It could be your average suicide. A man found dead in his car, engine running, parked at the end of a lonely track, a tube feeding deadly fumes from the exhaust through the window. Except for the seven-year-old boy still breathing in the boot... For Jonathan Kellaway, the past is somewhere he chooses not to go. Dead friends, lost lovers and a family dynasty hell-bent on self- destruction lie buried there.

Château Blissac, on its hill above St Roque, is in a setting where every prospect pleases. But it doesn't please its current occupier, J. Wellington Gedge. Mr Gedge wants none of it - and particularly none of the domineering Mrs Gedge's imperious wish that he should become American Ambassador to Paris. Instead he pines for the simpler life of California, where men are men and filling stations stand tall. Mrs Gedge ...

From Neil MacGregor, the author of A History of the World in 100 Objects, this is a view of Germany like no other. For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Thirty years ago, a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European...

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. When a Russian émigré is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past.

When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland's west coast, he brings only his handsome face, a photograph of his long-lost mother, and a determination to do battle with the village's lies. Mahony also somehow wakes the dead from their graves, with their foggy memories and hidden stories, floating greyly amongst the unseeing living. No one though - living or dead - will be able to guess...

New Year's Day, 1888: It is the first day of Marantha Waters' new life on San Miguel. She has come with her husband, a Civil War veteran who has taken over the operation of the sheep ranch on the island. But this promised paradise proves to be a damp, wind-ravaged wasteland. As her husband grows increasingly distant from her and their adopted daughter Edith, Marantha's blighted lungs grow weaker.

*** COMES WITH A FREE AUDIO BACKUP ON CD *** The Man is a mystery in himself. He turns up at the boy's house from nowhere and seems intent on causing havoc for the boy. But as the old Chinese proverb says - after three days, fish and visitors begin to stink

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. "A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem of Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Comedy of Errors (along with The Tempest) is one of only two of Shakespeare's plays to observe the...

Queen Victoria's reign is in full flourish, her Empire expanding and her colonies stretching across the globe. In Africa, the land proves rich with minerals, and the trading companies continue to cross the seas and grow. On the banks of the river Nile, two families meet: the Courtneys and the Ballantynes. Both influential, powerful, and determined to dominate, their encounter provides the background for Wilbur...

When Irene Spencer meets Vera Small at her daughter Lesley’s wedding reception, they embark upon a correspondence that is quite unlike any other in the history of letter-writing. Both Irene and Vera are happily widowed and endowed with errant offspring. They live in a world of church fêtes and amateur dramatics, but love nothing more than dipping their pens in the vitriol pot – while...

An atmospheric, vibrant and moving tale of pain and passion at the heart of war-torn Spain, from Victoria Hislop, the million-copy best-selling author of The Island and The Thread. Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada's cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city's shocking...

At 27, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again...

Deep within the peaceful heart of Amish country, a life-or-death emergency shatters a quiet world to its core. Number-one New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs delivers a riveting story that challenges our deepest-held beliefs. Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to...

The description of his ancestral seat as an earthly paradise would, at present, have struck its proprietor as ironical, full as it was with unwanted and troublesome inhabitants. What Lord Emsworth needed above all was a rugged ally at his side to remove from Blandings its superfluous guests, leaving him ...

A gloriously witty novel from Sebastian Faulks using P.G. Wodehouse’s much-loved characters, Jeeves and Wooster, fully authorised by the Wodehouse estate. Bertie Wooster, recently returned from a very pleasurable soujourn in Cannes, finds himself at the stately home of Sir Henry Hackwood in Dorset. Bertie is...

They lived during some of the most important periods of our history and at times of great change: the Roman occupation, the Saxon period at the time of the Viking raids and settlements, pre-Norman Britain and, finally, the high medieval age of chivalry, and the Scottish struggle for independence. The five stories...

This release comprises four 45 minute BBC Radio 4 plays adapted by John Mortimer from four stories in his collection, "Rumpole and the Primrose Path". Rumpole is a wine-imbibing friend of the South London criminal classes, and the scourge of all QCs. Acting as narrator, he tells a series of stories...

These short stories feature a cast of characters, all plotting to save themselves from wedlock, poverty or ignominy - with various degrees of success. The nine stories include: 'All's Well with Bingo', 'Bingo and the Peke Crisis, 'The Editor Regrets', 'Sonny Boy', 'A Bit of Luck for Mabel', and others.

A superb crossover title of enormous appeal to the vast selection of the population that enjoys classical music, but would like to know more about it. From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over...

Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge take on the world in another hilarious series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy hit. 'There are few double acts that delight audiences quite as much as..."Ladies of Letters"' - "Daily Express". The intrepid grandmothers are back - and at loggerheads with their respective families. Vera decides to take a break in Ibiza, and invites Irene to join her. But, a simple holiday soon becomes...

The wave of crime that was about to rock Blandings Castle broke out on a fine summer afternoon. Ukridge appears on Corky's doorstep requesting his cab fare and a whiskey and soda!

Wycliffe tackles a case which reaches back down the generations ... When Cedric Tremain is charged with murdering his father by booby-trapping his fishing boat, all the locals are agreed that he is an unlikely murderer.

Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge return as the proud grandmothers Irene Spencer and Vera Small, once again brightening the airwaves with their often-dubious wit and wisdom. In this latest collection of missives they offer Springtime recipes as well as tips for a long and healthy life.

Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge are full of fighting spirit in this eighth series of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 comedy. The caustic correspondence between Irene Spencer and Vera Small is always richly entertaining, and these latest letters are no exception. Catty and competitive as ever, the pensioner pen-pals find themselves in yet more trouble in this latest series. Fundraising for her ancient local hospital...

When two men are discovered, with their throats cut, in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, the police are faced with an intriguing challenge for one of the victims was ex-Government minister Sir Paul Berowne, the other, Harry Mack, a local tramp and alcoholic.

Lecturers having it away with students, witches’ sabbaths on the sand dunes, a body buried under a statue in the gardens, and a fresh rash of killings.

A Genius Performance by Stephen Fry!

The 7th and final book in the series.

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

His Dark Materials Trilogy Read by Philip Pullman and Full Cast The epic, award-winning trilogy following two children as they wander through a series of parallel universes is brought to thrilling life by the author and a full cast of narrators. The Sally Lockhart Quartet Read by Anton Lesser Young Sally Lockhart...

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

What is it like to be old? Diana Athill, born in 1917, made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs. In SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END she reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age brings, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death.

Originating from CSA WORD - the fifth instalment in its famous 'Short Story' compilation series - fine vintage stories that slip down as easily as a 1787 Chateau Lafite but are considerably lighter on the pocket to indulge in. This excellent value collection features twenty-two complete and unabridged stories from writers as diverse as Saki, P.G. Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, Kate Chopin and Edward Lear.

With this rich range of unabridged stories we celebrate the very best of contemporary writers and writing.

Among others the collections features thriller writer Ruth Rendell, witty William Boyd, the Japanese literary sensation Haruki Murakami....

Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Seemingly by chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch.

Eleanor Lee is fiercely independent. She has lived alone well into her nineties, despite her now near-total blindness. Now, finally, she has been persuaded by her children to move into a home. She employs Peter, a recent graduate nursing a broken heart, to spend the summer sorting through her attic – papers...

A new, fully updated edition of David Attenborough’s groundbreaking Life on Earth. David Attenborough’s unforgettable meeting with gorillas became an iconic moment for millions of television viewers. Life on Earth, the series and accompanying book, fundamentally changed the way we view and interact with..

A classic Marple mystery, superbly read by Joan Hickson. Available for the first time on audio. Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his ‘counting house’ when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.

Of poison pens and poisoning: a gripping Miss Marple mystery. Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate-mail causes only a minor stir. But all that changes when one of the recipients, Mrs Symmington, commits suicide.

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.

A Genius Performance by Hugh Fraser!

The Gipsy’s Acre was a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea – and in Michael Rogers it stirred a child-like fantasy. 

When Mary Poppins takes charge of the Banks children, she changes their lives forever. Unlike other nannies, she makes ordinary events extraordinary. Who else could slide up bannisters, pull wonders out of an empty carpetbag, lead the children on magical adventures and....

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Robert Graves' brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome, starring Tom Goodman Hill as Claudius and Derek Jacobi as Augustus. The wickedly entertaining inside story of the lives and deaths of the Imperial dynasty from Augustus to Caligula...

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has little idea it will change her life. She's worked with the revered crime writer for years and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. As Susan knows only too well, vintage crime sells...

handsomely. It's just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway...

It is 1910 - Maia, orphaned at 13, travels from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is very unhappy with her exceptionally bizarre new family but befriends Finn, a mysterious English boy who lives with the local Indians and shares her passion for the jungle.

When Henry Irving decides to open the Lyceum, his own London theater, with the goal of making it the greatest playhouse on earth, he hires a young Dublin clerk harboring literary ambitions by the name of Abraham Stoker as his assistant. Together, Irving and Stoker fall under the spell of Ellen Terry, a dazzlingly talented Shakespearean actress, known to all as a proto-feminist, and the lives of all three become intertwined with the Lyceum and each other.Set in the...

There is only room for one drama queen - which one will take centre stage? When Lola moves from New York City to boring Dellwood - Deadwood - Falls she thinks her life is over. But she soon discovers a way to shake things up - and it involves taking on the high school's biggest bully, getting the lead in the school play, not to mention crashing a rock star's party! Set in an American high school, this is a fast and funny account of the rivalry between Carla...

This two CD set is drawn from the BBC Radio broadcasts of Ted Hughes and features live and studio recordings of the poet introducing and reading his own work. The recordings include his earliest surviving poetry broadcast and extensive selections from 'Remains of Elmet' and 'Moortown Diary' plus selections from his 'Crow' poems and two complete short stories, 'The Harvesting' and 'Snow'. Hughes was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998 and is widely...

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose lifelong efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Thay (pronounced Tie), as his followers call him, has written numerous books, travels extensively to offer teachings on the art of mindful living, and has been instrumental in introducing Buddhist concepts to the west. One of the best known and most respected Zen masters in the...

The award-winning TV adaption The Durrells left its seven million fans with questions: What happened to the family - and what took them to Corfu in the first place? This audiobook has the answers.... Simon Nye's TV series, The Durrells, is based loosely on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy and in particular his much-loved best seller, My Family and Other Animals. These books in turn are based somewhat loosely on actual events. The real-life Durrells went to Corfu at the urging...

Here are short stories by the incomparable Virginia Woolf, including the story that was the original basis for the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

What happens now that human population has outpaced biological natural selection? Two leading scientists reveal how we became who we are - and what we might become. When you think of evolution, the picture that most likely comes to mind is a straight-forward progression, the iconic illustration of a primate morphing into a proud, upright human being. But in reality, random events have played huge roles in determining the evolutionary histories of everything from lions...

Charged with drama and beauty, this memorable collection by a master storyteller weaves a magical world of possibility and power from female myths of physical renewal, creation and change. It is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shapeshifting women of our native folklore. Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia, Sharon Blackie brings to life women's remarkable...

Eleven years ago, Jem Catterick and Ralph McLeary fell deeply in love. They thought it would be forever-that they'd found their happy ending. As everyone agreed, they were the perfect couple. Then two became four, and an apartment became a house. Romantic nights out became sleepless nights in. They soon found that life wasn't quite so simple anymore. But, through it all, Jem and Ralph still loved each other. Of course they did. Now Jem is back at work part-time...

We Need To Talk About Mum & Dad is a warm and witty practical guide, a one-stop shop for information on how to support your ageing loved ones: how to protect their health and well-being, keep them safe and secure, and enable them to be self-determining and independent for as long as possible. Full of expert advice and first-hand experience, this is your go-to resource to help you: Navigate the bureaucratic maze while remaining sane Understand what is needed for...

Look before you speak – an innovative visual approach to using and learning basic Spanish phrases, with a 60-minute audio CD Do you need to brush up your Spanish, or learn the lingo? Or are you off to Spain and want to make sure you’re understood? Find key phrases fast in this effective survival language guide and CD set for real-life situations. Galleries of words and pictures make it easy to find key basic Spanish vocabulary at a glance and remember what you’ve seen.

Bermondsey Priory, 1114. A young chaplain succumbs to the temptations of the flesh - and suffers a gruesome punishment. From that moment, the monastery is cursed and over the next five hundred years murder and treachery abound within its hallowed walls. A beautiful young bride found dead two days before her wedding. A ghostly figure that warns of impending doom. A plot to depose King Edward II. Mad monks and errant priests... even the poet Chaucer finds....

Having acquired the first three charms in the quest to secure their family's freedom, Luka and Emilia flee into Sussex with soldiers hot on their heels, in company with a Royalist duke, a Catholic priest, a highwayman and young Tom Whitehorse. Only the Catholic underground can help them all escape – but this is a most dangerous religion in the time of Puritan rule. And Emilia and Luka still must find the elusive gypsy tribe of the cat's eye shell, who, it seems...

Life is always hard for the gypsies, who live to their own rhythm and their own rules, but since Oliver Cromwell had seized control of England, life had been harder – and drabber – than ever. But now life for the Finch tribe has gone even more horribly wrong. They have been accused of vagrancy and murder, and thrown into gaol with only three weeks to live. The only members of the family to escape are 13-year-old Emilia and her cousin Luka. They have been entrusted to find ...

Once there was a gypsy queen who wore on her wrist a chain of six lucky charms. The queen gave each her six children one of the charms as their lucky talisman, but ever since the chain of charms was broken, the gypsies had been dogged with misfortune. Life for the Finch tribe has gone even more horribly wrong. They have been accused of vagrancy and murder, and thrown into gaol with only three weeks to live. The only members of the family to escape are 13-year-old...

Continuing the saga begun in Annie Murray's Chocolate Girls, and set in 1960s Birmingham, The Bells of Bournville Green is a story of families whose lives are entwined, of belonging and loss . . . and of a young woman's search for transforming love. Pretty seventeen-year-old Greta has never known a stable family life. With no father, and loathing her mother's latest boyfriend, Greta finds life hard at home and is happiest at work with her friends at the Cadbury factory.

John Moffatt and Rosemary Leach star in this BBC Radio 4 production of Noel Coward's patriotic play about the ups and downs of a working-class family between 1919 and 1939. "This Happy Breed" opens in 1919, when the Gibbons family have just moved to their smart new home in the suburbs of South London. Against a background of social change and national upheaval spanning twenty years, the family celebrate their own triumphs and deal with their personal traumas.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in Cockermouth, in the Lake District. His Lyrical Ballads, written in collaboration with Coleridge, was published in 1798, and shortly afterwards he settled in Dove Cottage, Grasmere, with his sister Dorothy. Inspired in his early manhood by the French Revolution, he grew disillusioned with revolutionary politics and in later life became decidedly conservative. He left a vast body of work, ranging from delicately simple lyrics to...

Penguin presents the audiobook CD of The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden, read by Michael Fox. In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. 401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as fifty million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. The sons of Sparta, those whose fathers and grandfathers fell at Thermopylae and perished in the Peloponnesian Wa

From the best-selling author of Fatherland, Conclave and An Officer and a Spy. September 1938. Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there.... Munich. As Chamberlain's plane judders over the Channel and the Führer's train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own.

What would you do for the perfect life? Would you lie? Would you cheat? Would you kill? Cecilia Wilborg has the perfect life. A handsome husband, two beautiful daughters and a luxurious house in the picture-postcard town of Sandefjord. But Cecilia also has a dark secret. A secret so damaging it can never be brought to light. Then Tobias enters her life. He is a small, friendless eight-year-old boy who just wants to find a home. But he threatens to bring Cecilia's world crashing down.

The highly anticipated new blockbuster by the best-selling author of The Perfumer's Secret. Alexandra Frobisher, a modern-thinking woman with hopes of a career in England's famous chocolate-making town of York, has received several proposals of marriage, although none of them promises that elusive extra: love. Matthew Britten-Jones is a man of charm and strong social standing. He impresses Alex and her parents with his wit and intelligence, but would an amicable...

It's the start of a new year when resolutions are made... Maggie is stuck in a boring marriage and dreams of a life straight from the pages of a romantic novel. Ella is recovering from seven wasted years of failing to win over the daughter of the man she loves and Ethan, tired of his marriage, seeks the company of other women. Should they be careful what they wish for?

This first CD in the simple truths series by Lucinda Drayton is an inspirational four track meditation to help heal the pain of grief, divorce and separation. Lucinda is the singer of the well known band Bliss and she has created this fantastic recording after her own personal experience of loss. It comes straight from her heart and was inspired by a year of huge changes and challenges.Fans of Bliss will recognise the heart and soul in this recording as Lucinda's beautiful...

It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt. Leamas is recalled to London - where, to his surprise, instead of being washed up and consigned to a desk he's offered a chance to have...

Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in a powerful and atmospheric full-cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's classic noir novel. The first time Marlowe sets eyes on Terry Lennox, he is lying drunk in the passenger seat of a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. The next time, he's on Skid Row. After they share a few Gimlets, Marlowe thinks he seems like a...

This is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, illustrated with examples of his music. The biography tells of Mozart's childhood travelling the courts of Europe, and of how, after a brief period of fame in Vienna, his fortunes declined until his early death and his last resting place in a pauper's grave.

Pam Ayres at her entertaining best in a Live stage show from Stratford-Upon-Avon. Her stage show has been a sell-out success throughout the world. With her natural warmth and wit she builds up a rapport with the audience that guarantees an evening of fun and laughter.

Richard Derrington and Deborah McAndrew star in this thrilling dramatisation of P.D. James' enduringly popular mystery. When two men are discovered with their throats cut in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, the police are faced with an intriguing challenge. For one of the victims was ex-Government minister Sir Paul Berowne, the other Harry Mack, a local tramp and alcoholic.

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

He had fled from the terrors of his past, finding refuge in the quietness of the island. 'Guaranteed to give you nightmares' Daily Mail

'Building to a horrific climax, it's James Herbert's best book yet. But do not read it alone.... especially on a moonlight night' Daily Mirror

You'll love these great new stories about "Bob the Builder" and his friends! In "Bob's Big Plan", a special extended episode, Bob hears that Sunflower Valley, where he and his brother Tom used to camp, is being developed. 

Most of us can tell the difference between a Blue Tit and a Blackbird or a Robin and a Wren, but what happens if you close your eyes – can you still tell which bird is which simply by listening to their song? If the answer is no, then this practical audio guide to the songs of British garden birds is the easy way to get to know the songs of some of our..

A Genius Performance by Martin Jarvis!

Barely had the first copies of Christopher Matthew's 'Now We Are Sixty' landed in the bookshops when people started to ask when he was going to write a sequel.

Barney has found a wonderful place to play - the chalk-pit or rubbish dump near his granny's home. One day the ground gives way and Barney finds himself in a cave in the middle of the dump, and that's where he meets Stig.

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...

A Bertie and Jeeves classic, featuring an Alpine hat, a black amber statuette, and the dreaded Totleigh Towers. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, Bertie's newt-breeding friend Gussie Fink-Nottle must marry Madeline Bassett or Bertie will be obliged to take his place.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 and read by Dan Stevens, star of TV’s Downton Abbey. Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

It was the corgis’ fault. When they strayed through the grounds of Buckingham Palace, the Queen discovered the City of Westminster travelling library. The Queen has never had much time for reading – pleasure has always come second place to duty – though now that one is here I suppose...

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.

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...

A rich and compelling wartime saga from the author of Wish Me Luck. Kathy Burton longs to escape the drudgery of her life as an unpaid labourer on her father's farm. With only the local church choir and the occasional dance at the village hall for amusement, she yearns for the bright lights.

Three very different women work together at Cadbury's Bournville factory, and their lives become entwined by war and work - and a child called David. Edie, the main character, marries young to escape her unhappy family home. Widowed at 19 and having lost her child, she faces the war grieving and lonely.

Although the shortest of George Eliot's novels, Silas Marner is one of her most admired and loved works. It tells the sad story of the unjustly exiled Silas Marner - a handloom linen weaver of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England - and how he is restored to life by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie.

Widely considered one of the most-beloved children's authors of all time, Dick King-Smith's stories of animals and farm life, many inspired by his own farming experiences, have been cherished by children around the world for generations. This unmissable audio collection contains nine of King-Smith's beloved...

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess)...

This CD makes available for the first time all the surviving BBC radio broadcasts of H.G. Wells. The earliest dates from 1931, by which time Wells was already in his sixties and a renowned public figure, recognised not only for his science fiction, but also his far sighted commentary on social and political affairs.

Fanny Price moves from poverty to the opulence of Mansfield Park at the age of ten when she is adopted by rich relations. As she grows up she faces a constant battle with the burden of her past as her relatives try to keep her in her place.

When the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on Diplomatic Business he parks his only daughter Sophy with his sister's family, the Ombersleys, in Berkeley Square. Upon her arrival, Sophy is bemused to see her cousins are in a sad tangle.

It should have been a lovely English country-house weekend. But the unfortunate guest list is enough to exasperate a saint, and the host, Sir Arthur Billington-Smith, is an abusive wretch hated by everyone – from his disinherited son to his wife's stoic would-be lover. When Sir Arthur is found stabbed to...

A tale of hardship and social injustice, Miss Purdy's Class by Annie Murray is a heartfelt saga with strong emotional relationships at its heart. In the New Year of 1936, Gwen Purdy, aged twenty-one, leaves her home to become a schoolteacher in a poor area of Birmingham.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott's most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each...

This is a BBC Radio drama based on P. D. James' bestselling novel, starring Richard Derrington and Deborah McAndrew. In the seventeenth century, a witch is burned in a stone circle. Three hundred and fifty years later, an investigative journalist arrives at a nearby clinic to have cosmetic surgery - and a week later, she is dead. Dalgliesh and his team...

At age ten, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest Oscar® winner in history for her performance in the film classic Paper Moon. As the sidekick to her father, Ryan O'Neal, she became a fixture at the most glamorous Hollywood parties and counted celebrities among her childhood friends. But behind the glittering...

"As You Like It" can be enjoyed on different levels.

On the surface, it is an idyllic romance, full of happy love and an optimistic philosophy of simple goodness. Life in the forest is a perpetual picnic with few outward signs of the winter's wind.