Unbelievable but true

Rigorously reported and fearlessly written by prize-winning journalist John Carryrou. Bad Blood is a fast paced and gripping story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron. A tale of ambition and hubris, set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs. A brilliant Stanford dropout whose start-up promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device that performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by high profile investors, Theranos was valued at more than $9 billion. There was just one problem, the technology didn’t work.

After the book came the podcast series The Drop Out, followed by the documentary ‘The Inventor’ and now a film staring Jennifer Lawrence is in the works. It’s a story that we just can’t get enough of!

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Courage and resilience

Throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. They are all gutsy women, leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done.

Be inspired by ordinary women who have gone on the achieve the extraordinary. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have collated ‘The Book of Gutsy Women’ , a phenomenal collection of essays about women who have made a lasting difference in the world. Listen to their interview about the book with Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast and then delve a bit deeper into the stories of nine of these amazing women.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Gripping prison epic

Midnight Express is the true story of Billy Hayes, an American college student who was caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey in 1970 and thrown into prison. First released as a book in 1977, it quickly became a worldwide best-seller. The story was made into a movie in 1978, directed by Alan Parker, produced by David Puttnam and written by Oliver Stone. It went on to win two Oscars in 1979 for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.

In more recent times, Billy has travelled round the world with a one man show Riding the Midnight Express, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013. He has written two sequels to his original book both published in 2013: Midnight Return (Escaping Midnight Express) and The Midnight Express Letters – from a Turkish Prison, 1970 – 1975, a collection of letters written to his friends and family from prison. In the same year, the story was made in to a ballet, which was the subject of much speculation when the lead dancer, Sergei Polunin, left the show one week before opening. In 2016, the story was the subject of a documentary, Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey. 

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View