Management Mole
by John Mole
Price: $2.24 USD. 56690 words.
Published on January 3, 2012. Nonfiction.
Why do we work? What makes us happy? What makes us productive? John Mole was the general manager of an international bank – with an MBA from INSEAD, Europe's prestigious business school. Then he took a series of temporary jobs to see the reality of management. Sometimes poignant, constantly surprising, often hilariously funny. something for everyone involved in an office culture...Financial Times
Location: United Kingdom
Member Since: Nov. 30, 2011
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John Mole
Biography
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in French and German and with an MBA from INSEAD I spent fifteen years criss-crossing Europe and the Middle East for an American bank. In the mid 70’s I was posted to Greece. When we were transferred we left an old stone house on the island of Evia, which we go back to every year.
My fortieth birthday present to myself was to quit salaried employment. The main reason was to write full time. I reviewed the modern French novel and then science fiction for the TLS. Published works include three comic novels - “Sail or Return”, “The Monogamist,” “Thanks, Eddie!” - and the best-selling guide to European cultures “Mind Your Manners,” currently in its third edition and available in twenty languages. “Management Mole” was about going back as a temp in the back offices of the kind of organisation I used to manage.
Meanwhile I tried my hand at various entrepreneurial ventures. An attempt to establish a franchised chain of baked potato restaurants in Moscow came to an end when the Russian Mafia became interested. I had more success with INBIO Ltd, which imports Russian biotechnology for environmental protection and with a project to control the spread of water hyacinth on Tanzania‘s Lake Victoria. These ventures resulted in books such as “It's All Greek To Me!” and “I was a Potato Oligarch.”
I now write full time again. When I am not at the keyboard I sing and play the baglama, a miniature bouzouki, in a Greek band in London. I love to travel, especially around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Journeys have inspired “The Sultan's Organ” and “For Love of Helen.” And of course whatever I am doing I read whenever I can - in print and on Kindle.
My fortieth birthday present to myself was to quit salaried employment. The main reason was to write full time. I reviewed the modern French novel and then science fiction for the TLS. Published works include three comic novels - “Sail or Return”, “The Monogamist,” “Thanks, Eddie!” - and the best-selling guide to European cultures “Mind Your Manners,” currently in its third edition and available in twenty languages. “Management Mole” was about going back as a temp in the back offices of the kind of organisation I used to manage.
Meanwhile I tried my hand at various entrepreneurial ventures. An attempt to establish a franchised chain of baked potato restaurants in Moscow came to an end when the Russian Mafia became interested. I had more success with INBIO Ltd, which imports Russian biotechnology for environmental protection and with a project to control the spread of water hyacinth on Tanzania‘s Lake Victoria. These ventures resulted in books such as “It's All Greek To Me!” and “I was a Potato Oligarch.”
I now write full time again. When I am not at the keyboard I sing and play the baglama, a miniature bouzouki, in a Greek band in London. I love to travel, especially around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Journeys have inspired “The Sultan's Organ” and “For Love of Helen.” And of course whatever I am doing I read whenever I can - in print and on Kindle.
Where to find John Mole online
Where to buy in print
Books
The Quest for Helen
by John Mole
Price: $3.45 USD. 93190 words. Published on December 21, 2011. Fiction.
(1.00 from 1 review)
A comedy, a history, a traveller's tale of love and adventure...join young Lord Exford on his journey to the Greece of heroines and philosophers, pashas and janissaries. 1788. The rakish Exford, a prudish tutor and a truculent artist are shipwrecked on a Greek island, where they meet Amelia, an English feminist and explorer. Swept up in passion and delusion they confront the Turkish pashas.
Price: $3.45 USD. 93190 words. Published on December 21, 2011. Fiction.
(1.00 from 1 review) A comedy, a history, a traveller's tale of love and adventure...join young Lord Exford on his journey to the Greece of heroines and philosophers, pashas and janissaries. 1788. The rakish Exford, a prudish tutor and a truculent artist are shipwrecked on a Greek island, where they meet Amelia, an English feminist and explorer. Swept up in passion and delusion they confront the Turkish pashas.
The Sultan's Organ
by John Mole
Price: $3.45 USD. 26880 words. Published on December 16, 2011. Nonfiction.
Thomas Dallam took the gift of an extraordinary automatic organ from Queen Elizabeth to the Sultan of Turkey. He kept a diary of his thrilling odyssey and its triumphant conclusion. Faithfully translated into prose more easily digested by the modern reader, unembellished and unedited, this illuminating historical source is presented as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.
Price: $3.45 USD. 26880 words. Published on December 16, 2011. Nonfiction.
Thomas Dallam took the gift of an extraordinary automatic organ from Queen Elizabeth to the Sultan of Turkey. He kept a diary of his thrilling odyssey and its triumphant conclusion. Faithfully translated into prose more easily digested by the modern reader, unembellished and unedited, this illuminating historical source is presented as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.
Thanks, Eddie
by John Mole
Price: $2.24 USD. 72670 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
A witty satire on City life, which will be gruesomely familiar to all those who work within the Square Mile. The Times Most enjoyable...good on office atmosphere, City jargon, slap and tickle. The Guardian No-one knows more about the workings of Dividend Investments than Eddie Fly... no, he isn't the Chief Executive but the head messenger, the life and soul of the company...
Price: $2.24 USD. 72670 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
A witty satire on City life, which will be gruesomely familiar to all those who work within the Square Mile. The Times Most enjoyable...good on office atmosphere, City jargon, slap and tickle. The Guardian No-one knows more about the workings of Dividend Investments than Eddie Fly... no, he isn't the Chief Executive but the head messenger, the life and soul of the company...
The Monogamist
by John Mole
Price: $2.24 USD. 79150 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
Half of marriages end in divorce. But is it all roses for the other half? From the author of Sail or Return, The Monogamist an original and moving comedy, bubbling with laughter and surprise, about staying married. Packed with comic invention The Times Perceptive and very funny Observer
Price: $2.24 USD. 79150 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
Half of marriages end in divorce. But is it all roses for the other half? From the author of Sail or Return, The Monogamist an original and moving comedy, bubbling with laughter and surprise, about staying married. Packed with comic invention The Times Perceptive and very funny Observer
Sail Or Return
by John Mole
Price: $2.24 USD. 89730 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
This is a book with much original humour, a highly accomplished farce with plenty of sharply observed social detail and a fast-moving narrative pace to match its tight plotting.The Times Literary Supplement 'a hilarious chronicle,' Manchester Evening News This is a very funny first novel about the folly of trying to realise one's dreams. A witty, extremely entertaining read.' Woman's Journal
Price: $2.24 USD. 89730 words. Published on December 12, 2011. Fiction.
This is a book with much original humour, a highly accomplished farce with plenty of sharply observed social detail and a fast-moving narrative pace to match its tight plotting.The Times Literary Supplement 'a hilarious chronicle,' Manchester Evening News This is a very funny first novel about the folly of trying to realise one's dreams. A witty, extremely entertaining read.' Woman's Journal
Three Christmas Tales
by John Mole
Price: $1.76 USD. 5190 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Rubbish Christmas, Christmas Love, The Explorer's Christmas...Hunted street kids, child slavery, and an explorer starving and lost in the Frozen North. The Christmas message for grown-ups. And no syrup with that. But with happy endings...
Price: $1.76 USD. 5190 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Rubbish Christmas, Christmas Love, The Explorer's Christmas...Hunted street kids, child slavery, and an explorer starving and lost in the Frozen North. The Christmas message for grown-ups. And no syrup with that. But with happy endings...
Three Hellish Tales
by John Mole
Price: $1.76 USD. 20150 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Three very different stories with one thing in common - the supranatural. Maria and her lover flee to America from a sea vampire bent on vengeance. In The Good Book the Church is keen to find the lost Gospel of Mary Magdalen. Who do they turn to? The Devil incarnate. Set in Ancient Greece Second Life is based on the oldest zombie tale in literature. A tale of Death and Sex - in that order.
Price: $1.76 USD. 20150 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Three very different stories with one thing in common - the supranatural. Maria and her lover flee to America from a sea vampire bent on vengeance. In The Good Book the Church is keen to find the lost Gospel of Mary Magdalen. Who do they turn to? The Devil incarnate. Set in Ancient Greece Second Life is based on the oldest zombie tale in literature. A tale of Death and Sex - in that order.
Hell Mountain
by John Mole
Price: $2.25 USD. 59390 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Satan and Snowboarding in the Rockies – A supernatural thriller. Ellen, a sophomore on a college ski trip, disappears in an avalanche. Was she suffocated by the snow? Murdered by a ski patrol? Abducted by the Demon Lord of the Mountain? The search is led by a born-again police captain, an obsessive ski-patrol director and a handsome paraglider. A spectacular rescue brings salvation - or does it?
Price: $2.25 USD. 59390 words. Published on December 3, 2011. Fiction.
Satan and Snowboarding in the Rockies – A supernatural thriller. Ellen, a sophomore on a college ski trip, disappears in an avalanche. Was she suffocated by the snow? Murdered by a ski patrol? Abducted by the Demon Lord of the Mountain? The search is led by a born-again police captain, an obsessive ski-patrol director and a handsome paraglider. A spectacular rescue brings salvation - or does it?
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