This audiobook follows the Thames river from source to sea. It covers history from prehistoric times to the present, the flora and fauna of the river, paintings and photographs inspired by the Thames, its geology, smells and colours, its literature, laws and landscape, its magic and myths, its architecture, trade and weather. We learn about the fish that swim in the river and the boats that ply on its surface, about floods and tides, hauntings and suicides, miasmas and sewers, locks, weirs and embankments.

Originally broadcast on Radio 4, this one-man show written by Dickens aficionado Peter Ackroyd is superbly voiced by Simon Callow. He portrays not only Charles Dickens but many of his best-loved characters, as Dickens travels through Europe and America thrilling audiences with public readings of his works.

Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to solve a murder, and prove the `interconnectedness' of all things - not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way.

The first book in the 'Hitch HIker's Guide to the Galaxy' series. One Thursday lunchtime the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. So begins Arthur Dent's journey through space, accompanied by a host of colourful characters including Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian and Marvin the paranoid android.

The second book in the 'Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series. Arthur Dent's adventures in space become increasingly surreal as he travels through the galaxy in his bathrobe.

The third book in the `Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series. Arthur Dent is surprised to find himself living in a hideously miserable cave on prehistoric Earth. However, just as he think that things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly do. He discovers that the galaxy is not only mind-bogglingly big and bewildering, but also that most of the things that happen in it are staggeringly unfair.

The fourth book in the `Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series. Just when Arthur Dent's sense of reality is at its most clouded, he suddenly finds the girl of his dreams. He finds her in the last place in the universe in which he would expect to find anything at all, but which 3,976,000,000 people will find oddly familiar. They go in search of God's final message to His creation and, in a dramatic break with tradition, actually find it.

The sequel to 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' (6360). Dirk Gently is a self styled holistic detective, and master of all things alternative. But can he discover who was responsible for an explosion if not the IRA, the PLO or the Gas Board?

Joy Adamson relates the story of her life alongside Elsa the lioness, whom she had rescued as an orphaned cub and raised until she was old enough to return to the African wilds. Millions have also come to know and love Elsa and the story of 'Born Free' through the film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.

With his brilliant theory of the Long Tail (a powerful new economic force in a world where the internet allows access to almost unlimited choice), Chris Anderson has identified an important truth about our economy and culture. In a Long Tail world, the future does not lie in hits - the high-volume end of a traditional demand curve - but in what used to be regarded as misses, the curve's endlessly Long Tail.

'A Song Flung Up To Heaven' is the final part of Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies which began with 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'. This memoir deals with the years 1964-68, a turbulent period in which Angelou returns to America after spending time in Africa. This was the time of the murders of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; the latter with whom Angelou was on the point of working with during the American civil rights movement.

The first volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography, an honest and thought-provoking account of her childhood in the American South of the 1930s. She writes about racism and about learning the power of the white folks who lived at the other end of town. She also details intensely personal experiences such as the brutal rape she suffered at the hands of her mother's lover. Whilst exploring some harrowing themes this audiobook also highlights the extraordinary resilience of human nature.

This audiobook focuses on how the great explorers pushed back the frontiers of man's knowledge of the world by their vision, courage and sheer doggedness. Those featured are: Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Bartholomeu Diaz, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Captain Cook, Lewis and Clark, and Livingstone and Stanley.

What on earth is Postmodernism? Here is an audio guide to the maddeningly enigmatic concept that has been used to describe our cultural condition of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It explains the essentials of structuralism, semiotics and deconstruction as developed by Foucault, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Derrida, Lacan, Lytard and others.

All that is known about Buddha comes from a collection of ancient writings that combine history, biography and myth. This audiobook provides a clear introduction to the main events of Buddha's life and the key ideas of Buddhism.

A history of life on earth, this audiobook examines the evolution, development and adaptation of animals in each major biological group.

For the 1960s BBC series 'Zoo Quest', David Attenborough visited the Northern Territory of Australia. Specially recorded for radio, the quest follows the intrepid BBC film crew on their adventures through both jungle and arid desert. David Attenborough meets aborigines, goes walkabout in the bush, and paints a compelling and fascinating picture of life Down Under.

The story of a joint animal-collecting and film-making trip to Indonesia. Attenborough tells of danger on the crew's hazardous boat trip with a gun smuggling captain and the terror of erupting volcanoes. Experience the incredible sights he witnessed - breathtaking butterflies, taking tea with Charlie the Orangutan and the capture of a Komodo dragon.

The story of David Attenborough's joint animal-collecting and film-making trip to New Guinea. The quest demanded hazardous treks across treacherous terrain in the Jimi Valley to find exotic Birds of Paradise.

From mites to mammals, insects to birds, David Attenborough explores how animals behave and why. Included are the amazing stories of the crab with stinging boxing gloves, the cleaner-fish whose customers queue up in the sea, the lion who kills the cubs of a rival, the navigating ant and the viper that is a caterpillar.

A decade and a half has passed since Grace was locked up, at the age of 16, for the cold-blooded murders of her employer and his lover. Her alleged accomplice was hanged in 1843. Sixteen years on, Grace claims to have no memory of the event. Dr Simon Jordan attempts to uncover the truth.

In the repressive Republic of Gilead, Offred has just one function: to breed. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the days when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

At the age of ten, shy, vulnerable Fanny Price leaves behind her impoverished family in Portsmouth to go and live with her rich relatives at Mansfield Park. Growing up with her cousins she is aware that she is different from them and that her place in society cannot be taken for granted. When Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield Park, they succeed in dazzling everyone but Fanny. She sees through their shallow veneer and through the dramatic events that follow it is Fanny who is able to bring back some stability to the ruptured lives of those around her.

Emma Woodhouse is clever, rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition. She's also always convinced that she's right. She learns the hard way that pride comes before a fall, but the brotherly figure of Mr Knightley takes it upon himself to help her correct the flaws in her character.

Emma Woodhouse is clever, rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition. She's also always convinced that she's right. She learns the hard way that pride comes before a fall, but the brotherly figure of Mr Knightley takes it upon himself to help her correct the flaws in her character.

At the age of ten, shy, vulnerable Fanny Price leaves behind her impoverished family in Portsmouth to go and live with her rich relatives at Mansfield Park. Growing up with her cousins she is aware that she is different from them and that her place in society cannot be taken for granted. When Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield Park, they succeed in dazzling everyone but Fanny. She sees through their shallow veneer and through the dramatic events that follow it is Fanny who is able to bring back some stability to the ruptured lives of those around her.

At the age of ten, shy, vulnerable Fanny Price leaves behind her impoverished family in Portsmouth to go and live with her rich relatives at Mansfield Park. Growing up with her cousins she is aware that she is different from them and that her place in society cannot be taken for granted. When Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield Park, they succeed in dazzling everyone but Fanny. She sees through their shallow veneer and through the dramatic events that follow it is Fanny who is able to bring back some stability to the ruptured lives of those around her.

A classic love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. At 19, Anne Eliot is persuaded to jilt her suitor - Captain Frederick Wentworth - because he has neither rank nor fortune. When they encounter one another eight years later will she make the same mistake again?

A classic love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. At 19, Anne Eliot is persuaded to jilt her suitor - Captain Frederick Wentworth - because he has neither rank nor fortune. When they encounter one another eight years later will she make the same mistake again?

Elizabeth Bennet is a spirited young woman with four sisters and a mother obsessed with getting them all married off. When she first meets Fitzwilliam Darcy she thinks he's arrogant and conceited, and he is completely indifferent to her charms. Will they ever see past the prejudices of their first impressions?

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warnings that her impulsive behaviour will leave her open to gossip and innuendo.

It is to her elder sister Cassandra that most of Jane Austen's surviving letters are written, and through them we discover the intimate world of the English gentry. At times both candid and wickedly indiscreet, Austen's letters detail the joys and sorrows of her large family, and provide the listener with an insight into the life and inspirations of one of England's greatest novelists.

Set in 1950, this audiobook chronicles the life of troubled Stella Bradshaw, an aspiring young actress making her first hesitant steps onto the professional stage. She rapidly becomes infatuated with Meridith, the company director, and, when he spurns her advances, she turns to O'Hara, another actor, in an effort to make him jealous.

Young Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Relations with his father are strained, his brother is funnier and better-looking than he, and the woman of his dreams is out of his reach. His greatest preoccupation however is with Uncle Rory, professional traveller and some-time magician, whose most successful act to-date has been his own disappearance. CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND ADULT THEMES.

Jane Graham is unmarried and pregnant when she is turned out of her home by her father. With nowhere to go she finds herself forced to rent a bug-ridden room at the top of a squalid house. All she wants to do is be left alone to wallow in her misery but her neighbours - Toby, a Jewish writer, and John, a jazz player - help to draw her back into life.

The first book in the 'Regeneration' trilogy. In Craiglockhart war hospital, Doctor William Rivers attempts to restore the sanity of officers whose experiences of the First World War have caused them to break down. When Siegfried Sassoon publishes his declaration of protest against the war, the authorities decide to have him declared mentally ill and send him to Craiglockhart. CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND ADULT THEMES.

Set in Northern England in the 1960s, this is the story of Vic Brown, a working class lad who falls in love with the beautiful but demanding Ingrid. As their relationship grows and changes, he comes to terms - the hard way - with adult life and what it really means to love. CONTAINS ADULT THEMES.

A vintage collection of stories about Uncle Silas, a lovable bohemian and trouble-maker who loves a drop of cowslip wine, seen through the eyes of his captivated grand-nephew Edward.

This demystifying and enthusiastic Very Short Introduction to Classics links a haunting temple on a lonely mountainside to the glory of ancient Greece and the grandeur of Rome, and to Classics within modern culture - from Jefferson and Byron to Asterix and Ben-Hur.

These four works - all for solo voices - show Samuel Beckett at his most penetrating. All express Beckett's trademark concerns of introspection, memory and hopelessness in different ways - yet always with sympathy for the human condition.

The play opens on a country road, where two tramp-like figures, Vladimir and Estragon, exchange words. They pull off their boots and munch root vegetables as two other curious characters and a boy enter the scene. Time passes. Samuel Beckett's strange yet familiar masterpiece casts a powerful spell and is considered by many to be one of the most outstanding plays of the 20th century.

Using devastating new material from former Soviet files and German, American, British, French and Swedish archives, Antony Beevor has reconstructed the story of the nightmare that was the Third Reich's final collapse. CONTAINS ADULT THEMES.

Tony Benn brings his unmistakable presence to the stage. His only props: a flask of tea, some rubbed tobacco and his trademark pipe. This audiobook is a mix of politics, opinion and debate as he explores the issues of today spiced with memories of the past.

When Tony Benn left Parliament after 51 years he quoted his wife Caroline's remark that now he would have 'more time for politics'. And so this has proved: in the first seven years of this century he has helped reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass campaigns and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral and political issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he has been keeping his diaries.

Clive has died young, in Peru and in circumstances which make some of his many friends uneasy. The congregation gathered for his memorial service is unexpectedly distinguished - actors, pop stars, politicians and even members of the government. How did they all know Clive? And why does his death make so many of them anxious? When Clive's friends begin to stand up and share their memories of the dead man a number of uncomfortable truths are revealed.

In this introduction to the history of astronomy and physics, Dr Richard Berendzen covers everything from the ancient worlds of Greece, Persia, Egypt, and China to the 20th-century space program. He also ruminates on the effect these two sciences have on the planet and on daily lives.

The former poet laureate John Betjeman's evocative prose and poetry about his love of Cornwall, in which he first fell in love during his childhood holidays and returned to yearly until his death.

A compilation of poetry from over 30 years of BBC radio programmes. Betjeman reads a selection of his won work.

Are there real standards? If God is dead is everything permitted? A short and accessible introduction to ethics. Part of the 'Very Short Introduction To...' series from Oxford University Press

This Pulitzer Prize-winning author chronicles the history of the arts. Painting, sculpture, architecture, theology, philosophy, history, poetry, drama, literature, dance, music and film are all explored as well as biographies of important figures such as Homer and Stravinsky.

Boswell's biography of his friend and hero Samuel Johnson is an acknowledged classic, full of humorous anecdotes and rich characterisation. Johnson's depression, intellectual brilliance and rough humour is set wthin a vivid portrayal of 18th century London peopled by personalities of the time such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Wilkes, Oliver Goldsmith and David Garrick.

In this sequel to `Testament of Youth' Vera Brittain tells of the woman who helped her survive the First World War - the writer Winifred Holtby. They met at Oxford immediately after the war and their friendship continued throughout Vera's marriage and their separate but parallel writing careers, until Winifred's death at the age of 37.

In 1914 Vera Brittain was 21 years old, and an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford. When war broke out in August of that year, Brittain disrupted her studies to enrol as a volunteer nurse, nursing casualties both in England and on the Western Front. The next four years were to cause a deep rupture in her life, as she witnessed not only the horrors of war first hand, but also experienced the quadruple loss of her fiance, her brother, and two close friends. 'Testament of Youth' is a powerfully written, unsentimental memoir.

Daphne Lethbridge is bright, romantic and vivacious. The First World War has ravaged Europe, but it has done nothing to daunt her spirit. Her enjoyment, though, is soured by her cynical contemporary, Virginia Dennison, who spars with Daphne on every occasion. Beneath their surface civility seethes a deep enmity but, when Daphne realises the bitter truth of her marriage, it takes a chance encounter for her disillusionment to give way to understanding.

Fleeing a disastrous marriage, Helen Huntingdon retreats to the desolate, half-ruined moorland mansion, Wildfell Hall, with her small son, Arthur. Here she adopts the assumed surname of Graham and makes her living as a painter. The inconvenience of the house is outweighed by the fact that she and Arthur are removed from the harmful influence of her drunken, degenerate husband. Although the house is isolated and Helen avoids the attentions of the neighbouring families, all too soon she becomes an object of speculation and then cruel gossip. .

Set during the Napoleonic wars - a time of bad harvests, Luddite riots, economic unrest and the oppression of women, this novel focuses on three major characters, Robert Moore, a Yorkshire mill owner, Caroline Helstone, a single woman working in a Yorkshire rectory and the heiress Shirley Keeldar, the inheritor of a local estate. It's also a love story, about two very different relationships.

The brief and tragic life of author Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) is captured here in the beautiful letters she wrote to her best friend Ellen Nussey.

One of the author's less well known novels but one which many consider to be her best. Lucy Snowe is a girl who has learnt from a very early age to hide her feelings and to control her despairs and desires. She leaves England to find work as a teacher, and having no friends or relatives to support her, enrolls as a governess in a boarding school.

The new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before, the intense passion between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. A classic tale of obsessive love.

The new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before, the intense passion between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. A classic tale of obsessive love.

Christy Brown was born with Cerebral Palsy. This is the remarkable story of his childhood struggle to learn how to read, write, paint, and finally type, with the toe of his left foot. In this manner he wrote the bestselling novel 'Down all the Days' (catalogue number 7488).

Drawing on studies of social class, crime and deviance, work in bureaucracies, and changes in religious and political organisations, this 'Very Short Introduction' explores the tension between the individual's role in society and society's role in shaping the individual.

This classic story was written in prison, where Bunyan had been sent for unauthorised preaching. It describes the road to the Celestial City by way of Doubting Castle, the Delectable Mountains, Vanity Fair and other places which have become part of the English language.

Set in a frighteningly realistic ravaged London in the near future, two warring families of ganglords appear united by the marriage of Signy Volson to Conor - head of the opposing family. However, Conor's treachery results in the decimation of the Volson family. Only Signy and her brother Siggy survive the culling, kept apart by circumstance but united in their hate for Conor. They are intent on revenge - no matter how long it takes - or at what cost. Contains adult themes.

Lucid, tender and strangely troubling, the poems in Burnside's seventh collection are hymns to the tension between the sanctuary of home and the lure of escape. Winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award 2000.

Part of a series of educational discussions on historical figures. Side 1 discusses Napoleon from exile to emperor. Side 2 looks at 'L'Empire, c'est la Paix'. It examines why he wanted to proclaim the 2nd Empire, his foreign policy and initiatives.

In this compilation of the infamous Romantic poet Lord Byron's letters, we follow his colourful life, from his birth in 1788, to his death at Missolongi on April 19th 1824.

Taken from Alastair Campbell's daily diaries, these audio extracts chart the rise of New Labour and the tumultuous years of Tony Blair's leadership. Here are recorded an insider's perspectives on the defining events of contemporary politics. Here is Tony Blair, up close and personal. As Blair's press secretary, strategist and trusted confidant, Alastair Campbell's diaries take the listener right to the heart of Labour government.

A dramatisation that brings to life a beloved author. From Cather's experiences on the prairie come stories about the frontier such as 'O Pioneers!' and 'My Antonia', plus three of her poems: 'Prairie Spring', 'Prairie Dawn' and 'Evening Song'.

Chaucer evokes a spectrum of colourful characters, from the bawdy Wife of Bath to the gallant Knight, the fastidious Prioress and the burly, drunken Miller. As they wend their way from Southwark to Canterbury, tales are told to pass the time, encompassing themes such as adultery, revenge, courtly love, lechery, avarice and penitence. All infused with Chaucer's wry wit and vibrant, poetic languauge.

'The Franklin's Tale' illustrates a familiar theme in Chaucer's work - that of marriage. In this case the lovers in question, a young Breton knight named Arvegus and his lady Dorigen, decide that their marriage should be an equal partnership, which is unusual for an early English text. Arveragus decides however that in public he should make the decisions so as not to draw suspicion. The marriage is tested when Arveragus is called to Britain for military reasons, leaving Dorigen in France alone, with a second suitor on the scene, the squire Aurelius.

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE: Several pilgrims of various social standing are on their way to Canterbury to visit the cathedral there. They stay a night in an Inn, and the next day, the Innkeeper offers to join the group on the trip, and judge stories that they will tell to pass the time. The person with the best story wins a free dinner paid by the other pilgrims. THE PARDONER'S TALE: Three gluttonous friends discover that one of their friends has died while looking for treasure. They decide to find the treasure in their friend's memory. They find the treasure, but greed takes hold of them, and each plots to kill the other.

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE: 'The General Prologue' introduces the characters of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' - tradesmen, professionals, ecclesiastics, the lustful Friar and the Wife of Bath amongst others are subtly revealed in unique detail for literature of its time. THE REEVE'S TALE: This tale is the response of the pilgrim Reeve to the Miller, another pilgrim, who has told a very rude story about an Oxford carpenter. The Reeve, a carpenter himself by trade, is incensed by this insult and to get back at the Miller responds with a farcical tale about a Cambridge Miller (and notorious thief) called Symkin, who is humiliated by a couple of students when he tries to steal their corn.

This is a tale about two knights who are captured in battle and imprisoned in Athens under King Theseus. While imprisoned in a tower, both see Emelye and fall instantly in love with her. The knights eventually leave prison and fight over her, but their fight is stopped when Theseus finds them. Theseus sets the rules for a duel between the two knights for Emelye's affection, and each raise an army for a battle a year from that date.

A tale featuring a callous husband and a deceitful wife which presents Chaucer's most cynical contribution to the marriage debate. The rich 60-year-old January marries a teenage girl, May. His Squire, Damyan, also falls in love with May, and when January becomes blind and clings to his wife with jealous attentiveness, she attempts to betray him. But the god Pluto intervenes.

Chaucer's Miller is a brutal and drunken fellow who is the sworn enemy of the Reeve, a carpenter. His tale, which is designed to humiliate the Reeve by illustrating such a man as a cuckold, has a musical theme - a great deal of singing takes place as Absolon, the foppish parish clerk, and Nicholas, an Oxford student, get down to the serious business of seduction. The Miller himself plays the bagpipes, Nicholas the psaltery and Absolom the rebec and gittern. 'The Miller's Tale' is therefore not only a great story but a feast of music too!

These three Tales present a wide variety of Chaucer's art and feature respectively 'The Nun's Priest's Tale', a merry tale which pokes fun at human weakness; 'The Prioress's Tale', a devotional tale of a miracle and 'The Shipman's Tale', which features a scheming monk, a cuckolded merchant and a punning wife.

This pious tale of a worthy cleric is notable for the dignity and nobility of the prose which the Parson employs. It has often been seen as Chaucer's attempt to make peace with God: an interpretation reinforced by the Retraction at the end, where the author finally asks forgiveness for his more riotous writings and bawdy characters.

'The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale' brings to life one of Chaucer's most powerful creations - the sexually rapacious and five-times married Wife of Bath who, according to Chaucer, achieves what worldly women love most of all - sovereignty over her husbands.

Here are 12 stories, from the brightly comic to the overtly tragic. Each full of the sharpest observations of personality and situation, and with implications beyond their brief form: a dying actor, children playing a game, a tragic cabman, an orator's mistake and, perhaps most richly of all, a family laid bare in 'In The Ravine'.

The moving and powerful story of Edna Pontellier, a beautiful young wife and mother who discovers her true feelings and identity through her love for Robert Lebrun, and in doing so challenges the bourgeois assumptions of her day.

In this classic autobiography, first published in 1930, when Churchill's most testing time still lay ahead, he recalls his childhood, his schooling, his years as a war correspondent in South Africa during the Boer War and his first forays into politics as a member of Parliament. 'My Early Life' not only gives readers insights into the shaping of a great leader but, as Churchill himself wrote, 'a picture of a vanished age'.

A history of Britain by one of its its finest statesmen, a man who had himself crucially shaped events during one of the greatest crisis of modern times. Churchill's resonant prose brings to life the political, constitutional and military landmarks of our history: his purpose, to show that a sense of how man may live decently and democratically grew from the heritage of these islands.

'Living with Dyspraxia', compiled by Mary Colley and members of the Dyspraxia Foundation Adult Support Group, is a guide for adults and young people who have, or think they may have, dyspraxia. It covers symptoms, diagnosis and coping with everyday life at home, college and work.

Drawing upon a six year research project, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day - as start ups, midsize and as large corporations. Throughout the authors ask 'What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?'

When the silver mines of Costaguana are in danger of being seized by rebel forces, Nostromo, a brave Italian captain, offers to bury the silver to keep it safe. His good intentions, however, become tainted as the temptation to acquire wealth leads to destruction.

In this tale of colonial exploitation, the narrator, Marlowe, journeys deep into the heart of Africa. There he encounters Kurtz, an idealist apparently crazed and depraved by his power over the natives, and the meeting prompts Marlowe to reflect on the darkness at the heart of all men.

A triangle of conspiracy is destroyed by the self-interest of its participants. Mr Verloc, employed by a foreign embassy to incriminate an anarchist group, instead destroys his family, his illusions, and his own life, in a terrorist act gone utterly wrong. Conrad's novel exposes the futility of political extremism and the strength and vanity of human illusion.

Axel Heyst, a disenchanted Swede, becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay archipelago. When that fails, he turns his back on humanity until he is drawn into contact with the world again, by a girl he rescues and bears off to his island retreat.

Two novellas: In 'Youth', the seaman Marlow tells the story of a young man's coming of age on his first voyage to the East. 'Heart of Darkness' describes the slide into corruption of an idealistic trader - Kurtz - in the Belgian Congo. The accompanying music is by Schreker, Szymanowski and Tanneyev.

This Very Short Introduction invites us to really think about music and the values and qualities we ascribe to it. It questions all the social and institutional structures that condition our thinking about music.

How ought we to live? How do we know? An ideal introduction for anyone who has ever been puzzled by what philosophy is or what it is for. The author shows how thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Hegel, Darwin, Mill and de Beauvoir were responding to real needs and events - and how much of their work still shapes our lives today.

This is the novel which became a Spielberg film of the same name. An island off Costa Rica is to become the world's most famous theme park - a dinosaur reserve - for a biotechnology company has succeeded in cloning fifteen species of dinosaur. But the scientists' dream turns into a nightmare. CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND ADULT THEMES.

Designed for students at AS and A2 level, this audiobook sets out the political, social and economic framework of the Victorian period. It also focuses on the forms and styles of poetry, the various influences on the novel, and provides an overview of Victorian drama.

In this work Darwin challenged many of the most deeply held beliefs of the Western World, and therefore it is high on any serious list of the most important and influential books ever written. This audiobook has been abridged to remove those chapters that are now known to be wrong, notably those concerned with genetics.

In 1630s Holland, thousands of people, from wealthy merchants to lowly street traders, were caught up in a frenzy of buying and selling. The object of speculation was neither gold nor oil, but the tulip. Fortunes were made overnight but when the market collapsed the consequences were disastrous.

In this audiobook Dawkins argues for the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm it has inflicted on society. He suggests that while Europe is becoming increasingly securalised, the rise of religious fundamentalism, whether in the Middle East or Middle America, is dangerously dividing opinion around the world - and all from belief in a God whose existence lacks evidence of any kind.

In 1941 Captain Antonio Corelli is posted to the Greek island of Cephalonia. It isn't long before he is involved in a heated affair with Pelagia, a local girl - despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side but as Corelli and Pelagia are from opposing backgrounds, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

In 1941 Captain Antonio Corelli is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia. It isn't long before he is involved in a heated affair with Pelagia, a local girl, despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side, but as Corelli and Pelagia are from opposing backgrounds, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

Alain de Botton asks: What makes a house truly beautiful? Why are many new houses so ugly? Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures - and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved? Will minimalism make us happier than ornaments? To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights.

Do animals have moral rights? If so, what does this mean? What sort of mental lives do animals have and how should we understand their welfare. The author explores the implications for how we treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos and research.

Abandoned at birth by a mother who faces transportation to Virginia, the young Moll Flanders sets out to make her way in the world. Threatened with a life in service, our rebellious heroine sets her heart on a life of independence. As a woman her options are limited and so tough, resourceful, and indisputably feminine Moll embarks on a rollicking career of seduction, bigamy and crime.

Abandoned at birth by a mother who faces transportation to Virginia, the young Moll Flanders sets out to make her way in the world. Threatened with a life in service, our rebellious heroine sets her heart on a life of independence. As a woman her options are limited and so tough, resourceful, and indisputably feminine Moll embarks on a rollicking career of seduction, bigamy and crime.

Deven lives in the shapeless town of Mirpore, lecturing in a college there. When his long-term friend Murad visits, he sees a chance to achieve fame by visiting Delhi to interview the greatest living Urdu poet, Nur.

What could an omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent entity want with a humble pot-healer? Or with the dozens of other odd creatures it has lured to Plowman's Planet? And if the Glimmung is a god, are its ends positive or malign? Combining adventure, horror, and paranoid theology, Galactic Pot-Healer is a voyage to alternate worlds of the imagination.

On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated 'anomalous' children for deportation and destruction, other people - especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Worker's union - suspect that Manfred's disorder may be a window into the future. In 'Martian Time-Slip' Philip K. Dick uses power politics and extraterrestrial real estate scams, adultery, and murder to penetrate the mysteries of being and time.

Little Nell cares for her grandfather in the gloomy surroundings of his curiosity shop. Reduced to poverty, the pair are forced to flee London and Nell finds herself uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes the form of characters such as Swiveller, Nubbles and the grotesque and lecherous Quilp. This dramatisation also stars Julia McKenzie, Anna Massey and Sandi Toksvig.

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There, two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become involved through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the French Revolution.

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, 'Barnaby Rudge' begins with an unsolved double murder and continues to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and anti-Catholic mobs rampage through the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past.

At the court of Chancery, the interminable suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce becomes the centre of a web of relationships at all levels. From Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; to Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper, Dickens wrote 'Bleak House' as a metaphor for the decay and corruption at the heart of English society.

At the court of Chancery, the interminable suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce becomes the centre of a web of relationships at all levels. From Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; to Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper, Dickens wrote 'Bleak House' as a metaphor for the decay and corruption at the heart of English society.

Grim Mr Dombey dreams of a son to run his business. Instead he has a daughter who must fight to win his love, but when the firm faces ruin, and Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster, only his daughter Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father from desolate solitude.

Grim Mr Dombey dreams of a son to run his business. Instead he has a daughter who must fight to win his love, but when the firm faces ruin, and Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster, only his daughter Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father from desolate solitude.

Grim Mr Dombey dreams of a son to run his business. Instead he has a daughter who must fight to win his love, but when the firm faces ruin, and Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster, only his daughter Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father from desolate solitude.

Coketown is dominated by the figure of Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Dicken's novel explores the terrible human consequences of his ruthlessly materialistic philosophy.

Coketown is dominated by the figure of Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Dicken's novel explores the terrible human consequences of his ruthlessly materialistic philosophy.

Disinherited by his grandfather, Martin is thwarted in his desire to marry Mary Graham. Instead he sets sail for America to seek his fortune.

John Harmon, in exile for many years, discovers that he must marry Bella Wilfer, a girl he has never met, to claim his inheritance. Mistakenly thought to have drowned on his return, he assumes the new identity of John Rokesmith and falls in love with Bella, who rejects him due to his poverty. But Boffin and his wife contrive a plan to help John and show Bella the error of her ways.