Elspeth McGillicuddy is down from Scotland for a holiday and boards the 4:50 train from Paddington station to visit her friend, Miss Marple. During the journey, another train pulls alongside, and through the window Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a tall, dark man strangling a blonde woman. She reports what...

From the author of the Reginald Perrin series comes a classic tale of two families, one posher than the other, set in a Yorkshire town. ‘I’m the groom’s father. You’re the bride’s mother. It’s their wedding day.’

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.

The story of Britain from the earliest settlements in 3000BC to the death of Elizabeth 1 in 1603. To look back at the past is to understand the present. In this vivid account of over 4000 years of British history Simon Schama takes us on an epic journey which encompasses the very beginnings of the nation's identity, when the first settlers landed on Orkney. 

In the twelfth-century Benedictine monastery of Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has settled down to a quiet life in charge of the herbarium after an adventurous and far from monastic youth. But when his prior determines to acquire the bones of a saint from a remote welsh village, Cadfael's worldly experience...

The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia...

High on the cliffs of the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the windswept Atlantic ocean, is Stone House. Once falling into disrepair, it is now a beautiful hotel specialising in winter holidays. With a big, warm kitchen, log fires and understated, elegant bedrooms, it provides a welcome few can resist, whatever their...

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.

In first-century-AD Rome, during the reign of Vespasian, Marcus Didius Falco works as a private "informer," often for the emperor, ferreting out hidden truths and bringing villains to ground. But even informers take vacations with their wives, so in AD 77, Falco and his wife, Helena Justina, with others in tow, travel...

A rising star at a preeminent political lobbying firm, Dag Calhoun represents the world’s most powerful technology and energy executives. But when a close brush with death reveals that the influence he wields makes him a target, impossible cracks appear in his perfect, richly appointed life. Like everyone else...

Just round the corner from St Jarlath's Crescent (featured in MINDING FRANKIE) is Chestnut Street. Here, the lives of the residents are revealed in Maeve Binchy's wonderfully compelling tales: Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son. Nessa Byrne...

Big, generous-hearted Benny and the elfin Eve Malone have been best friends growing up in sleepy Knockglen. Their one thought is to get to Dublin, to university and to freedom... On their first day at University College, Dublin, the inseparable pair are thrown together with fellow students Nan Mahon, beautiful but selfish, and handsome Jack Foley. But trouble is brewing for Benny and Eve's new circle of friends, and before long, they find passion, tragedy - and the independence they yearned for.

This wonderful collection includes 10 of Michael Morpurgo's best stories. The stories include - War Horse, Farm Boy, Private Peaceful, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, An Elephant in the Garden, Shadow, Kaspar: Prince of Cats, The Butterfly Lion, Born to Run and Kensuke's Kingdom

Her palace shimmered with gold but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Cleopatra, the wealthiest ruler of her time and one of the most powerful women in history, was a canny political strategist, a brilliant manager, a tough negotiator, and the most manipulative of lovers. Although her life spanned...

Thirty years ago, on the date in June known as Midsummer's Day, a young girl is mysteriously orphaned. Now, after a life of bizarre and troubling circumstances, she becomes obsessed with the idea that she too will die on Midsummer's Day . . . until she meets the one man who may be able to save her..

Best friends Annie and Sarah need cash—fast. Sarah, a beautiful, successful lawyer, wants nothing more than to have a baby. But balancing IVF treatments with a grueling eighty-hour workweek is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, Annie, a Harvard-grad chemist recently transplanted to Southern California, is...

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.

The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings. There was his own daughter, Judith; an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton; dashing Mr Allerton; brittle Miss Cole; Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife, Barbara; Nurse Craven; Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife......

Stone Barrington gains an adversary that he can’t seem to shake in this electrifying adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Stone Barrington’s latest lady friend is full of surprises, both good and ill. A sensual woman with unexpected desires, Stone finds her revelations in the boudoir extremely...

A high-powered attorney dives into the politics of sex, the perils of desire, and why men and women treat each other the way they do. Raney Moore has it all figured out. An ambitious young partner at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, she's got a dream job, a loving (and famous) husband, and amazing twin...

From the bestselling author of Crash comes a riveting thriller rife with murder, misdirection, and ghosts from the past. Florida homicide detective Maggie Novak has seen hundreds of brutal murder cases, but when she is called out to investigate the charred remains of a young woman one Halloween night, she..

Herbert's evocative, epic tale is set on the desert planet Arrakis, the focus for a complex political and military struggle with galaxy-wide repercussions.

Arrakis is the source of spice, a mind enhancing drug which makes interstellar travel possible, and therefore the most valuable substance in the galaxy.

April 1933. Eddie Pettit was a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. When Eddie is killed in a violent accident, there is skepticism about the cause of death. Who would want to kill Eddie, and why? Maisie Dobbs is determined to offer her help. As Maisie uncovers lies and manipulation on a...

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoiled, vain, and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village, but her attempts at matchmaking lead to misunderstandings and potential heartbreak. Only her friend and ...

Cassie's good friend Dawn is part of an organization that's trying to protect a colony of stray cats on the property of a condo community in Chadwick, New Jersey. The residents have gotten their backs up over the cat invasion, and Dawn has come to Cassie's grooming and boarding shop, Cassie's Comfy Cats, to...

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has recently moved to the Yorkshire Dales from London to escape the stress of the metropolis. But he soon finds that life in the country is not quite as idyllic as he had imagined. A peeping Tom is frightening the women of Eastvale. Two glue-sniffing thugs are breaking into...

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED AN POST BOOK AWARDS IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS...

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry!

The 7th and final book in the series.

Battle must begin - Harry must stand and face his enemy.

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. 

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry! When Harry and his best friends go back for their third year at Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass-murderer on the loose and the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school.

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston, she has her eye on. But competition for his attention abounds. With her shameless determination Agatha will do anything to get her man - including footing the bill for a charity ball in town just for the chance to dance with him.

"This is a daring book, thrillingly of our moment." -- Emma Cline, author of The Girls A wildly irreverent take on the coming-of-age story that turns a search for belonging into a riotous satire of identity politics Starting at a prestigious private Australian girls' school, fifteen-year-old Ziggy Klein is confronted with an...

Bringing us sunshine on this recording are 'Ern’s magnificent body', 'A visit from the police' and Ernie’s going to be 'Bob Hope’s chief scriptwriter'. Other highlights from Eric and Ern’s TV show from 1971 include 'The diamond ring in the window'; 'Carry on Ern' and 'Eric Morecambe, you'll do anything for...

Jane Eyre, one of the most widely read English novels, has extraordinary emotional and narrative power. It introduces a new type of hero and heroine with an unconventional love story. Jane, a penniless orphan who survives the miseries of a charitable school, is employed at Thornfield Hall as a governess to...

A stunning collection of Just William stories, selected and read by Martin Jarvis ‘There’s nothing to touch them’ - Independent on Sunday Richmal Crompton’s stories featuring irrepressible schoolboy William Brown have been firm favourites with both young and old for decades. Perpetually scruffy, mud-stained...

As someone who fell off a chair not long ago trying to hear what they were saying at the next table in a restaurant, I suppose I am obsessively interested in what some might consider the trivia of other people's lives.' Binchy is well-known for her bestselling novels, the most recent of which was A WEEK IN WINTER.

No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain's best-loved actors. This new biography shines the stage lights on the life and career of a truly remarkable performer, one whose stage and screen career spans six decades. From her days as a...

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family's investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the Introduction in a new, post-colonial light), Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them...

Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she, nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off, exposing post and..

The only child of an electrical engineer and a mother who resented the fact that she'd never been to university, the broadcaster Jenni Murray grew up in a traditional household in the 1950s. But instead of becoming the conventional housewife her mother expected her to be, Jenni opted to forge her own path...

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

Against a background of industrial unrest, misery, suspicion, jealousy, and the deaths of family and dear friends, the star-crossed love between mill owner John Thornton and the cultivated Margaret Hale is put to the test.

Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. The multi-million copy bestseller that captures the experiences of a generation. I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.' 15th July 1988.

Hundreds of miles from Colt and Snyder, a law-enforcement task force patrols the US-Mexico border, where illegal immigrants are at the mercy of ruthless coyotes. And in an elegant hacienda at an isolated ranch, Miguel Zamora is at the center of a powerful circle of corrupt Mexican officials ready to establish...

Claire thought she had everything a woman was supposed to want-a loving husband, a newborn son, a beautiful home in the suburbs. Then she walks in on her husband canoodling with their realtor in their newly renovated kitchen, and in an instant, her perfect life comes crashing down. With her marriage...

A Genius Performance by Ian Holm, Robert Stephens, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Jeremy Brett, Michael York, Cyril Cusak and Nigel Davenport! This production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy is the best we have heard! In very short supply and only just in front of the Naxos - Kenneth Branagh production 

From the bestselling author of Shout!, comes the definitive biography of Eric Clapton, a Rock legend whose life story is as remarkable as his music, which transformed the sound of a generation. For half a century Eric Clapton has been acknowledged to be one of music's greatest virtuosos, the unrivalled...

Nobody in the world knows our secret ... that I’ve ruined Bev's life, and she's ruined mine.' Petra’s romantic life has always been a car-crash, and even in her sixties she’s still capable of getting it disastrously wrong. But then she falls in love with Jeremy, an old chum, visiting from abroad. The fatal catch? Jeremy is...

Widely acknowledged as the master of the supernatural, M. R. James penned many of his classic ghost stories to be read aloud to friends, by candlelight, in his study on Christmas Eve. These five adaptations, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4, perfectly capture the mood of nerve-jangling suspense that would...

Ian McEwan’s mastery dazzles us in this superbly deft and witty audiobook of betrayal and intrigue, love, and the invented self. Serena Frome, the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, has a brief affair with an older man during her final year at Cambridge, and finds herself being groomed for the intelligence...

A Genius Performance by Anton Lesser! Lord Pastern fired his revolver. The figure in the spotlight fell and the coup-de-theatre had become murder. Could Inspector Alleyn believe Pastern had let hatred of his future son-in-law go too far?

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...

A tale set in eighteenth-century Cambridge finds bookseller John Holdsworth commissioned to investigate Lady Anne Oldershaw's son's mental illness, a deep melancholy tied to a woman's mysterious death and a secret society.

With the death of her mother, middle-aged Theodora Goodman contemplates the desert of her life. Freed from the trammels of convention, she leaves Australia for a European tour and becomes involved with the residents of a small French hotel. But creating other people's lives, even in love and pity, can...

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk, and their grip on the Pacific had...

Everyone says opposites attract. And they must be right, because there's no logical reason why I'm so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don't usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I'm flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn't help...

The third novel in Trollope's Palliser series, The Eustace Diamonds is a wonderfully absorbing blend of dark cynicism and humor. Before Sir Florian Eustace dies, he gives his beloved wife Lizzie a beautiful and expensive diamond necklace valued over £10,000.

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...

The Guns of Navarone and its three sequels, in which the same characters are sent on other wartime missions, together in one volume for the first time to mark the 50th anniversary of the original book . THE GUNS OF NAVARONE Mallory, Miller and Andrea are united into a lethally effective team. Their mission:...

A faceless corpse is discovered in a tranquil, hidden valley below the village of Swainshead. And when Chief Inspector Alan Banks arrives, he finds that no-one is willing to talk. Banks's frustration only grows when the identity of the body is revealed.

Jack Kerouac wrote The Haunted Life in 1944 when he was 22 years old and attending Columbia University. Originally intended as a three-part novel, only this first 20,000-word section was ever finished. Upon its completion, Kerouac promptly lost his only hand-written final draft in a New York taxi cab, remaining...

A Genius Performance by Martin Shaw!

Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life, with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home; then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services – as a burglar – on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo’s life is never to be the same again.

Lucy Angkatell invited Hercule Poirot to lunch. To tease the great detective, her guests stage a mock murder beside the swimming pool. Unfortunately, the victim plays the scene for real. As his blood drips into the water, John Christow gasps one final word: "Henrietta". In the confusion, a gun sinks to the bottom..

When a country doctor comes to Sherlock Holmes with a far-fetched tale of a sudden death, a devil dog and an ancient curse, Holmes is sceptical. Could the demise of Sir Charles Baskerville really have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound which is said to have haunted his family for generations?

Malcolm Fox and his team are back. They've been sent to Fife to investigate whether fellow cops covered up for a corrupt colleague, Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct with his own uncle, also in the force, having proved to be his nemesis. But what should be a simple job is soon...

Malcolm Fox and his team are back. They've been sent to Fife to investigate whether fellow cops covered up for a corrupt colleague, Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct with his own uncle, also in the force, having proved to be his nemesis. But what should be a simple job is soon...

This title presents two BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations, starring Brian Cox as McLevy, Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash and Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Mulholland. Inspired by the real-life memoirs of a Victorian Inspector in Scotland, James McLevy prowls the dark streets of 1860s Edinburgh bringing criminals to justice ...

Seven of Rudyard Kipling's famous tories about Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves and taught the ways of the jungle by his friends Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther.

The Kon-Tiki Expedition is an enthralling true adventure story which tells how six young men defied expert advice and crossed the Pacific on a balsawood raft to test a theory.

A mystery, a love story, and a search through a shadowy past. Two strangers unite in this novel of family secrets by international bestselling author Marc Levy, the most read contemporary French author in the world. When London journalist Eleanor-Rigby Donovan receives an anonymous letter alluding to a crime...

Like most Americans at the time, Plennie Wingo was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression. When the bank foreclosed on his small restaurant in Abilene, he found himself suddenly penniless with nowhere left to turn. After months of struggling to feed his family on wages he earned digging ditches in...

Listen to the long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies and...

The Moonlit Cage is the story of Darya, a young Afghan girl, cursed, worthless and despised by her husband and her family, who embarks on the journey of a lifetime - one that takes her from the unforgiving valleys and mountains of her homeland to 1850s London, the heart of the mighty British Empire.

Agatha Christie’s most daring crime mystery - an early and particularly brilliant outing of Hercule Poirot, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, with its legendary twist, changed the detective fiction genre for ever. Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband.

Odysseus is wandering after the end of the Trojan war. For ten years he endures storms, shipwreck and seduction as he tries to find a way home to Ithaca, contending with the wrath of Poseidon but protected by Pallas Athena. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope is beset by suitors who believe him dead. Naxos

This wonderful biography of David Niven by Sheridan Morley is a must for any fan of either of them. Filled with stories not included in David Niven's autobiography The Moon's a Balloon. All of his marriages, affairs and escapades are captured here with affection, humour and real sense of fun!

Pilgrims are gathering from far and wide to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the translation of Saint Wilfred’s bones to the Benedictine Abbey at Shrewsbury. In distant Winchester, a knight, supporter of the Empress Maud, has been murdered – not apparently an event of importance to those seeking...

Venice, 1604. When rumours of a rare and priceless diamond begin to circulate amongst the gamblers and courtesans of the Venetian demi-monde, the Levant Company merchant Paul Pindar becomes convinced that the jewel is linked to the fate of his former love, Celia Lamprey. As his obsession with the...

When Gervase Frant, Seventh Earl of St Erth, returns at last from Waterloo to his family seat at Stanyon, he enjoys a less than welcome homecoming. Only Theo, a cousin even quieter than himself, is there to greet him - and when he meets his stepmother and young half-brother he detects open disappointment..

Penniless Elinor is rather surprised at the carriage that meets her from the stage, and more so at the decayed grandeur of the house to which she's transported. Realising that there has been a case of mistaken identity she agrees to an audacious plan.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans, the dramatic conclusion in the riveting Broken Road trilogy—a powerful redemption story about finding happiness on a pilgrimage across iconic Route 66. Chicago celebrity and pitchman Charles James is supposed to be dead. Everyone believes he..

When Brigade-Major Harry Smith met the beautiful Juana María, an instant spark formed between the two fiery, energetic souls. The two fell deeply in love with one another from the first moment and the Spanish bride accompanied him throughout all his campaigns, where she rode freely among the troops.

Winter, 1139: Brother Cadfael’s tranquil life at the monastery gardens at Shrewsbury is once again interrupted by violent, mysterious happenings. Raging civil war has sent many refugees fleeing north from Worcester, among them two orphans of a great family and their companion, a nun. But they seem to have...

Named one of BuzzFeed's Best Fiction of 2018 "Geni's character-driven environmental thriller--think Silent Spring by way of Celeste Ng--centers on the survivors of a tornado that destroys an Oklahoma farm and kills the family's father." --O, The Oprah Magazine When a Category Five tornado ravaged Mercy...

Tiger Hills is a sweeping multigenerational story set in a coffee plantation in Coorg, southern India, in the 19th Century. The novel begins with the birth of Devi, a special child, who befriends a young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances. Devi and Devanna become inseparable as they go to school...

What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a houseparty gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a...

One of Shakespeare's finest comedies, Twelfth Night was written at the same time as Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, and whilst it shares their fascination with sex, death and confused identities, its exuberant comedy and linguistic inventiveness rises above the introspection of these plays.

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

Writing with the warmth and humour that have made her so popular, Coleen describes her eventful life, from joining her sisters' band The Nolans when she was only nine to growing up in the spotlight as they went on to chart-topping success around the world.

On this great value 2 x CD set, Victoria Wood delivers one of her funniest ever live performances. Her dazzling mix of stories, songs, anecdotes and colourful characters makes this a classic. The funniest performer the UK has ever produced is at the top of her form. The Daily Mail - "The range of her new material is awesome."

"Just as an eagle needs a push to soar into the sky, she needs a gentle nudge to achieve her dreams. And if she falls, he will be there to catch her, lift her, and push her again until she flies to stars....” Love...does it mean going around the trees in Switzerland, singing tra-la-la-la in the snow? Is it chanting an “I love...

English widow Lilia causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a highly unsuitable Italian 12 years her junior. But when her relatives are confronted by the beauty of Italy and the charm of Gino, they are forced to examine their own narrow lives.

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have ...

On a dark night, along a lonely country road, barrister Frank Amberley stops to help a young lady in distress and discovers a sports car with a corpse behind the wheel. The girl protests her innocence, and Amberley believes her – at least until he gets drawn into the mystery and the clues...

An exciting historical adventure from War Horse author and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo. Gracie and her friend Daniel have always been warned to stay away from the Birdman and his side of the island. But then they find a message in the sand and discover the Birdman is not who they...

Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in the pretty Hampshire village, where she lives with her faithful dog Horace, and enjoys the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash and...