This riveting account reveals the secret corners of our supposedly flat world: black markets where governments are never seen but still spend outrageous amounts of money. Journalist Matt Potter tells the story of Yuri and his crew, a gang of Russian military men who, after the collapse of the Soviet Union found themselves without work or prospects. So they bought a decommissioned Soviet plane-at liquidation prices, straight from the Russian government-and started a shipping business. It wasn't long before Yuri, and many pilots like him, found themselves an unlikely (and ethically dubious) hub of global trading. Men like these are paid by the U.S., the Taliban, and blue-chip multinational companies to bring supplies- some legal, some not-across dangerous borders. In a feat of daring reportage, Potter gets onto the flight deck with these outlaws and tells the story of their fearless missions. Dodging gunfire, Potter is taken from place to place by men trafficking everything from illicit weapons to emergency aid, making enemies everywhere but no reliable friends. As the world changes, we see the options for the crew first explode, then slowly diminish, until, in a desperate maneuver, they move their operations to the most lawless corners of Africa, where they operate to this day. The story of these outlaws is a microcosm of the world since the end of the cold war: secret contracts, guerrilla foreign policy, and conflicts too thorny to be handled in public. Potter uses the story of these men to articulate an underground history of the globalized world. At once thrilling, provocative, and morally circumspect, this book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in espionage, or in how the world works today.

For Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate English as a Second Language students In our resource rich world, we can come to depend upon technologies to assist us in so many ways, including learning. This book includes 45 speaking, writing and listening activities for teaching English as a Second Language, fully contained within the book, on the page: no other resources needed, not even copying. You can enter the classroom and all you need is a whiteboard, a marker, and the book. No other technology is necessary! All students need is a paper, a pen and their own abilities. And beyond your own talents, enthusiasm and time, all you will truly need when using this book, is a white-board, and a marker.

Student Essentials: Study Skills - in one hour gives you all the skills you need when studying. Taking you step-by-step through every stage, helping you develop and refine your skills for university study success. Student Essentials: Study Skills - in one hour is packed full of jargon-free, practical advice to help you really get to grips with successful study skills. Checklists and exercises ensure you tackle each stage of study head on and develop key skills. From developing crucial time management, easy note taking tips and critical thinking strategies to essay writing good practice and exam know-how to boost study performance. Get the essential toolkit to study confidence, including: Study strategies - preparing and planning your time and studies Learn the core techniques - from note-taking to improving your memory Critical thinking - refine your analysis and apply it to your work Essay writing - structure your arguments and drive your point home Revision know- how - adopt a winning strategy to your revision skills Exams - preparing, taking and mastering exams for success Key tools - use the checklists and exercises to master every stage study In just one hour develop study skills for all round study success and perform at your optimum with Trotman's Student Essentials series. Discover other titles in the series to help boost your study skills including: Student Essentials: Essay Writing - in one hour Student Essentials: Revision and Exam Strategies - in one hour Student Essentials: Critical Thinking - in one hour Student Essentials: Dissertation - in one hour

For Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate English as a Second Language students In our resource rich world, we can come to depend upon technologies to assist us in so many ways, including learning. This book includes 45 speaking, writing and listening activities for teaching English as a Second Language, fully contained within the book, on the page: no other resources needed, not even copying. You can enter the classroom and all you need is a whiteboard, a marker, and the book. No other technology is necessary! All students need is a paper, a pen and their own abilities. And beyond your own talents, enthusiasm and time, all you will truly need when using this book, is a white-board, and a marker.

Matt Potter's writing possesses a delicate snark, an incisive wit that lifts even the commonplace into unique memorability. The characters have the makings of great fictional people: they're singular and quirky, but at the same time possessed of an indisputable sense of reality. These people exist, they live and breathe, and we the readers, recognize in them our friends, our family. And ourselves. Guilie Castillo Oriard, author of 'The Miracle of Small Things' The small fictions in 'Based on True Stories' will not lull you - they will piss you off or, at the least, move you to indignation or tears or laughter. Maybe all three. These gems provoke, like the tip of a chef's knife pricking skin, and just as the words get uncomfortable, the story delivers the bit of redemption that reveals the humanity of his characters - and of us all. These stories are real, raw, and honest. The reading doesn't get much better than that. Linda Simoni-Wastila, Senior Fiction Editor at 'JMWW'

In the world's most dangerous and war-torn trouble spots, you will find a small band of men risking their lives to fly the planes that bring in desperately needed aid and supplies. But they're not heroes. These combat-hardened veterans fly giant Soviet-era superplanes which carry a dark secret: 15 tonnes' worth of secret compartments which they fill with illicit payloads. Their hidden cargo is virtually impossible to detect, and these cowboys of the air will carry anything, from drugs, guns, diamonds and money to people - whatever you've got, to anywhere you want them to take it. But they pay a heavy price: crews routinely lose their lives to gun-toting pirates, terrorists, hostile state forces, jealous competitors and alcohol.

Friends for over thirty years, Otto (and his wife Kendalynn) invite Hugh (and his girlfriend Magda) to spend a weekend away at their glamorous beach house. Fond memories are rekindled as drinks flow and confidences are shared. But the delicate balance is shattered by the unplanned arrival of Otto's fiery daughter Valerie. Bitter rivalries quickly resurface and simmering tensions explode. Friendships are soon threatened, international relations strain to breaking point, and their fun-filled beachside getaway becomes a fuming, frenzied free-for-all! "A really addictive read. I wanted to spend more time with the characters and find out what happens next." Gill Hoffs, author of 'The Sinking of RMS Tayleur', 'The Lost Story of the William & Mary' and 'Wild: a collection' "Matt Potter's writing possesses a delicate snark, an incisive wit that lifts even the commonplace into unique memorability." Guilie Castillo Oriard, author of 'It's About the Dog'

A month of stories, 31 in all ... desperate divas and ambitious execs, cuckolded housewives and puzzled politicians, squabbling sisters and nasty neighbours ... all get a guernsey in this collection of fiction and non-fiction about people funny and very unfunny too.

The incredible untold origin story of cyberwar and the hackers who unleashed it on the world, tracing their journey from the ashes of the Cold War to the criminal underworld, governments, and even Silicon Valley. Two years before 9/11, the United States was attacked by an unknown enemy. No advance warning was given, and it didn't target civilians. Instead, tomahawk missiles started missing their targets, US agents were swept up by hostile governments, and America’s enemies seemed to know its every move in advance. A new phase of warfare—cyber war—had arrived. And within two decades it escaped Pandora's Box, plunging us into a state of total war where every day, countless cyber attacks perpetrated by states and mercenaries are reshaping the world. After receiving an anonymous email with leaked NATO battle plans during the bombardment of Kosovo, journalist Matt Potter embarked on a twenty-year investigation into the origins of cyber war and how it came to dominate the world. He uncovered its beginnings – worthy of a Bond movie – in the last days of the Cold War, as the US and its allies empowered a generation of Eastern European hackers, only to wake up in the late 90s to a new world order. It's a story that winds through Balkan hacking culture, Russia, Silicon Valley, and the Pentagon, introducing us to characters like a celebrity hacker with missing fingers who keeps escaping prison, FBI agents chasing the first generation of cyber mercenaries in the 90s, tech CEOs, and Russian generals obsessed with a Cold War rematch. Never before told, this is the riveting secret history of cyberwar not as governments want it to be – controlled, military-directed, discreet, and sophisticated – but as it really is: anarchic, chaotic, dangerous, and often thrilling.

In the world's most dangerous and war-torn trouble spots, you will find a small band of men risking their lives to fly the planes that bring in desperately needed aid and supplies. These combat-hardened veterans fly giant Soviet-era superplanes which carry a dark secret: 15 tonnes' worth of secret compartments which they fill with illicit payload.