Cardiff-based Professor Knight, CBE, became a Home Office pathologist in 1965. During his 40-year career, he performed over 25,000 autopsies and was involved in many high-profile cases. The author of numerous non-fiction books, he has written fourteen novels in the Crowner John mystery series. Visit www.bernardknight.homestead.com

Following a series of murders which appear to be linked to a revival of heresy, some of the cathedral canons begin a crusade against this danger to the Church. When Sir John is accused of being too sympathetic to the heretics, the coroner finds himself having to seek sanctuary in order to save his own life. Can he survive long enough to unmask the real killer?

The New York Times bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization reveals how the innovations of the Renaissance and the Reformation changed the Western world. • “Cahill is our king of popular historians.” —The Dallas Morning News This was an age in which whole continents and peoples were discovered. It was an era of sublime artistic and scientific adventure, but also of newly powerful princes and armies—and of unprecedented courage, as thousands refused to bow their heads to the religious pieties of the past. In these exquisitely written and lavishly illustrated pages, Cahill illuminates, as no one else can, the great gift-givers who shaped our history—those who left us a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong than the one they had found.

When it comes to solving complex problems, we often perform elaborate rituals in the guise of best practices that promise a world of order, certainty, and control. But reality paints a far different picture, which practitioners are often reluctant to discuss. A witty yet rigorous journey through the seedy underbelly of organisational problem solving, The Heretic’s Guide to Best Practices pinpoints the reasons why best practices don’t work as advertised and what can be done about it. “Hugely enjoyable, deeply reflective, and intensely practical. This book is about weaving human artistry and improvisation, with appropriate methods and technologies, in order to pool collective intelligence and wisdom under pressure.” —Simon Buckingham Shum, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK “This is a terrific piece of work: important, insightful, and very entertaining. Culmsee and Awati have produced a refreshing take on the problems that plague organisations... If you’re trying to deal with wicked problems in your organisation, then drop everything and read this book.” —Tim Van Gelder, Principal Consultant, Austhink Consulting

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the number one bestseller Vagabond, this is the third instalment in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series.

Coroner Sir John is caught up in a seafaring conspiracy in this entertaining instalment in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in twelfth-century England. 1196. When an unidentified body is discovered in the harbour town of Axmouth, twenty miles from Exeter, Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, is summoned to investigate. The manner of the young man's death is a matter of some dispute – but, as Sir John soon discovers, it was no accident. The victim did not drown, as the manor reeve alleges, but was strangled to death. In the ensuing murder investigation, Sir John is frustrated by what appears to be a conspiracy of silence among the seamen and townsfolk. Just what is the local population trying to hide? It soon becomes clear that some of Axmouth’s inhabitants will go to any lengths to ensure the shocking truth behind the death remains hidden. Sir John will need to muster all his courage, cunning and determination if he is to escape from the town alive . . .

After Henry -- Visitation -- Services for the Living and Dead -- The Time of Schism -- Common Prayer -- 11 SLAYING ANTICHRIST -- 'Item, We will have . . .' -- 'The Perseverance of God's Word' -- Rochets and Strangers -- Mary's Mass -- The Kingdom of Christ -- Carnal Gospelling -- 12 THE TWO QUEENS -- Devices for the Succession -- God and the World Knoweth -- The Clucking Hen -- Rebellion -- Verbum Dei -- Zeal for God's Service -- Exiles and Nicodemites -- 13 TIME OF TRIAL -- Reconciliation -- Welcome the Cross of Christ -- Profitable and Necessary Doctrine -- The Hand in the Fire -- Legacies -- PART IV Unattainable Prizes -- 14 ALTERATION -- A Glass with a Small Neck -- Elevation and Coronation -- Parliamentary Problems -- Supremacy and Uniformity -- Alterations and Additions -- Old Bishops, New Bishops -- Visitation and Resistance -- 15 UNSETTLED ENGLAND -- Country Divinity -- Enormities in the Queen's Closet -- Queen Checks Bishops -- Plague and Retribution -- Mislikers of True Religion -- Rags of Rome -- The Religion Really Observed -- 16 ADMONITIONS -- The Queen of Scots -- Counter-Reformation in the North -- Aftermath -- Regnans and Ridolfi -- The Scrupulosity of Princes -- An Axe or an Act? -- Ambitious Spirits -- Grindal -- Prophesyings -- 17 WARS OF RELIGION -- A Shot Across the Bows -- Jesuits -- The Execution of Justice -- Country Divinity -- Without Tarrying for Any -- Bonds and Associations -- War -- Armada and Marprelate -- Strange Contrariety of Humours -- POSTSCRIPT -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- INDEX