Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our...

A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle class families - the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from...

Anna Karenina published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, It tells of the love affair between Anna and Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Russia, faith is challenged, bonds are broken, love dies and is reborn. Leo Tolstoy, or...

The master of historical fiction presents the iconic story of King Alfred and the making of a nation. As the ninth century wanes, England appears about to be plunged into chaos once more. For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior, Uhtred, whose life seems to shadow the making of England, this presents him with difficult choices.

The brilliant new crime novel from Ian Rankin, showing all the skills that made Rebus the most popular character in modern crime fiction. For the right man, all doors are open.... Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hands and a bit of the devil in his soul. He is looking for something to...

"Enthralling and suspenseful, EVERNEATH is pure indulgent escapism!" - Becca Fitzpatrick, NYT Bestselling Author of Hush, Hush Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her...

The fifteenth Inspector Rebus novel from the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES It's another Rebus novel you can't put down, and Rankin at his most powerful' CHOICE Rankin is superb' DAILY MAIL An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme. Rebus is drawn...

Edinburgh is about to become the home of the first Scottish parliament in 300 years. As political passions run high, DI John Rebus is charged with liaison, thanks to the new parliament being resident in Queensbury House, bang in the middle of his patch. But Queensbury House has its own, dark past.

The fourth in the best-selling Alfred series from number-one historical novelist, Bernard Cornwell. The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and Alfred's kingdom of Wessex in the south. But trouble stirs, a dead man has risen and new Vikings have arrived to ...

A student has gone missing in Edinburgh. She's not just any student, though, but the daughter of well-to-do and influential bankers. There's almost nothing to go on until DI John Rebus gets an unmistakable gut feeling that there's more to this than just another runaway spaced out on unaccustomed freedom.

When Lockhart Flawse is catapulted out of his upper-class and rapunzel-esque life with the curmudgeonly Flawse Senior, he must enter the world of suburbia, and marriage. Rendered an absolute twit in modern society by his medieval upbringing, Lockhart must resort to drastic tactics in his attempt to return to Flawse House.

A triology containing Excalibur, Winter King and Enemy of God. Excalibur The third novel in the Warlords Chronicle, Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur immerses the reader in the Britain of the Dark Ages. Merlin, the greatest of the Druids, believes that the ancient gods are deserting Britain, and that the invading Saxons can't be defeated without the...

An ingeniously witty novel about the risks - and rewards - of opening your life to new people by Amazon Charts bestselling author Camille Pagán. No new people: that's Annie Mercer's vow. It's bad enough that her boss sabotaged her chemistry career and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he's gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too...

Stephen Hawking's worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, has been a landmark publication in scientific books. A Briefer History of Time expands on the great subjects of the original. Purely technical concepts, such as the mathematics of chaotic boundary conditions, are gone.

Arthur de Caldicot, now page to Lord Stephen, sets off to Bruges and thence across France to Venice as the first stage in the preparations for going on a Crusade. On his journey, he looks into the shining stone that Merlin gave him and sees the legends of King Arthur and his knights revealed to him.

In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages.

These are three books from the bestselling "Railway Series", written by The Reverend W. Awdry and read by Michael Angelis. Thomas the Tank Engine has been delighting children for over 60 years. He first puffed his way out of the station in a series of hugely popular books, then he appeared on television and even starred in his own movie! Now you can enjoy three original adventures about the little steam train and...

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...

George Elkin has loyally trained as a solicitor in order to follow in his father's footsteps and run the family firm. But when his father dies, George resolves to follow his heart instead, taking on the West Country farm he grew up in. With the help of sibling neighbours, his childhood friends Prodge and Nell, George is sure he can adapt ...

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek god. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends and generally trying to stay alive. This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky...

One symbol, perhaps above all others, holds a crucial significance for everyone in search of wholeness: the well. From the terrestrial world it leads down into darkness, to the treasure of pure feminine consciousness. We are each blessed with our own well, and from this source of salvation and eternal life, teaches Marion Woodman, we must "drink or die". In Sitting by the Well, this acclaimed Jungian analyst...

Hating everything about her foster family, school, and life, Holly Hogan dreams of being reunited with her mother; thus, when she puts on a flowing blond wig and transforms herself into a strong girl named Solace, she finds the courage she needs to venture across England and discover her true self

When Sylvester, the Duke of Salford, first meets Phoebe Marlow, he finds her dull and insipid. She thinks he is insufferably arrogant. But when a series of unforeseen events leads them to be stranded together in a lonely country inn, they are both forced to reassess their hastily formed opinions, and they begin to discover a new-found liking...

A brilliant six disc audio collection from one of Britain's most well-loved poets, the Pam Ayres Audio Collection sees all of her finest witty works of poetry delivered with trademark humour and keen observation.

Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him.

Mystery and suspense surround a seance in a snowbound house on the edge of Dartmoor, where the prediction of a grisly murder is only the precursor to an ingenious deadly crime and one of Agatha Christie’s most gripping thrillers… In a remote house in the middle of Dartmoor, six shadowy figures huddle around a small table for a seance. Tension rises as the spirits spell out a chilling...

Rayford Steele continues his search for the truth amidst global chaos when the Rapture causes the disappearance of Christians all over Earth, in twelve episodes originally presented as radio broadcasts.

The highly-anticipated follow-up to Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller 18th Abduction Christmas is coming, but crime never stops for the Women's Murder Club. Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is looking forward to spending time with her family over the holidays. But when she receives a tip-off that the biggest heist ever to hit San Francisco is being planned for Christmas Day, everything changes. The architect of the ambitious...

Inspector John Rebus has confronted Edinburgh’s most hardened criminals, its bloodiest crime scenes, and its most dangerous backstreets—but nothing could have prepared him for what he finds on Fleshmarket Alley. In the city’s red-light district, men live out their sordid fantasies, and women with no other choice sell their bodies to make a buck. It’s a neighborhood of lost inhibitions, forgotten scruples, and...

How to take evangelism out of the religious box and weave it into your life at work In every part of the world, people are looking for spiritual answers and resources as never before. But you don't need to travel to some exotic foreign mission field to find hungry hearts. You spend hours every day in the most strategic place of impact in the world--your workplace. Going Public With Your Faith offers a proven model...

Business titans such as Bill Gates, Andrew Grove, Michael Eisner, and Katherine Graham share their success stories, telling listeners how they pioneered revolutionary new industries and created unprecedented wealth for their companies and themselves.

A team of memory and linguistic experts have designed this world class foreign language self-study course. International travelers, students, and business people can now learn to converse in a new language in less than half the time they expect. Instant Language is guaranteed to work for beginners, as a refresher course, and even for people who have been frustrated in other attempts to learn a new language.

A reality that lies just past the limits of ordinary vision - a reality which, once you enter it, will reveal the astonishing power of true, authentic spirituality. Stuart presents a host of guidelines, mechanisms and practical exercises for entering this mirror world and navigating your way through it. As you progress along this remarkable voyage, you will discover: how to experience the collective unconscious as a...

Two Father Brown Mysteries by G. K. Chesterton in one collection Listeners will delight in these masterful chronicles of the adventures and mishaps of Father Brown. Small, round-faced and engagingly innocent, Brown is a Roman Catholic priest from East Anglia. He also happens to be a top-notch detective, possessing that rarest of all gifts—an intuition that never fails. "The Wrong Shape" Novelist Leonard Quinton has...

Imogen Stubbs, Anna Massey, Adrian Lukis and Christopher Cazenove star in this compelling portrait of the complex and passionate woman behind the crown, as heard on BBC Radio 4. Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years--the longest reign of any British monarch. During those years she was transformed from a shy young bride to the formidable "Mother of Europe", making her mark on the 19th century in a manner that...

Sparky's Magic Piano
Henry Blair & Billy May
20:38
Sparky's Magic Echo
Henry Blair & Billy May
06:23
Sparky And The Talking Train
Henry Blair & Billy May
16:22
Sparky's Magic Baton
Billy May
12:27

In this second compilation of the most exciting moments from his daily audio diary, Tony Benn reveals what he discovered behind the scenes in the nuclear industry and recalls what really happened during Cabinet reshuffles.

Best-selling author Bryan Burrough (Barbarians at the Gate, Public Enemies, Big Rich) recently made a shocking discovery: The small town of Temple, Texas, where he had grown up, had harbored a dark secret. One of his high school classmates, Danny Corwin, was a vicious serial killer who had raped and mutilated six women, murdering three of them. Yet the town had denied all early signs of the radical evil that was...

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award Mesmerising, compulsive, deliciously dark' LUCY FOLEY Carmel is missing - but doesn't know she's lost. When sensitive, distracted eight-year-old Carmel becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, a man claiming to be her estranged grandfather finds her - and takes her. Unable to accept...

The Hiltons is a sweeping saga of the success - and excess - of an iconic American family. Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton's visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism. Then there were his children: Playboy Nicky Hilton's...

"Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, number one New York Times best-selling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love. Enter the Grishaverse.... Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns. Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems...

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Pucked series comes a romantic comedy about instant attraction, second chances, and not-so-little white lies. Sometimes I need an escape from the demands, the puck bunnies, and the notoriety that come with being an NHL team captain. I just want to be a normal guy for a few weeks. So when I leave Chicago for some peace and quiet, the last thing I expect is for...

A warning and a wake-up call to learn history so we are not doomed to repeat it. A must-listen for anyone who longs for a promising future for our great nation. What is wrong with America today? Is it possible America could crumble and our democracy fail? Questions like these plague Americans and cause us to be anxious about the future of the "land that we love". Individuals may come to different conclusions...

Known for the wit of her writing, Catherine Cookson was the UK’s most widely read novelist during her lifetime. When her Estate discovered this never-before-published memoir in the attic of her home, it was an astonishing find. Before I Go is the definitive story of her life, in the author’s own candid words.

Six years after the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further his widely heralded achievement. Louis Charles (“Lucy”) Lynch has spent all his sixty years in upstate Thomaston, New York, married to the same woman, Sarah, for forty of them, their son now a grown man. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not...

A sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure - in a restored edition, featuring never-before-published material from Gore Vidal’s original manuscript - Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the ancient world. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed...

National Best Seller From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: an unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the prism of the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. It is a book Patti Smith has described as “a roadmap to my life.” M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as...

An archaeologist’s wife is murdered on the shores of the River Tigris in Iraq. It was clear to Amy Leatheran that something sinister was going on at the Hassanieh dig in Iraq; something associated with the presence of ‘Lovely Louise’, wife of celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner. In a few days’ time Hercule...

Have you ever been carried away by a piece of classical music? The sad song of a single violin might make us cry, but the idea of finding out more about classical music can often be intimidating. In this funny, evocative, personal book, Gareth takes us on a journey of musical discovery that explains and entertains in equal measure. Over the course of three series of the Bafta award-winning The Choir, Gareth has...

Miku Takeshita and her family have moved from Japan to live in the UK, but unfortunately the family's enemy demons have followed them...Miku knows she's in trouble when her new supply teacher turns out to be a Nukekubi - a bloodthirsty demon who can turn into a flying head and whose favourite snack is children. That night, in a raging snowstorm, Miku's little brother Kazu is kidnapped by the demons, and then it's up...

This BBC Radio adaptation of John Galsworthy's classic family drama features a star cast including Dirk Bogarde, Sir Michael Hordern, Diana Quick, Michael Williams, and Amanda Redman. Galsworthy's epic story chronicles the decline and fall of the Forsytes through almost fifty years of material triumph, emotional disaster, and a terrible feud that splits them asunder.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable and quiet life. His contentment is disturbed one day when the wizard, Gandalf, and the dwarves arrive to take him away on an adventure. Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. He was just about to step out on to...

Suspenseful, seductive and as sharp as an assassin's blade - a historical thriller with a swashbuckling twist and a hero like you've never seen him before. When he's caught out by one ill-advised seduction too many, young William Shakespeare flees Stratford to seek his fortune. Cast adrift in London, Will falls in with a band of players - but greater men have their eye on this talented young wordsmith. England's very survival...

*A brand new collection of short stories from the incredible Sir Terry Pratchett!* Imagination is an amazing thing. It can take you to the top of the highest mountain, or down to the bottom of the deepest depths of the sea. This where it took Doggins on his Awfully Big Adventure: a quest full of magic and flying machines. (And the world’s best joke – trust me, it’s hilarious.) It took three young inventors to the moon (where...

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, 'Why didn't they ask Evans?' Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious...

The latest novel in the Will Trent series from number one best-selling author Karin Slaughter. A body is discovered in an empty Atlanta warehouse. It's the body of an ex-cop, and from the moment Special Agent Will Trent walks in he knows this could be the most devastating case of his career. Bloody footprints...

Sterne's celebrated novel A Sentimental Journey joins the Naxos AudioBooks catalogue. Sterne's novel transformed the travelogue genre in the eighteenth century by making travel writing much more personal and immediate. Writing from a subjective perspective, we experience France and Italy through the eyes of the delightful persona of Yorick. This spirited, mirthful and flirtatious character is an obvious alter-ego...

A Genius Performance by Sean Barrett! A man's body is found by the Bosphorus. He is Berisha, an Albanian. Inspector Ikmen investigates and believes it is due to a blood feud. Vengance is the order of the day. Ikmen needs to be very careful as he might be next!

Set partly in London and partly in South Carolina, Girl From the South follows the fortunes of a small group of the young and the single; the children, in fact, of sixties swingers. They have, it seems, infinite opportunity, but are bedeviled by indecision,  by the inflexibility of tradition...

A radio dramatization of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of The Royal National Theatre. The sleeve notes include a scene-by-scene synopsis, full character analysis, and an essay on interpretation from the producer.

Ria and Marilyn have never met - they live thousands of miles apart, separated by the Atlantic Ocean: one in a big, warm, Victorian house in Tara Road, Dublin, the other in a modern, open-plan house in New England. Two more unlikely friends would be hard to find: Ria's life revolves around her family and friends while Marilyn's reserve is born of...

Julia Hunter and Kate Bain have found true happiness with men old enough to be their fathers. Julia organises her husband Hugh and their cherubic twins with ruthless efficiency and Kate has lived with James, for eight years,and although she refuses to marry him, she's apparently devoted to him.

This is a warm family saga of three generations of heroines: Penelope, her daughter Olivia, and a young girl named Antonia, whom Olivia and Penelope have adopted as surrogate child. Confronted with her own mortality, Penelope returns to the Cornwall coast to come to terms with her son Noel, with Antonia's haunted young boyfriend Danus, and with the memory of Richard, the soldier who never returned.

A banking scandal has filled the city with violent protests, and a young homeless man burns to death after being caught between rioters and the police.

But all is not as it seems; an opportunistic killer is using the chaos to exact revenge. Arthur Bryant and John May soon find their investigation taking an apocalyptic turn as the case comes to involve the history of mob rule, corruption, punishment, and the legend of Guy Fawkes.

Society’s eligible women are in mourning. Lord Peter Wimsey has married at last, having finally succeeded in his ardent pursuit of the lovely mystery novelist Harriet Vane. The two depart for a tranquil honeymoon in a country farmhouse but find, instead of a well-prepared love nest, the place left in a shambles by...

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. In a shocking scandal, the like of which has not been seen in the English aristocracy since the eighteenth century, Lord Peter Wimsey's elder brother, the Duke of Denver, stands accused of murder.

Colin Dexter's brain-teasing whodunit unravels a complex web of deceit and betrayal in the upper echelons of Oxford academia. At the centre of this web is the murder of a young woman, Rachel James, shot from close range through her kitchen window.

A group of people, all looking for something more in their lives, and all they have in common is their Italian evening class... The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams ...

Magnificently messy lives, brilliantly untangled. Funny, tender and completely absorbing!' GRAHAM NORTON They're a glamorous family, the Caseys. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together - birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie - who has the most money - insists on it.

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael and Cast! Two years after the trial for the murder of her lover, the blaze of publicity surrounding mystery writer Harriet Vane has begun to die away and Harriet decides it's time for a break. But the peace of a North Devon walking tour is rudely shattered ....

Hiccup is lost in the Library Labyrinth and the Driller-Dragons, Madguts and Murderous are on the prowl. Hiccup's birthday is not going to be the quiet affair he hoped for. Also contains a comprehensive Dragonese Dictionary for those who'd like to dragon-whisper themselves.

Kenneth Williams, Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones and Paul Merton are the ‘Famous Five’ of Just a Minute: sparkling raconteurs whose sharp wits and skill made them consistently a pleasure to listen to. Each brings their own unique quality to the show, and this box set showcases their highlights - the...

In 2002, New York City's newly elected mayor, Michael Bloomberg, made a historic announcement: his administration had won control of the city's school system in a first step toward reversing its precipitous decline. In a controversial move, he appointed Joel Klein, an accomplished lawyer from outside the education establishment, to lead this ambitious campaign.Lessons of Hope is Klein's inside account of his...

Love is Blind is William Boyd's sweeping, heart-stopping new novel - set at the end of the 19th century, it follows the fortunes of Brodie Moncur, a young Scottish musician, about to embark on the story of his life. When Brodie is offered a job in Paris, he seizes the chance to flee Edinburgh and his tyrannical clergyman father, and begin a wildly...

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael and Cast!
When copywriter Victor Dean falls to his death on the stairs of Pym's Advertising Agency, no one seems to mind. That is, until Lord Peter joins the firm incognito as Dean's replacement and starts asking questions which lead him into a network of blackmailers, drug pushers and one of the most deadly plots of crime fiction. However, before the crimes can be solved and the truth revealed, five more people must die...

"The most exciting thriller I've read since The Bourne Identity. Fans of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, and Jason Bourne will LOVE Evan Smoak. A new thriller superstar is born!" —Robert Crais "Orphan X is the most gripping, high-octane thriller I've read in a long, long time. Hang onto your seat because Gregg Hurwitz will take you on a dizzying ride you'll not soon forget!" —Tess Gerritsen The Nowhere Man is a legendary...

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael! The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations. Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. When mystery writer Harriet...

“The beauty or ugliness of a character lay not only in its achievements, but in its aims and impulses; its true history lay, not among things done, but among things willed.” Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a complex and impactful novel by Thomas Hardy. The novel follows the life of Tess, the eldest child of a family who believes they have a small claim to royalty because of their family name. When misfortune hits the family, Tess...

I got the impression that they could imagine only two reasons why a woman should choose to settle down in Bruach: either that she was running away from the police, or escaping from a lurid past.' Neither reason applies to Lillian Beckwith, in these classic stories based on her convalescence...

The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations, and Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Lord Peter Wimsey, man about town and amateur sleuth...

This was the second Lord Peter Wimsey story to be adapted for radio in the mid-seventies. Broadcast May 5th to June 16th 1975, it was adapted by Chris Miller and produced by Simon Brett. The case of Agatha Dawson is closed, but Lord Peter Wimsey is not satisfied. With no clues to work on, he begins his own investigation. Then Agatha's maid is...

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael and Cast!
Lord Peter Wimsey is invited to view a corpse which has been deposited in the bathtub of an architect. The corpse is quickly identified as that of Sir Reuben Levy, the City financier; and just as quickly it is proved to be someone else. Where is Sir Reuben? And whose body was in the bath?

A Dark-Hunter series audiobook from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon Eleven thousand years ago a god was born. Cursed into the body of a human, Acheron spent a lifetime of shame. His human death unleashed an unspeakable horror that almost destroyed the earth. Brought back against his will, he became the sole defender of mankind. Only it was never that simple. For centuries, he has...

Celebrate Christmas with one of the world's best-loved storytellers.

In this collection there is mystery and magic, laughter and mischief, the joy of shared times and plenty of delicious food - many of the ingredients that have been delighting Enid Blyton's fans for more than 70 years.

Millie is furious when she finds herself obliged to sort through the belongings of her aunt Flo, who has died recently. She hardly knew her aunt, and besides, she has her own career to think of. Young, pretty, full of confidence - or so she likes to pretend - she wants nothing to do with a dull spinster aunt whom her family refuses to talk about. But when she arrives at Flo’s basement flat, Millie’s interest is awakened.

For Ruby and Rosetta Capretti life in the slums of the East End holds little promise. Although very similar in looks they dream of very different futures. Coquettish, flamboyant Rosetta is desperate to leave the claustrophobic confines of the sewing sweatshop to follow in her wayward aunt's footsteps and work under the bright lights of the music hall. Ruby, quieter and more modest, has always longed to train as a...

The series is an epic adventure set in ancient Egypt from one of the world's most celebrated novelists. Both entertaining and enthralling with action-packed sequences that only Wilbur Smith can deliver.

In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown, a leading expert on shame, authenticity, and belonging, shares ten guideposts on the power of Wholehearted living&;a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness. Each day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead...

A naked man appears from the sea at night on a lonely beach and interrupts another naked man's illicit love tryst: Innes was a master of a startling and intriguing opening (apart from many other things). This book, although very different in tone from much of what he wrote, is one of his best. It's a chase thriller in the John Buchan tradition, which Innes explored several times, and while being nothing like "real life", it is...

The rise to global predominance of Western civilization is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five hundred years. All over the world, an astonishing proportion of people now work for Western-style companies, study at Western-style universities, vote for Western-style governments, take Western medicines, wear Western clothes, and even work Western hours. Yet six hundred years ago the...

Rome, AD 34: Vespasian is serving as a military officer on the outskirts of the Empire. But political events in Rome - Tiberius's increasing debauchery, the escalating grain crisis - draw him back to the city. When Caligula becomes Emperor, Vespasian believes that things will improve. Instead, the young emperor deteriorates from Rome's shining star to a blood-crazed, incestuous, all-powerful madman.

In April 2004, the world was shocked by the brutal pictures of beatings, dog attacks, sex acts, and the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. As the story broke, and the world began to learn about the extent of the horrors that occurred there, the U.S. Army dispatched Colonel Larry James to Abu Ghraib with an overwhelming assignment: to dissect this catastrophe, fix it, and prevent it from being repeated.

In 2000, the total GDP of Earth was $36 trillion. At the start of 2007, it was $70 trillion. Today that growth has gone suddenly and sharply into decline. John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless bankers, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk...

Middlemarch is a recognized masterpiece that explores the complex social world of nineteenth-century England. It is concerned with the lives of several ordinary people, albeit ones with high social standing. The novel is set in the small town of Middlemarch and follows the interrelated lives of several characters. At the heart of the book is Dorothea, a kind-hearted and honest woman who longs to find some way to...

The truth is not a destination – it's a magical ride. Addy Loest is harbouring a secret – several, in fact. Dedicated overthinker, frockaholic and hard-partier, she’s been doing all she can to avoid the truth for quite some time. A working-class girl raised between the Port Kembla Steelworks and the surf of the Illawarra coast, Addy is a fish out of water at the prestigious University of Sydney. She’s also the child of...

A Week in December is Sebastian Faulks's first wholly contemporary novel. Set in London, it's a brilliant social satire, structured like a thriller, that takes place over the course of a single week at the end of 2007.

Following his hugely popular account of the previous 2000 years, John O'Farrell now comes bang up to date with a hilarious modern history asking 'How the hell did we end up here?' An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain informs, elucidates and laughs at all the bizarre events....

The Falklands War was one of the strangest in British history—28,000 men sent to fight for a tiny relic of empire 8,000 miles from home. At the time, many Britons saw it as a tragic absurdity, but the British victory confirmed the quality of British arms and boosted the political fortunes of the Conservative government. But it left a chequered aftermath; it was of no wider significance for British interests and taught no lessons.

Another excellent installment in the Jeeves and Wooster canon and a bestselling audio. The seven unabridged short stories included here begin with Jeeves' arrival to look after Bertie Wooster, and many take place in the big world of New York City. Enjoy the usual blend of chaos and hilarity read by the superb...

Three classic radio productions from the BBC archives starring Nigel Hawthorne, Miriam Margolyes, Geraldine McEwan and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's...