A glamorous young TV soap star dies in a car crash. Returning for her sixth case, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel is baffled as the driver of the second vehicle miraculously survives - and vanishes. Another young actress is murdered, and once again the killer mysteriously disappears. Geraldine unwittingly risks her sergeant's life in their struggle to track down a serial killer who leaves no clues.

March 1946. The railways are falling apart, rationing is getting worse and black marketeers are at work. For Violet McIntyre, a dressmaker living in Woodford Halse, it is a struggle to make ends meet. Her life becomes inextricably linked to an investigation that Detective Inspector Charles Vignoles of the Railway Detective Department is pursuing. Vignoles believes he's making good progress tracking a gang of...

Matthew Bartholomew doesn't want to travel to Peterborough, but he has caused a scandal in Cambridge, so has no choice. He is one of a party of Bishop's Commissioners, charged to discover what happened to Peterborough's abbot, who has disappeared. When the Commissioners arrive, they find the town in turmoil. A rabble-rouser is encouraging the poor to rise up, the abbey is at war with a powerful goldsmith...

Antiques expert Rowland Egerton, the darling of daytime TV, has been stabbed to death in his luxurious West London home. The press are going to be all over this one like a nasty rash: the pressure's on Slider for a result, and soon. Egerton's partner, the bulky, granite-faced John Lavender, found the body; did he also do the deed? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? A missing Faberge box and Impressionist painting point...

Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley face their biggest challenge to date when senior NCA official Richard Daws is murdered. The murder of Richard Daws, 14th Earl of Hartwood and a senior official at the National Crime Agency at his home - the highly secure Hartwood Castle - has sent shockwaves through MI5, MI6...

Tinashe is a young Shona boy living in a small village in rural Rhodesia. The guerilla war of the late 1960s haunts the bushlands, but rarely affects his quiet life. When his younger sister, Hazvinei, is born, Tinashe knows at once that there is something special about her. Their life in the village, once disturbed only by the occasional visits of his successful uncle and city cousin, Abel, now becomes entangled with the dual forces of the Shona spirit world and the political turmoil...

Hailed as a medical classic, and the subject of a major feature film as well as radio and stage plays and various TV documentaries, Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is the extraordinary account of a group of 20 patients. Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the...

Katie wants to be a film director. Last week, she wanted to be a writer, and the week before that, a florist. One thing Katie isn't short of is ambition, but she knows that none of her ambitions are to be a waitress. Unfortunately, Katie is a waitress!

A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are two much-loved novels by Charles Dickens. Tale of Two Cities is is a novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The main characters — Doctor Alexandre Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton — are all recalled to life, or ...

Continues the adventures of the Dark Elf hero, Drizzt Do'Urden, as an invasion of orcs sweeps across the Spine of the World, separating him from the friends on whom he has long relied and forcing him to draw on his own inner resources.

When Reece Johnston was a boy, a fire destroyed his home, killing his mother and brothers while leaving him scarred for life. It also kindled something dark inside him: an irresistible attraction to flames in all their terrifying, tantalizing power.

A two-timing pornographer becomes the unwilling object of one of his victim's vengeful fantasies. A millionaire buys himself the perfect mistress - passive, yet beautiful - but the union soon becomes a nightmare of jealousy and despair. And an ape reflects on the relationship with a young female writer, mourning...

Relentless, gritty and full of unexpected twists, The Night Manager is John le Carré's 14th novel, and it is every bit as enthralling as his earlier works, like the best-selling The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The night manager is Jonathan, a veteran of clandestine operations. In flight from a failed marriage and his own past, he has taken refuge in the luxury hotel trade. Yet he finds no escape from his demons. Driven by a desire for atonement...

This was the end of the story that had started "Once upon a time, in a rainy country, there was a king...." The end had not happened in a rainy country, but on a bone-dry Spanish hillside, 300 metres from where Van der Valk had left a lot of blood, some splintered bone, a few fragments of gut, and a ten-seventy-five Mauser rifle bullet. No one had broken any laws. But a handsome, middle-aged millionaire had...

Bloemendaal aan Zee, that smugly prosperous little seaside town, has more television sets per capita than anywhere else in Holland. Even its drunks are polite, its houses uniformly tidy and sparkling clean. But there's something very wrong with the kids. The most popular teenagers have formed a gang that is preying, with increasing viciousness, on nearby Amsterdam—Inspector Van der Valk's patch.

The culminating volume in The Saga of Seven Suns weaves together the myriad story lines in a spectacular grand finale. Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against one another. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale eight years in the making. The Saga of Seven Suns is one of the most colorful...

Lief, Barda and their unruly new companion, Jasmine, are on a perilous quest to find the seven gems stolen from the magic Belt of Deltora. The golden topaz has already been found. But only when all the gems have been restored to the Belt can their land be freed from the dark power of the evil Shadow Lord. To find the second stone, the three heroes must travel through territory rules by the monster-sorceress Thaegan.

Sadie Drew thinks she must be the world's worst wife. She only needs to walk into a room to make it untidy. She wears flannel pyjamas in bed. Furry things breed in her fridge. But she's a busy working mother, not a wifebot, and husband Tom loves her as she is. Until he gets a hot new job and things change. There are alpha-wives to entertain. Nuclear rows. Unsettling secrets. And the smell of another woman's perfume...

One child dead. Another missing. The village has seen this before. On a warm evening in late summer, best friends Raymond and Cara camp out overnight in the garden. By morning, Raymond is dead and Cara is missing. DI Rita Cannan is called home to the sleepy seaside town of Green-on-the-Sea to investigate Raymond&;s murder and try to find Cara alive. But the case carries eerie echoes of another girl's death...

From the bestselling author of A Beautiful Poison comes another spellbinding historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists. New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t...

The Feast of Artemis The olive harvest is drawing to a close in the town of Dendra, and when Hermes Diakotoros arrives for the celebratory festival, he expects an indulgent day of food and wine. But as young men leap a bonfire in feats of daring, one of them is badly burned. Did he fall, or was he pushed? Then, as Hermes learns of a deep-running feud between two families, one of their patriarchs dies. Determined to...

First published in 1982, this biography by a leading military historian and former general Sir David Fraser firmly establishes Alanbrooke in Britain's pantheon of great warriors. Alanbrooke was a master strategist, and his partnership with Churchill was of central importance to the Allies' victory.

Seventh in the Van der Valk series. How do you prove a murder that's almost impossible to prove was a murder? An elusive homicide evades even the most decisive guile from a true master of criminal investigation, but Van der Valk won't let that stop him. A seemingly unintended death of a local restaurant owner might not be as accidental as some would like it to appear, and when the suspicions of...

I'll tell you something, something important. Love is a decision. Not a feeling. That's what you young people don't realise. That's why you're always off divorcing each other. No offence, dear. So decrees the formidable Connie Thrum of Scribbly Gum Island. She is the chief decision-maker of a rather unconventional family and her word is law. It's been over 70 years since Connie and her sister Rose visited...

Having signed up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, go on to fight in the Indian wars and ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in they find these days to be vivid. Both an intensely poignant story of two men and the lives they are dealt, and a fresh look at...

It can take a lifetime to heal the wounds of war. Edward Enderby has never spoken about being an RAF fighter pilot. But fifty years after the greatest conflict the world has ever seen, he must finally confront the memories he has tried so hard to forget. From the bright skies over England in 1941, through the dark days of the Siege of Malta, to a bitter partisan struggle in Italy, his takes a momentous journey that will...

The Sunday Times top 10 best-selling author Discover a brilliant story of love, danger, courage and betrayal, from the internationally best-selling author of The Betrayal. Malaya, 1941: As the glamorous wife of a plantation owner, Connie Hadley appears to lead a pampered and comfortable life. But she is hiding devastating secrets that could destroy her marriage. Life is changed forever on the day of the infamous...

The Sunday Times top 10 best-selling author Discover a brilliant story of love, danger, courage and betrayal, from the internationally best-selling author of The Betrayal. Russia, 1910. Young Valentina Ivanova charms St Petersburg's aristocracy with her classic Russian beauty and her talent as a pianist. But she scandalises society when she begins a romance with Jens Friis, a Danish engineer. He brings to her...

When Juliet Porter’s mother dies, she leaves Juliet some old letters and a photograph which shatter all her previously-held beliefs. They show that her real father was an American bomber pilot in the Second World War, some 40 years before, and that he had met her mother while serving in England. Armed only with this photo, Juliet sets out to trace her real father, and eventually finds the airfield where he served.

An unusual proposal, family secrets and a mystery man in Cornwall ... Praise for Netta Muskett: “Warmth, feeling and honesty ...” The Bookseller Eve Brayle has grown up in luxury but is now penniless and in need of work. Then Lewis Belamie waltzes into her life with an unusual proposition. He offers her the "job" of posing as his fiancée. The deal seems simple enough. Eve must pretend to be engaged to Lewis for a week...

Ten years ago, journalist Ben Webster had his investigation into a corrupt Russian business in Kazakhstan crushed, the cost of his scrutiny a terrible tragedy . . . Now employed by a private London intelligence agency, Webster's interest is piqued when a client asks him to expose the dealings of shadowy Russian oligarch Konstantin Malin. Before long Webster finds himself fixated by Malin and by his front man...

Lindsay Boxer's beautiful baby is born! But after only a week at home with her new daughter, Lindsay is forced to return to work to face two of the biggest cases of her career. A rising star football player for the San Francisco 49ers is the prime suspect in a grisly murder. At the same time, Lindsay is confronted with the strangest story she’s ever heard: An eccentric English professor has been having vivid nightmares about...

When story-lover Anna takes over Longhampton's bookshop, it's her dream come true. And not just because it gets her away from her three rowdy stepchildren and their hyperactive dalmatian. Unpacking boxes filled with childhood classics, Anna can't shake the feeling that maybe her own fairy-tale ending isn't all that she'd hoped for. But as the stories of love, adventure, secret gardens, lost dogs, wicked witches and...

Despite her refusal to face the truth, some mysterious force makes Sophie leave her lover, Jake, and her secure, normal student life in London for the village of Pendlemere, lurking under the sinister Pendle Hill.

For centuries Pendlemere has been the source of legends of witchcraft, and, with a growing sense of fear, Sophie knows that she has been there before, perhaps in another existence....

Having lost her mother at a young age, Maria Conti is close to her father, Leo, who owns an Italian restaurant, Leonardo’s. Secretly, however, she worries over Leo's drinking and gambling binges. Maria has no one to advise her as Leo's family is in Italy and her mother's family in Ireland rejected her when she married a foreigner. Then Leo is tragically killed. In the dark days that follow it emerges that he has left them deeply...

In an idyllic neighbourhood of Copenhagen, a young woman, Susanne Hansson, is discovered in her apartment bound and gagged, the victim of an extraordinarily brutal rape attack. Detective Inspector Louise Rick soon learns that Susanne met the rapist on a popular online dating site, something Susanne shamefully tries to hide. Events quickly spiral out of control as a horrified Louise realises that the rapist is using...

Early on a cold Somerset morning, ten year old Alesha Daniels is reported missing by her father, a violent alcoholic. Her mother, a known drug addict, is found unconscious, but it’s her mother’s boyfriend the police are keen to trace. As the hunt for Alesha gathers pace, a second local girl is taken, plunging another family into the depths of despair. Cutting short his holiday, DI Nick Dixon races home to join the...

“Always love life” was the message Briony Stone’s first sweetheart left with her before he was killed in an air crash. It seems strange that the same thought should be voiced by Robert Baker, the young vet whom she has known such a short time, but to whom she is so unaccountably drawn. Briony, now married to the snobbish, unimaginative Charles, realises too late that she has disregarded her lover’s advice...

Tasia McFarland is a washed-up country-pop singer desperate for the break that will get her topping the charts again. The tabloids have raked over every part of Tasia's rocky life, following every high and low her addictions, her breakdowns, her increasingly erratic behavior and every broken relationship. The highlight of this lowlight reel: Tasia McFarland is the ex-wife of the president of the United States.

Conrad de Lancey has seen enough of evil: the shadow of fear on the faces of innocents; the sudden lull before the slaughter begins. Franco's bloody insurrection taught this Englishman all about hell. Arriving in his mother's country, the now Nazi Germany, Conrad is sick at heart. Even Berlin—infamous haven of decadence—salutes fascism. Himmler's black-shirted troops rule the city, and every German arm bears a Swastika.

When lawyer Jenny Cooper is appointed Severn Vale District Coroner, she’s hoping for a quiet life and space to recover from a traumatic divorce. But the office she inherits from the recently deceased Harry Marshall contains neglected files hiding dark secrets and a trail of buried evidence. Could the tragic death in custody of a young boy be linked to the apparent suicide of a teenage prostitute and the fate of...

Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently-absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins. Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery...

If you were to ask me to tell you about my wife, I would have to warn you at the outset that I don't know a great deal about her. Or at least, not as much as I thought I did...' Alex is a solitary London lawyer who is deeply in love with his beautiful wife, Rachel. When Rachel is brutally murdered one Midsummer Night in Oxford, all of his happiness vanishes. Shrouded in shock and grief, he returns to Oxford that winter...

On a hillside near the cosy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gather around their beloved shepherd George, who lies murdered, his body pinned to the pasture with a spade. Fortunately, George has left behind an unusually intelligent group of sheep. Every night since they were lambs, he has read aloud to them - fairy tales, factual books about ovine disease, even detective stories - in order to help them sleep.

October 1940. The London borough of West Ham is in the grip of yet another night of bombing, and undertaker Francis Hancock is in the grip of yet another night of temporary insanity. A veteran of World War One, Francis is forced by the nightly air raids to relive the trauma of the trenches, and all he can do is try to outrun the

Hidden by London’s wealth, energy and need for cheap labour, the city’s immigrant population is powerless, despised and often illegal. So when a young woman’s body is discovered on Hampstead Heath one cold morning, she could be anyone...Rich or poor, outsider or insider, five strangers are connected in undreamed-of ways as greed, courage, murder and kindness link their lives. Polly Noble, a human rights lawyer...

The body of a dead man is discovered in an overgrown cemetery in Bristol, the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh. At first it seems to coroner Jenny Cooper that all the evidence points to a horrific, if routine, suicide. Then an enigmatic young priest, Father Lucas Starr, arrives on Jenny’s doorstep, entreating her to hold an inquest into the death of Eva Donaldson, a high profile political campaigner whose past...

How did it all begin? I suppose it would be the day I rescued a new-born baby from a poisonous snake, heard the news of my mother’s death and encountered my first ghost… Veterinary surgeon Clara Benning is young and intelligent, but practically a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she lives alone and shies away from human contact wherever possible. But when a man dies following a supposed snake bite...

The publication of Robinson Crusoe in London in 1719 marked the arrival of a revolutionary art form: the novel. British writers were prominent in shaping the new type of storytelling - one which reflected the experiences of ordinary people, with characters in whom readers could find not only an escape, but a deeper understanding of their own lives.

This was conceived and written by Friedrich Nietzsche during the years 1881-1885; the first three Parts were published in 1883 and 1884. The book formed part of his 'campaign against morality', in which Nietzsche explored the ethical consequences of the 'death of God'.

His second major venture into non fiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africais Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal of a month on safari in the great game country of East Africa, where he and his wife Pauline journeyed in December of 1933. Hemingway's well-known interest in and fascination...

Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this definitive audio collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style -- from the plain bald language of his first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense...

Have you ever wondered why everybody these days seems so busy? In FINDING SANCTUARY, Father Christopher Jamison, the Abbot from BBC TV's THE MONASTERY and THE SILENCE, offers practical wisdom from the monastic tradition on how to build sanctuary into your life.

A high court judge living a carefree life in St Petersburg is one day beset by pains and soon has to come to terms with the fact that he will die. He must learn to face death without fear and yet feel compassion for the family he is leaving behind.

One of Britain's most amusing and original writers reflects on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters; a record of shame, adultery, friendship and love. Few diarists have ever been so frank about themselves, and even fewer so entertaining.

After the Ball' is Nobby Stiles' account of a lifetime spent living and breathing football. Signed to Manchester United at the age of fifteen, he progressed to the England team, and had a starring role in the 1966 World Cup.

Now a major Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, great explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies, Beatles memorabilia, miniature cacti and coral.

In ancient Greek mythology Atlas, a member of the original race of gods called Titans, leads a rebellion against the new deities, the Olympians. For this he incurs divine wrath: the victorious Olympians force Atlas, guardian of the Garden of Hesperides and its golden apples of life, to bear the weight of the earth...

A stunning collection of short stories by the acclaimed fantasy writer. The distinctive genius of Neil Gaiman has been championed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. With THE SANDMAN Neil Gaiman created one of the most sophisticated, intelligent and influential graphic novel series of our time. Now after the recent success of his latest novel ANANSI BOYS, Gaiman has produced FRAGILE THINGS...

Arethusa Clayton has always been formidable, used to getting her own way. On her death, she leaves unexpected instructions. Instead of being buried in America, on the wealthy East Coast where she and her late husband raised their two children, Arethusa has decreed that her ashes be scattered in a remote...

Gregor Jack, MP, well-liked, young, married to the fiery Elizabeth - to the outside world a very public success story. But Jack's carefully nurtured career plans take a tumble after a 'mistake' during a police raid on a notorious Edinburgh brothel. Then Elizabeth disappears, a couple of bodies float into view where they shouldn't, and a lunatic speaks from...

1568. Mary Queen of Scots, fleeing rebellion in her kingdom, is offered a safe haven by Elizabeth I with George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his indomitable wife, Bess of Hardwick. The arrival of an extravagent queen turns the household upside down, as it becomes clear that the visit is a house arrest.

A Genius Performance by Hugh Fraser! A Poirot story taken from Murder in the Mews Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore suspects he is the victim of fraud and contacts Hercule Poirot. The host’s failure to answer to the dinner gong leads to the discovery of his body in the study.

What was life like for Shakespeare's first audiences? In a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, how did Elizabethan play-goers make sense of their changing world? What did the plays mean to the public when they were first performed? In this fascinating series, Neil MacGregor attempts to...

It is May, 1944 – a time of international tension where nothing is certain . . . Two weeks before D-Day, the French Resistance attack a chateau containing a telephone exchange vital to German communications – but the building is heavily guarded and the attack fails disastrously. Flick Clairet, a young British secret agent, proposes a daring new plan...

Sunday Times number-one best seller Ian Rankin returns with his gripping new Rebus novel. Unabridged edition featuring a bonus interview with Ian Rankin and James MacPherson. Rebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. A 30-year-old case is being reopened, and Rebus' team from back then is suspected of foul play. With Malcolm Fox as the investigating officer, are the past and present about to collide in a shocking and...

A Genius performance by Penelope Keith! Winter Parva, a traditional Cotswolds village next door to Carsely, has decided to throw a celebratory hog roast to mark the beginning of the winter holiday festivities and Agatha Raisin has arrived with friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But as the spit pig is carried towards the bed of fiery charcoal Agatha - and the...

Following the best-selling Summer of a Dormouse, Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian, and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would we like to leave to our descendants? Not a third-rate painting or our PEPS, according to Sir John....

One day, sitting in traffic, Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life. But in this event is born the seed of something which will take Stella thousands of miles from her old life, turning an ordinary woman into a superstar, wrenching her whole family apart. For the first time real...

Julie Walters stars on this classic comedy CD, alongside the wonderful Victoria Wood. And if that wasn't talent enough, the sketches, monologues, and songs were written by Alan Bennett, Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale and of course Ms Wood.

A masterpiece of gothic fiction, The Monk is a cautionary tale of madness, horror, lust, and despair. Father Ambrosio, the most pious and venerated monk in all of Madrid, is held as a paragon of virtue. But after thirty years of study and prayer, evil thoughts begin to permeate his mind. As two plots cleverly...

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern-day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales. The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face...

"Our Island History" by H. E. Marshall is an Edwardian history book for younger listeners (6-12) which tells the story of England, concluding with the reign of Queen Victoria. Antonia Fraser and many other current historians declare that it was this book that opened the delights of history for them. It fell from...

C. S. Lewis was one of the twentieth century’s best-known authors. The Narnia Chronicles, The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are among his most loved works. Shadowlands tells the unique story of Lewis’s tragic love. In Joy Davidman he truly found love and was drawn out of his shell. But only briefly...

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The 11th book featuring Lord Peter, set in a country church, is often named as the best detective story ever written.

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael!

It is 1936 and Lord Peter Wimsey has returned from his honeymoon to set up home with his cherished new wife, the novelist Harriet Vane.

What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld? When Captain Shang is mortally wounded in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily. With the help of Shang's great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must find Shang's spirit and leave by sunrise, or become King Yama's prisoner forever. Mulan, still disguised...

London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth.

From the international number one best-selling author of the DCI Ryan mysteries. Hysteria is the second instalment in Ross' brand-new Dr Alex Gregory series, narrated by actor Hugh Dancy. Recently returned from his last case in Ireland, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the French police that he can’t ignore. It’s Paris fashion week, and some of the world’s...

Molly hunched over the steering wheel. A breeze started to move the fog, which danced in swaying pillars in front of her headlights, somehow even more difficult to drive through than the previous thick fog. As she approached the village, through the shifting fog, she saw the lightning-blasted limbs of the witches' tree ... Driving home from a dinner party in the village of Sumpton Harcourt, Rory and Molly Harris, the new...

From silly chuckles to rueful ironic glee to deep cosmic laughter, this new volume of humorous tales samples the best of recent seasons of the popular public radio series Selected Shorts.

It is important for children living in the multi-faith society of today to grow up with an understanding of the rich diversity of religious beliefs and customs that co-exist within their communities. Here is a lively and informative companion to religious education studies for children of primary school age. The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism are introduced in a clear, accessible manner.

Noam Chomsky discusses the root causes of the conflict within the Middle East and talks about his hopes for social change. He brings his rapier-like mind and deadpan wit to bear in slicing through mainstream misconceptions about the internal and external policies of various Midde Eastern nations and the USA.

A selection of Ted Hughes's wonderfully vivid children's fiction, read by the author and selected and introduced by Michael Morpurgo. The recordings include The Iron Man; Creation Tales for the Very Young :Long Ago When the World Was Brand New... How the Whale Became, How the Polar Bear Became, How the Cat Became, How the Hare Became. Creation Tales for Children aged 8+ The Guardian, The Invaders...

Cambodia - a country re-emerging from a half century of war, genocide, famine and cultural collapse. German Detective Maier travels to Phnom Penh, the Asian kingdom's ramshackle capital, to find the heir to a Hamburg coffee empire. As soon as the private eye and former war reporter arrives in Cambodia, his search for the young coffee magnate leads into the darkest corners of the country's history, and through...

At college in 1980s, Robbie Goulding, an Irish-born teenager, meets Fran Mulvey, a Vietnamese refugee. Together they form a band. Joined by cellist Sarah-Thérèse Sherlock and her brother Seán on drums, they set out to chase fame. Spanning 25 years, we fast-forward through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. Infused with blues, New Wave and punk, the tale stretches from the Glastonbury Festival to...

In Yorkshire, 1969, at a rock concert, a murdered woman is found in a sleeping bag. The detective assigned to the case, Stanley Chadwick, is hard-headed and strait-laced. He could not have less in common with long-haired hippies. But he has a murder to solve, and it looks as if the victim was somehow associated with the up-and-coming band the Mad Hatters. In the present, Inspector Alan Banks is investigating...

An unexpected hike to the Other Side . . . After time away, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to her handsome neighbour, James Lacey. True, James seems less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon distracted by a sensational murder. The victim, found in a field, is young hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging landowners by insisting on her right to roam. Hope springs...

It can be hell in high water! Drowned brides are like buses: nothing for ages, then two come along at the same time . . . ! Abandoned by husband James, Agatha hops on a plane to the South Pacific, hoping to mend her broken heart. But there she meets a happy honeymooning couple, for whom disaster strikes when, tragically, the bride drowns. Back home, alarm bells start ringing for Agatha when a woman, dressed in...

Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company - which intends to tap into the village spring - sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who just happens to be handling the PR for the water company, finds the council chairman murdered at the basin of the spring, tongues...

Love, like hell, is a four-letter word for Agatha . . . No happily ever after for her! Recently married to neighbour James Lacey, Agatha quickly finds that love is not all it's cracked up to be - soon the newly-weds are living in separate cottages and accusing each other of infidelity. Then, after a fight down the local pub, James vanishes - a bloodstain the only clue to his fate. Naturally, Agatha is Suspect Number One.

Retired PR boss Agatha Raisin is enjoying life in her pretty Cotswold village of Carsely. It even seems likely that the attractive new vet, Paul Bladen, has taken a shine to her. But before romance can blossom, Paul is killed in an accident with Lord Pendlebury's horse. Only the circumstances are rather suspicious. Agatha decides she must once more play amateur investigator. And this cloud has a silver lining - she can...

Yuletide overindulgence on the poison front . . . During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by two things - the looming festivities, and her ex, James Lacey. In order to drive the latter from her thoughts, Agatha concentrates on planning the perfect Christmas for her friends. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with hemlock, does little to distract her and yet it should, as Mrs Tamworthy...

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston, she has her eye on. But competition for his attention abounds. With her shameless determination Agatha will do anything to get her man - including footing the bill for a charity ball in town just for the chance to dance with him. But when George is a no-show Agatha goes looking for him - and finds he has been murdered, having been...

Agatha's former husband James is engaged to be married to a beautiful, young woman and Agatha has been kindly invited to the wedding. To take her mind off this, Agatha decides she has fallen for Sylvan, a Frenchman she met at James' engagement party. To distract her still further she decides upon a holiday and flies to Istanbul, where unfortunately she bumps into James and his fiancée not once but...

What causes a child to grow up gay or straight? Neuroscientist Simon LeVay summarizes a wealth of scientific evidence that points to one inescapable conclusion: Sexual orientation results primarily from an interaction between genes, sex hormones, and the cells of the developing body and brain. LeVay takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of laboratories that specialize in genetics, endocrinology, neuroscience...

One windy spring day in the Chilterns Joe Rose's calm, organised life is shattered by a ballooning accident. The afternoon, Rose reflects, could have ended in mere tragedy, but for his brief meeting with Jed Parry. Unknown to Rose, something passes between them - something that gives birth in Parry to an obsession so powerful that it will test to the limits Rose's beloved scientific rationalism, threaten the love of his...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernières. A sweeping, heartbreaking novel following Daniel in his troubled marriage with Rosie as they navigate the unsettled time between the World Wars. Rosie and Daniel have moved to Ceylon with their little daughter to start a new life at the dawn of the 1920s, attempting to put the trauma of the First World War behind them, and...

For the first time in more than three years, bestselling authors Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, mother and son, have teamed up again to do what they do best: add a fresh chapter to the most beloved science fiction series of all time, the Dragonriders of Pern. Even though Lorana cured the plague that was killing the dragons of Pern, sacrificing her queen dragon in the process, the effects of the disease were...