Birdie's keeping it together, of course she is. So she's a little hungover on her shifts, and has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits tables, but Emaleen never goes hungry. It's a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by. And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen...

Samuel Beckett, one of the great avant-garde Irish dramatists and writers of the second half of the twentieth century, was born on 13 April 1906. He died in 1989. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His centenary will be celebrated throughout 2006 with performances of his major plays, but the most popular of them all will be, without dou...

George Markham has a nasty little hobby, one that erupts into an orgy of vicious sexual depravity. Patrick Kelly is a hard man. His one soft spot is his daughter, and when she falls victim to the Grantley Ripper, Kelly wants revenge. The DI in charge of the case is Kate Burrows. She feels for Kelly but her growing involvement with a known villain i...

When a newborn baby girl is found abandoned with nothing but a scarlet ribbon tied to her basket, Ada Davidson, housekeeper of the wealthy McNally family's home, the Uplands, takes her into her care. Sworn to secrecy about the baby's true identity, Ada names her Jess and brings her up as her own, giving Jess no reason to question where she came fro...

He is one of the world's most ruthless terrorists, codenamed Saladin. He plans and executes devastating attacks and then, ghost-like, he disappears. Ten years ago he blew a plane out of the sky above New York - and now he's struck again, killing dozens in a London strike. But one of the latest victims is related to the acting head of MI5, who knows...

Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland, 1917, and army psychiatrist William Rivers is treating shell-shocked soldiers. Under his care are the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, as well as mute Billy Prior, who is only able to communicate by means of pencil and paper. Rivers's job is to make the men in his charge healthy enough to fight. Yet th...

When her mother dies in childbirth, Pearl Edwards is left in the care of her aunt, Annie Grafton. Annie loves Pearl like her own daughter but it isn't easy to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Annie knows the best way to supplement their meagre income is to walk the pit lane at night, looking for men willing to pay for her company...

Meet Daisy Dixon. She loves sewing, antiques, and watching murder mysteries. Oh, and plotting to kill her husband. Meet James Dixon. He's mega-rich, mega-successful, and completely missing a conscience. On the way back from a party, the Dixons hit a man with their car. There's only one thing for it, and that's to bury him in the grounds of their ma...

A tender love story, a serpentine villainess, a glittering setting in London society and a shower of Wildean witticisms are only a few of the reasons this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals in London and New York. This 1895 drama also seems eerily prescient, as it explores the plight of a promising young politician, desperate to hide a sec...

Responding to a call at a mansion in an East Bay neighbourhood, Deputy Coroner Clay Edison comes upon the body of Dr Walter Rennert, a controversial Berkeley psychologist, sprawled at the foot of his stairs. There are no wounds and no signs of intrusion or struggle. Clay knows the obvious diagnosis is natural death. But 10 years ago, Rennert's part...

Vi Liu's life is a mess. Having dropped out of college, she's stuck in a job she hates at a local hotel. Her ex-boyfriend has blocked her and she's lashing out at her family and co-workers. One night, drunk outside a drag club, she stumbles across a mysterious sentient blob. She takes it home, where she feeds it a diet of sugary cereal and reality...

Charlotte Keatley's powerful, poignant drama follows four generations of mothers and daughters through the sweeping societal changes of the 20th century'A landmark play, the theatrical equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile' GuardianWritten in 1985, this groundbreaking play premiered at Contact Theatre, Manchester, in 1987. It subsequently won...

A lord, his wife, her admirer and an infamous blackmailer converge in the irreverent satire that launched Wilde’s succession of classic social comedies. This delicious comic feast serves up a scandal about good girls, bad husbands and hilarious hypocrisy - utterly contemporary and divinely funny.

The BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple. Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - son Friday's lack of focus since his career...

Four of Thornton Wilder's most acclaimed works, adapted for BBC Radio - plus bonus material exploring his life and careerThornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be...

While out walking, Abbot Brocc was shocked to encounter the sinister apparition of a young woman, cloaked entirely in grey, who foretold his impending death. Dismissing the soothsayer's words, Brocc nevertheless felt concerned enough to ask for Sister Fidelma's advice on the matter. But by the time Fidelma and her companions arrive at the remote ab...

Liverpool, 1901. The Tempest family is all but destitute, barely able to put food on the table. When Florrie falls ill with pneumonia and Arthur is imprisoned after a drunken fight, their thirteen-year-old daughter Lizzie finds herself parentless, desperate and alone. Despite her young age, Lizzie has spirit and determination, and she knows that sh...

Finalist: Audio Publishers Association Audie Ward, Best Theatrical Production World War II is over and a family, mourning a son missing in action, plants a memorial tree and tries to go with their lives. A storm blows down the tree and a devastating family secret is uprooted, setting the characters on a terrifying journey towards truth.

Alex Reeve was Operative 66. A former special-ops soldier and one of the UK's deadliest weapons, he was a member of the secretive SC9 - an elite security service with a remit to neutralise the country's most dangerous enemies. Falsely accused of treason, Reeve was forced to hide in the shadows as the brutal assassins he once trained alongside sough...

Nestled into the pine-dusted coastline of the Cap d'Antibes is the dazzling white Chateau Violette. When British diplomat Lord Harry Castlemere, his young Jewish wife Daisy and their four-year-old son move into the chateau in the summer of 1938, their home becomes a beacon for the glamorous expat set - rife with gossip about the Windsors, and every...

At nineteen, Elizabeth Seymour is already a mother, has been recently widowed, and seen her Queen, Anne Boleyn, lose her life. Against the wishes of her father, she heads North, away from Wulf Hall and the court in London to Yorkshire, determined to establish a new beginning as a landowner and business woman. As her family in Wiltshire curry favour...