Sport and leisure managers need to understand the financial side of their industry to offer the most cost-effective facilities and to make sound business decisions. However, to the non-expert the language and practice of finance is often bewildering and perceived as complicated, difficult and impenetrable. This textbook guides the reader through the maze of financial terms and concepts, illustrating theory with examples drawn specifically from sport-based contexts to make this the most relevant, transparent and helpful handbook for students of leisure management available.

Written by experts in accounting and sport management, this book enables readers to work through the subject at their own pace, with case studies, worked examples and self-tests to ensure students can apply their knowledge to industry-specific situations. Ideal for students on sport and leisure management courses, this book will also be valuable to practising managers who need a quick-reference guide to everyday financial questions.

Sport and leisure managers need to understand the financial side of their industry to offer the most cost-effective facilities and to make sound business decisions. However, to the non-expert the language and practice of finance is often bewildering and perceived as complicated, difficult and impenetrable. This textbook guides the reader through the maze of financial terms and concepts, illustrating theory with examples drawn specifically from sport-based contexts to make this the most relevant, transparent and helpful handbook for students of leisure management available. Written by experts in accounting and sport management, this book enables readers to work through the subject at their own pace, with case studies, worked examples and self-tests to ensure students can apply their knowledge to industry-specific situations. Ideal for students on sport and leisure management courses, this book will also be valuable to practising managers who need a quick-reference guide to everyday financial questions.

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis a damaged Soviet nuclear submarine receives orders to attack the flagship of the American blockade with an atomic-tipped torpedo. Are the orders genuine, or are the scientists behind the ultra-secret telepathic experiment that transmitted the instructions intent on destroying the world? In America and the USSR the hunt is on for the two surviving telepaths capable of stopping World War III - the two young women code named Fire and Ice. Thriller: Espionage / Occult & Supernatural

'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' is the climax of John Joyce's 'Virtual Trilogy' of cyberthrillers following the quest by billionaire genius Theo Gilkrensky to save his beloved wife Maria from murder by warping the fabric of time. Convinced that the research he carried out in 'Virtually Maria' and 'A Matter of Time' will enable him to jump back in time and save Maria from death, Theo travels to Japan and enters into a pact with his greatest enemies to obtain the computer power he needs to complete his calculations. But dark forces are massing to destroy him. Yukiko Funakoshi, the seductive assassin who blames Theo for the death of her parents recruits a gang of former terrorists to commit the ultimate act of revenge. The CIA are out to arrest him for industrial espionage. And even the faithful Minerva 3000 computer, whose artificially intelligent user-interface programme has been fashioned to look, sound and act like his late wife, is plotting against him. From the infinite horizons of cyberspace - to the depths of the human heart, the final battle for 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' is about to begin.

"A Matter of Time" is the second thriller in John Joyce's "Virtual Trilogy" featuring the quest of billionaire computer genius Theo Gilkrensky to save his wife Maria from murder by warping the fabric of time. Aided by the intelligent interface of his revolutionary Minerva 3000 computer, which he has created in Maria's likeness, Theo is pursued by seductive Japanese assassin Yukiko Funakoshi to Florida. Here his investigations unearth the truth behind the legendary "Bermuda Triangle" and bring him into direct conflict with Gerry Gibb, a powerful computer games designer who lusts after Theo's 'virtual Maria' for sick fantasies of his own in cyberspace. The 'Virtual Trilogy' concludes with "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," which will be published by Spindrift Press, Dublin on November 15th 2008.

"Virtually Maria" is the first book in John Joyce's Virtual Trilogy - A quest by one man to save the love of his life from murder by travelling back in time. It is a story of state of the art technology, forgotten forces, and exotic locations all over the world. Our hero will be guided by the artificially intelligent Minerva computer - an electronic Tinkerbell with a mind of its own. Theo Gilkrensky, computer genius and chairman of the electronics multinational GRC, is engrossed in the final stages of development of the revolutionary Minerva computer, when his wife Maria walks out on him and is killed by a car bomb. Wracked by grief and guilt, Theo retreats with Minerva onto a remote island off the south coast of Ireland until the crash of a GRC-owned airliner near Cairo forces Jessica Wright, his chief executive and former lover, to drag him back from exile. Using the Minerva display data from the crash investigation, Theo manages to exonerate his corporation, but in the process reveals that he has reprogrammed the computer's user interface to look, think and speak like his beloved Maria. Investigating further, Theo discovers that the crash was caused not by computer failure, but by a unique radiation coming from the Great Pyramid of Cheops. He finds a previously undiscovered chamber - a place where unseen energies from all over the world are concentrated to warp the very fabric of space and time. Theo is further astounded when Minerva calculates that this phenomenon could be manipulated to travel back in time and save his wife, Maria from death. Meanwhile, others are out to steal the revolutionary Minerva, while Yukiko Funakoshi, the half-caste daughter of a man Theo once wronged, is homing in on Cairo with an arsenal of arcane weapons and millions of dollars at her disposal for Theo's destruction. First published by Poolbeg Press in 1998, Virtually Maria was "Book of the Month" at the Easons Bookstore chain in Ireland. It will be followed in 2008 the other two books in the Virtual Trilogy - "A Matter of Time," and "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," both to be published by Spindrift Press, Dublin.