"A Christmas Carol" is the best-known and best-loved of Dickens' 'Christmas Books', and the story of the miser Scrooge's redemption has become as much part of the Christmas tradition as plum pudding and carols themselves. Will Tiny Tim live to see another Christmas? Naxos

A half-starved young Russian man is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.... Annabel, an idealistic young German civil-rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation.

Award-winning playwright, author and critic Bonnie Greer's touching, funny and thought-provoking memoir is a voyage into the making of a woman who set out to unmake what she'd been born and brought up to be: 'a proper girl' - a precious definition in a segregate and racist America where black life was...

A Genius performance by Penelope Keith!

Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company - which intends to tap into the village spring - sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps...

An empowering memoir of resilience and redemption, and the rage that helped a girl escape the darkness of a harrowing childhood. Born to a violently dysfunctional home in working-class Denmark, Lisbeth Zornig Andersen and her three older brothers were bounced between foster care and state-run...

A Genius Performance by Hugh Fraser! A repugnant Amercian widow is killed during a trip to Petra… Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her.

Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand brings us a searing and iconoclastic crime novel, in which photographer Cass Neary, introduced in the underground classic Generation Loss, finds herself drawn into the shadowy world of crime in Scandinavia's coldest corners. As this riveting tour-de-force opens, the...

An eye-opening look at the invisible workers who protect us from seeing humanity's worst on today's commercial internet Social media on the internet can be a nightmarish place. A primary shield against hateful language, violent videos, and online cruelty uploaded by users is not an algorithm. It is people.

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012 The acclaimed sequel to the Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall. By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, for whose sake Henry has...

In the spring of 1944 gendarmes forcibly removed Tibor “Max” Eisen and his family from their home, brought them to a brickyard, and eventually loaded them onto crowded cattle cars bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. At 15 years of age, Eisen survived the selection process and he was inducted into the camp as...

The definitive account of Bill Cosby's transition from revered father figure to convicted criminal, told by a veteran crime reporter and former senior writer for People Magazine. Bill Cosby's decades-long career as a sweater-wearing, wholesome TV dad came to a swift and stunning end on April 26, 2018, when he...

Connie Thorne was a foundling, a child left by her mother for strangers to find. Forty years on, without ever being able to discover her true identity, she has put all her energy into creating a flawless shell for herself. As a child, she was musical, her sister Jeanette was deaf. One of them was dark, the other sunny. Yet they both fell in...

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

The intensely personal David Copperfield (widely regarded to be the most autobiographical of the authors novels) is one of Dickenss greatest works. We follow David Copperfield from birth and miserable childhood to inevitable tragedies, until he finally finds happiness later in life.

"Ich bin ein Berliner," President John F. Kennedy will proclaim as the proudest boast of the 20th century. But on this soon to be historic day, East German Intelligence has other plans than a triumphal visit from the leader of the free world. With the aid of a renegade American, they launch a desperate plot that...

In the dead of the night, a man is found murdered, locked in the stocks on the village green. Unfortunately for Superintendent Hannasyde, the deceased is Andrew Vereker, a man hated by nearly everyone, especially his odd and unhelpful family members. The Verekers are as eccentric as they are corrupt, and it...

Sent down from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. Hi colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always...

Donald Sinden stars as eccentric amateur sleuth Gideon Fell in these two full-cast BBC radio dramatisations of stories by John Dickson Carr. One of the pre-eminent detectives of crime fiction’s Golden Age, Dr Gideon Fell is stout, jovial and fond of beer and band music. However, he also possesses a razor-sharp...

Meet Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist. He transports us to Las Alpujarras, and into a series of misadventures with an engaing mix of farmers, shepherds, New Age travellers and ex-pats. The hero of the piece, however, is El Valeron, the farm that Chris and his wife Ana bought - a patch of mountain studded...

Allen Parton suffered a serious head injury while serving in the Gulf War and returned home unable to walk, talk or remember most of his life. He couldn't even remember his wife, Sandra, and their two children. After five years of rehabilitation, he was still severely disabled...Endal was a Labrador puppy with problems of his,,,

When 13-year-old Matt is discovered impressing the livestock in an Aussie country town with his remarkable soccer skills, he's offered the chance of a lifetime – a try-out at one of Europe's biggest and most glamorous soccer clubs. His younger sister Bridie goes with him as his manager and tells us their story ...

Vanessa’s letter comes out of the blue: May her son, Alex, visit his godfather – Fiona’s husband, James – on his forthcoming trip to England? Fiona is thrilled – Alex is a particular favourite, and she hasn’t seen him since he was a little boy. However, her delight is mixed with unease. Ever since the tragic loss of their own daughter, James...

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.

Locals claim it is haunted and refuse to put a single toe past the front door, but to siblings Peter, Celia, and Margaret, the Priory is nothing more than a rundown estate inherited from their late uncle—and the perfect setting for a much-needed holiday. But when a murder victim is discovered in the drafty...

As Cabaret returns to the West End, revisit the KitKat Club in the book that introduced Sally Bowles to the world. Set in the 1930s, Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood shows the lives of people under threat...

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry! 2nd book in the Series! The Dursleys were so mean that hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish...

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry. 3rd book in the Series. 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.

Margaret Forster's grandmother died in 1936, taking many secrets to her grave. Where had she spent the first 23 years of her life? Who was the woman in black who paid her a mysterious visit shortly before her death? How had she borne living so close to an illegitimate daughter without acknowledging her? The search for answers...

Outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Batman has assaulted Spider-Man. Marilyn Monroe reported the crime and three Elvises witnessed it. It's business as usual for the cops out of Hollywood Station. But while they deal with the costumed crack-heads, prostitutes, purse snatchers, and ordinary lunatics that...

Fishlegs has been struck with deadly Vorpentitis. The only cure is rare and almost impossible to find ... a potato.
But where on Berk will Hiccup find such a thing?

He'll have to dodge Sharkworms, battle Doomfangs and outwit crazy Hooligans if he's going to be a Hero ... again.

Elena Ferrante is the best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend, now an HBO original series. Collected here for the first time are the seeds of future novels, the timely reflections of this internationally beloved storyteller, the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called “one of the great novelists of our time”

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...

Three BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations starring John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis, plus a bonus reading by Colin Dexter of one of his short stories. In Last Seen Wearing, Inspector Morse is reluctant to take over an old missing person case from a dead colleague. But two years, three...

These wonderful tales were filmed back in the 1980s to considerable accaim. These wonderful books are beautifully brought to life by Tim Piggot-Smith in probably his best performance in audio format. These tales of the french countryside portray a family tragedy, betrayal and revenge.

Jeeves returns from his annual shrimping holiday to find Bertie attempting to grow a moustache. Throw in a couple of engagements and Aunt Dahlia's problems with M'Lady's Boudoir and poor Bertie is in the soup once more!

What invisible drama plays, what passes to and fro in the columns of air above them, none knows, but the disciples think: perhaps the time is arrived at last. Aged, blind and perilously frail, John the Apostle has walked ten thousand miles to tell of love. In a hundred years he has lived to witness sights and scenes...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE. The lives of two women - the sole survivor of an airplane crash and the troubled park ranger who leads the rescue mission to find her - intersect in a gripping debut novel of hope and resilience, second thoughts and second chances. I no longer pass judgment...

The year of her fiftieth birthday, Mary Moody ran away from home, family and work for six months to live in a remote French village. Her book about these experiences, Au Revoir, struck a chord with tens of thousands of readers across Australia. Yet those experiences were to mark a beginning rather than an...

David Attenborough is one of the most influential, admired and best-liked figures in television. When, aged 26, he applied for a job in the BBC - which then meant radio - he was promptly turned down. But someone saw his rejected application letter and asked, would he like to try television?

Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to ‘get rid of’ her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn’t help feeling that he was being taken for a ride. After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the...

Intelligent, compassionate, and so fiercely, prodigiously brave. This is the essay at its creative, philosophical best' Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries on THE EMPATHY EXAMS A profound exploration of the oceanic depths of longing and obsession, Make It Scream, Make It Burn is a book about why and how...

When fifteen-year-old John Trenchard discovers a secret passage into the vault of the powerful Mohune family, his peaceful life in the Dorset village of Moonfleet is at an end. It is said that Captain Mohune, the notorious Blackbeard, haunts the place with wild and bloodcurdling cries, forever seeking his...

4 short stories featuring the great detective himself… How did a woman holding a pistol in her right hand manage to shoot herself in the left temple? What was the link between a ghost sighting and the disappearance of top secert military plans? How did the bullet that killed Sir Gervase shatter a mirror...

An eye-opening exploration of blood, the lifegiving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds and the promise of breakthrough science Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections.

Martha's decided friends are stupid. Especially if they're anything like Colette and Chloe. She never wants another friend. Ever. But it's the first day of the summer holidays, and there's not that much to do... until she spots a strange little furry creature who leads her to Opal Moonbaby. Opal's been sent down...

Don and Louise's eighteen-year-old daughter Miranda has died in a sailing accident. While Louise takes steps to move on with her life, Don cannot come to terms with the chain of events that led to her death. Instead, he is determined to bring someone to account. The surviving children handle the loss of their sister better than their...

Anne Elliot has grieved for seven years over the loss of her first and only love, Captain Frederick Wentworth. When their paths finally cross again, Anne finds herself slighted and all traces of their former intimacy gone. As the pair continue to share the same social circle, dramatic events in Lyme Regis, and later in...

Jane Austen's most popular novel, originally published in 1813, some 17 years after it was first written, presents the Bennet family of Longbourn. Against the background of gossipy Mrs Bennet and the detached Mr Bennet, the quest is on for husbands for the five daughters.

An acknowledged literary landmark' [Robert Graves] from 'The dean of the school of hard-boiled fiction' [New York Times] The Continental Op first heard Personville called Poisonville by Hickey Dewey. But since Dewey also called a shirt a shoit, he didn't think anything of it. Until he went there and his client...

The amazing experiences of the Queen Alexandra nurses in the Second World War form one of the greatest adventure stories of modern times, and - incredibly - remain largely untold. Thousands of middle-class girls, barely out of school, were plucked from sheltered backgrounds, subjected to...

Just when you think you’ve saved the world… "You will kill her?" the Torment asked. Skulduggery sagged. "Yes." He hesitated, then took his gun from his jacket. "I'm sorry, Valkyrie," he said softly. "Don't talk to me," Valkyrie said. "Just do what you have to do." Valkyrie parted her tunic, and Skulduggery pointed...

Smiley's People is one of John le Carré's classic Cold War novels and George Smiley one of his most acclaimed characters. Into a shadowy, violent and intricate world steeped in moral ambivalence steps George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Circus, as the Secret Service is known.

Just as Arthur Dent's sense of reality is in it's dickiest state he suddenly finds the girl of his dreams. He finds her in the last place in which he would expect to find anything at all, but which 3.976,000,000 people will find oddly familiar. They go in search of God's final message to His Creation...

With the current financial crisis, high unemployment, and tight credit, you may be saying to yourself: "Who is acting rich these days? We're barely making ends meet." The reality is that the recession may have caused us to take a breather, but every indication is that we will pick up right where we left off ...

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...

A major collection of entirely new poems from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of Time and Materials and The Apple Trees at Olema A new volume of poetry from Robert Hass is always an event. In Summer Snow, his first collection of poems since 2010, Hass further affirms his...

From the author of The New York Times best-selling novels The Handmaid’s Tale - now an Emmy Award-winning Hulu original series - and Alias Grace, now a Netflix original series. Part detective novel, part psychological thriller, Surfacing is the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing...

Still protecting the identity of a killer six months after the death of a small-time criminal, Detective Sarah Pribek deals with two very different cases--a missing young man and an unlicensed doctor providing care for the underclass.

Parrots own cafés and lemurs run the espresso machines. Badgers tend bar, raccoons write for The Post, and a racehorse is mayor. There are dogs on Wall Street and cats on Broadway. Sea creatures are viewed with fear and disgust. Maybe a big wall should be built to keep them out. It's New York City, now-ish.

Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy's southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe.

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 ...

Everybody knows A Christmas Carol, but the prolific Charles Dickens wrote several other holiday tales. Here, Dreamscape Media has compiled a collection of Dickens' classic Christmas stories. Included within are: A Christmas Tree; What Christmas is as we Grow Older; The Poor Relation's Story; The Child's Story;

Lambda Literary Award finalist for the best LGBT YA novel of 2018 A raw, powerful, but ultimately uplifting debut novel perfect for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe from debut author Angelo Surmelis. Seventeen-year-old Evan Panos doesn't know where he fits in. His strict immigrant...

From the author of the number-one international bestseller The History of Bees, a captivating story of the power of nature and the human spirit that explores the threat of a devastating worldwide drought, witnessed through the lives of a father, a daughter, and a woman who will risk her life to save the future.

One of Clarke's most famous and acclaimed novels, winner of both the HUGO AWARD and the NEBULA AWARD In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionize the future of humankind of space: a Space Elevator...

A Genius Performance by Edward Petherbridge! Marion Sharpe and her mother are on the wrong side of the law. The Franchise, there life and home in the country is very ordinary but when the police turn up with a young woman who accuses them of kidnap. She can back up her claim with a detailed description of the attic room in which she was kept. But as the story continues Inspector Alan Grant sees that there...

The audio-cassette boxed set of Radio 4's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", starring Peter Jones as The Book and Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, and featuring characters such as Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin the Paranoid Android, Trillian, Eddie the Ship's Computer, and Slartibartfast.

Philomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit--the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other. In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with...

A sudden departure. A story decades in the making. The chaotic but happy equilibrium of the Nightingale family is thrown into disarray when Cecily&;whose children can&;t remember her ever being remotely spontaneous&;disappears to a Greek island with no warning or explanation. Her reasons for doing...

Be careful what you wish for.... Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish and kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he wishes he hadn't. Long ago, Ben made a promise, and he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally makes it, it isn't for the reasons he imagine...

"Scapellato's blend of existential noir, absurdist humor, literary fiction, and surreal exploration of performance art merges into something special. . . . The Made-Up Man is a rare novel that is simultaneously smart and entertaining." —Gabino Iglesias, NPR Stanley had known it was a mistake to accept his uncle...

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course. But why is the dead man wearing his son's overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can...

Beautifully written and suffused with dread. Jane Shemilt's domestic settings are seductively vivid, and the final outcome is profoundly shocking and terrifying. -- Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny Big Little Lies meets Lord of The Flies in this electrifyingly twisty psychological...

Beautifully written and suffused with dread. Jane Shemilt's domestic settings are seductively vivid, and the final outcome is profoundly shocking and terrifying. -- Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny Big Little Lies meets Lord of The Flies in this electrifyingly twisty psychological...

The Keep - that beautiful, ancient family home where the Chadwick family have lived for generations - is still a haven from the heartbreaks and storms of life. Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend Henrietta home to meet his extended family - also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, now reappeared and seeming to want forgiveness. Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness...

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...

As a young girl, Rosamond is sent to Shropshire to escape the Blitz. Here, in the countryside, she forms a close bond with her older cousin, Beatrix, a young woman haunted by anger and resentment. Sixty years later, just before her death, Rosamond records her memories on cassettes, addressing them to a distant cousin a near...

Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Author of the Year, 2009. Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, 2008. Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. But Lev has an outsider's vision of the place we call home. Lev begins with no job, little money, and few words of English. He has only his memories, his hopes...

On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology. Now 60 years old, it is stunningly repackaged and both cassette and CD. A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world overwith its sly...

Helena Tregenza has a loving family, beauty, a gift for music and a lively intelligence - but no one would envy her. A childhood accident destroyed her sight, leaving her with little place in the Edwardian world, confined to the house, an embarrassment to many - particularly her vivacious, ambitious sister Lucy. Even sturdy Maisie, the...

This is a BBC Radio 4 production of Terence Rattigan's famous play about an innocent boy unjustly accused. 'It is easy to do justice - very hard to do right". When he is accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order, fourteen-year-old Ronnie Winslow is expelled from naval college. But his father believes his claim...

From the bestselling author of The Forgotten Hours comes an unforgettable story of one woman’s journey to reclaim what she lost in a country torn apart by the devastating legacy of WWII. On the windswept shores of an East German island, Bettina Heilstrom struggles to build a life from the ashes. World War II...

It had all seemed so exciting and romantic... Marcia Willett's fascinating and moving debut Those Who Serve, set in the 1960s, is a tale of the ups and downs of Navy life and of being a Navy wife. The perfect read for fans of Harriet Evans and Katie Fforde. Not even out of their teens, Kate and Cass, friends since boarding school, both...

It's the May Day holiday, and a fair has come to the village of Thrush Green. The residents of Thrush Green all have their own views about the fair. For young Paul, just recovered from an illness, it is a joy to be allowed out to play at the fair; for Ruth, who returned to the soothing tranquility of Thrush Green ...