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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

It is the far future, and the moon has been colonised. Although primarily a research establishment, wealthy space tourists bring in revenue to fund the facilities. One major tourist attraction is a sightseeing cruise across the lunar plains: flat and smooth, they are composed entirely of dust. The 'cruise ships'...

The story in which Conan Doyle first unleashed the most famous partnership in the history of criminal detection. An unmarked corpse, a wedding ring and a mysterious message scrawled in blood are Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson's only clues as they follow the trail of a man driven to fulfil a terrible oath...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

This superlative collection of futuristic tales explores ground-breaking supernatural themes from the founding heroes of the science-fiction genre. The short story form is perfect for capturing the atmospheric tension of these legendary stories. This collection includes the following stories: "The Door in the Wall"...

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...

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 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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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 .....

Half a million dollars will be Celeste Thorne’s reward for spending four years of her life in total isolation. No faces. No voices. No way to leave. Since Celeste has never really worried about being alone, the generous paycheck she’ll receive for her participation in the solitary psychological experiment seems like...

From the days of pirate raids on the Chesapeake to swift-boat actions in Vietnam, the Staffords and their traditional rivals, the Parrishes, struggle with foreign enemies and each other to build a navy and a nation. They march across the deserts of Tripoli, sail into the South Seas to battle the British and dally with...

The unexpected killing of Dallas drug king-pin Ricardo Salazar sets everyone on edge. A New York crime family is up in arms about the loss of a major narcotics supplier. The Dallas Police dread the ensuing gang war, but Detectives Rob Soliz and Frank Pierce were on the scene at the time of the shooting.

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...

Boston attorney Malachim Jerrod doesn’t trust anyone. His father and his ex-fiancé taught him that hard lesson. So when a beautiful stranger arrives on his doorstep his first reaction is to back away - far away. Danielle Warren wants a job, but his law business is falling apart, and her credentials are bare-bones...

Here's Maureen Lipman's hilarious, uproarious and often controversial expose of life. She does not flinch from such diverse topics as sex, Watford Gap, lunching with Royalty, pondering plastic surgery and soaking her bra in cold tea. As well as living in a chaotic household she is also singing and dancing...

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.

Imagine that your husband has two other wives. You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself.

From the fertile hills of a tiny village near Jerusalem to the elegant townhouses of Georgetown, Three Daughters is a historical saga that chronicles the lives, loves, and secrets of three generations of Palestinian Christian women. Born in rural Palestine, just before the dawn of the 20th century, Miriam adores her...

A stolen identity leads a woman down a dark and desperate path in a gripping novel of psychological suspense by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Minka Kent. After barely surviving a brutal attack, Brienne Dougray rarely leaves her house. Suffering from debilitating headaches and memory loss, she can...

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.

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...

A search for a pair of serial rapists leads Livia Lone down the darkest and most dangerous trail of her life in a pulse-pounding thriller by New York Times bestselling author Barry Eisler. Ten years ago, the daughter of Homeland Security Investigations agent B. D. Little vanished into thin air. So did seven other...

A princess who has lost her mother and father finds herself in a terrifying world that urgently needs a queen in this thrilling fantasy novel. Sophia is smart, beautiful, and accomplished, a beloved princess devoted to the people and to reading books. The kingdom is hers, until she is plunged into a nightmarish...

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner, as is a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse. Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi, run an ancient orchard, growing apples, plums, peaches, and sour cherries, and looking after several generations of family...

An updated edition of the classic guide to basic American history offers new sections covering the end of the Cold War, Clinton's impeachment, the election of 2000, and the events of September 11, 2001. Read by Jeff Wooman with Jonathan Davis.

A holiday party takes on a sinister aspect when the colourful assortment of guests discovers there is a killer in their midst. The owner of the substantial estate, that old Scrooge Nathaniel Herriard, is found stabbed in the back. While the delicate matter of inheritance could be the key to this crime, the real...

Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike. Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn't want to follow...

The multi-million copy best-selling thriller that introduced Jake Brigance to Clanton and inspired a sequel, Sycamore Row. When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his 10-year-old daughter, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal. But when extremists...

“Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.” —Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime...

The hilarious series which inspired the Dream Works film. Hiccup has three months, five days and six hours to get back to Berk, save his father, battle Polarserpents & win the annual Inter-Tribal Friendly Swimming Race. David Tennant reads this hilarious children's classic which can be enjoyed by everybody.

Mr. Artur Sammler is, above all, a man who has lasted, from the civilized pleasures of English life in the 1920s and 30s through the war and death camps in Poland. Moving now through the chaotic and dangerous streets of New York's Upper West Side, Mr. Sammler is attentive to everything, and appalled...

With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the President was forced to establish his own clandestine group--Covert-One. It is only activated as a last resort, when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out.

“This one is fresh, intelligent, and emotional with a plot that envisions an alternate reality hard to dismiss as unreal. It’s a legal thriller, with a big twist, stirring and imaginative, brimming with skullduggery, that will have you asking: is this possible?" (Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author) Better Call Saul...

Matt Browning returns in this gripping new thriller from bestselling author Chris Ryan. It is a long, hot summer and the country is suffering an epidemic of road rage. What isn't making the news headlines, though, is that the SAS's secret assassination squad, the Increment, is killing ex-soldiers. These two...

The classic legal thriller and huge bestseller from master of the genre John Grisham. David Zinc has it all: Big firm, big salary, life in the lawyer's fast lane. Until the day he snaps and throws it all away. Leaving the world of corporate law far behind, he talks himself into a new job with Finley & Figg. A self-styled...

As the battered earth reels under judgments from heaven, Global Community leader Nicolae Carpathia tightens the screws on anyone who refuses to proclaim total allegiance to him. He has a million of his enemies just where he wants them: massed at Petra and within striking distance of devastating...

Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a devastating fire sweeps through the thriving Greek city where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five years later, Katerina Sarafoglou's home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she flees across the sea to...

Seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia’s husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the...

LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his K-9 partners try to outmaneuver not one but two serial killers, while investigating the suspicious death of a woman who belonged to a cult. When a woman in Bel Air dies of a rattlesnake bite, the case doesn’t seem to fit the usual purview of LAPD’s Special Cases Unit.

Meet Emma Woodhouse: handsome, clever, and rich. Our dear protagonist, a victim to the hubris of youth, takes delight from meddling in the romantic affairs of others, but soon these playful escapades unravel and ensnare her - until, inevitably, she is but a helpless player trapped in her own game.

The secrets of the respected publishing house of Barnabus Ltd. stretch back many years, but when one of the directors is found dead, locked in the company's strongroom, it's time for Albert Campion to set to work puzzling out the mysteries.

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...

For twenty-five years, Julie Goodyear became part of everyone’s family when she played Bet Lynch, the loveable brassy barmaid of the Rovers Return in ‘Coronation Street’. Now, at sixty-four (the age her mother was when she died), Julie feels the time is right to tell her amazing life story. Julie Goodyear 's...

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family's investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the...

Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland excitedly accepts an offer to accompany family friends on a trip to Bath. There, Catherine makes new acquaintances who invite her to Northanger Abbey, and she encounters a world she’d only glimpsed in the pages of her beloved gothic novels. Through Catherine’s eyes...

Ted Hughes' poetry for children is as rich, powerful and magical as anything he wrote. This new recording consists of a collection of the children's poems of Ted Hughes, introduced and selected by acclaimed writer Michael Morpurgo, and read by both Morpurgo and actor Juliet Stevenson.

Of all Jane Austen's books PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has earned a special place in the hearts of the reading public as her best-loved and most intimately known novel. From its famous opening sentence the story of Elizabeth and Darcy, told with a wit that its author feared might prove "rather too light and bright, and...

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...

Mole, Rat, and Badger are Toad’s dearest friends even as the aristocratic amphibian’s wastrel ways get him into trouble. After being arrested and sentenced to jail, he returns to his ancestral home of Toad Hall to find it overrun with stoats and weasels from the Wild Wood. But his friends haven’t abandoned him yet.

During the Second World War, British children were spared the humiliation and fear of enemy occupation. None the less, they endured six years of increasing deprivation, uprootings, and long separations, and many experienced both physical and psychological suffering. They witnessed and endured intense air...

One man must make a journey across a once colonised alien planet. Abandoned by man when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient, the planet is now a place of mystery. A mystery that obsesses the lone traveller Gundersen and takes him on a long trek to attempt to share the religious...

Between 2014 and 2017, the 'Islamic State' ruled the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, killing 'traitors', destroying books and oppressing women. But miraculously, in a park on the eastern edge of the Tigris, a zoo was kept open. Father of Lions is the story of Mosul Zoo. It survived under the stern hand of...

On the day of his daughter's wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory. Three years later he returns home, and his murderous action has set the entire family - mother, brother, sister - on a...

Humankind may have won the battle, but a new threat looms larger than ever before… Earth’s armed forces have stopped the Lanky advance and chased their ships out of the solar system, but for CDC officer Andrew Grayson, the war feels anything but won. On Mars, the grinding duty of flushing out the...

Proclaimed as “truly spellbinding,” a “great fable” that “functions as transporting romance” by the Guardian, the runaway #1 international bestseller arrives in America. "A rich, gothic entertainment that explores what books have trapped inside them and reminds us of the power of storytelling. Spellbinding.”

Detective Harry Bosch was sure he'd shot the serial killer responsible for a string of murders in LA...but now, a new crime makes him question his convictions. The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his female victims.

Tom, Barbara, Jerry and Margo return in the last four episodes of the final series. The Weaver’s Tale (1 May 1977): Barbara isn’t happy when Tom spends all their money on a second-hand loom, and Jerry bravely decides to rein in Margo’s spending - just after she’s been shopping.

He looked overweight around the midriff, though nowhere else, and she wondered whether perhaps he drank too much. He looked weary, as if he had been up most of the night conducting his investigations.... For Oxford, the arrival of 27 American tourists is nothing out of the ordinary until one of their number...

Winter is hard in Beauville, where the melting snow can reveal much more than last season's dead leaves. So when a wealthy, obnoxious tourist and his ski bunny girlfriend surface in Pru Marlowe's little Berkshire town, she knows she should stay out of their way. The bad-girl animal psychic has to focus on more...

Four Episodes from the long running classic comedy series. Plough Your Own Furrow first aired on 4th April 1975, Say Little Hen first aired on 11th April 1975, The Weaker Sex? 18th April 1975 and Pig's Lib from 25th April 1975

A psychological thriller before its time, James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, published in 1824, takes us back to the world of eighteenth-century Scotland into a mind driven to commit murder after being haunted by religious obsession. The events are told from several different...

The Emerald Tiger: 159 (Doctor Who)

Doctor Who Main Range 209 - Aquitaine

Doctor Who Main Range 208 - The Waters of Amsterdam

The Jupiter Conjunction: 160 (Doctor Who)

The Butcher of Brisbane: 161 (Doctor Who)

Sharply observant and wickedly funny, E.F. Benson's six Mapp and Lucia novels satirise the upper-middle-class social climbers in 1920s and '30s rural England. Games of bridge and cups of tea fuel hilarious gossip and vindictive plots a-plenty. It is a masterfully sustained spotlight on the minutiae of village life a...

When it comes to scrambling, Peter T. Hooper isn’t content with just any old egg! He uses something extra special for his super-dee-dooper dishes! Ranked among the UK's top ten favourite children's authors, Seuss is firmly established as a global best-seller. The four classic favourites on this exclusive CD are...

When Mrs Dashwood is forced by an avaricious daughter-in-law to leave the family home in Sussex, she takes her three daughters to live in a modest cottage in Devon. For Elinor, the eldest daughter, the move means a painful separation from the man she loves, but her sister Marianne finds in Devon the romance...

Bewitched by trains since childhood, this is Paul Theroux's account of an epic train-hopping journey in the 1970s from London to Japan and back again. His perceptions and anecdotes transport the listener beyond the unfolding landscape into a world of traveller's tales and mysterious events.

Three powerful radio productions from the BBC archives starring Ian McKellen, Ronald Pickup and Paul Scofield and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest...

Captain Thomas Forsyth’s second tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he’s badly wounded by a roadside bomb. Tom’s world is torn apart by the injury – the Army is his life. The thought of never rejoining his regiment is a terrifying prospect and one that he is not willing to entertain. Tom returns...

Paul McKenna uses his hypnotic method to assist anyone wishing to lose weight. This has been very effective for many people over several decades.

Stop living in your own shadow and the sun the joy immediately shines.' Barry Long Reveal the real being behind your personality. Shed the tensions and burdens of living and bring the life back in to your life. To do this requires new energy and a willingness to live responsibility and consciously under the law...

An absolute must for fans of The Chronicles of Narnia, this is a beautifully rendered performance of every single volume in this beloved series. Balancing a solid narrative that relies on fantastical action sequences with an overarching mythology, this magical, immersive performance is not to be missed.

Naomi and Sally Durance are daughters of a dairy farmer from the Macleay Valley. Bound together in complicity by what they consider a crime, when the Great War begins in 1914 they hope to submerge their guilt by leaving for Europe to nurse the tides of young wounded. They head for the Dardanelles on...

A millionaire strikes a deal on the seedier side of Paris and a priceless cache of rubies becomes destined for his beloved daughter, Rachel. Two days later Rachel is dead - murdered on a train on her way to the Riviera to meet her scoundrel lover: a mysterious, dark man. The suspects line up only master slueth...

This set includes the stories - The House at Pooh Corner, A Party for Pooh and Winnie-the-Pooh

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...

Neely Crenshaw was once star quarterback for Messina High School's football team. His playing days ended with a sickening injury. Afterwards his life went nowhere: his marriage foundered and his real estate business drifted. For fifteen years he's been trying to forget his glorious past as sporting hero but...

Three classic radio productions from the BBC archives starring Nigel Hawthorne, Miriam Margolyes, Geraldine McEwan and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's...

The best-selling story of Britain's most courageous and most famous flyer, the Second World War hero Sir Douglas Bader. In 1931, at the age of 21, Douglas Bader was the golden boy of the RAF. Excelling in everything he did, he represented the Royal Air Force in aerobatics displays, played rugby for Harlequins...

A high court judge living a carefree life in St Petersburg is one day beset by pains and soon has to come to terms with the fact that he will die. He must learn to face death without fear and yet feel compassion for the family he is leaving behind.