So you think you know your dog? Bazza is an easy-going middle-aged college lecturer with a taste for weed, porn, beer and redheads. When he adopts a rescue dog, he sees nothing odd about the animal. Then a Himalayan monk comes to visit, and senses something strange. Dog is a powerful story of love and loss, sin, redemption and dog mess. You'll never see your pet the same way again.

How will the world see the 20th century a hundred years from now? For many, it was like living right on the edge of a turbulent ocean that threatened to engulf them; and sometimes it did. In this thoughtful book, Mike Robbins looks at the century just gone through those who lived it, and the books they left behind. Robbins includes some very different perspectives. What was it like to crew the last great sailing ships? How did it feel to be an ordinary man—or a Chinese labourer—on the West...

In 1987 Mike Robbins, a young journalist in London, felt restless and decided to travel. He never really stopped. In the quarter century that followed he lived and worked in countries as diverse as the world itself. The pieces in this book take the reader from rural Sudan to the headwaters of the Amazon, from Semana Santa in Quito to Buddhist temples in the Himalayas, across Bhutan on a motorbike, into the ancient souk of Aleppo, to the steppes of Central Asia and finally to New York. Alon...

Three Seasons is a book of three novellas, unconnected with each other, but all set in the south of England in the 1980s. In Spring, a middle-aged Hull trawler skipper, his great days gone, has one last throw of the dice a South Coast port. In Summer, an ambitious young man makes his way in the booming Thames Valley property market, unconcerned with the damage he does to others. In Autumn, the Master of an Oxford college welcomes his two sons home, but they awake difficult memories from ha...

“When the people shall have nothing more to eat,” said Rousseau, “they will eat the rich.” But the rich are rather good at getting the poor to eat each other instead. In this provocative novella-length essay, Mike Robbins looks at how the British electoral system, social media, bullying by business, and a growing gap between rich and poor have led to deep fissures in British society. These have been exploited by those with an agenda of their own. As a result, democracy is now fragile. To r...

When Silvia’s country falls apart after a coup, she flees to London. Picked up by the police, she is dumped for weeks in a bed-and-breakfast with a crazy landlady, then rescued by cold intellectuals. She finds she is a nuisance to one side and a cause to the other, with no dreams, family or opinions of her own. Until she meets another, earlier, refugee; and then she has a surprise for everyone. The Lost Baggage of Silvia Guzmán is a story of flight, loss and the pain of exile. But it is al...

In 1987 Mike Robbins, a 30-year-old London journalist, decided on a change of lifestyle and signed up for two years as an overseas volunteer. Some weeks later he found himself standing with his luggage in the middle of a featureless baked-earth plain in Eastern Sudan. It was over 100 deg F in the shade. And there was no shade. This is Robbins's account of the two years that followed, working with the Sudan Government in the last months of a failed democratic experiment, as the country cope...

What makes a great team? Author, leadership expert, and corporate consultant looks at how businesses can build trust and achieve high performance.Have you ever been on a team where the talent was strong, but the team wasn't very good? On the flip side, have you ever been on a team where not every single member was a rock star, but something about the team just worked?We've all had these types of experiences. And yet, it can be difficult to understand what ma...

Praise for Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken"Mike's book is a wonderful expression of authenticity in action—clear, honest, instructive, and a passionate call to be your true Divine Self."—Cheryl Richardson, New York Times best-selling author, Take Time for Your Life"Mike Robbins provides a clear guide for intelligently and compassionately coming face-to-face with yourself and loving the person you meet. H...

The author and professional coach teaches readers to find greater happiness through gratitude in this book of personal stories and practical advice.Before he became a successful author and professional coach, Mike Robbins was a professional baseball player. But at twenty-three years old, he suffered an injury that ended his promising career as a pitcher. Instead of quitting, Mike took stock of the good things in his life and began a new path....

In today’s work environment, the lines between our professional and personal lives are blurred more than ever before. Whatever is happening to us outside of our workplace—whether stressful, painful, or joyful—follows us into work as well.We may think we have to keep these realities under wraps and act as if we “have it all together.” But as Mike Robbins explains, we can work better, lead better, and be more engaged and fulfilled if—instead of trying to hide who we ...

After three years of living his dream as a professional baseball pitcher, Mike Robbins had an arm injury that benched him for good, and when this happened, everything changed.He had to figure out who he was without the identity of "baseball player"—a process fraught with emotional highs and lows—and he quickly realized that the self-criticism and self-doubt he was feeling are in fact epidemic in our culture. Too often we base our value on our external world—our job...