do you put yourself under too much pressure to succeed? Are you struggling to find time for the things, and people, you love? 
 
It doesn't have to be this way. Anything is possible when you stop trying to do everything at the same time. This life changing book gives you the tools to ditch your to-do list and follow your dreams. It will be your essential guide to doing what you love - and letting go of the rest.

Do Less, Get More

Guilt-free Ways to Make Time for the Things (and People) that Matter

How to Work Smart and Live Life Your Way

Lisa Conway-Hughes

If you spent one hour a month nurturing your finances for the next twelve months, how would you feel this time next year, what would be different? Mapping out a plan for achieving your big goals and managing everyday spending, Money Lessons is your own pocket financial expert. 
 
Whether you have it or not, money is often as difficult to talk about as it is to handle. Many of us will at one point need advice on how to: 
 
- ask for a pay rise 
- save up to buy a place 
- pay for a mortgage 
- finance a career move 
- budget for a wedding 
- fund a big trip 
- get out of debt 
- retire comfortably 
 
Building on her 15 years of experience helping countless people to make smart financial decisions, Lisa Conway-Hughes tackles these topics in a short guide to being savvy and getting what you want in every stage of your life. Full of expert knowledge and success stories, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to turn a dream into a plan - and eventually a reality.

Money Lessons

How to manage your finances to get the life you want

Edward de Bono

Most of our everyday decision-making tends to be confrontational. Whether in large meetings, one-to-one or even in our own heads, opposite view points are pitted against each other. Ultimately, there must be a winner and a loser. 
 
In I Am Right,You Are Wrong, lateral-thinking guru Edward de Bono challenges this 'rock logic' of rigid categories and point-scoring arguments which is both destructive and exhausting. 
 
Instead he reveals how we can all be winners. Clearer perception is the key to constructive thinking and more open-minded creativity. 
 
In overturning conventional wisdom, Edward de Bono will help you to become a better thinker and decision maker.

I Am Right, You Are Wrong

Christian Busch

Life is full of the unexpected: chance encounters, changing plans, delayed journeys and other mishaps. But what if we could use unpredictability to our advantage? 
 
Dr Christian Busch has spent a decade exploring how, if acted upon, unexpected encounters can enhance our worldview, expand our social circles and create new professional opportunities. In this book, Christian reveals the secrets behind the hidden force that rules our lives: serendipity. With a new chapter detailing the author's experience of Covid and a chance meeting that subsequently changed his life forever, Dr Busch shows how his own experience reflects the full potential of what can happen if you are open to coincidence. 
 
Connect the Dots is a revolutionary, well-researched exploration of an essential life skill that we can develop. By learning to see opportunities in the unexpected, we can start to make our own luck and use it as a pathway to more joyful and successful lives.

Connect the Dots

The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck

From confusing manuals to uninterpretable jargon and bureaucratic red-tape, modern life can be highly complicated and frustrating. For many of us it is almost impossible to make sense of. 
 
In Simplicity, lateral-thinking guru Edward de Bono shows us how to bring clarity into our increasingly complicated lives. Through his ten rules of simplicity, he encourages us to be creative and break down the complex into manageable and recognisable parts. By making the complicated simple, you will free up time, reduce stress and make better decisions.

Simplicity

David L. Bradford

Carole Robin

'A practical and timely book I highly recommend' Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global 
 
'Connect offers a compelling and highly accessible roadmap for building relationships that lead to professional success and personal fulfilment' Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of Blitzscaling and The Alliance 
 
David Bradford and Carole Robin taught interpersonal skills to MBA candidates for a combined seventy-five years on their legendary Stanford Graduate School of Business course, "Interpersonal Dynamics". Now, in Connect, they share their time-tested strategies for developing the interpersonal skills that have become fundamental to success at work and in our everyday lives, such as building trust, giving feedback and navigating conflict. 
 
Connect shows why relationship-building is crucial to becoming a more effective manager and leader and living a fulfilled life, from highlighting the importance of curiosity and empathy to demonstrating how to break logjams and negotiate boundaries. Filled with research-backed insights, useful concepts and thought-provoking exercises, Connect is an important resource for anyone hoping to build and sustain relationships, providing tools to make relationships robust -- and even exceptional.

Connect

Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues

Dave Alred

'If you are struggling with exams, vivers, job interviews, work presentations, with performing in a team or individual sport - or find it difficult to interact in social situations - then this is for you' - Amazon review 
 
The book on how to handle pressure from the performance coach to Francesco Molinari and Jonny Wilkinson 
 
Whether it's the stress of hitting a deadline at work, passing an exam or an upcoming job interview, pressure is everywhere. 
 
 So how can we turn this into our advantage? 
 
 Dr Dave Alred MBE is widely acknowledged as one of the best coaches on the planet. A pioneer in performance psychology, he nurtured Jonny Wilkinson into rugby's most feared kicker, and has helped Premiership footballers, number one golfers and England cricketers deliver on the biggest stage. 
 
 He believes that dealing with pressure is a skill like any other and in this book he shares his eight ground-breaking principles, distilling his life's work into an accessible and practical book with examples from the world of business, sport and the classroom. 
 
 From writing down personal affirmations to understanding how to use language more effectively, The Pressure Principle will help you become your best self and stay calm when the heat is on. 
 
'Dave Alred is a genius. There is simply no-one around to match him in his field' Jonny Wilkinson CBE 
 'Dave Alred is the coach who helped Jonny Wilkinson keep his cool. We can all learn from him' Matthew Syed, author of bestselling Black Box Thinking

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