Longlisted – Baileys Women’s Prize 2014 Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2013 Canadian Governor General's Literary Award, 2013. It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and...

Young Stalin is a remarkable adventure story about an exceptional, turbulent young man, born in exoticism, raised in the church, fancying himself a poet, then embracing revolutionary idealism and thereby finding his romantic Messianic mission in life.

For all its old-fashioned charm, Forbes Abbot is far from the close-knit community that ex-Londoners Mallory and Kate Lawson expected. In this village, everyday squabbles can quickly turn to murder. As the couple begins to settle into their new life away from the big city, it isn't long until they're thrown into the horror and mayhem of a true Midsomer Murders mystery. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby has encountered...

She's practically perfect in every way! After being nearly killed by both a hired hit man and her former secretary, Agatha Raisin could use some low-key cases. So when Robert Smedley walks through the door of her detective agency, determined to prove that his wife is cheating on him, Raisin Investigations immediately offers to help. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife: young, pretty, and...

This is the final volume of The Cazalet Chronicle, the quartet of novels chronicling the lives of a British family before, during, and after the Second World War. VE Day has been celebrated, but the war with Japan goes on. Polly, Clary, and Louise are grown up, discovering loneliness, loss, and passion. Rupert, missing...

When Philip Swallow and Professor Morris Zapp participate in their universities' Anglo-American exchange scheme, the Fates play a hand, and each academic finds himself enmeshed in the life of his counterpart on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Nobody is immune to the exchange: students, colleagues, even wives are swapped as events spiral out of control. And soon both sundrenched Euphoric State university and...

Andy Dalziel was preoccupied with the illegal book that one of his Sergeants was running on who was to be appointed as the new Chief Constable...and how to make sure his own bet paid off. But when a battered Ford Escort containing one very dead Italian turned up in the police car park, Peter Pascoe and his bloated superior were plunged into an investigation that made internal police politics look like child's play.

The story of one upper-class family in Sussex, gathered together for the death of their well-loved nanny. Instead of blessing them all from her death bed she curses them. As the family wait for the funeral, underlying stories reaching back into a World War II scandal begin to emerge.

This charming piece of social observation throws a gentle spotlight on life in a small village in northern England of the 1850s. The middle-aged ladies, existing in rather impoverished circumstances nevertheless maintain the rules of politeness which they feel they should live by.

When Simone Hollingsworth fails to turn up at bell-ringing practice, her fellow campanologists are unsurprised. Bell-ringing, it seems to the villagers of Fawcett Green, is just Simone's latest hobby to have fallen by the wayside. Only her neighbours suspect the worst, for Simone's husband has...

Leviathan is a vigorous defense of a strong central government that was originally published in 1651, just after the English wars of 1642-49. This presentation explores the social and political turmoil during which Leviathan was written, including an examination of the radical political philosophies spawned by opposition to Stuart monarchy in England. It explains the materialistic foundation of Hobbes' philosophy and...

When the vertically challenged Johnny Naples entrusts Tim Diamond with a package worth over three million pounds, he’s making a big mistake. Tim Diamond is the worst detective in the world. Next day, Johnny’s dead, Tim feels the heat, and his smart younger brother, Nick, gets the package – and every crook in town on his back!

The idea of the unspoilt and unchanging village is one of the most potent in the English imagination. Yet the English village is plainly dying. The unaltered rhythms of village life have all but vanished. But not without a trace…they exist in the voices of men and women for whom the old ways were life-shaping realities. Richard Askwith describes a journey in search of the true country dwellers. He captures the voices of...

In this audio from the The Ultimate series, international bestselling mind power author Stephen Richards has developed one of the most powerful ways to help you implement appetite suppression in a safe way. This groundbreaking brainwave technology does not use self-hypnosis or subliminal messaging. In less than 30 minutes the main track will target the core of the problem and help you overcome the...

Three sisters, one birthday, one little problem... The three Kettle sisters have had a mortifying mishap. Their raucous, champagne-soaked birthday dinner has come to an abrupt end following a violent argument and an emergency dash to the hospital. So who started it this time? Was it angry, hurt Cat, still recovering from the 'night of the spaghetti'? Was it Lyn, so serenely successful, at least on the outside? Or was it..

Top Gear's James May is back with his hilarious and controversial opinions on . . . just about everything. As well as writing about his first love, cars, James has a go at political correctness, the endless rules and regulations of daily life, the internal combustion engine and traffic wardens. He discusses gastropubs, Jeremy Clarkson and other trials of modern life. His highly entertaining observations from behind the...

Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has just moved to the Lake District with his dad and his teenage sister, Jasmine, for a 'Fresh New Start'. Five years ago his sister's twin, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb. His parents are wrecked by their grief. Jasmine turns to piercing, pink hair and stops eating. The family falls apart. But Jamie hasn't cried in all that time. To him Rose is just a distant memory. Jamie is far more...

Read by the author, Clive James. From Fleet Street to the television, North Face of Soho is the fascinating and hilarious fourth volume of memoir from much-loved author, poet and broadcaster Clive James. It is 1968. Newly married, dressed in the style of the times ('a frenzy of bad judgement'), Clive James is leaving the cloistered world of Cambridge academia and setting his sights once again on the lights of...

Verse with all the invention of Clive James' prose style, combined with a sense of rhythm, cadence and memorable form that is equally and entirely his own. Following the publication of his 1986 collection, "Other Passports", he has emerged as a prominent poet of his generation, going to publish new works in such mainstream outlets as the TLS, the London Review of Books, the Spectator, the New Yorker and the...

Full-cast performance with comprehensive running commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the novel.
This timeless classic of gossip and matchmaking is presented as exquisite drama that questions and analyses the values and beliefs of Austen's own times, to understand the "blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd" world of the text.

Jeffrey Archer, one of the greatest popular novelists of our generation, delivers a truly page-turning thriller in False Impression. When an aristocratic old lady is brutally murdered in her country home the night before 9/11, it takes all the resources of the FBI and Interpol to work out the connection between her and the possible motive for her death –a priceless Van Gogh painting. It's a young woman, who was in...

In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.

By turns graceful and knowing, funny and moving, Niagara Falls All Over Again is the latest masterwork by National Book Award finalist and author of The Giant's House, Elizabeth McCracken. Spanning the waning years of vaudeville and the golden age of Hollywood, Niagara Falls All Over Again chronicles a flawed, passionate friendship over thirty years, weaving a powerful story of family and love, grief and loss.

Imagine a serial killer who has already struck a horrific number of times. A killer who discovers people's secrets -- the deepest, darkest secrets we keep even from ourselves -- and uses them to target and destroy his victims. The case begins with a shock, and the twists keep coming, when FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett and her team investigate a murder brazenly committed on a flight from Texas to Virginia.

The New York Times bestselling inside account of the attack against the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence outposts in Benghazi, Libya On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four...

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."---Randy Pausch A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow...

A sweeping radio saga of political intrigue, love affairs, financial wrangles and murder, based on the books by Anthony Trollope, creator of The Barchester Chronicles. This epic drama follows several generations of the Palliser dynasty as they navigate the twists and turns of political and high society in Victorian England. Wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and beautiful, spirited Lady Glencora.embark on...

Be warned: once started, you'll have to cancel all engagements until you finish it' Independent on Sunday The action in THE SENTRY is intense and the body count high but what is more memorable is the manner in which Crais cracks open the door into the enigmatic Pike's emotions' L A Times After the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina, Dru Rayne and her uncle relocated to Los Angeles. Five years later, their struggling...

A sumptuous historical novel set in the court of Elizabeth I, from Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. Now I can be the queen that my mother intended me to be . . . the queen I was born to be. 1558. After years of waiting, Princess Elizabeth accedes to the throne of England. But the country is divided, the restoration of the Protestant faith ignites opposition from the church...

Norah Vincent's bestselling book of investigative journalism, Self-Made Man, ended on a harrowing note. Suffering from severe depression after her eighteen months living disguised as a man, Vincent felt she was a danger to herself. On the advice of her psychologist, she committed herself to a mental institution. Vincent's new journey takes her from a big-city public hospital to a private facility in the Midwest and finally...

Football inspires competition and inflames passions nowhere as strongly as in Africa. Travelling across thirteen countries, from Cairo to the Cape, journalist Steve Bloomfield meets players and fans, politicians and rebel leaders, and discovers the role that football has played in shaping the continent. He recounts how football has helped to prop up an authoritarian regime in Egypt, end a conflict in Côte d'Ivoire and provide...

I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.' (Long Walk to Freedom) In 1994 Nelson...

Could happiness lie in helping others and being open to accepting help yourself? Mentors – Russell Brand's follow up to Sunday Times number one bestseller, Recovery – describes the benefits of seeking and offering help. ‘I have mentors in every area of my life, as a comic, a dad, a recovering drug addict, a spiritual being and as a man who believes that we, as individuals and the great globe itself, are works in...

A private detective who can make the guilty confess simply by smiling at them. An artist so intimidated by his morally impeccable cat that he feels compelled to wear formal attire at dinner. A devotee of Proust whose life is turned upside down when he inadvertently subscribes to a correspondence course on "How to Acquire Complete Self-Confidence and an Iron Will." These are just a few of the many members of...

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty", the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.

Regarded as the funniest one-liner in the UK, Tim Vine delivers joke after joke on this great live show. The recipient of awards for best jokes told at comedy festivals, sit back and enjoy the only Punslinger in town.

Famously a playboy, Warren Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from Bonnie and Clyde (which confirmed for him the importance of controlling the projects he was involved in) to Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds (for which he won the best director Oscar), Bugsy, and Bulworth. Few filmgoers realize that along with...

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrait of the Jazz Age in all its decadence and excess, is, as editor Maxwell Perkins praised it in 1924, "a wonder." It remains one of the most widely read, translated, admired, imitated and studied twentieth-century works of American fiction. This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald's best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald...

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO USING SYNCHRONICITY TO PROMOTE WELLBEING Synchronicity: the phenomenon of experiencing a striking and meaningful coincidence that connects our inner and outer worlds. Synchronicity can act as a guide along our life path, helping us through challenging times, restoring self-belief and awakening a deeper understanding of ourselves and our destiny. Writing both for practitioners...

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry! The 6th book in the Series! In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He Who Must Not Be Named has returned to this country and is once more active. "It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive and among us again," said Fudge.' These dramatic words appeared in...

1 Introduction - The Philadelphia Orchestra 2 Royal March Of The Lion - Johnny Morris 3 Cocks And Hens - The Philadelphia Orchestra 4 Wild Asses - The Philadelphia Orchestra 5 The Tortoise - The Philadelphia Orchestra 6 Elephants - The Philadelphia Orchestra 7 Kangaroos - The Philadelphia Orchestra 8 Aquarium - The Philadelphia Orchestra 9 People With Long Ears - The Philadelphia Orchestra 10 The Cuckoo In...

Without question the best audio performance by John Le Carre! This wonderful work is a fictional portrayal of an aging revolutionary, this novel is a powerful commentary on the nightmare politics of the troubled 20th century. Born in Hungary in 1905, a defector from the Communist Party in 1938,

It's 1945 and the war is finally over. For the Devlin family in Liverpool, the wartime years have been almost too much to bear. But at long last sisters Grace and Chrissie can return to their normal lives. Level-headed and hard-working, Grace wants nothing more than to meet a nice man and settle down.

It's not just boys who have all the fun, as this wide-ranging compilation demonstrates. Some of the biggest names of comedy are here, from the founding mothers of the monologue to today's daughters of the double entendre.

These stories from Camelot tell how, many years ago, Arthur, the once future King of England, set out to save his country from the troubles that plagued it, aided by the brave knights of his Round Table and the most famous sword in the world, Excalibur; how Merlin the Wizard fought against the wicked Morgana le Fay's enchantments and how Arthur loved and lost the beautiful Guinevere, his Queen.

The fourth series of the popular Radio 4 show, finds the Ladies of Letters co-hosting their own cable TV programme: and it's pushing their friendship to the edge once more. "Irene, I will take the advice to 'break a leg' in the spirit which, I'm sure it was intended. Though frankly, in those ridiculous high-heeled bootys you're wearing, I think it's more likely to be you. Anyway, good luck and DO KEEP STILL.

Molly Sullivan said that the new baby was a little star. She was no trouble at all and she was always smiling... so she became known as Star. Star Sullivan just wanted everyone to be happy - her Father to stop gambling, her Mother not to work so hard, her Brother to stay out of trouble, her Sister to stop worrying...

The Man of Property, the first novel in John Galsworthy's epic social satire The Forsyte Saga, introduces us to Soames Forsyte, a London solicitor and prominent man of his important family. Accustomed to getting whatever he wants, he sets his sights with absolute determination on the beautiful Irene, in spite of her pennilessness and indifference to him. Irene, a lover of art and beauty, eventually accepts his marriage...

The Worst Witch Audio Collection 12 CDs By Jill Murphy - 7 Audio Stories on 12 CDs Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch is one of the all-time children's classics and this audio collection contains unabridged adaptations - read by Gemma Arterton - of all seven stories in the spellbinding series. Mildred Hubble is the worst...

Afghanistan, Summer 2006. This is war. Afghanistan in the summer of 2006. In blazing heat in remote outposts the 3 Para battlegroup is pitted against a stubborn enemy who keep on coming. Until now, the full story of what happened there has not been told. This is it.

Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialize in out-of-print books. The phrase 'antiquarian book-sellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive. I am a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books and all the things I want are impossible to get over here except in very...

Born to parents who were enthusiastic naturalists, and linked through his wider family to a clutch of accomplished scientists, Richard Dawkins was bound to have biology in his genes. But what were the influences that shaped his life and intellectual development? And who inspired him to become the pioneering...

The enthralling, honest, often funny memoirs, of the north country girl who came to London acted at the Royal Court Theatre and married England’s greatest actor, Laurence Olivier.

When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial.

Why is 'being happy' such an imperative nowadays? What meaning do people give happiness? In this book Abbot Christopher turns to monastic wisdom to offer answers, and to explain that in essence, happiness is a gift, not an achievement, the fruit of giving and receiving blessings.

From the bestselling author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a hilarious new book from Lynne Truss about her strange journey through the world of sport and sports journalism. During her time at the newspaper she faced disdain from fellow sports writers; undertook last-minute, pre-fight research into 'The Rumble in the Jungle' (Muhammad Ali won, surprisingly); tried unsuccessfully to interpret bizarre commentary...

I am the cat who walks by himself and all places are alike to me.' Here are the delightful stories which Kipling first told to his own children before setting them down on paper. How the Camel got his Hump, How the Leopard got his Spots, How the Elephant got his Trunk, the Butterfly that Stamped and many others.

A Genius Performance by Kenneth Branagh! This performance of the masterpiece is truly outstanding. We have rated it slightly lower than the Robert Stephens production but this was a close run thing. Branagh's performance helps the modern listener to fully understand the sense of the text, without losing any of the style and beauty of the language. The best solution would be to get...

John Harmon, in exile for many years, discovers that by a curious quirk in his father’s will he must marry Bella Wilfer, a girl he has never met, in order to claim his inheritance. Mistakenly thought to have drowned, on his return he gains employment with the kindly Mr Boffin under the assumed name of John...

A Genius Performance by Anton Lesser! On a cold February night the police find the third corpse on the quayside in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls. The killer walked away, singing. When the cargo ship, Cape Farewell, sets sail, she carries nine passengers, one of whom is known to be the murderer. Which is why Superintendent Roderick Alleyn joins the ship at Portsmouth on the most difficult assignment of his professional career...

Maureen Lipman continues to examine the warp and weft of her own life's rich tapestry - including doing the weekly wash in a floor-length taffeta gown before going off to shake hands with HM The Queen. This is an humorous collection of reminiscence, anecdote and insight.

Two BBC radio dramatisations of Raymond Chandler novels featuring the cynical, world-weary detective - Philip Marlowe.

Pod, Homily and Arrietty are a family of tiny people who live beneath the floor, behind the grandfather clock in the old rectory. They own nothing - everything they have is borrowed from the 'human beans' who don't even know they exist. Arrietty's father, Pod, is an expert borrower.

One of Tolstoys most important shorter works, The Kreutzer Sonata presents a problematic view of the relationship between the sexes and promotes abstinence as the solution. Pozdnyshev jealously observes the intimacy that emerges between his wife and a violin player. Haunted by The Kreutzer Sonata...

The new novel from the author of the much-loved Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are a set of six medieval tapestries. Beautiful, intricate and expertly made, they are also mysterious in their origin and meaning. Tapestries give an appearance of order...

It is a cold February night in 1925 when two teenage sisters - Mollie and Annemarie - escape from their home in a tiny Irish village. Their beloved mother has died and the girls have suffered shocking abuse at the hands of their father.

From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, The Neapolitan Novels is an exploration of the friendship between Lila and Lena, two bright young girls who grew up in the tough, rough streets of post-war Naples. This is no normal friendship; it's a friendship that loves, hurts, supports and destroys - and yet it is one that lasts a lifetime. These four full-cast BBC adaptations bring the streets of Naples vividly to life.

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed...

In the 1960s, four ambitious new MPs take their seats at Westminster. Over three decades they share the turbulent passions of the race for power with their wives and families, men and women caught up in a dramatic game for the highest stakes of all. But only one can gain the ultimate goal - Prime Minister . . .

Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts proves undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair. Hardy’s portrait of Jude, the idealist and dreamer who is a prisoner of his...

The Clifton Chronicles is Jeffrey Archer’s most ambitious work in four decades as an international bestselling author. The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the chilling words, ‘I was told that my father was killed in the war’.

When all questions of space, time, matter and the nature of being have been resolved, only one question remains - "Where shall we have dinner?"
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe provides the ultimate gastronomic experience, and for once there is no morning after to worry about.

The master storyteller continues the Clifton saga with this, the second volume New York, 1939. Tom Bradshaw is arrested for first degree murder. He stands accused of killing his brother.

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed triumph — a triumph with profound implications both for NASA policy and for the impending presidential election. To verify the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic...

I have broken my vows. I have murdered innocents. I have trod down the soil over their dead face with my bare heels, and only the moon as witness. I have loved a woman and she ruined me. I have loved a king and yet I ruined him.' The year is 937. England is a nation divided, ruled by minor kings and Viking lords. Each vies for land and power.

The astonishing life of Julius Caesar is recreated in a magnificent new novel that brilliantly interweaves history and adventure.

Emperor: The Gates of Rome is an epic tale of ambition and rivalry, bravery and betrayal, from an outstanding new voice in historical fiction.

The 4th novel in the bestselling Conqueror series, continuing the life and adventures of the mighty Khan dynasty. Genghis Khan is dead, but his legend and his legacy live on. His son Ogedai has built a white city on a great plain and made a capital for the new nation. Now the armies have gathered to see which of Genghis' sons has the strength to be khan. The Mongol empire has been at peace for two years, but whoever survives will face the formidable might of their...

An unknown benefactor provides Philip Pirrip with the chance to escape his poor upbringing. Aspiring to be a gentleman, and encouraged by his expectations of wealth, he abandons his friends and moves to London. His expectations prove to be unfounded however, and he must return home penniless.

A Genius Performance by Anton Lesser!

This wonderful production of one of Shakespeare's most extraordinary tragedies is both true to the text and maintains the tempo of the piece. In every classically trained actors life there is a deep desire to play Hamlet. Lesser does a brilliant job with this performance. Personal and magestic - a must listen! Naxos

'Without this child, we shall all die.' Lyra Belacqua lives half-wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon, Pantalaimon, always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle - a struggle born of stolen children, witch clans and armoured bears. As she hurtles towards danger in the cold far North, Lyra never suspects the shocking...

As Britain stands alone against a monstrous enemy, the inhabitants of Pearl Street face hardship and heartbreak with courage and humour. The war touches each of them in a different way: for Annie Poulson, a widow, it means never-ending worry when her twin boys are called up and sent to France; Sheila Reilly's husband, Cal, faces the terror of U-Boat attacks; Eileen Costello is liberated from a bitter, loveless...

The gathering of the tribes of the Mongols has been a long time in coming, but finally, triumphantly, Temujin of the Wolves, Genghis Khan, is given the full accolade of overall leader and their oaths. Now he can begin to meld all the previously warring people into one army, one nation. But the task Genghis has set himself, and them, is formidable. He is determined to travel to the land of the long-time enemy, the Chin, and attack them there. The distances and terrain - the...

Mightier than the Sword opens with an IRA bomb exploding during the MV Buckingham's maiden voyage across the Atlantic - but how many passengers lose their lives?

In this second volume of heart thumping tales, listeners will be surreptitiously watching the door. For within it we discover that the contents of our lives are not always as faithful as we see them. Friends, lovers, neighbours and enemies we thought we had, the dark we thought we trusted. There are secrets and...

Following the publication of his 1986 collection, Other Passports , Clive James has emerged as one of the most prominent poets of his generation, going on to publish new works in such mainstream outlets as the TLS, the London Review of Books, the Spectator, the New Yorker and the Australian Book Review, and...

The first volume in Churchill's epic history of English-speaking peoples The English-speaking peoples comprise perhaps the greatest number of human beings sharing a common language in the world today. These people also share a common heritage. For his four-volume work, Sir Winston Churchill took as his subject these great...

There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings. The story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.

Gervase Phinn is back with his tales of life as a schools inspector in Yorkshire. His colourful cast of characters have now become firm favourites - the eccentric staff at County Hall as well as the children themselves who find ways of embarrassing the school inspectors with innocent ease. We reconvene with Christine Bentley, head teacher of Winnery Nook School, the well-named Mrs Savage and not forgetting the...

The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, on Rachel's cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself.

Tom Baker stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of John le Carré’s powerful thriller. In the third year of perestroika, London publisher Barley Blair is sent a manuscript from Moscow. Exposing Russian nuclear threats as a sham, the information - if it’s genuine - could shatter East-West relations. Jazz-loving, hard-drinking Blair is hardly the spymasters’ idea of the perfect agent, yet they are forced to send him to Moscow to make contact. But the Cold War thaws...

No one can fail to be captivated by the swashbuckling piracy of "Treasure Island". Having outwitted a band of pirates to obtain a map disclosing the whereabouts of Captain Flint's treasure, Young Jim sets sail for Treasure Island.

When the miserly Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, he decides to change his ways - for Christmas and for ever. Marley's ghost sends down three spirits to Scrooge: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future.

Agatha Raisin is lonely. Busy as she is with her detective agency and the meetings of the Carsely Ladies' Society, she still misses her ex-husband, James Lacey. So when he suddenly resurfaces and invites her on holiday at a surprise location, she's ready to go yesterday.

A Genius performance by Penelope Keith!

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. 

Can the feisty Agatha cut it as a private investigator? She soon learns that running her own detective agency in the Cotswolds is not quite like starring in a Raymond Chandler movie. But then walks in wealthy divorcee Catherine Laggat - Brown, and Agatha is given her first real case. Death threats, blackmail and physical attack soon follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the Cotswolds for clues and showing...

A Genius performance by Penelope Keith!

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.

The third episode in the epic fantasy series by Anthony Horowitz. Nevada, USA. Fourteen-year-old twins Jamie and Scott Tyler are performing a mind-reading act in a dingy theatre. But when a sinister multinational corporation, Nightrise, kidnaps Scott, Jamie is left alone – and wanted for murder. He becomes embroiled in a corrupt presidential campaign and breaks into the American prison system before being propelled 10,000 years into the past, where he encounters...

For over half a century, Henry Blofeld has conveyed his unfailing enthusiasm for the game of cricket as a much loved broadcaster and journalist. His characteristically patrician tones, overlaid with those of the bon viveur, have delighted listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special where the personality of the...

From Queen of Tarts to the nation's heart, Mary Berry shares her Recipe for Life. Read by the actress Patricia Hodge. In the words of my father, my birth caused no end of trouble...' From the moment she came into the world - two weeks early, throwing her parents' lives into disarray - Mary has gracefully but...

This omnibus audio edition of CALL THE MIDWIFE, SHADOWS OF THE WORKHOUSE and FAREWELL TO THE EAST END chronicles Jennifer Worth's career as a midwife, from her arrival in the war-scarred Docklands as a wide-eyed trainee, to the demolition of the tenements. It provides a fascinating snapshot of ...