James Harkin – författare

Once there was no text messaging. No email and no social network sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. The way we live has apparently been transformed by new ways of communicating. But where did these trends start? And if they can change our behaviour, can they also change the way we think?In Cyburbia James Harkin describes how the architecture of our digital lives was built over seventy years. In a brilliant narrative that encompasses the work of crackpots, inventors and visionaries, it shows how a concept that began with the need to shoot down German bombers has evolved to govern almost everything - from our lives online to modern films like Memento and 21 Grams, from TV shows and plays to military strategy. Gripping, revelatory and fiercely intelligent, this extraordinary book will change forever the way you think about everything you do.

As high street and main street businesses continue to suffer, there''s a new rule in business: forget about the general audience and instead stake out an identifiable niche.Woolworths suffered from a lack of identity and found that low quality and low price wasn''t enough; General Motors crashed as motorists failed to distinguish between cars in their range. Yet HBO, Moleskine and specialist media like The Economist have all succeeded by building their authority over narrow areas of expertise and cultivating a passionate following - and their profits have mushroomed. Fascinating and thought-provoking, Niche is a superb examination of how innovation and profitability are moving to a series of tightly defined but globally scattered niches, bound together by the reach of the net.

On 19 August 2014, a member of the jihadist rebel group known as ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube. Entitled ''Message to America'', the clip depicted the final moments of the life of kidnapped American journalist James Foley - and the gruesome aftermath of his beheading at the hands of a masked executioner. Foley''s murder - and the other choreographed killings that would follow - captured the world''s attention, and Islamic State''s campaign of kidnapping exploded into regional war.Based on three years of on-the-ground reporting from every side of the Syrian conflict, Hunting Season is James Harkin''s quest to uncover the truth about how and why Islamic State came to target Western hostages, who was behind it and why almost no one outside a small group of people knew anything about it until it was too late. He reveals how the campaign of kidnapping and the development of Islamic State were joined at the hip from the beginning. The book is an utterly absorbing account of the world''s newest and most powerful terror franchise and what it means for modern war.

Random House Audiobooks present The Audiobook of the Year, written and read by the team behind hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish: James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.In a year when much of the news was believable but fake, comes an audiobook packed with stories that are unbelievable but true. The Audiobook of the Year is a feature-length edition of the award-winning hit comedy podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. Each week, over a million people tune in to find out what bizarre and astonishing facts Dan, James, Anna and Andy have found out over the previous seven days. Now the gang have turned their attention to the news of the past twelve months. You’ll discover the curious details behind the main headlines – how Donald Trump slept on the 66th floor of a 58-storey building, what effect Brexit had on Coco Pops, and why China’s president can’t stand Winnie the Pooh – as well as hundreds of stories you may have missed entirely, like the news that:- Qatar built a refugee camp for camels- 2,000 bees were stolen in Beeston- The victim of Britain’s first ever shark attack ended up with a cut thumb. From bizarre arrests to baffling elections, via a surprising amount of sausage news, The Audiobook of the Year is an eye-opening tour of the incredible year you didn’t know you’d lived through.‘Jolly, packed with impressive and silly facts . . . hooray for No Such Thing As A Fish.’ – Observer ‘Knowledge-packed and riotously funny.’ – The Times

Random House presents The Audiobook of the Year 2018, written and read by the team behind hit podcast No Such Thing as a Fish; James Harkin, Jane Hill, Dan Schreiber, Andrew Hunter Murray and Anna Ptaszynski.Think you know what happened in 2018? Think again.Following hot on the heels of the success of The Audiobook of the Year (or, more precisely, twelve months later), The Audiobook of the Year 2018 bravely delves behind the headlines to sniff out the best and most bizarre facts of the past 12 months.Compiled and written by the creators of the award-winning hit comedy podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, all of whom are researchers for QI, it will establish - among other things - that:· Britain’s first robot shop assistant was sacked after a week· Donald Trump claimed the US sells F52 planes to Norway, even though F52 planes only exist in the game Call of Duty· During the Winter Olympics, it was so windy during the Women''s Slopestyle Final that every single competitor was blown off her snowboard. · A snail racing competition in Plymouth was postponed because the snails were too ''sluggish'' to take part. Ranging from the distinctly offbeat to the wonderfully ludicrous - from the South Africans who were rationed to just one toilet flush per day, to the Nutella riots spreading across France, via the Miami bitcoin conference that stopped accepting bitcoin - The Audiobook of the Year promises a fact for every occasion and will prove the perfect Christmas gift for all trivia buffs.