A trio of college friends who reunite aboard a cruise ship experience an unforgettable vacation in this compelling novel from the author of The Summer of Good Intentions, which was hailed as &;everything a summer read should be&; by Elin Hilderbrand. Three college roommates are celebrating a twentieth wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to Bermuda. As the ship pulls away from the pier, everyone is looking forward to lounging by the pool, sipping sunset cocktails...

In the summer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes brother Cadfael from the quiet world of his garden to the bloody battlefield. Not far from the safety of the Abbey walls, Shrewsbury Castle falls, leaving its 94 defenders loyal to the empress to hang as traitors. With a heavy heart, Brother Cadfael agrees to bury the dead, only to make a grisly discovery: 95 bodies lie in a row, and the extra corpse tells Cadfael that the killer is both clever and ruthless.

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. War rages across the galaxy. Billions have died, billions more are doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, face cold-blooded, brutal destruction. The Idirans ­fight for their Faith; the Culture for...

It was Adam Smith (1723–1790) who first established economics as a separate branch of knowledge, and many would say his work has never been surpassed. The Wealth of Nations, which appeared in 1776, is the definitive text for all who believe that economic decisions are best left to markets, not governments. At the heart of Smith’s doctrine is an optimistic view of the effects of self-interest. Though each individual seeks only personal gain, the collective result...

After starting two iconic music venues and surviving the dot-com bust, Michael Dorf offers gripping stories and hard-earned business lessons with a contrarian twist. As technology becomes more deeply woven into our lives, the key to success can be found in satisfying people’s yearning for live human interaction. “Simply put, Michael Dorf is a true hustler. When the internet upended the music business, he wasn’t romantic to the way things were done and like any...

Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. From the bestselling author of The Hundred-Year Flood comes an incredibly entertaining and profoundly affecting tour de force about a Korean American man’s strange and ordinary attempts to exist. Matt Kim is always tired. He keeps passing out. His cat is dead. His wife and daughter have left him. He’s estranged from his adoptive family. People bump into him on the street as if he isn’t there. He is pretty sure he’s disappearing.

From trust to terror... from security to survival...The author of The Stranger Beside Me brings her brilliantly informed understanding of the sociopath to this riveting true crime collection. Only Ann Rule, who unknowingly worked alongside the smart and charming Ted Bundy - America's most notorious serial killer - could lend her razor-sharp insight into these cases of the spouse, lover, family member, or helpful stranger who is totally trusted but whose lethally violent...

Five strangers get the chance to rewrite their own stories.... Executive assistant Lexa is eager for a much-deserved promotion, but her boss is determined to keep her underemployed. Literature Professor Jett is dealing with a broken heart, as well as a nagging suspicion his literary idol, Gordon Phipps Roth, might be a fraud. Uber driver Chuck just wants a second chance with his kids. Aging widower Ed is eager to write the true story of his incredible marriage.

The Devil Wears Prada meets Catch-22; a novel about a young woman's journey into the heart of Washington's war machine. Dr. Heather Reilly has been an anti-war activist since her brother died fighting the Taliban. But her crushing student loans drive her to take a job working on a peace plan for Afghanistan, in the last place on Earth she ever thought she'd be employed: the Pentagon. On her first day, however, her position is eliminated and she's shuffled to a war-fighting...

PROMISE ME: Myron is determined to help keep his friends’ children safe, so he makes two neighborhood girls promise him: If they are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they must call him. Several nights later, the call comes at 2:00 am, and Myron picks up one of the girls in midtown Manhattan and drives her to a quiet cul-de-sac in New Jersey where she says her friend lives. The next day, the girl's parents discover that their daughter is missing.

After her mother's suicide, Abbie Myers returns home to the Lake District with her young child and no wedding ring. Estranged from her turbulent family for many years, Abbie is heartbroken when she hears that they blame her for this tragedy. Determined to uncover her mother's past, Abbie approaches her beloved grandmother, Millie, in search of answers. The old woman reveals the story of how she travelled to Russia in 1911 as a young governess and became...

In true Dickensian fashion, The Old Curiosity Shop offers a humorous yet devastating depiction of both the most honourable and most corrupt members of 19th-century English society. Hailed by Queen Victoria as being ‘interesting and cleverly written', The Old Curiosity Shop introduces listeners to the uniquely colourful characters of Nell Trent, her young friend, Kit, her doting grandfather and the evil moneylender to whom they all fall prey, Daniel Quilp.

James Jones’s epic story of army life in the calm before Pearl Harbor—now with previously censored scenes and dialogue restored At the Pearl Harbor army base in 1941, Robert E. Lee Prewitt is Uncle Sam’s finest bugler. A career soldier with no patience for army politics, Prewitt becomes incensed when a commander’s favorite wins the title of First Bugler. His indignation results in a transfer to an infantry unit whose commander is less interested in preparing for war than he is...

These readings by Kenneth Williams from his autobiography were first broadcast on Radio 4 in 1985. They incorporate his 1930s childhood in London, barrack-room life in Singapore during the last months of World War II, his stage career in the 1950s and 1960s, and radio and cinema fame.

In 1903 Mary Mackenzie sails for China to marry the British Military Attache, a man who turns out to be every bit as chilly as the Peking Winter. During one of his many absences, Mary has an affair with a Japanese soldier, Count Kurihama, but her pregnancy is impossible to keep secret. Rejected by husband...

Sigmund Freud revolutionized the way in which we think about ourselves. From its beginnings as a theory of neurosis Freud developed psychoanalysis into a general psychology, which became widely accepted as the predominant mode of discussing personality and interpersonal relationships. Anthony Storr goes one step further and investigates the status of Freud's legacy today and the disputes that surround it.

An extraordinary lost chapter in the history of World War I: the story of America’s year-long invasion of Russia, in which a contingency of brave soldiers fought the Red Army and brutal conditions during the fall and winter of 1918–1919. In August 1918, the 339th regiment of the U.S. Army—roughly 5,000 soldiers, most hailing from Michigan—sailed for Europe to fight in World War I. But instead of the Western Front, these troops were headed to Archangel, Russia, a vital...

Fans of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin will love The Clutter Connection by organization expert Cassandra Aarssen. An organization book for diverse habits "You're not messy, you just organize differently." The Clutter Connection examines and explains the correlation between brain types and how they directly relate to organization and clutter. Cassandra Aarssen smashes the stereotype that some...

Now a major ITV drama series, Mr Selfridge is a tale of Edwardian excess and the rise and fall of maverick retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge. In 1909 London's first dedicated department store opened in a huge blaze of publicity. Zola called Selfridges a 'great cathedral of shopping', and its high priest was Harry Gordon Selfridge, father of modern retailing, philanderer, gambler, dandy and showman. Selfridge's talents were for shopping and seduction: and as his shop grew...

This history is a war story of astonishing courage and honor, of stupidity, of blood, death, agony -- and waste. Nothing in British campaign history has ever equaled the tragic farce that was the charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War's Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854. In this fascinating study, Cecil Woodham-Smith shows that responsibility for the fatal mismanagement of the affair rested with the Earls of Cardigan and Lucan, brothers-in-law and...

A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain's most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms-buyer.

A Genius Performance by John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Orson Welles! This is selection from the classic murder mystery stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, from radio performances by John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Orson Welles. The stories include The Final Problem, The Empty House, The Blue Carbuncle and The Yoxley Case.

A Genius Performance by John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson!

This is a selection of classic murder mystery stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, taken from radio performances by John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

As if organising St Cedd's church fete were not enough for Mrs Maxie, later that mellow July afternoon her son Stephen sprang the news of his engagement. By morning, Sally Julep, her new parlour-maid - unmarried mother and minor village scandal - was dead.

This family tragedy, soaked in blood, deceit, and betrayal is at the pinnacle of Shakespeare's works and a true epic of English theatre. This performance by Sir Alec Guinness and fellow actors from London's Old vic Company is spellbinding. A rare treat for Shakespeare lovers and the performances of great actors.

A Genius Performance by Robert Powell! Based on the author's own vivid experiences, The Cruel Sea is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two. Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves.

A Genius Performance by Edward Petherbridge!

Should a wife pawn the mink coat that her lover gave her as a parting gift? What will happen when a priceless piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful deal? Can a wronged woman take revenge on her dead husband?

In these dark, disturbing stories Roald Dahl shows us more of what Tales of the Unexpected brought to our TVs.

When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder. Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of his colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together the most complex and confusing of jigsaws. But not everyone wants the puzzle solved - perhaps not even Rebus himself...

Clarissa was born into wealth and privilege, as a child, shooting and hunting were the norm and pigeons were flown in from Cairo for supper. Her mother was an Australian heiress, her father was a brilliant surgeon to the Royal family. But he was also a tyrannical and violent drunk who used to beat her and force her to eat carrots with slugs still clinging to them. Clarissa was determined and clever, though, and her ambition led her to a career in the law.

Nick Buckley was an unusual name for a pretty young woman. But then she had led an unusual life. First, on a treacherous Cornish hillside, the brakes on her car failed. Then, on a coastal path, a falling boulder missed her by inches. Later, an oil painting fell and almost crushed her in bed. Upon discovering a bullet...

Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone, vigilant, savage and catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself, grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans and Italians, an apparently impregnable iron fortress. To Captain Keith Mallory, skilled saboteur, trained mountaineer...

This hugely engaging story of murder, superstition, religious politics and drama in a medieval monastery was one of the most striking novels to appear in the 1980s. The Name of the Rose is a thrilling story enriched with period detail and laced with tongue-in-cheek allusions to fictional characters, the most striking of which is the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, who displays many characteristics of...

A Genius Performance by Simon Callow! When a high-flying member of English society reveals she has killed her black cook - who was also her lover - Kommandant van Heerden, the new police chief, does all within his power to stop the news leaking out, and to thwart a fashionable trend to taking black lovers.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and into his past . . .

A haunting tale of lost causes and lost love, The Remains of the Day, winner of the Booker Prize..

In the Scottish Highlands remote village of Lochdubh, in the real county of Sutherland, lives tall thin red-haired hazel-eyed quietly clever police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth – Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman. Discover where it all began with this audio collection containing the first ten instalments in the critically acclaimed and bestselling mystery series. With plenty of one-liners, beautiful descriptions of Scotland and a whole load of unexpected...

Ex fashion model and successful business woman Laura Ayars' perfect world is shattered at a time which should have been the happiest of her life. On her honeymoon, her sports superstar husband goes for a swim - and never returns. But what has happened to David - can he really be dead?

Immerse yourself in a world where the wonderful Stephen Fry reads some of the more memorable short stories of our time. A brilliant combination of reader and writer come together in these seven short stories available on digital download only. Immerse yourself in a world where the wonderful Stephen Fry reads some of the more memorable short stories of our time. Stephen's voice takes you into a different kind of...

This title features, The Dying Detective, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, The Devil's Foot and His Last Bow. Clive Merrison stars as Holmes with Michael Williams as Watson in these adventures, part of the unique fully dramatised BBC canon of Conan Doyle's short stories and novels featuring the world-famous sleuth.

In the brief golden years of King Edward VII’s reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of ...

From the author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin; a heart-warming collection of stories inspired by life in an English village. Casting his mind back to the village where he grew up, Louis de Bernières brings us a forgotten England: where a lady might dress in plus fours, a retired general might give up wearing clothes...

The novel Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote just before THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. Fifteen years on, the remembrance of that day has returned to me. I have seen that boy wandering through the mist of the railway station, and the name of Marina has flared up again like a fresh wound. We all have a secret buried ...

On sabbatical from the Franciscan order, Father Paolo Baldi is working as a philosophy lecturer in Dublin when his life takes an unexpected turn and he finds himself helping the police to solve crimes.

An almanac combining a comprehensive survey of modern culture with an annotated index of who-was-who and what-was-what, Cultural Amnesia is Clive’s unique take on the places and the faces that shaped the twentieth-century.

In this 1860s Russian classic, Bazarov (the prototypical nihilist) argues with Pavel Kirsanov (the prototypical liberal of the 1840s generation) about the nature of nihilism and its usefulness to Russia, in an episode which personifies the struggle between the fathers (i.e., the liberals of the 1840s)

Divided by blindness and societal breakdown, humanity is at the mercy of the carniverous Triffids...This full-cast drama is based on the classic post-war 'science fantasy' novel which made John Wyndham famous, and whose appeal endures to this day. Giles Cooper's six-part adaptation stars Gary Watson, Barbara Shelley and Peter Sallis, with...

Lola's keeping a secret from her past - it's the reason she escaped to the other side of the world . . . but when she travels back to where it all began, will she decide to tell the truth and face her fears? Monica McInerney is at the very top of her game. Treat yourself immediately!' Patricia Scanlan I always thought memories were unchangeable. Set in stone, shaped by the years. But there are always others too, ones you haven't let yourself remember . . .' The wilful and eccentric...

The politics book to be seen with in these febrile times' - The i Newspaper How facts, rumour and mischief-making become the news we all obsess over' - Tim Shipman A cracking read! Treat yourself...' - John Crace Ever wondered why the indiscretions of some MPs make the front page while others don't? How close journalists really are to politicians? Or how on earth the country is run when the British political system is in such a mess? In Haven't You Heard?...

Originally published over one hundred years ago, Roughing It is Mark Twain's second major work, after the success of his 1869 travel book, Innocents Abroad. This humorous travel book, based on Twain's stagecoach journey through the American West and his adventures in the Pacific islands, is full of colorful caricatures of outlandish locals and detailed sketches of frontier life. Roughing It describes how the narrator, a polite greenhorn from the East, is initiated into...

On sabbatical from the Franciscan order, Father Paolo Baldi is working as a philosophy lecturer in Dublin when his life takes an unexpected turn and he finds himself helping the police to solve crimes. In "Miss Lonelyhearts", Paolo and DI Tina Mahon investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the tragic death of a nurse at an old people's home, and uncover an unlikely case of voyeurism. "The Emerald Style" finds Paolo attempting to wine and dine his spiritual director...

Daisy Miller is a young American girl travelling Europe with her mother and younger brother. While in Vevey, Switzerland, she becomes acquainted with Frederick Winterbourne, an idle expatriate, of well-to-do Americans. Winterbourne, who observes and critiques young Daisy through their brief acquaintanceship, is infatuated with her irreverent behaviour. Daisy flaunts society's rules and uncompromising standards; she is charming, spontaneous and unpretentious...

The entire second series of BBC Radio 4’s groundbreaking First World War drama serial. First broadcast from December 2014 to January 2015, the drama of Home Front Series Two is set exactly one hundred years before. Following characters from a wide cross-section of British society in 1914, the action is once again set in the Edwardian seaside town Folkestone. For the men and women of the town, recruitment and volunteering are the order of the day.

Frances is twenty-one year old college student in Dublin; she performs at spoken word events with her best friend and ex-lover, Bobbi. When they are profiled by journalist, Melissa, they enter an orbit of beautiful houses and raucous dinner parties. Initially unimpressed, Frances begins an affair with Nick, Melissa's husband, which gives way to an unexpected intimacy. Desperate to reconcile her desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin...

With an introduction read by Max Hastings. Bomber Command's offensive against the cities of Germany was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. More than 56,000 British and Commonwealth aircrew and 600,000 Germans died in the course of the RAF's attempt to win the war by bombing. The struggle began in 1939 with a few score primitive Whitleys, Hampdens and Wellingtons, and ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Mosquitoes...

Rosemary Penfold was born in 1938 in a traditional Gypsy wagon, and grew up in the fields of the English countryside. In this beautiful and evocative memoir, she recounts her life within a loving extended family and small but close-knit community. From early memories of her father bringing home oranges during the war, to the simple beauty of a field full of butterflies on a hot summer's day, Rosemary's stunningly elegant narrative captures the love and losses, hopes...

A stunning audiobook of the extraordinary and the everyday, The High House explores how we get used to change that once seemed unthinkable, how we place the needs of our families against the needs of others - and it asks us who, if we had to, we would save. Crisis slid from distant threat to imminent probability, and we tuned it out like static. Francesca is Caro’s stepmother, and Pauly’s mother. A scientist, she can see what is going to happen. The high house was once...

A stunning novel of death and destiny. Bereft of the three people she has held most dear - her mother, her husband and her daughter - Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night on an exotic island she meets Larraby, a successful portrait painter, and through a long night of talk reveals how she is afraid to commit herself to a second chance of happiness with another person, yet is not brave enough to face life alone. Can Larraby help Celia come to terms with the...

These three tales from "The Canterbury Tales" are read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain's foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer. This was Bebb's last recording - he died shortly after finishing it - but though ill at the time, his strong professional ethic ensured that it lacks none of the brightness and accuracy that he brought to his two other Chaucer recordings on Naxos AudioBooks, "The General Prologue" and "The Knyghtes Tale".

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a restless young man with dreams of escaping Aberdeen. Abandoning his childhood sweetheart, he takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai and helps overthrow the Shogun - a rapid rise from lowly shipping clerk to millionaire industrialist. Yet behind Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to...

The electrifying new thriller from Shari Lapena, author of the Sunday Times best seller The Couple Next Door. Why would you run scared from a happy home? You're waiting for your beloved husband to get home from work. You're making dinner, looking forward to hearing about his day. That's the last thing you remember. You wake up in hospital, with no idea how you got there. They tell you that you were in an accident; you lost control of your car whilst driving...

The American government no longer answers to the American people, but its new masters, the heads of public unions. In SHADOWBOSSES, Mallory Factor sheds light on this unholy alliance between the labor unions that represent government employees, and the government itself. Mallory Factor begins with a brief history of labor unions; how unionization came about, and the current startling difference between unions in the public and private sectors.

After a health scare leaves him reeling, Eric Weiner-an atheist by default-sets out on a worldwide search for an experience of the divine. Propelled by the confrontation with his own mortality and questions about the best way to raise his daughter, Weiner travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne; to Turkey, where he whirls (poorly) with Sufi dervishes; to China where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel where he studies...

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

Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty (commonly known as Barnaby Rudge) is an historical novel by the author Charles Dickens. Published between 1840 and 1841, it is Dickens' first attempt at an historical novel, his only other being A Tale of Two Cities. Full of classic Dickensian characters, the plot is based on the "no-popery" or Gordon riots...

A Genius Performance by Martin Jarvis!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness" starts this novel and, after many wonderful hours, our hero declares, "It is a far, far better thing that I do now than I have ever done; It is a far, far better rest that I go to now than I have ever known".

Robert Lindsay stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens. From the echo of the first line 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' to the final 'It is a far better thing that I do than I have ever done', Dickens' classic novel of the French revolution...

The end is beginning. The time is just a few short years from now. But already the signs of global disaster are multiplying. Freak storms, earthquakes, floods volcanic eruptions are sweeping the earth. The last violent spasms of a dying planet. Then a series of ominous events signal the emergence of new and terrifying forces.

For Judith Dunbar, her first glimpse of Nancherrow, her friend Loveday's beautiful family estate on the Cornish coast, is love at first sight - after the rigours of boarding school it spells luxury. She falls in love, too, with all Loveday's family. They treat Judith as one of them.