Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome; chillingly ruthless and very deadly. In his first mission, agent 007 must neutralize a lethal Russian operative known as 'The Cypher' by ruining him at the Baccarat table and forcing his 'retirement'. Lady luck appears to be taken with Bond. The Cypher has hit a losing streak, but Bond's attraction to a beautiful female agent leads him to disaster and an unexpected saviour.

Beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner (and tool) of Mr Big – master of fear, artist in crime and Voodoo Baron of Death. James Bond has no time for superstition – he knows that this criminal heavy hitter is also a top SMERSH operative and a real threat. More than that, after tracking him through the jazz...

The Moonraker project has a millionaire backer, the war hero Sir Hugo Drax - a man who, it seems, cheats at cards. With a ballistic rocket at stake, Sir Hugo’s exposure could threaten Britain’s latest defence system, so James Bond is asked to investigate. Moving from London’s most exclusive gambling club to a missile silo on the Channel coast, 007...

Tiffany Case is the sort of beautiful, devil-may-care blonde who could get a man into deep trouble if he wanted. She stands between James Bond and the leaders of a diamond-smuggling ring that stretches from Africa via London to the States. Bond uses her to infiltrate this gang, but once in America the...

James Bond is targeted for elimination by SMERSH, and the malevolent Colonel Rosa Klebb has set a trap in Istanbul. The bait is the Spektor decoding machine, which is to be delivered by the irresistible Tatiana Romanova. The assassin is Red Grant, a psychopath who has defected from the West. Bond and...

A game of canasta turns out crooked and a golden girl ends up dead. It seems that Auric Goldfinger is a bad loser when it comes to cards. He’s also the world’s most ruthless and successful gold smuggler. As James Bond follows his trail, he discovers that Goldfinger’s real game is the heist of fifteen billion...

A dark offering from the Queen of Crime. This represents the world-famous author’s most successful foray into the dark world of murder and black magic. To understand the strange goings on at The Pale Horse Inn, Mark Easterbrook knew he had to begin at the beginning. But where exactly was the beginning?

This is a full-cast dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh's classic story of a lost golden age. In 1944 Captain Charles Ryder travels with a company of soldiers to Brideshead. He has been there before, and the great house serves as a potent reminder of the decadent, stylish lifestyle now destroyed by the austerity ...

Three of Agatha Christie's most enjoyable stories, revamped for radio. In 'Philomel Cottage', everything looks rosy when Alex and Terry set up their own e-commerce company in Philomel Cottage, until money goes missing from Alex's account. Soon she is questioning her partner - and, indeed, the cottage itself...

Michael Palin reads his own entertainingly written account of his journey accross the countries of the Himalayas, accompanying a major BBC TV series in 2004.

In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; and in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense...

Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London...

Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries...

Some are born to sweet delight/Some are born to endless night' - William Blake. Agatha Christie wrote Endless Night in 1967, and it is one of her greatest - and most unusual - novels. Creepy, malevolent and claustrophobic, it is a story about choices, the nature of good and evil, and grim retribution. Mike Rogers...

Here is a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of one of the most famous adventure stories of all time, starring Roy Marsden as Robinson Crusoe. Young Robinson Crusoe has a burning ambition to be a sailor. Paying no attention to his parent's warnings, he runs away to sea to embark on an extraordinary series of adventures: struggles...

All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' Animal Farm - the history of a revolution that went wrong - is George Orwell's brilliant satire on the corrupting influence of power. Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion, under the leadership...

Much of Peter Ackroyd's work has been concerned with the life and past of London but here, as a culmination, is his definitive account of the city. For him it is an organism with its own laws of growth and change, so this book is a biography rather than a history. Ackroyd reveals the dozens of ways in which the continuity of the city survives - in ward boundaries unchanged since the Middle Ages, in vocabulary and in...

This rather wonderful cast was gathered to perform in, possibly, the best presentation of this great book. The cast reads like a Whoiswho of 70s/80s TV actors. A must for those that are looking for something a little different.

The classic Michael Lewis book that defined an era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune, available for the first time unabridged and read by the author. In 1986, before Michael Lewis became the best-selling author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and Flash Boys, he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to...

With particular interest given the current suggestion that National Service might return. Presented by Charles Wheeler, this series looks at the experience of National Service in the post-war years, from 1945 to 1963. Six programmes cover the receipt of call-up papers, the rigours of basic training, postings home and abroad, the Suez crisis, the last days of National Service and the return to civilian life.

Wilfred Hyde White, Deryck Guyler and Richard Murdoch bungle their way through a maze of Whitehall bureaucracy in these episodes from the long-running radio comedy series of the 1960s and 1970s.

The autobiography of Roy Castle. This is a frank, vivid and often funny account of Castle's life on and off stage. He describes his happy childhood, the heyday of variety theatre and his 22-year stint in "Record Breakers". His public struggle against lung cancer is also featured.

Jack Kerouac's classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning and the allure of nature. A witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas. Following the explosive energy of On the Road, the book that put the Beat Genration on the literary map...

Based on the most interesting cases covered by BBC TV's successful "Crimewatch" programme, written up by the producer of the series Liz Mills. This is popular true crime, with the added attraction that the audience/readership feels a high degree of participation.

When Paddy Ashdown became leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats he began to keep a diary. THE ASHDOWN DIARIES give an unprecendented insight into how a modern political party is managed and a first-hand account of attempts to create a new centre left strategy in British politics. From Ashdown's early struggles to rescue his party from oblivion to the intense pressures of the 1992 election; from Europe's...

A breathtaking collection of sea-faring tales. Contains Desolation Island, The Fortune of War and The Surgeon’s Mate. These three tales follow Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend the surgeon, Stephen Maturin as they sail to Australia with a hold full of convicts and a beautiful and dangerous spy; as they arrive in the Dutch East Indies where Jack Aubrey is appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate...

Welcome to Desperation. Once a thriving copper-mining town in the middle of the Nevada desert, Desperation is now eerily abandoned. It's the last place that travellers like the Carver family, bound for vacation, and writer Johnny Marinville, astride his Harley, would expect to be stopped and charged. But Desperation still has a local cop - a unique regulator who patrols the wilderness highway. The secrets buried...

'M' is for the Malek family: four sons now nearing middle age who stand to inherit a fortune - four men with very different temperaments and needs, linked only by blood and money.

Eighteen years ago, one of them, angry, troubled and in trouble - went missing.

'M' is for Millhone, now hired to trace that missing black sheep brother. And in brutal consequence, 'M' is for murder . . .

L is for Lawless is the twelfth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton. It was the week before Thanksgiving when Kinsey Millhone first heard the sad story of the late Johnny Lee, the World War II fighter pilot of whom, rather mysteriously, the military authorities have no record. His family are concerned – perhaps Kinsey could make a few calls, straighten things out? Then Johnny's apartment is ransacked.

K is for Killer is the eleventh in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and wilful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. She has also been found dead in mysterious circumstances and her death pulls Kinsey Millhone into a netherworld of deception, betrayal and unavenged murder . . .

J is for Judgement is the tenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton. On the face of it, you wouldn't think there was any connection between the murder of a dead man and the events that changed my perceptions about my life... For Kinsey Millhone, the investigation started with a surprise visit from an ex-colleague at California Fidelity - the company that had fired her nine months previously.

She was out of work. Attorney Lonnie Klingman’s usual private investigator had just dropped dead of a heart attack. Kinsey was more than happy to oblige.

The trouble started on the very first day of the investigation. Either Kinsey’s predecessor was incompetent – or someone had been getting away with murder. And next time it might turn out to be hers . . .

What she needed most was a few quiet days by herself – but two things happened to change her plans. First she ran into a murder case. Then Kinsey met Bibianna Diaz, and before the night was over they were sharing a prison cell . . .

The repairs were completed on her apartment, and she moved back in. She was hired by Mrs Clyde Gersh to bring her mother back from the Mojave Desert.

And lastly, a real surprise. The news that she’d made one of the top slots on Tyrone Patty’s hit list . . .

Seventeen years had passed since Jean Timberlake’s body had been found at the foot of the sea wall.

At the time, Bailey Fowler, an ex-boyfriend of hers, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Now he’s changed his tune.

Kinsey Millhone was called in to solve the case – then she stumbled on the dark secrets of a family’s buried past . . .

It was two days after Christmas when Kinsey Millhone received the bank slip showing a credit for five thousand dollars. The account number was correct but Kinsey hadn’t made the deposit. Then came the phone call and suddenly everything became clear. The frame-up was working and Kinsey was trapped . . .

`My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a private investigator . . . female, single and self-employed, with a constitutional inability to work for anyone else. I’m a purist when it comes to justice, but I’ll lie at the drop of a hat. Inconsistency has never troubled me . . .’ It was late October, the day before Halloween. He introduced himself as Alvin Limardo. The job he hired Kinsey to do seemed easy enough . . . until his cheque bounced.

`My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a licensed private investigator . . . thirty-two, twice divorced. I like being alone and I suspect that my independence suits me better than it should . . .’ Kinsey met Bobby Callahan in the gym on Monday morning. His story was hard to credit: a murderous assault by a tailgating car on a lonely rural road, a roadside smash into a canyon 400 feet below, his Porsche a ruin, his best friend dead...

`Female, age thirty-two, self-employed and wiser than she used to be. For Kinsey Millhone, private investigator, only one thing stays the same. When a client sits down in the chair across the desk, she never knows what’s going to happen next . . .’ There was nothing about Beverly Danziger to cause Kinsey concern. She was looking for her sister. There was a will to be settled. She paid up front. And if it seemed a lot of...

`My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a private investigator, licensed by the state of California. I’m thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids. The day before yesterday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind . . .’ When Laurence Fife was murdered, few cared. A slick divorce attorney with a reputation for ruthlessness, Fife was also rumoured to be a slippery ladies’ man. Plenty of people in the...

A Genius Performance by Hugh Fraser! A repugnant Amercian widow is killed during a trip to Petra… Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her.

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess)...

The premiere of the play "The Merry Devils", written by two of the company’s actors, gives the players, as well as the audience, quite a shock. Instead of the allotted two devils appearing during a crucial scene, three enter, one looking disturbingly real. Then, in defiance, manager Lawrence Firethorne agrees to...

Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the...

Rumpole isn't particularly fond of Christmas; he finds it has a horrible habit of dragging on as he and She Who Must Be Obeyed go through the usual rituals in Froxbury Mansions. After the exchange of presents (lavender water for her, a tie for him) they settle down to a supermarket turkey with all the trimmings,

Operation Meltwater: FreeFlow, a group of internet activists committed to the freedom of information have video evidence of a military atrocity in the Middle East and have chosen Iceland as their HQ while they prepare to unleash their greatest coup on the world's media.

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole whose court scenes are proverbial, and whose home is ruled by Mrs Rumpole, is back in these short stories by John Mortimer. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

Your face is a blur to him. But your body still bleeds. The Farren family has been a plague upon Philadelphia's most dangerous neighbourhood, the Devil's Pocket, for generations. There, row after row of tumbledown houses hide dark secrets - none darker than Billy, the youngest Farren. Afflicted by a syndrome that means he can't recognise faces, Billy must use photographs to identify his family - and his...

An emotional portrayal of the lives of four women as Valentine’s day approaches, in 1941 wartime London ‘Life brought enough problems and upsets for young hearts, especially young female hearts, without them having to carry the added burden of the war.…’ Tilly is passionately in love with the dashing American journalist, Drew. But he is harbouring a secret that threatens their burgeoning love. At the same time...

For years, Libby Morgan dreamed only of making partner in her competitive, high-pressure law firm. She sacrificed everything for her career - her friends, her marriage, her chance at creating a family. When her boss calls Libby into his office, she assumes it will finally be good news, but nothing can prepare her for the shocking reality: she's been let go and must rebuild her entire life… starting now. With no job prospects...

A gripping masterpiece of dark family rivalries, shadowy politics and hidden secrets, Identical is the stunning thriller from bestselling author Scott Turow. Two families entangled in a long and complex history of love and deceit . . . Twenty five years ago, after a society picnic held by businessman and politician Zeus Kronon, Zeus’ headstrong daughter Dita was found murdered. Her boyfriend, Cass Gianis, confessed to the crime.

A powerful novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, about an ambassador's daughter who is kidnapped and the former undercover agent who comes to her aid, saving her life in more ways than one. For DEA Special Agent Marshall Everett, life as he knows it is over once a gunshot wound renders his arm useless. Barred forever from the undercover work he loves, he has nothing, no close friends...

A young man is found dead in a seedy hotel room; electrocuted in his bath with a toaster. This is the second electrocution murder Lindsay Boxer has come across and the message left in graffiti on the wall at the scene of the crime is the same: NOBODY CARES ANYMORE. What does it refer to? The one clue Lindsay and her partner Jacobi have is that a black Mercedes was spotted at the scene of both murders.

From the author of the wildly popular bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens comes the go-to guide that helps teens cope with major challenges they face in their lives--now updated for today's social media age. In this newly revised edition, Sean Covey helps teens figure out how to approach the six major challenges they face: gaining self-esteem, dealing with their parents, making friends, being wise about....

Originally told as a bedtime story to his young son and thus perfectly suited to audio, Grahame's magical tale of four animal friends living along the river bank of England's picturesque countryside remains a classic favorite among young and old alike. Contains classical music soundtrack.

Richard Briers, Adrian Scarborough and Terence Rigby star in this full-cast dramatisation, narrated by Alan Bennett.When Mole abandons his spring cleaning one morning, he surfaces into the sunlight and encounters the Water Rat. Mole stays with Ratty in his snug waterside home, and soon he meets Ratty’s friends: Badger, who lives in the Wild Wood, and the incorrigible Toad of Toad Hall. This timeless tale...

Originally published in 1908 by British novelist Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows has become one of the most beloved and admired classics of children's literature. The novel follows the adventures of the mild-mannered Mole and his friend Rat, who emerge from their winter's slumber to explore the springtime world, encountering the sedate and businesslike Badger as well as the wild and impulsive...

Beneath the unforgiving, blazing heat of the African sun, two men and a woman embark on a savage hunt. A hunt that will tear their safe safari apart, plunging them into the restless tides of a deadly civil war, in Wilbur Smith's bestselling adventure, A Time to Die. For Sean Courtney, veteran guerrilla fighter and professional warrior, it is a time to fight and a time to find a deep and passionate love. For the beautiful...

Having ended the Edgar Award-nominated Shelter with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, Coben picks up Mickey's story right where it left off in this suspenseful adventure. Mickey and his loyal new friends, sharp-witted Ema and adorably charming Spoon, once again find themselves in over their heads on the hunt for missing pieces to a puzzle they have yet to understand. As the mystery surrounding Mickey's dad's death...

William Shakespeare's theatre is brought to life with words and music recreating the unique globe experience. With a wealth of historical fanfares, dances and songs played by the Musicians of Shakespeare's Globe on period instruments, the company performs material from acclaimed productions of the Bard's plays. Featuring Liam Brennan, Tom Burke, John McEnery and Mark Rylance.

Jake Barton is an American engineer, Gareth Swales a stylish Englishman with a nose for a quick deal. Both have always moved from one escapade to another. Now, as Mussolini prepares to annihilate the people of Ethiopia, the two adventurers come up against Vicky Camberwell, the beautiful but fiery reporter bent on espousing their cause. Striking a bargain with a beleaguered Ethiopian prince, the trio dares to run...

In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work. Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that "time management" is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; "setting priorities" isn't relevant when your email is down; "procrastination solutions" won't help if your goals aren't clear. Allen's premise is...

Trapped behind barbed wire in an alien land, a man used to guarding his secrets is compelled to set the record straight.... Imagine a faraway country that was once a friend of the West becoming the enemy, its people isolated and savagely repressed by a tyrant known as Great Uncle. As one of the country's most celebrated writers and a war hero, the storyteller has a better life than most – until he is made an offer...

A famous lifestyle arbiter and her shy chef daughter have their lives profoundly transformed on the eve of their 60th and 30th birthdays when a chance encounter in an elevator and a holiday weekend indiscretion lead to new chances at love. By the best-selling author of Family Ties.

If you love Percy Jackson, discover the magic of Pegasus. In their third breathtaking adventure, Emily and Pegasus must confront their most dangerous challenge yet. When news reaches Olympus that a Pegasus lookalike has been spotted in the human world, Emily and her friends are determined to fly back to Earth to investigate. Their new mission takes them from Area 51 to Las Vegas, where they discover a...

Roald Dahl writing about his own childhood is a treat for any Dahl fan - young or old. These stories are warm, touching, funny and show the development of one of our most treasured children's writers.

When Cassie accepts a job as companion to an old lady in a remote Lancashire village, she hopes for a quiet life where she can forget herself, her past and most especially men. The last thing she wants is to be drawn into saving a community that seems determined to take her to its heart and to resuscitate hers.... Frances lives a reclusive life at Ramblings, a Victorian Gothic mansion. But her nephew Barney...

London is under attack. People are dead. Many more lives hang in the balance as a group of highly trained gunmen storm the historic Lanchester Hotel on Park Lane. The gunmen have given the government just five hours to meet their demands before they blow up the building. Shots ring out. Some guests panic. Others text their loved ones. Still more try to escape. All are united by one thing: fear for their lives.

Filling the gaps left between his previous memoirs, as well as highlighting new episodes, Backcloth explores the patterns of pleasure and pain that have made up Bogarde's extraordinary life. Based on personal letters, notebooks and diaries and covering many aspects of a celebrated life, we share experiences...

After completing work on Visconti's Death in Venice, the celebrated actor seeks a refuge from 20 years of 'continual motion'. This dream of a peaceful retreat materialises itself in the form of a neglected farmhouse in the South of France. However, before he is rewarded with the calm he craves, he is forced to...

Long, long ago, when Craggy Island was still uninhabited... there was a radio comedy program about a wily if massively inefficient Priest.. who, oddly enough, was assisted by a young, naive and dense Novice, and also had a retired drunken old Priest living with them.

North and South follows our widely-praised recording of Cranford (2008), transporting the listener to the heart of Victorian England by vividly delineating the social landscape and an unlikely romance which flourishes within it. Saddened to be leaving behind the sophistication of the South, Margaret Hale...

The "Old Patagonian Express" was the last train Paul Theroux took in his journey from Boston to Patagonia. Some trains were superb, most were deplorable. It was a journey of contrasts in people, in temperature, in scenery, in altitude, and in attitude. The people were extraordinary, eccentric, replusive and individualistic. There was the appalling Mr Thornberry, the bogus priest in Cali and the blind writer,

When a teenage quarrel in the small town of Heartsdale explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton -- paediatrician and medical examiner --finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. And what seems at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications when the autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse and ritualistic self-mutilation. Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start...

In 1993 Harry Bosch was assigned the case of a missing person, Marie Gesto. The young woman was never found - dead or alive - and the case has haunted Bosch ever since. Thirteen years later Bosch is in the Open-Unsolved Unit when he gets a call from the DA's office.

Detective Lindsay Boxer and her three best friends are back and recovering from the events that pushed them all to the edge. After her near-death experience, Yuki is seeing her life from a new perspective and is considering a change in her law career. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy has healed...

Struggling through another Edinburgh winter Rebus finds himself sucked into a web of intrigue that throws up more questions than answers. Was the Lord Provost's daughter kidnapped or just another runaway? Why is a city councillor shredding documents that should have been waste paper years ago?

You should have been a detective. If there's one thing the last year has proved, it's how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things. Hard things. Things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are buried so deep nobody even thinks twice about them.