1956 was one of the most remarkable years of the twentieth century. All across the globe, ordinary people spoke out, filled the streets and city squares, and took up arms in an attempt to win their freedom. In this dramatic history, Simon Hall takes the long view of the year's events—putting them in their...

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

Edie Windsor became internationally famous when the Supreme Court ruled in her favour in her case seeking recognition from the US government for her marriage to her partner Thea Spyer. The ruling set the stage for marriage equality in the United States and catapulted Edie into the spotlight. While Edie...

A Wild Sheep Chase' is one of Murakami's most fantastical novels. An advertising executive, infatuated with a girl who possesses the most perfect ears (an erotic charge for him) uses a picture of a sheep with a star on its back. This catapults him into a weird adventure to find the mythical sheep up in the wilds...

We have met the intrepid hunter-tracker Allan Quatermain before, in H. Rider Haggards marvellous King Solomons Mines. This time, grieving from the tragic loss of his son, Quatermain longs to return to his beloved Africa. He sets out in search of a lost white tribe, the Zu-Vendis, ruled by two beautiful sister...

In August 1978, thirteen women left San Francisco for the Nepal Himalayas to make history as the first Americans-and the first women-to scale the treacherous slopes of Annapurna I, the world's tenth highest peak. Expedition leader Arlene Blum here tells their dramatic story: the logistical problems...

Filling the gaps left between his previous memoirs, as well as highlighting new episodes, Backcloth explores the patterns of pleasure and pain that have made up Bogarde's extraordinary life. Based on personal letters, notebooks and diaries and covering many aspects of a celebrated life, we share experiences...

This autobiography tells the story of an uneducated girl from wartime Coventry, who, without ever really wanting to become an actress, became one of Laurence Olivier's leading ladies and the muse of Samuel Beckett. She tells of an unlikely journey, working as a child actress, early fame as the first of Britain's

By the time he was ten years old, Billy Brown was running a successful little business on the black market: whatever you needed, from bricks and firewood to dress material or machetes, Billy Brown could get it - or knew a man who could. And, for the right price, he would deliver it direct to your door in an old...

Simon's memoir reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the cofounder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster; her musical debut as half of The Simon Sisters, performing folk songs with her sister, Lucy, in Greenwich Village; to a meteoric solo career..

In the din and stink that is Cannery Row a colourful blend of misfits - gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and artists - survive side by side in a jumble of adventure and mischief. Lee Chong, the astute owner of the well-stocked grocery store, is also the proprietor of the Palace Flophouse that Mack and his...

A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardsons epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr Solmes, she refuses, much to her family's chagrin. She escapes their...

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can only be solved by the eponymous Belgian detective and his ‘little grey cells’. ‘What I intend to say to you will come as a shock . . .’ Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, but it is no ordinary...

A revolutionary examination of why we age, what it means for our health, and how we just might be able to fight it. In Cracking the Aging Code, theoretical biologist Josh Mitteldorf and award-winning writer and ecological philosopher Dorion Sagan reveal that evolution and aging are even more complex and...

What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over two hundred years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the ...

An unfaithful and unscrupulous wife exploits a morally inert insurance salesman in a scheme to murder her husband and collect his insurance.

When Cy visits a special Viking exhibition in York and looks at a glorious Viking helmet, he is horrified to suddenly find a face in the helmet - his Dream Master! The Dream Master is in terrible trouble, a prisoner of Eric Bloodaxe - a fearsome Viking chief. Only Cy can rescue him. But first he must enter his dreams again...

Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the...

Arrogant, self-willed and egotistical, Emma is Jane Austen's most unusual heroine. Her interfering ways and inveterate matchmaking are at once shocking and comic. She is 'handsome, clever and rich' and has 'a disposition to think too well of herself'. When she decides to introduce the humble...

By the author of "Feersum Endjinn". The Excession has returned but the only person who is aware of its potential is living out her death in the immense Sleeper Service ship. The Excession is something the culture must understand better - before it falls into less understanding hands.

The publication of Robinson Crusoe in London in 1719 marked the arrival of a revolutionary art form: the novel. British writers were prominent in shaping the new type of storytelling - one which reflected the experiences of ordinary people, with characters in whom readers could find not only an escape, but a deeper understanding of their own lives.

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.

Hugh Laurie reads Tove Jansson's wonderfully imaginative story "Finn Family". Moomintroll Moomintroll lives in Moominhouse, nestled in Moomin Valley - a place where everyone does what they like and hardly ever worries about tomorrow. Together with Moominmamma and Moominpappa, Snufkin, Sniff and...

"Bein' a idiot is no box of chocolates," but "at least I ain't led no hum-drum life," says Forrest Gump, the lovable, surprisingly savvy hero of this wonderful comic tale. When the University of Alabama's football team drafts Forrest and makes him a star, that's only the beginning! He flunks out - and goes on to be...

Full Tilt is the inspiring true story of Dervla Murphy's 1963 journey from Ireland to India on an Armstrong Cadet bicycle and the trials, landscapes and cultures she encountered along the way. The route takes her through the valleys and snowy mountain passes of Europe and India to the scorching deserts of...

Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome-an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms-that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the...

Neil Gaiman was the WINNER of the BBC Audio Drama Award 2015 for Outstanding Contribution to Radio Drama A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s celebrated apocalyptic comic novel, with bonus length episodes and outtakes. According to the Nice and Accurate...

As a senior journalist with Time magazine, David Aikman witnessed some of the most important world events and interviewed many of the prominent global power figures of his time. In this moving volume, Aikman profiles six of these figures: Billy Graham, Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Mother Teresa...

One of the world's foremost chess players distills the lessons he has learned while playing the game to offer a guide to the art of successful decision-making, covering such topics as how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, and devise winning strategies, and incorporating keen business insights and personal reflections.

Anton Chekhov is regarded by many as the most outstanding short story writer. This may be a surprise at the first encounter with even his most famous stories, because they are rarely driven by plot or anticipation. They are often gentle in character, elusive in purpose;

Twelve-year-old Meggie loves books. So does her father, Mo, a bookbinder, although he hasn't read aloud to her since her mother mysteriously disappeared. They live a quiet life until the night a stranger knocks at their door. The scarred man, who calls himself Dustfinger...

What do Mrs H., Rachel, Edwina, Ida, Sarah, Dot, Chrissie have in common? They're all women, but they're fat, thin, old, young, married or single - and appear as diverse as human nature can be. But they are all survivors. This enthralling novel follows the ripples that go out into ordinary lives ......

In the wake of the Crusades, Wilfred of Ivanhoe vows to return Richard the Lion Heart to the throne. But the Saxon son’s allegiance to the Norman king, and his forbidden love for Lady Rowena, leave Ivanhoe disinherited from his father. To set his mission on course, he returns to England in disguise and quickly...

Cynthia met John Lennon at art college. They fell in love, married and had a son, Julian, at the start of the Beatles phenomenon and their relationship spanned ten of the most important Beatles years. She is one of the few and closest witnesses of events that have become music legend. But as well as new...

Shortlisted for: Biography/Autobiography of the Year – Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 On 14 February 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been "sentenced to death" by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa.

The innocent and naïve Jude Fawley is trapped into marriage by the seductive Arabella Donn. But their union is an unhappy one, and Arabella leaves him. Jude’s welcome freedom allows him to pursue his obsession with his pretty cousin, Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, charismatic freethinker who would be his...

When the naïve David Balfour sets out on his quest for a long-lost relative, a terrifying chain of events is set in motion. He is plunged into a world of infamy and violence from which there seems no escape, until, that is, he meets the enigmatic and valiant Highlander, Alan Breck Kidnapped is a captivating novel...

These tales of everyday life in Lake Wobegon - about rhubarb pie, the perils of prophecy, a miserable Thanksgiving, Florian and Myrtle's thrifty vacation, the vapour lights of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility - were all recorded on tour. They show an abiding restlessness among Lake Wobegon's residents...

One of the great works of 19th-century England as well as one of the masterpieces of English fiction, this novel is set in the Midlands, 1830-32, in the fictitious town of Middlemarch. It is concerned with the blighted marriage of a young idealistic woman, but also presents a vivid portrait....

Drawing on the individual experiences of patients, musicians, composers, and everyday people, the author of Awakenings explores the complex human response to music, detailing the full range of human reactions to music, what goes on and can go wrong when we listen to music, and how music can affect...

Winner: Biography/Autobiography of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 The unabridged, digital audiobook edition of My Animals and Other Family, Clare Balding's wildly funny and deeply moving childhood memoir, read brilliantly by the author herself. "I had spent most of my childhood thinking...

The Academy Award-winning actress shares her story for the first time in an honest and open memoir that spans her childhood in Texas, her arrival in New York City, her distinguished acting career and her loyalty to her rural roots.

In a Greek taverna, high over the small village of Aghia Anna, four people meet for the first time: Fiona, an Irish nurse, Thomas, a Californian academic; Elsa, a German television presenter; and David a shy English boy. Along with Andreas, the old man who runs the taverna, they become close to each other after...

Reflects on the author's mother, focusing on her early life as a bookstore owner and housewife and the diaries she kept which had been retrieved by her daughter after her death.

In this extraordinary memoir, Nobel Prize–winning author Gunter Grass remembers his early life, from his boyhood in a cramped two-room apartment in Danzig through the late 1950s, when The Tin Drum was published. During the Second World War, Grass volunteered for the submarine corps at the age of...

In 1920s New York, the price of a woman’s independence can be exorbitant - even fatal. In 1924 Manhattan, women’s suffrage is old news. For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to publish books under her own..

Rosamunde Pilcher's stories transport the listener into a delightful world of surprises, the warmth of human nature and the wonderful details of life, and the three audiobooks in this classic collection are no exception. Now on CD for the very first time, these stories are the work of a master storyteller at her very best.

Rumpole isn't particularly fond of Christmas; he finds it has a horrible habit of dragging on as he and She Who Must Be Obeyed go through the usual rituals in Froxbury Mansions. After the exchange of presents (lavender water for her, a tie for him) they settle down to a supermarket turkey with all the trimmings,

Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather have decided to create the best catering company in Dublin. They have the perfect premises, heaps of talent, and even a few contacts - but not everyone seems as pleased by the idea of Scarlet Feather as they are. Tom's parents are disappointed that he has turned his back on the...

This is a selection of stories by Dorothy Parker. They include "Big Blonde", "Too Bad", "Song of the Shirt", "Mr Durant", "Diary of a New York Lady", "Standard of Living" and "The Garter".

A reluctant leader, wracked by guilt at the duplicity of the British, Lawrence of Arabia threw himself into this role, masterminding triumphant military campaigns against the Turks during the First World War.

Five years have passed. The city of Aramanth has become kinder - weaker. When the ruthless soldiers of the Mastery strike, the city is burned, and the Manth people are taken into slavery. Kestrel Hath is left behind, separated from her beloved brother, Bowman, and vowing revenge. Now Kestrel must find Bowman again, and Bowman...

In this splendid account of the world’s oldest and richest auction house, Lacey brings to life the personalities, ambition and shrewd business dealings behind the glamour and the glitz. From its beginning in 18th century London as a modest book dealer, Sotheby’s owes its rise to a succession of clever and...

Lakes are changing rapidly today, not because we are separate from nature but because we are so connected to it. But while many of our effects on the natural world are new, from climate change to nuclear fallout, our connections to it are ancient, as core samples from lake beds reveal.

For the Walker children, sailing the boat Swallow to an island for a camping trip is a fantastic adventure. But soon they find themselves under attack from the fierce pirates of the Amazon, Nancy and Peggy. And so begins the battles, alliances and discoveries in a summer like no other.

Buck is living the good life in the soft South, when he is snatched and transported to the savagery of the Northland. There, the Klondlike gold rush has brought out rough basic instincts of survival in men - and dogs. He adjusts to the gruelling regime of a sled dog, which almost kills him, but he survives to ...

Charged with treason under Theodoric the Great in sixth-century Rome, Boethius served one year's imprisonment, awaiting trial and eventual execution. During this time, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which would go on to be one of the most popular philosophical works of all time, contributing...

When Cedric Charlton, an unsuspecting tax inspector, arrives at the door of the Pop Larkin farm, he soon forgets the purpose of his visit: the fun-loving Ma and Pop Larkin distract him at every turn with strawberries, cream, alcohol, and their attractive young daughter, Mariette. Well known by the popular ...

A Genius Performance by Martin Jarvis!

City worker Charles Pooter decides that even though he is not a "somebody" he will still publish his diary. He then writes about all this experiences, however disastrous, as he passes through life. The listener may well slowly come to sympathize with Pooter and even come to like him.

From a “graceful, luminous writer with an eye for detail” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), this riveting memoir explores a year on a sustainable farm. When Kristin Kimball left New York City to interview a dynamic young farmer named Mark, her world changed. On an impulse, she shed her city self and started a new...

In this title two distinguished contemporary playrights offer illuminating commentaries on their works, together with generous excerpts from the plays themselves. Roots, first published in 1959, touches on the theme of human roots, their nature and influence. Then John Arden presents exerpt ofg his play...

Bereft of his beloved wife Glencora and his role as Prime Minister, Plantagenet Palliser enters the realm of family politics as he struggles to guide and connect with his three wayward children. Lord Silverbridge, the Duke’s first born and natural inheritor, expelled from Oxford, a gambler at the racetrack and an...

The final volume in the Pallisers novels Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister of England, is widowed and wracked by grief. Struggling to adapt to life without his beloved Lady Glencora, he works hard to guide and support his three adult children. Palliser soon discovers, however...

This remarkable poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, was Spenser's finest achievement. The first epic poem in modern English, The Faerie Queene combines dramatic narratives of chivalrous adventure with exquisite and picturesque episodes of pageantry. At the same time, Spenser is expounding...

Kit McMahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass, a place where nothing changes - until the day Kit's mother disappears and Kit is haunted by the memory of her mother, alone at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face. Now Kit, too, has secrets: of the night she discovered a letter and burned...

A mysterious man wrapped in bandages, wearing large goggles and a hat pulled tightly down over his face arrives at the small town of Iping. A series of strange, inexplicable events are traced back to the newcomer, and it soon becomes clear that appearances are deceiving.

A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. I'd rather read her than most other authors.' Harriet Evans Whitescar is a beautiful old house and farm situated in Roman Wall country. It will make a rich inheritance for its heirs, but in order to secure it, they enlist the help of a young ...

Hercule Poirot takes on his final cases, all of which will resemble the require Herculean feats in order to succeed. But whereas the Greek hero was blessed with gargantuan strength, Poirot’s only weapon against these monsters will be his brilliant powers of deduction. This is audio at it’s best! In appearance...

In the last and most complex of the Barsetshire audiobooks, many of Trollope's best-loved characters appear, but the mood of the recording is darker and more uneasy than in earlier volumes. At the heart of the audiobook is the penniless Reverend Josiah Crawley, first encountered in Framley Parsonage...

When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart.

Every Friday night the same seven Dublin workers meet to travel home in Tom Fitzgerald's lilac-coloured minibus. Each of them needs to return regularly to Rathdoon: Nancy Morris, a real 'Miss Mouse', is known for her meanness and has to escape her flatmate's carping; Dee Burke is engrossed in her affair...

In this compelling and exhaustively researched account, Herbert Krosney unravels how the Gospel of Judas was found and its meaning painstakingly teased from the ancient Coptic script that had hid its message for centuries.

Maggie Tulliver has two lovers: Philip Wakem, son of her fathers enemy, and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin. But the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggies struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to tragedy.

Mary Wimbush stars as unconventional psychoanalyst sleuth Mrs Bradley in these two full-cast dramatisations of stories by Gladys Mitchell. Colourful, cynical, intimidating and extremely intelligent, Mrs Bradley is one of the most unorthodox detectives in the history of Golden Age crime fiction. The heroine ...

When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again – for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged..

A Genius Performance by Ian Carmichael! Lord Peter, man about town and amateur sleuth, and his man Bunter, are drawn into a series of intriguing incidents after being stranded in a remote East Anglian village.

When Angela Kelly and The Queen are together, laughter echoes through the corridors of Buckingham Palace. Angela has worked with The Queen and walked the corridors of the Royal Household for twenty-five years, initially as Her Majesty’s Senior Dresser and then latterly as Her Majesty’s Personal ...

A dark and disturbing novel of suspense brought to vivid life in this CD audiobook. This is a tale set at the turn of the 20th century, by the bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost.

The windswept isle of Houat, off the coast of Brittany, is no picturesque artists' colony.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic of socialist literature, exploring the plight of a group of painters and decorators who are oppressed by their exploitative employers. Since its first publication, Robert Tressell's passionate and enlightened novel has had a perspective-changing, revelatory impact on...

No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by The Satanic Verses. Furore aside, it is a marvellously erudite study of good and evil. The book begins with two Indians plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their airliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations.

After four decades in the music industry, Michael Bolton has cemented himself as one of the most successful musicians of our time. THE SOUL OF IT ALL is his backstage pass into his life lived thus far - into the venues, buses, limos and hotel rooms of stardom, and finally into his home and heart. His story will...

The Story of My Life is the explosive and exhilarating autobiography by the infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova. Intense and scandalous, Casanova's extraordinary adventures take the listener on an incredible voyage across 18th-century Europe from France to Russia, Poland to Spain and Turkey to...

Given one last chance at redemption, Father Time, the inventor of the world's first clock, must teach two earthly people the true meaning of time a journey that leads him to a teenage girl who is about to give up on life and a wealthy businessman who wants to live forever.

Nick Dormer wants to pursue a career in painting instead of his family's traditional role in British politics. This upsets his family and particularly his lady friend, Julia Dallow, a beautiful but demanding woman deeply involved in political campaigns. But Nick's old Oxford friend Gabriel Nash encourages him to...

Behavioural economist and New York Times best-selling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely returns to offer a much-needed take on the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our general behaviour, up close and personal. In The Upside of Irrationality...

Wilkie Collins' classic story, The Woman in White, is one of the great mystery thrillers of the nineteenth century and beyond. Read with outstanding skill by Glen McCready, Rachael Bavidge and the Naxos Cast.

The Wombles is the first ever Wombles book and introduces the stern but kindly Great Uncle Bulgaria; Orinoco, who is particularly fond of his food and a subsequent forty winks; general handyman extraordinaire Tobermory, who can turn almost anything that the Wombles retrieve from Wimbledon Common...

Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over 50 years at his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon South wood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay...

For sheer storytelling delight and pure adventure, Treasure Island has never been surpassed. From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the nevel creates scenes and characters that have fired...

Venice stands, as she loves to tell you, on the frontiers of the east and west, half-way between the setting and the rising sun. Goethe calls her "the market-place of the Morning and the Evening lands". Certainly no city on earth gives a more immediate impression of symmetry and unity, or seems more patently...

A Vermeer painting shows a military officer in a Dutch sitting room, talking to a laughing girl. In another canvas, fruit spills from a blue and white porcelain bowl. Familiar images that captivate us with their beauty—but as Timothy Brook shows us, these intimate pictures actually give us a remarkable view of an...

The village school is a hundred years old and headmistress Miss Read is fully occupied planning the festivities. VILLAGE CENTENARY welcomes us back to Fairacre just in time for the one hundredth anniversary of the village school. Such a centenary should be celebrated, and all of Fairacre is quick to offer...

From the rural festivities in 'Village Christmas' to the poignant tale of a white robin, these two stories demonstrate the wry wit and light touch of Miss Read. Two heartwarming and wonderfully festive listens.

A novel based on the BBC1 comedy series of the same name, featuring an eccentric elderly couple and their bizarre assortment of relatives and friends.

In Clare Balding's family, walking just took too long - she galloped through the countryside and she galloped through life. Then, in 1999, Clare took a call from a BBC producer looking for a presenter for a new radio series. 'Do you walk?' she asked. 'Well, I walk the dog . . .'

A year has passed and, in this third novel of the Pop Larkin series, Pop Larkin is preparing to build the bungalow he promised Charley and Mariette upon their engagement. He buys a country home slated for demolition, intending to convert it for the two, but it is not long before a London couple persuade him to ...

An Amazon Charts bestseller. In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again. After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her...

In Amy Poehler's highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much). Powered by Amy's charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, and including a...