{"title":"Books by Alan Brown","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781510477544","title":"Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography B Second Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDevelop your students' subject knowledge and skills using this second edition Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography B Student book.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeaturing updated case studies, practice questions and clear presentation of key terms, this thoroughly revised edition provides students with the up-to-date knowledge they need to succeed at GCSE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Enhances students' subject knowledge, critical thinking and problem-solving skills using clear explanations of geographical issues, brought to life through an exciting, enquiry-based approach\u003cbr\u003e- Teaches students how to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information through a range of progressive, skills-building activities that use real-place data, maps and photographs\u003cbr\u003e- Boosts candidates' confidence approaching examination by providing opportunities for practice for each assessed theme\u003cbr\u003e- Highlights possible fieldwork projects and contains guidance on carrying out investigations that meet the changed assessment requirements\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302147731829,"sku":"9781510477544","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781510477544_dedb6c9f-b937-48e6-a792-8c3006698030.jpg?v=1786022012"},{"product_id":"9781912235414","title":"Overlander","description":"Seeking a temporary escape from the city and a world gone mad, Alan Brown plots out a personal challenge: an epic coast-to-coast trip through the lonely interior of the Highlands. He traverses paths historic and new, eschewing creature comforts and high-tech gear, trusting his (mostly) serviceable bike and his own skills. Armed with the essentials and a sense of curiosity, he discovers more about nature, people, our country, risk and himself than he ever thought possible. Alan traces a route from Argyllshire’s Loch Etive across remote Rannoch moors, dramatic Grampian terrain and the beautiful glens of Strathspey to reach the Moray Firth at Findhorn. Ready for all weathers and obstacles, he succumbs to the hypnotic daily routine of ride, eat, sleep, repeat. He’s savouring the landscapes, the wildlife and the solitude, and relishing the self-reliance. He is also picking up clues to past lives and discovering how the land has been altered by industry and game sports or, sometimes, conserved for wildlife and trees.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309137506677,"sku":"9781912235414","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781912235414_cc250165-cb55-4bd7-b9e7-c96163f1bb6a.jpg?v=1786030661"},{"product_id":"9781916749184","title":"Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI","description":"The world is experiencing a rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence, sparking fierce debate about its impact on both business and society. This book cuts through the noise and acts as a guide on how to survive and thrive in the age of AI. By providing an accessible collection of short, practical insights, it offers you a framework for understanding the issues and implications of AI for individuals and organizations in this time of significant digital disruption.   Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI is specifically designed for busy professionals, leaders and decision makers. It is organized to allow you to gain valuable insights quickly and on demand. Above all, the content is grounded in real-world experience and practical applications within the context of digital transformation, ensuring its relevance to everyone who is embarking on a digital journey. Most importantly, each topic concludes with thought-provoking questions and actionable steps to guide your personal exploration of AI and its implications.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309533802869,"sku":"9781916749184","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781916749184_3e1c67a9-cbc8-467f-98fb-96369c929b87.jpg?v=1786030685"},{"product_id":"making-ai-work-for-britain","title":"Making AI Work for Britain","description":"The UK has made progress in digital transformation by consolidating demand and diversifying supply for digital government. For AI, it has inverted the formula. This will make achieving the UK's goals for AI impossible. This book explains why - and what to do about it.   Ministers have committed to making Britain an AI superpower and have identified GBP45 billion in potential productivity savings from digital transformation. But this book argues that without fundamental institutional reform, these ambitions will fail.   In 2014 Professor Brown co-authored Digitizing Government with Jerry Fishenden and Mark Thompson. That book challenged the UK to move beyond \"digital as websites\", and it helped to provided important input to both the Government Digital Service and the Government as a Platform reforms. Where those institutional reforms were followed, they worked; where they were not, the government's own data now shows the consequences.   According to the UK government's own \"State of Digital Government Review\" (January 2025), only 9% of the country's major technology programmes are rated as being on track for successful delivery. Technology programmes are 60% more likely to be rated \"Red\" than non-technology projects, and only 8% of public sector AI projects show measurable benefits.   Professor Brown argues that rather than being technology failures, these are institutional failures in governance, procurement, skills and accountability. \"More capable AI does not fix less capable institutions,\" he writes. \"Strategy documents don't transform countries. Institutions do.\"The book proposes five concrete reforms: a statutory AI Coordination Authority modelled on the OBR; outcome-based procurement using the Procurement Act 2023, with mandatory exit provisions; sovereign data infrastructure treated as strategic national investment; a three-level skills pipeline from awareness through professional capability to system leadership; and community impact assessments for every high-stakes public AI deployment.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492499988853,"sku":"9781916749672","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781916749672.jpg?v=1791213111"},{"product_id":"the-life-of-wisdom","title":"The Life of Wisdom","description":"In \"The Life of Wisdom\", Alan Brown offers a clear and boldly revisionist exposition of the relationship between Christianity and the classical philosophy of antiquity, with a view to making some important points about the nature of the philosophical task today. Taking issue with the understanding both of philosophy and of Christianity by certain secular humanists, Brown shows - in a similar vein to Alain de Botton in his book \"The Consolations of Philosophy\" - that in antiquity philosophy was never an abstracted activity but was actually about determining the good and valuable in life, and was therefore at bottom pragmatic. For Brown, Christianity (which is also, and above all, concerned with value and the good life) did not graft its philosophy on to its religious beliefs as some sort of adjunct, from elsewhere, but is intrinsically philosophical in a unique sense.   Contra secular philosophers like A C Grayling and Simon Blackburn, who view Christianity as philosophically impoverished, there is no meaningful distinction, then, between 'religious belief' and 'philosophical reason', since, like its classical counterparts, early Christianity was a distinct philosophy in its own right. And since Christian philosophy was apocalyptic in character, and looked to the future, it resisted the notion of absolute certainty in the present. For Brown, therefore, a true understanding of the nature of Christian philosophy has much to tell us about the fundamentally liberal and anti-authoritarian character of Christianity (an insight that has considerable present-day resonance in the light of recent fundamentalist attempts to re-position the churches according to a more conservative agenda).   In arguing this fascinating case, the author provides a very clear survey of the main schools of classical philosophy and their influence on early Christianity (free from the sorts of conceptual overlays into which both are usually forced), which will be of great value to students of the philosophy of antiquity - whether from the standpoint of classics or religious studies - who want to gain an accurate and well-informed sense of the main strands of philosophical thinking in the classical and Hellenistic worlds. \"The Life of Wisdom\" is thus both readable introductory textbook and stimulating philosophical essay, which puts a remarkable new perspective on the origins and contemporary meanings of Christian philosophy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57510174654837,"sku":"9781845110079","price":39.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781845110079.jpg?v=1787130506"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-alan-brown.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}