The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake'. William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in four original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented on CD for the...

Gregor Jack, MP, well-liked, young, married to the fiery Elizabeth - to the outside world a very public success story. But Jack's carefully nurtured career plans take a tumble after a 'mistake' during a police raid on a notorious Edinburgh brothel. Then Elizabeth disappears, a couple of bodies float into view where they shouldn't, and a lunatic speaks from...

For more than three decades Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture...from a groundbreaking newspaper serial, to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales of the...

A gripping, evocative thriller about a disgraced Sikh Indian Army captain who works as the caretaker for a U.S. Senator's Martha's Vineyard estate, and becomes ensnared in the Senator's shadowy world Ranjit Singh, a former Indian Army Captain trying to escape a shameful past, now lives on Martha's Vineyard, and works as a caretaker for the...

In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet. That's the old story everyone knows and loves (even if they don't really believe it). But now the Carpet is home to many different tribes and peoples, and there's a new story in the making: the story of Fray, sweeping a trail of destruction across the Carpet.

The fifth in the new Naxos Audiobooks series In a Nutshell, The Renaissance is a short and accessible introduction to the era that gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Palestrina. The Renaissance swept across Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, heralding intellectual revolutions in science, art, philosophy and politics, and marking a...

A mysterious sea monster, theorized by some to be a giant narwhal, is sighted by ships of several nations; an ocean liner is also damaged by the creature. The United States government finally assembles an expedition to track down and destroy the menace. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a noted French marine biologist and narrator of...

All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' Animal Farm - the history of a revolution that went wrong - is George Orwell's brilliant satire on the corrupting influence of power. Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion, under the leadership...

In this sequel to Anne of Green Gables, the engaging orphan, just "half-past sixteen," becomes a schoolma'am in a small village on Prince Edward Island.

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas' most popular work. The writing of the The Count of Monte Cristo was completed in 1844. Like many of his novels, it was expanded from plot outlines suggested by collaborators.

The Man in the Iron Mask, the final installment in the Musketeer series, takes place in 1600s France. The musketeers, D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos, and Athos, reconnect through greed, power, and family, in an attempt to overthrow the current King of France, Louis the XIV. Aramis, now a Bishop, visits the Bastille where a prisoner named...

Living off crumbs in a dreary attic, Sara Crewe comforts herself with wondrous stories of adventure and fortune, and in the end the stories become true.

Maroney's British accent perfectly accents this classic as she gently leads listeners deeper and deeper into a story of heartbreak, sadness, love, and hope.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the evergreen classic novel by Louisa May Alcott. With their father away fighting in the American Civil War, the four March girls are facing a lean Christmas with their mother. But the sisters’ close bond and determination to make the best of things enables them to find happiness despite their...

Kate Maberly and Robert Glenister star in a gripping BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Geraldine McCaughrean's outstanding sequel to Peter Pan

When Peter Pan flies into the night nursery of Wendy, John and Michael Darling, he takes them on the journey - and the adventure - of a lifetime. Mermaids, wolves and Indians weave their spell in the magical Never Never Land - where also lurks the wicked Captain Hook...Toyah Willcox stars as Peter Pan, with Ron Moody as Captain...

Here is a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of one of the most famous adventure stories of all time, starring Roy Marsden as Robinson Crusoe. Young Robinson Crusoe has a burning ambition to be a sailor. Paying no attention to his parent's warnings, he runs away to sea to embark on an extraordinary series of adventures: struggles...

First published in 1908, “Anne of Green Gables” is Lucy Maud Montgomery’s enduring children’s classic which chronicles the coming of age of a young orphan girl, from the fictional community of Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. The story begins with her arrival at the Prince Edward Island farm of Miss Marilla Cuthbert and Mr. Matthew...

When Sylvia and her old nurse Nana agree to keep house for Gum, they know they will be looking after his fossil collection while his away on his travels. But imagine their surprise when one day he brings them something else - three baby girls whose names all being with 'P'! Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are not really sisters...

When Heidi, a lively orphan girl, goes to live with her grandfather in a little hut high in the Alps she soon learns to live in perfect harmony with her surroundings, leading a carefree life with her constant companion, Peter, a young goatherd. But her happiness is short-lived when she is sent to stay with a rich city family as a companion...

Maureen Lipman and Patrick Barlow star in a full-cast dramatisation of the classic children's tale. When Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are whisked away from Kansas by a cyclone, they arrive in the strange land of the Munchkins. Setting off on a magical journey, they are befriended by the Tinman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, all...

When his brother catches measles, Tom is sent away for the summer to stay with his uncle and aunt and is thoroughly fed up about it. What a boring summer it's going to be. But then, lying in bed one night, he hears the old grandfather clock in the hall strike the very strange hour of 13 o'clock. What can it mean? As Tom creeps...

Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price: the earnest, gentle girl of humble origins sent to live with Sir Thomas Bertram and his family in Mansfield Park. There she discovers a world of flirtation, betrayal and prejudice; her quiet, serious nature hides a loyal and loving heart, and her patient devotion is ultimately rewarded.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the classic American tale, starring Gayle Hunnicutt. When Pollyanna's father dies, she is sent to live with her only surviving relative, the rich but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's joy soon turns to disappointment when her spinster aunt gives her a cold greeting and tells her she is to stay in the attic. It's not the...

Robinson Crusoe is Daniel Defoe's classic novel of shipwreck and survival, now nearly 300 years old. The story is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island, encountering Native Americans, captives, and mutineers. This is the tale of an ordinary man struggling to survive in...

In his Four Just Men series, Edgar Wallace comes up with something different: the villains are not necessarily bad people, and the pursuers of justice, the Four Just Men, as they call themselves, are acting outside the law. They argue that their actions are for the public good, and dispassionately eke the ultimate revenge death on their victims.

After the death of her parents, Mary Lennox is sent back from India to live in her uncle's huge, gloomy house on the English moors. Mary is lonely and miserable until she stumbles upon her disabled cousin Colin, hidden away from the world by his troubled father. Together they discover the door to a secret garden, and open up a world of...

Listeners can follow the fortunes of the dashing young swordsman D'Artagnan and his daredevil companions, Athos, Aramis and Porthos. The reading is supplemented by music from Raff, Bruch and Nielsen.

When young Jim Hawkins comes into possession of a treasure map, he and his companions find themselves in a dangerous race against a crew of ruthless pirates to find the treasure.

In the fourth of our series of bird guides, Brett Westwood is joined by keen birdwatcher Stephen Moss on the north coast of Devon, and with the help of wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they offer a practical and entertaining guide to identifying many of the birds you’re likely to see and hear around Britain’s coastline. Each programme focuses on...

In the fifth of our series of bird guides, Brett Westwood is joined once again by enthusiastic birdwatcher Stephen Moss, and with the help of recordings made by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they present this knowledgeable and entertaining guide to the songs, calls and cries of the birds you may see and hear around Britain's farmlands.

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..

In the third of our series of bird guides, Brett Westwood is joined by birdwatcher Stephen Moss and wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson in an accessible, informative and entertaining guide to some of our best known water-loving birds. Recorded in springtime on the Somerset Levels, each of the programmes focuses on a different group of...

Woods and forests are full of birds and, although you might not immediately see them, you will certainly hear them. This practical and informative audio guide, recorded in springtime in the Forest of Dean, will help you to recognise the birds you see - and those you only hear - when you’re walking in one of Britain’s beautiful woodlands. Each of...

You want to know what the worst thing is? It's not the embarrassment, or the looks on people's faces when I tell them what happened. It isn't the pain of him not being there - loneliness is manageable. The worst thing is not knowing why. When Justin walks out on Alice on their honeymoon, with no explanation apart from a cryptic note, Alice is left...

It's That Man Again is a giant in the history of radio comedy. As Mat Coward's book Classic Radio Comedy says, "Surely the most written-about radio series in history, it was successful to an extent which is hard to imagine today. Its international audience was measured in the tens of millions. Its star, Tommy Handley, was undoubtedly the most...

Written in 1819 but set in 12th-century England, Ivanhoe is a tale of love struggling to survive against a violent backdrop of politics and war. Wilfred of Ivanhoe was thrown out of his father's home when he fell in love with his father Cedric's ward, Lady Rowena. Ivanhoe later returns from fighting in the Crusades and is wounded in a jousting...

The move from New York to his ancestral castle comes as a shock to both Cedric and his new-found relatives, and while he comes to terms with aristocratic ways, they become more aware of compassion and social justice.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continue'd Variety for Three-score Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and...

The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake.' William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in three original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented on CD for the...

The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake. William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in three original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented on CD for the...

First-hand accounts featuring the RAF pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain - one of the chief turning points of World War II. ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ - Winston Churchill. The ‘Few’ were the nearly 3,000 RAF pilots who fought against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, which raged in the...

The award-winning author of The Music of the Primes explores the future of creativity and how machine learning will disrupt, enrich, and transform our understanding of what it means to be human. Can a well-programmed machine do anything a human can-only better? Complex algorithms are buying our groceries, picking our partners, and driving...

On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her...

As a boy, Daniel Rooke was always an outsider. At school he learned to hide his clever thoughts from his cruel peers; at home his parents were bemused by their bookish son. Daniel could only hope - against all the evidence - that he would one day find his place in life. By 1788, Daniel has become Lieutenant Rooke, astronomer with the First Fleet as...

Here are 60 of the finest and most entertaining poems for younger listeners. There are nonsense poems, classic animal poems, stories of adventure and Robert Browning's classic tale of adults getting their come-uppance - The Pied Piper of Hamlin.

Dorothy thinks she is lost forever when a terrifying tornado crashes through Kansas and whisks her and her dog, Toto, far away to the magical land of Oz. To get home Dorothy must follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City and find the wonderfully mysterious Wizard of Oz. Together with her companions the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the...

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 offers them protection. The family's courage derives from different sources.

A compelling alternate-history novel by the breakout author of WWII-era alternate history Himmler's War and Rising Sun The British win the American Revolutionary War, and a desperate Washington and the American founders must make a last stand in an enclave called Liberty. In 1781, George Washington's attempt to trap the British under...

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’. Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs Stella Rode...

When philandering Sir Giles Lynchwood decides it's time to wriggle free of his monumentally unattractive wife, Lady Maud, he knows divorce is out of the question. He can't leave her and keep her cash; a reversionary clause on her ancestral home, Handyman Hall, has taken care of that. Lady Maud, for her own special reasons, is also dying to see...