In the middle of the night, a woman awakens to find a stranger in her bedroom. Though she cannot determine who he is--or, indeed, whether he is even real at all and not just an extension of her dreams or her writing–she is drawn into a conversation...

A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers. The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others. Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, 'Backroom Boys' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars. 'Backroom Boys' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.

Narrative of a girl's life, born mid-1940s, set against the blue-collar grit and texture of multi-ethnic, pre-Vatican II, southwest Detroit--P. [4] of cover.

From Backroom to Boardroom is not a book about technology, data models or the latest in a series of bright and shiny toys so loved by marketers. It is a book about building a strategic marketing operations organization that transports marketing from the backroom to the boardroom. The journey begins with defining the new breed of marketing leadership and continues by exploring the integration of business acumen, marketing experience and the power of the digital age. This book is a practical guide that will help you reimagine, rescript and rearchitect the role of marketing forever.