Agatha Christie’s audacious mystery thriller, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage...

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...

Asylum-seeker'; refugee'. All the major British political parties have brought these words to the top of the political agenda. Some newspapers shout about the swarms of refugees arriving on our shores; others criticise our government's lack of humanitarian principles. But what do we know about the refugees...

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...

It was the best of times and the worst of times'. In one of the most famous openings of any novel, Dickens masterfully presents the turmoil of the French Revolution which is the backdrop for a novel of love, patience, hope and self-sacrifice. It is read by Anton Lesser whose award-winning Dickens... Naxos

Barchester Towers, Trollope's most popular novel, is the second of the six Chronicles of Barsetshire. Trollope continues the story, begun in The Warden, of Mr Harding and his daughter Eleanor.

The island of Bruach provides the setting for more stories of life among the crofters. Including whelk gathering, the tale of a lonley ghost and the adoption of a baby guillemot.

On the evening of 15 June 1815, the great and the good of British society have gathered in Brussels at what is to become one of the most tragic parties in history - the Duchess of Richmond's ball. For this is the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, and many of the handsome young men attending the ball will...

A Genius Performance by Philip Franks! The slashing of a valuable painting at the renowned Ivory Gallery in London, followed by the murder of the proprietor's son-in-law, Robert, sets the stage for another finely tuned Allingham mystery. The proprietor's mother, 90-year-old Gabrielle Ivory, holds the...

From the New York Times bestselling co-author of the Dragonlance novels comes the stunning conclusion to The Annals of Drakis. In the thrilling conclusion to The Annals of Drakis, the ancient prophecy of Drakis--the human warrior who will lead all the races conquered and enslaved by the elves of the Rhonas...

When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. She was whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate...

No other bird is quite so embedded in our culture as the robin. But how much do we really know about this bird? Then there's the wren. On the one hand wrens are ubiquitous - they are Britain's most common bird. Yet many people are not sure if they have ever seen a wren. With around 700,000 breeding...

This story is the 136th release in the Big Finish Main Range, and is the first story in a trilogy featuring the Fifth Doctor. The story is set shortly after Nyssa has left the Tardis (the tv story Terminus) for the Doctor, and his companions Tegan and Turlough. But intriguingly a much longer period has passed for ...

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume.

Wil Wheaton-blogger, geek, and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wesley Crusher-gives us five short-but-true tales of life in the so-called Space Age in Dancing Barefoot. With a true geek's unflinching honesty, Wil examines life, love, the web, and the absurdities of Hollywood in these compelling autobiographical...

Twenty years after detonating a bacteriological weapon over Samur, rendering it uninhabitable, the Sontarans are back: a select platoon of seven has landed here on a secret mission, carrying sealed orders given to them by Fleet Marshal Stabb. The TARDIS has landed here, too, bringing the Doctor, Tegan...

Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life (well, almost): He plays drums in the All-Star Jazz Band, has a crush on the hottest girl in school (who doesn't know he's alive), frequently finds himself sitting across from his school counselor (who bribes him with candy), and is constantly annoyed by his ...

James Herriot has captivated millions of readers and television viewers with tales of the triumphs, disasters, pride and sometimes heartache that filled his life as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. "Every Living Thing" shines with the captivating storytelling that has made James Herriot a favourite the world over.

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his crew and his own badly injured arm. It is a stroke of unbelievable luck when the family of a French farmer risk their lives to offer the airmen protection.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous...

Why is the genome of a salamander forty times larger than that of a human? Why does the avocado tree produce a million flowers and only a hundred fruits? Why, in short, is there so much waste in nature? In this lively and wide-ranging meditation on the curious accidents and unexpected detours on the path of...

A Genius Performance by Anton Lesser - Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It tracks the story of Pip who from youth through the various stages of his life. It was said to be Dickens favourite novel and has been taught very widely in the classroom. Naxos

In Gulliver's Travels we travel into the realms of the fantastical as Lemuel Gulliver, after being alternately shipwrecked, abandoned and then accosted, is compelled to dwell among a series of extraordinary civilizations. From being incarcerated by a diminutive race to being shunned by a clan of superior...

Herbal Medicine for Beginners is your everyday reference for common ailments using 35 popular herbs. You don’t need to buy hundreds of hard-to-find herbs to start your journey with herbal medicine. Herbal Medicine for Beginners shows you how to use a few important herbs to promote the body’s ability...

A Genius Performance by Philip Franks!

In Hide My Eyes, Campion finds himself hunting down a serial killer. A spate of murders leaves him with only the baffling clues of a left-hand glove and a lizard-skin lettercase.

A collection of five intriguing stories of human weakness and psychological suspense by the author of A Traitor to Memory includes the title story about a penniless schoolteacher whose ambition turns murderous. Read by Derek Jacobi.

When the newly qualified vet, James Herriot, arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, he has no idea of the new friends he will meet or adventures that lie ahead.

The addictive new psychological thriller from the author of The Girl on the Train, the runaway Sunday Times Number One best seller and global phenomenon. In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn't pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say...

As a little boy, climbing through the lochs and mountains of Argyll with his Irish Setter Don, all James Herriot wanted to be was a ‘dog doctor’ so he could care for man’s best friend. In this classic collection of stories, we are introduced to some of the dogs who won a special place in the country vet’s heart – from...

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...

Another adventure for Jet Morgan and his crew in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama, based on the original Journey Into Space radio serial by Charles Chilton. When they board an abandoned space freighter, Jet and Doc discover a digitised personality locked inside the ship's computer - one with a deadly...

The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels. Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the...

The TARDIS travellers take a break on the beach world of Vektris. Hot sun, cold drinks and all the time in the worlds. What could possibly go wrong? A kidnapping, a spaceship heist and a desperate chase to a distant galaxy later, Turlough finds himself in a strange winter palace - along with a face from his past.

Today's most visionary thinkers reveal the cutting-edge scientific ideas and breakthroughs you must understand. Scientific developments radically change and enlighten our understanding of the world -- whether it's advances in technology and medical research or the latest revelations of neuroscience...

When college basketball teams make it to the NCAA tournament, they say they're "going to the dance". John Feinstein's riveting new book is the story of the last dance: the Final Four. There is no event in sports quite like it. The Final Four draws millions to their televisions and thousands to a chosen city...

In 2002, at the age of 19, Azad, a young Kurdish man, was conscripted into Iran's army and forced to fight against his own people. Refusing to go to war against his fellow Kurds, Azad deserted and smuggled himself to the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum, became a citizen, and learned English.

The Gyrth family had guarded the Chalice for hundreds of years. It was held by them for the Crown. Its antiquity, its beauty, the extraordinary legends that were connected with it, all combined to make it unique of its kind. It was irreplaceable. No thief could hope to dispose of it in the ordinary way. And indeed...

Poets, philosophers and artists have been trying to explain romantic love for centuries, but it remains one of the most complex and intimidating terrains to navigate. Most people are afraid to be open and honest about their relationships...until now. For We Need To Talk About Love, Laura Mucha has interviewed...

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.

June Whitfield stars as Miss Marple in eight thrilling full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisations. A Pocket Full of Rye A spate of unusual deaths is linked to the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence'. 4.50 from Paddington After witnessing a murder on a train, Mrs McGillicuddy calls on Miss Marple. At Bertram’s...

In Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s edgy new thriller, Louisa Hancock thought she was safe…but there’s a new killer in town. When a mysterious package lands on Louisa Hancock’s doorstep, the Philadelphia museum curator can hardly anticipate the nightmare that’s about to envelop her.

On a bright summer's day, old Miss Clare, now retired from teaching, awaits the visit of her oldest friend, Emily Davis. In between, she recalls the events in their 70-year friendship and country life in England during that time.

The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continued variety for three-score years, besides her childhood, was twelve year a whore, five times a wife (where of once to her own brother), twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon in Virginia at last grew rich, lived honest, and died a penitent.

Fifty years after its first publication, the multimillion-copy international bestseller is available again in English, sharing the heartbreaking tale of a gifted, mischievous, direly misunderstood boy growing up in Rio de Janeiro. When the precocious Zeze grows up, he wants to be a poet in a bow tie. But for now he...

In utter disbelief Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr Rafiel – an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. Recognising in Miss Marple a natural flair for justice, Mr Rafiel had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he...

From ancient times, wolves have been mythologised as ferocious and predatory beasts. In Never Cry Wolf conservationist Farley Mowat sets out to correct the stereotypes. Using his observations of a Canadian wolf pack, Mowat paints a sensitive picture of the wolf as a mild tempered and graceful animal with...

Sarah Hussain was not popular in the community of Kingsmarkham. She was born of mixed parents - a white Irishwoman and an immigrant Indian Hindu. She was also the Reverend of St Peter's church. But it came as a profound shock to everyone when she was found strangled in the vicarage. A garrulous...

Wagner got it wrong. The twilight of the gods isn't that cataclysmic. After all, there's a comfy chair, a warm fire and three meals a day at the Sunnyvoyde Residential Home. Passing the time with Aphrodite, who's still quite sprighty with the aid of her Zimmer frame, isn't heaven - but it's close.

At the age of 36, Caroline Knapp, author of the acclaimed bestseller Drinking:A Love Story, found herself confronted with a monumental task: redefining her world. She had faced the loss of both her parents, given up a twenty-year relationship with alcohol, and, as she writes, "I was wandering around in a haze...

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...

In Phineas Finn, the second of the Palliser novels, Trollope balances the rival demands of public and private life, entangling political ambitions with the experiences of love. Phineas Finn, an irresistible but penniless young Irish barrister, enters Parliament and comes to London, leaving behind him....

A fast and funny pirate romp for fans of Mr Gum and Barry Loser. Packed with comic art and more gags than you can wave a kipper at. A fully illustrated, laugh-out-loud pirate romp in which Emilie and her brother William set out to rescue their parents from the horrible and smelly pirate king McSNOTTBEARD.

1983: as the country goes to the polls, two 'Urban Explorers', together with a freelance journalist, break into the long-defunct Cadogan Tunnels. But there's no way out of the tunnels - as the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are about to discover when the TARDIS brings them, too, into the complex. It's a rat trap...

It is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first meet Julian St John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he's also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, their legal guardian.

How did you clean your teeth in the 1660s? What make-up did you wear? What pets did you keep? Making use of every possible contemporary source, Liza Picard presents an engrossing picture of how life in London was really lived in an age of Samuel Pepys, the court of Charles II and the Great Fire of London.

Spring, 1543. King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife. But this time the object of his affections is resisting. Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies.

In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers.

Rider Haggard's novel about a supremely beautiful but vindictive African goddess by the name of She is one of the best-selling books of all time. This wonderful multi-layered novel is at once a disarming imaginative fantasy, a fast-paced adventure story and a fascinating examination of the themes of ...

When psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the scientific research station hovering high above the surface of Solaris, he finds the place deserted except for two scientists, who have been driven mad by some unknown horror. The researchers had been trying to investigate the ocean planet, and probe the secrets of...

Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat, is given to daydreaming. "Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?" she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in the drawing-room of her house in Kent. Desperate to...

Arborist William Bryant Logan recovers the lost tradition that sustained human life and culture for 10 millennia. Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong...

Farthing Wood is being bulldozed and a drought means the animals no longer have anywhere to live or drink. Fox, Badger, Toad, Tawny Owl, Mole and the other animals band together and leave their ancestral home and set off to move to a far-away nature reserve. Their journey is full of...

Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge seeks a killer who has eluded Scotland Yard for years in this next installment of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series.An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible—but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard.

Dolly Bantry's reaction on seeing the body of a beautiful, but very dead, blonde in her library is to immediately call for her friend Jane Marple. The police identify the girl as Ruby Keene, a dance hostess. She was reported missing by elderly invalid Conway Jefferson who, fond of Ruby, planned to adopt her...

Dennis was different. Why was he different, you ask? Well, a small clue might be in the title of this book... Charming, surprising and hilarious - David Walliams's beautiful first novel will touch the hearts (and funny bones) of children and adults alike.

Broken by his last case, homicide detective Joe Cashin has fled the city and returned to his hometown to run its one-man police station while his wounds heal and the nightmares fade. He lives a quiet life with his two dogs in the tumbledown wreck his family home has become. It's a peaceful existence - ideal for...

Sarajevo, in the 1990s, is a hellish place. The ongoing war devours human life, tears families apart and transforms even banal routines, such as acquiring water, into life-threatening expeditions. Day after day, a cellist stations himself in the midst of the devastation, defying the ever-present ...

When a repairman accidentally discovers a parallel universe, everyone sees it as an opportunity, whether as a way to ease Earth’s overcrowding, set up a personal kingdom, or hide an inconvenient mistress. But when a civilization is found already living there, the people on this side of the crack are sent...

The Duke's Children is the sixth and final audiobook in the Palliser series. 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.

To the Jockey Club, the racing world would be a better place without Julius Apollo Filmer. An expert in corruption with a devastating line in witness intimidation – and a slippery character to put behind bars. Baffled, they call in undercover security agent Tor Kelsey to keep an unflinching eye on Filmer and his associates.

The past 20 years saw unprecedented growth and stability followed by the worst financial crisis the industrialised world has ever witnessed. In the space of little more than a year, what had been seen as the age of wisdom was viewed as the age of foolishness. Almost overnight, belief turned into incredulity.

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.

A Genius Performance by Philip Franks!

First, there is a skeleton in a dinner jacket. Then a corpse in a golden aeroplane. After another body, Albert Campion nearly makes a fourth . . .

Bill Nighy, Sarah Parish, Barbara Shelley and Peter Sallis are among the cast in these six classic BBC Radio dramatisations. John Wyndham’s quietly menacing post-apocalyptic tales are enduringly popular, and these gripping, atmospheric radio adaptations of his classic fiction are resonant with terror and suspense.

The only proper full recording of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. The ultimate Tolkien audio experience. This completely unabridged version of Lord of the Rings is brought vividly to life through a Rob Inglis performance which is simply wonderful! 

This powerful and breathtaking novel is the story of four cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Together they will encounter the hell of hazing and the rabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphere of an arrogant and proud military institute. They will experience the violence.

Artist's daughter Penelope Keeling can look back on a full and varied life: a Bohemian childhood in London and Cornwall, an unhappy wartime marriage, and the one man she truly loved. She has brought up three children - and learned to accept them as they are.

William Humphrey’s delightful chronicle of an angling holiday in Wales celebrates two equally astonishing creatures: the Atlantic salmon and the British fly fisherman In order to mate in the same freshwater stream where it was spawned, the salmon swims 1,000 miles or more and overcomes countless...

Sutter's the guy you want at your party. Aimee's not. She needs help and it's up to Sutter to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper. But Aimee's not like other girls and before long he's over his head. For the first time in his life he has the power to make a difference in...

The thrilling second book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, read by the author and a full cast. In this stunning sequel to Northern Lights, the intrepid Lyra Silvertongue and her daemon, Pantalaimon, find themselves in a shimmering, haunted other world – Cittagazze where soul-eating Spectres...

Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through whose doors everyone who is anyone in Central America passes. Andrew Osnard, mysterious and fleshy, is a spy. His secret mission is two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political .....

A Genius Performance by Philip Franks! Jack Havoc, jail-breaker and knife artist, is on the loose on the streets of London once again. In the faded squares of shabby houses, in the furtive alleys and darkened pubs, the word is out that the Tiger is back in town, more vicious than ever. It falls to Albert Campion to...

Wells' thrilling story of an inventor who travels in time and discovers a nightmarish dystopian future has been adapted several times for TV and film. This first ever UK radio adaptation, starring Robert Glenister as the Time Traveler and William Gaunt as H. G. Wells, brings Wells' fascinating ideas and extraordinary...

Captain John Staple's exploits in the Peninsula had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack amongst his fellows in the Dragoon Guards. Now home from Waterloo, life in peacetime is rather dull for the adventure-loving captain. But when he finds himself lost at an unmanned toll-house in the Pennines, his...

The first of six in Trollope's series of the Chronicles of Barsetshire introducing the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the characters of Septimus Harding, the Warden, and his son-in-law Archdeacon Grantly. The Warden concerns the moral dilemma of the conscientious Reverend Septimus Harding...

If there's one thing that the inhabitants of Purity Bay fear more than the Takers, it's the dirt and disease spread by strangers. Strangers like the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa...

This is a re-creation of the much-loved world of Kenneth Grahames "The Wind in the Willows". William Horwood, author of the "Duncton" trilogies, brings to life the characters of Badger, Water Rat, Mole and Toad.

A wise, personal, and wide-ranging meditation on science and society by the Nobel Prize-winning author of To Explain the World. For more than four decades, one of the most captivating and celebrated science communicators of our time has challenged the public to think carefully about the foundations of nature...

James Herriot, strapped into the cockpit of a Tiger Moth trainer, feels rather out of place, but he hasn't found a new profession and it surely won't be long before the RAF come round to his point of view.

James Herriot's fifth volume of memoirs relocates him to a training camp somewhere in England. And in between square pounding and digging for victory, he dreams of the people and livestock he left behind him.

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...

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed...

Presents the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the indelible stamp of the evolutionary processes first proposed by Darwin.

Why You Eat What You Eat examines the sensory, psychological, neuroscientific, and physiological factors that influence our eating habits. Rachel Herz uncovers the fascinating and surprising facts that affect food consumption: bringing reusable bags to the grocery store encourages us to buy more treats...

The pioneer of romantic suspense, Mary Stewart leads her listeners on an unforgettable ride across the Isle of Skye in this tale perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Barbara Pym. Following a heartbreaking divorce, Gianetta retreats to the Isle of Skye hoping to find tranquillity in the island's savage beauty.

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...

We all know who The Girl is. She holds The Hero's hand as he runs through the Pyramids, chasing robots. Or she nags him, or foils him, plays the uptight straight man to his charming loser. She's idealised, degraded, dismissed, objectified and almost always dehumanised. How do we process these insidious...