A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta.

Cacofonix's tuneless singing always makes it rain - which is just what they want in Rajah Watzit's distant Eastern kingdom. The guru Hoodunnit has threatened to end a terrible drought by sacrificing lovely Princess Orinjade. Can the Gauls, flown in on the fakir Watziznehm's magic carpet, rescue her? The bard's finest hour has come.

When Cacofonix the bard is taken to Rome as a present for Julius Caesar, Asterix and Obelix set out to rescue him, sailing with master salesman Ekonomikrisis, the Phoenician merchant. How do our Gaulish friends come to end up training as gladiators?

The year is 50BC, and all Gaul is occupied. Only one small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. But how much longer can Asterix, Obelix and their friends resist the mighty Roman legions of Julius Caesar? Anything is possible, with a little cunning plus the druid Getafix's magic potions!

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.

A Genius Performance by Richard Burton!
A selection assembled from Richard Burton's BBC Radio performances, including "Under Milk Wood", "The Corn is Green", "In Parenthesis", "The Dark Tower", "Henry V", Burton on rugby, and Burton on Dylan Thomas.

Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' is brought to life by Joanna Lumley's sensitive and expressive reading of this classic. Although abridged, it is an absolute joy to listen to. This CD forms part of the Orbis (DeAgostini) collection called 'Talking Classics' which came out a number of years ago. The series, as a whole, exposes the listener to a well-selected...

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity.

Genius Performance by Adjoa Andoh!

Mma Ramotswe reads the foreword she has written to these tales, then goes on to narrate them all herself, passing them on to us verbally as did her father's aunt to her.

Edgar Wallace's classic vigilante detective series, The Four Just Men four wealthy and resourceful individuals determined to take the law into their own hands has maintained its popularity for over a century. It began with The Four Just Men in 1905, and was followed by five other books recounting further adventures, the Walter Ford film (1939), and a TV series (1959-60). In this, the opening volume, the mysterious...

An epistolary novel in 18th-century style, this novel tells the story of the recently-widowed Lady Susan Vernon, intelligent but highly manipulative, who is intent on gaining financially secure relationships for both herself and her wayward daughter Frederica.

When word reaches The Department - an ailing section of British military intelligence - that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border, it seems the perfect opportunity to show Control and Smiley, their rivals over at the Circus, that The Department still has value. Former spy Fred Leiser is lured back from retirement to investigate, and manages to cross the border into East Germany in a dangerous...

This release comprises four 45 minute BBC Radio 4 plays adapted by John Mortimer from four stories in his collection, "Rumpole and the Primrose Path". Rumpole is a wine-imbibing friend of the South London criminal classes, and the scourge of all QCs. Acting as narrator, he tells a series of stories...

Untold Stories', Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his bestselling 'Writing Home', brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last ten years. Following on from 'Untold Stories: Part 1: Stories' and 'Part 2: The Diaries', 'Part 3: Written on the Body' is both a reflection on...

Charlie and Lola, first seen in I Will Not Ever NEVER Eat a Tomato, are stars of the screen, page, and now audio. First aired on prime time children’s BBC in October 2005 and now available on DVD, Charlie and Lola are enjoying superstardom!

A gripping original story for BBC Radio 4 by award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin, written for the landmark Radio 4 Book at Bedtime slot Saughton Prison, Edinburgh. 1962. Prison guard Thomas Scott watches over a condemned man sentenced to hang for the murder of his wife. His prisoner is a guilty man...

Gardeners' Question Time is the perenially popular Radio 4 programme, broadcast on Sunday afternoons, in which a regular panel of gardening experts visit a different town each week and answer the local gardening enthusiasts' questions. On this specially recorded release...

It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically.

A collection of humourous stories about unscrupulous film writer Pat Hobby, a relic from the early days of Hollywood, looking for success in the changing world of the movies. F. Scott Fitzgerald's collection paints a comic portrait of a man unwilling to accept his fate as a thing of the past, an artless, insensitive writer suffering as the decades leave silent...

Lou Clark has lots of questions. Like how it is she's ended up working in an airport bar, spending every shift watching other people jet off to new places. Or why the flat she's owned for a year still doesn't feel like home. Whether her close-knit family can forgive her for what she did eighteen months ago. And will she ever get over the love of her life. What Lou does know for certain is that something has to change.

Two full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of Ngaio Marsh short stories. In Opening Night, a leading actor is found gassed in his dressing room. It looks like suicide, until it transpires that he was widely detested. Inspector Alleyn quickly realises that almost everyone in the theatre had a motive for his murder. Jeremy Clyde stars as Inspector Alleyn. When In Rome finds Inspector Alleyn joining a group of highly...

Of the many American poets who reached her zenith in the later part of the 20th century, perhaps none loomed so large as the legendary Sylvia Plath. Consummately crafted, Plath's poetry is stormy but luminous, sharpe but poignant. This unique, compelling and intriguing recording has been heralded as "a significant tribute to and record of the lyric art that Sylvia Plath left to the literary heritage of America" (Booklist)

Probably more people have shed tears over the last page of A Town Like Alice than about any other novel in the English language... remarkable' Guardian Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to...

Julie Walters goes on a mission of discovery in America. These two cassettes tell of the series of jobs she tried, from chambermaid to police woman to alligator catcher, in order to find out how real Americans live.

Living in the Nottinghamshire coalfields, the Morel family is beset with conflict. Gertrude, disillusioned with her inarticulate working class husband, pours her energies and aspirations into her son, Paul. Tensions develop when Paul falls in love and seeks to escape from his family ties.

A moonlit night. A sleeping village. And an unaccountable murder.... An English bobbie returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on the village green. He identifies the body immediately. Andrew Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric - and hardly cooperative....

Jack Havoc, jail-breaker and knife artist, is on the loose on the streets of London once again. In the faded squares of shabby houses, in the furtive alleys and darkened pubs, the word is out that the Tiger is back in town, more vicious and cunning than ever.

It falls to Albert Campion to pit his wits against the killer and hunt him down through the city's November smog before it is too late.

"Cutler's book is marvelous..." from The New York Times Book Review "A book as complex and intriguing as the rocks that Steno studied." from The Seattle Times "Fascinating...Cutler's animated and energetic prose provides a page-turning thriller of scientific discovery." from Publishers Weekly Seventeenth-century scientists were baffled: How did the fossils of seashells find their way to the tops of mountains?

Winner of the 1973 Nebula and BSFA Awards and the 1974 Hugo, Campbell, and Locus Awards. At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than 10 trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft.

The New Testament - Revised English Version - Complete 12 cassette set. The actors reading a whole book each include Derek Jacobi, Juliet Stevenson, Sheila Hancock, Tony Britton, Roger McGough, Michael Williams, Frank Windsor, Virginia McKenna, Thora Hird, Timothy West and other wonderful performers, culminating in the brilliant reading of Revelation by Sir John Gielgud. It brings the words to life in a...

The sixth instalment in the eleven-part Horatio Hornblower series, A Ship of the Line sees the return of 39-year-old Captain Hornblower as he embarks upon a new adventure on the Catalonian coast. Having successfully defeated the Natividad Ship in battle, Horatio is awarded command of HMS Sutherland. Estimated to be the 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List,' Hornblower's first ship of the...

The discreet Elinor (Sense) and the romantic and reckless Marianne (Sensibility) find the course of true love full of brambles and disillusionment. Their neighborhood is populated with characters cut in the unique Austen mold.

A child's bones are discovered near the site of a pre-historic henge on the north Norfolk coast, and the police ask local forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway to date them. Are these the remains of a local girl who disappeared ten years ago? DCI Harry Nelson refuses to give up the hunt for this missing child. Ever since she vanished, someone has been sending him bizarre anonymous notes about ritual sacrifice...

‘What we have lost with Laurence Olivier is glory.’ My Father Laurence Olivier is a touching account of a son’s idolisation of his father -- one of the greatest actors ever to have graced both the British stage and Hollywood’s screens.

It is 1970. Back in the US after serving as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam, John Kelly meets a woman who will change his life forever. Read wonderfully by Garrick Hagon.

This recording of the wonderful musical adaptation of HG Wells fantastically inovative tale of Martian Invasion is still as fresh now as it was when it came out over 20 years ago. Not something we would normally stock but this exception is clearly justified!

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's story of love, lost dreams and redemption "Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen." In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. So opens this famous novel which has become Jane Austens best loved and best known work. It was in this book that all Jane Austens talents combined to create not only the most wonderful love story, but dialogue that sparkles with wit and irony, an ingenious and compelling...

Albertine has finally escaped her 'imprisonment' from Marcel's Paris apartment... Not only is Marcel quite unprepared for the effect her flight has on him, but also soon he is devastated by news of an even more irreversible loss.

This unusual and special production by two of the most important brand names in classical music includes more than 150 musical excerpts. The fourth CD has an additional CD-ROM element with text, pictures of composers, sheet music and quizzes.

This poem explores the life of elephants in their natural habitat, in captivity, and details their relentless destruction at the hand of man. It also includes a fascinating compilation of facts and figures from elephant history.

A homage to the men and women of science, and an exposition of Einstein’s place in scientific history.... In this fascinating collection of articles and speeches, Albert Einstein reflects not only on the scientific method at work in his own theoretical discoveries, but eloquently expresses a great appreciation for his...

A Genius Performance by George Baker! She was a wonderful, lovely lady, according to her niece. But Gwen Robinson had died in a bleak, underground carpark, murdered by someone who knew just how to use a garrotte. But was she the intended victim? Or had Gwen died of mistaken identity? Mike Burden was convinced he knew who the killer was, and all he had to do was break him. Wexford wasn't so sure.

In an unforgettable love story, a woman’s impossible journey through the ages could change everything…. Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the ...

A Genius Performance by George Baker! It's impossible to forget the violent bludgeoning to death of an elderly lady in her home. Even more so when it's your first murder case. Wexford believed he'd solved Mrs Primero's murder fifteen years ago. It was no real mystery. Everyone knew Painter, her odd-job man, had done it. There had never been any doubt in anyone's mind. Until now...

A Genius performance by Penelope Keith! During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by two things - the loming 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.

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...

There's no such thing as easy money. As surgeon Edward Hammond is about to find out. Thirteen years ago, he performed a life saving operation on a Serbian gangster, Dragan Gazi. Gazi is now standing trial for war crimes in the international court in The Hague. After his life was saved, his men went on to slaughter thousands in the Balkan civil wars. Now Gazi's family want more from him: in exchange for...

Unconventional, warm and witty, this Georgian romance by Georgette Heyer unusually begins with a marriage rather than ending with one. When Horatia Winwood steps in to marry the Earl of Rule, the disappointed suitor of her elegant sister, it is the luxuries of high society life that she becomes entranced...

The narrator's little sister is the naughtiest girl in the world, causing mischief wherever she goes, whether she is digging up the garden or eating all the trifle, and to make matters worse, she doesn't like Father Christmas.

A Genius Performance by Samuel West!

Wilde's first play confronts the hypocrisy of public 'morality' compared with genuine, private kindness.

The fractured relationship between Albertine and Marcel continues, with Marcel's fixations of his lover's outside interest driving the affair to a bitter conclusion.

King Solomon's Mines is set in nineteenth century Africa. Allan Quartermain, hunter, is commissioned by the valiant Sir Henry Curtis and his jovial friend Captain Good to lead them to the fabled lost mines of King Solomon. In the company of these dauntless men we undertake the most exciting safari ever described. We hunt big game, we go to war with the terrifying King Twala of Kukuanaland and his...

Listed as one of the essential 50 books of all time in The Guardian It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades—all before his suicide at age forty-one. This classic biography of the founder of computer science, reissued on the centenary of his birth with...

An epic and heartbreaking love story that will leave no one untouched. Like Fuentes's masterpiece The Death of Artemio Cruz, the action in this novel begins in the state of Veracruz and moves to Mexico City. From 1905 to 1978, Fuentes traces the extraordinary Laura Díaz; a life filled with a multitude of witty, heartbreaking scenes and the sounds, colours, tastes and scents of Mexico. Laura grows into a politically committed...

Welcome to Japan, the most running-obsessed nation on earth, where: a long-distance relay race is the country's biggest annual sporting event; companies sponsor their own running teams, paying the athletes like employees; and marathon monks run a thousand marathons in a thousand days to reach spiritual enlightenment. Adharanand Finn - award-winning author of Running with the Kenyans - moved to Japan...

It wasn't technically an exorcism, what they did to Clare. When the reverend and his son ripped her demon from her, they called it a "deliverance." But they didn't understand that Clare and her demon--known simply as Her--were like sisters. She comforted Clare, made her feel brave, helped to ease her loneliness. They were each other's Only. Now, Clare's only comforts are the three clues that She left behind:

Informed by extensive interviews with astronauts such as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, David Scott, John Young, Alan Shepard, Charlie Duke, Al Bean, Gordon Cooper, Al Worden, Walt Cunningham, Tom Stafford, Dick Gordon, John Glenn, Pete Conrad, Edgar Mitchel, James Irwin, Stu Roosa, Ron Evans, Deke Slayton, Wally Schirra, as well as key politicians and NASA personnel Fifty years ago in July 1969, Apollo...

In The Last of His Kind, renowned adventure writer David Roberts gives readers a spellbinding history of mountain climbing in the twentieth century as told through the biography of Brad Washburn, legendary mountaineering pioneer and photographer. Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, has praised David Roberts, saying, “Nobody alive writes better about mountaineering” - and nowhere is that truth more...

This brilliant and compelling novel is at once a lyrical description of the Fens, a fictional autobiography, and an impassioned defence of history. The narrator, an English schoolteacher, and his interior world of memories combine with the exterior world of the bleak Fenland landscape to produce a multiplicity of stories. Swift weaves together tales of empire building, land reclamation, brewers and lock-keepers...

Simply put, an algorithm is a set of instructions-it's the code that makes computers run. A basic idea that proved elusive for hundreds of years and bent the minds of the greatest thinkers in the world, the algorithm is what made the modern world possible. Without the algorithm, there would have been no computer, no Internet, no virtual reality, no e-mail, or any other technological advance that we rely on every day.

Kit Harington (Games of Thrones) and Johnny Flynn (Beast) smolder and burn as sparring brothers in Sam Shepard’s darkly comic 1980 drama. The Cain and Abel conflict is a showdown of sibling rivalry, to be sure, but also bears witness to a legacy of booze-fueled family brawls. As Harington and Flynn duel it out, they bring a cagey, wiry energy to director Matthew Dunster’s West End revival of this Pulitzer Prize finalist.

The ascension of Vladimir Putin - a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB - to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years - as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him - Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the...

Waking up late one day, Pongo finds that none of the humans will wake up. He finds out that the same has happened all over the country, and then dogs everywhere hear the voice of Lord Sirius the dogstar, offering to free them from their humans.

Where did I come from? Why do I have two arms but just one head? How is my left leg the same size as my right one? Why are the fingerprints of identical twins not identical? How did my brain learn to learn? Why must I die? Questions like these remain biology's deepest and most ancient challenges. They force us to confront a fundamental biological problem: How can something as large and complex as a human body...

The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world. At the end of the 17th century...

Part two of the literary sci-fi thriller follows a boy and a girl who are caught in a warring town where thoughts can be heard—and secrets are never safe. Reaching the end of their flight in The Knife of Never Letting Go, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd...

"Vance sees himself in the tradition of popular fantasy writers, but his classic writing style is also comparagle to Homer’s Odyssey, and Cervante's Don Quixote. Though the Cugel tales may lack the scope and pathos of the greatest adventure yarns, in the twenty-first century, they may be as close as one gets to the celebration of epic human perseverance."--editor, Brilliance Audio Cugel’s Saga, published 17 years after...

Schopenhauer is considered to be the most accessible of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinkers including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Schopenhauer's central notion is that of the will-a blind, irrational force that he uses to interpret both the human mind...

Presents a collection of tales, including The Frog Prince, Bearskin, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, The Golden Goose, The Dancing Shoes, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin.

Here is a collection of four delightful dragon stories by two master writers for children: "The Reluctant Dragon" by Kenneth Grahame and "The Island of the Nine Whirlpools", "The Fiery Dragon", and "The Last Dragon" by Edith Nesbit. Presented with lively music and even the occasional amusing sound effect.

Silas Marner is a dramatic novel by great Victorian novelist George Eliot. First published in 1861 it tells the tale of the lonely weaver Silas Marner who, after suffering betrayal and rejection, leaves his community to become a recluse obsessed only with accumulating money. One day Silas's money is stolen by Dunstan Cass, a dissolute son of Squire Cass, the town's leading landowner. The loss of his gold drives Silas into a...

Released in our Young Adult Classics format, Emily Bront's classic story of passion and enduring love is a masterpiece of the gothic genre. Menacing, mysterious Heathcliff and willful, beautiful Cathy are two of the best-known characters in all of English literature. Freda Dowie gives a compelling reading of a novel as bleak and elemental as the moors upon which it is set. The reading is accompanied by a bonus CD-ROM...

A great introduction to the wide range of musical styles from the Classical music era. Covering an extraordinary range of different composers performed by some of the greatest recorded musicians of all time. A perfect gift for those new to this genre.

The stunning conclusion to the epic high fantasy Books of Pellinor series. The Singing is the final instalment in Alison Croggon's highly acclaimed fantasy series The Books of Pellinor, perfect for fans of The Lord of the Rings, Trudi Canavan and Garth Nix. The final book follows the separate journeys of Maerad and Cadvan, and Maerad's brother, Hem, as they desperately seek each other in an increasingly battle-torn land.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits." —Adam Grant Limits are an illusion: a revolutionary book that reveals the secrets of accessing your hidden extra potential Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field—from a 100-meter sprint to a 100-mile ultramarathon, from summiting...

Having been married for over 40 years, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper is mourning the loss of his wife. He finally musters the courage to go through her possessions and happens upon a charm bracelet that he has never seen before. What follows is a surprising adventure that takes Arthur on an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife's life - a journey that leads him to find healing, self-discovery, and love in the...

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.

Set on a small Irish dairy farm, this tender and funny debut novel follows two lost souls as they try to carve out new lives amid a colorful cast of characters reminiscent of those in the hit film Waking Ned Divine. Abby has been estranged from the family farm since her rebellious mother ran off with her when she was a small child. Kit is a burned out New York stockbroker who's down on his luck.

Powerful, affecting essays on mental illness, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and a Whiting Award An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the...

Warm and witty, no one writes about love, family and friendship like Lucy Diamond, the Sunday Times bestelling author of The Secrets of Happiness and On a Beautiful Day. The perfect read for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell. ‘A new Lucy Diamond book is one of the happiest highlights of my calendar’ – Katie Fforde, bestselling author of A Country Escape Multi-layered, compelling and beautifully written'...

"Follow Me." These two words echo the heart-defining call of our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples. Sadly, this life-changing invitation has lost much of its original meaning. Immersed in a society that worships success, we have succumbed to a trendy fixation with leadership. In I Am a Follower, author Leonard Sweet explains how Christians in a twenty-first-century corporate-obsessed culture have shifted away from...

The first book in a thrilling new sci-fi series from the bestselling author of The 100, as seen on TV! Reeling from the latest attack by a mysterious enemy, the Quatra Fleet Academy is finally admitting students from every planet in the solar system after centuries of exclusivity. Hotshot pilot Vesper, an ambitious Tridian citizen, dreams of becoming a captain - but when she loses her spot to a brilliant, wisecracking boy from...

By the writer of the Wexford novels and read by George Baker

Someone must have had good reason to murder Mrs Elizabeth Nightingale on a dark September night. And as Detective Chief Inspector Wexford investigates, he discovers sinister undercurrents and dramatic secrets beneath the placid surface of the Nightingales' lives…

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea 1815, the Napoleonic Wars are over. Yet peace continues to elude Horatio Hornblower overseas . . . As an admiral struggling to impose order in the chaotic aftermath of the French wars, Horatio Hornblower, Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels in the West Indies, must still face savage pirates...

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has always maintained its initial appeal to both the general public and scholars alike. Its sheer scale is daunting, encompassing over a millennium of history, covering not merely the Western Empire from the days of the early emperors to its extinction in AD 476, but...

A memoir by the iconic singer-songwriter chronicling her story from her beginnings in Brooklyn through her remarkable success as one of the world's most acclaimed musical talents

Anne Elliot has grieved for seven years over the loss of her first and only love, Captain Frederick Wentworth. When their paths finally cross again, Anne finds herself slighted and all traces of their former intimacy gone. As the pair continue to share the same social circle, dramatic events in Lyme Regis, and later in...

The Lying voices' were the clocks that filled the room where Arnold Thaine was shot dead. They ticked in a hundred different rhythms but every single one was wrong. So the fact that a bullet had stopped one of them gave no clue to the time of his murder . . . On the day of Thaine's death, Justin Emery was visiting his old friend Grace DeLong, who had been to visit Thaine that morning.

Whether it's her sunny disposition, her gift of laughter, her wide-ranging talent, or all three, Judi Dench is loved by both the public and her professional peers. Her very name evokes an admiring response, both for her distinguished theater work and for her many memorable roles in movies like Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love, and Iris, and as ?M” in four James Bond films.

Mary Lamb is confined by the restrictions of domesticity: her father is losing his mind, her mother watchful and hostile. The great solace of her life is her brother Charles, an aspiring writer. It is no surprise when Mary falls for the bookseller's son, antiquarian William Ireland, from whom Charles has purchased a book. But this is no ordinary book - it once belonged to William Shakespeare himself. And William Ireland with...

The School at Thrush Green returns readers to the heart of the Cotswolds just as beloved primary school teachers Dorothy Watson and Agnes Fogerty announce their retirement and make plans to leave Thrush Green and buy a new home at Barton-on-Sea. The village people are aflutter with the news...

Charles Henstock, vicar of Thrush Green, is living in his new vicarage after the old one burned down. In its place are eight retirement homes, but there's heated debate in the village about the new residents. How to choose who will live there? How will they get on together? And how will they accommodate all...

The Cotswold village of Thrush Green is a particularly close-knit community, where many of the inhabitants have known each other since childhood, and any unusual events are quickly noted. The visit of retired schoolteachers Miss Watson and Miss Fogerty gives great pleasure to all. The new headmaster, Alan...

When Charles Henstock, rector of Thrush Green, moves a mile downhill to the parish of Lulling, his many friends rejoice in his promotion. But an unfortunate skirmish with one of his wealthy parishioners over the Lady Chapel kneelers saddens him. England, 1930s.

In the growing warmth of early summer Thrush Green shakes out its leaves and flowers. The inhabitants are delighted, farmers survey their promising hay fields, gardeners bustle with packets of seeds as birds flash to and fro. Activity is everywhere.

Why is it that Leonard Cohen receives the sort of reverence we reserve for a precious few living artists? Why are his songs, three or four decades after their original release, suddenly gracing the charts, blockbuster movie sound tracks, and television singing competitions?

Horace Rumpole, with seven new cases, finds himself up before the disciplinary Bar Council. Who will be against Rumpole, and will he live to fight another day?