'I wanted it to look like how it feels like, and how it feels to be Irish sometimes is that you are in a murder mystery.' Caroline O'Donoghue, host of Sentimental Garbage and author of Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature and the forthcoming YA novel All Our Hidden Gifts, tells Jess about playing with different genres, how some endings...

From April 15, 2021 Actor and audiobook narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith talks about what it was like to voice Rivers of London as his first audiobook, what he had to unlearn to do voice work and how Frank Sinatra inspired his mic technique.

Author Francis Spufford talks about what it's been like to launch his new novel, Light Perpetual, during a pandemic, the many talents and accents required of audiobook narrator Imogen Church, the fondness he holds for his 'unlikable' characters, and why the narrator was especially important for his historical novel Golden Hill. To top it off, he de...

It does play huge roles in describing the character and circumstances, but really it’s there because I love food! Author Claire Fuller talks with Jess about her latest novel, Unsettled Ground, shortlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and her third novel, the simmering, suspenseful Bitter Orange. Claire reflects on the roles m...

From Jul 15, 2021 'The kayak gives this incredible perspective on the world, where you are really embedded in the worlds of the species, you're surrounded by other animals, they don't respond to you in the way that they respond to humans on foot because obviously they are so much more skilled in and on the water than you are.' Writer and historia...

From Aug 12, 2021 'My reading experience with poetry is that I'm in the presence of some...body and we're in that kind of potentially ... it might be that slightly late night kitchen table moment where you've sort of got through all the news and the stuff and you actually enter into where you really are, and what's going on, and what you really n...

Brought to you by Penguin.Discover the healing power of nature through the stories of these characterful birds.Can you recognise the cheerful chirrups of the house sparrow? A song thrush singing out at winter's darkest hour? Or the beautiful, haunting call of the curlew?At a time of great anxiety and uncertainty, while coping with the untimely deat...

One small soul like me won't make much difference' Captain TomIf Captain Tom's big heart and generosity of spirit helped see us through difficult days, this was his parting gift.Full of the wit, warmth and wisdom that made him so special, his reflections and guiding principles form a long life, well lived; Life Lessons will be a sour...

Why do we feel what we feel?Mental illness is one of the greatest causes of human suffering, but the reasons we bear this burden, and the nature of these diseases, have remained mysterious. Now, our understanding has reached a tipping point. In Connections, Professor Karl Deisseroth intertwines gripping case studies from his experience as an e...

When Dr Rahul Jandial operated on Karina, an eleven-year-old girl whose spinal cord was splitting in two, he had to make an impossible decision. He followed his head over his gut and Karina was left permanently paralysed, altering both patient and surgeon's lives for ever. This decision would haunt Rahul for decades, a constant reminder of the fine...

Brought to you by Penguin.A dazzling, passionate polemic against anti-science movements of all kindsKeats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. In this illuminating and provocative book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of sc...

The long-awaited first autobiography by national treasure Bob Mortimer.Bob Mortimer's life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework...

Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward. There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativit...

The Eightfold Path is the most widely known formulation of the Buddha’s teaching. It is ancient, reaching back to the Buddha’s very first discourse, and it is highly venerated as a unique treasury of wisdom and practical guidance. The teaching of The Eightfold Path challenges us to grasp the implications of that vision,...

When it comes to understanding the connection between our mental and physical health, we should be looking at the exceptions, not the rules.Dr Jeff Rediger, a world-leading Harvard psychiatrist, has spent the last fifteen years studying thousands of individuals from around the world, examining the stories behind extraordinary cases of recovery from...

Though he couldn't have known it, the various scholars and scientists that Napoleon Bonaparte brought to Egypt during his military campaigning there kicked off modern Egyptology, and a general fascination across the West. Until about 200 years ago, the writing of the ancient Egyptians was an enigma to the world, but that changed when an ancient Egy...

A treasury of meditations for living from your heart—from a top teacher at the #1 online meditation service, InsightTimer.In our noisy, noisy world, it can seem nearly impossible to find ways to turn off our busy minds, which so often flood us with worry and unending lists of tasks. So how do you find your way off the negativity treadmill? Wh...

Bexy Cameron was in her late twenties then the dark events of her past finally caught up with her.Bexy was born into the Children of God, one of the world's most notorious cults. She was 9 years old when she experienced her first exorcism, held in a secret commune deep in the British countryside. At 10, she was placed on Silence Restriction, forced...

Brought to you by Penguin. What causes people to continually relive what they most want to forget, and what treatments could help restore them to a life with purpose and joy? In this audiobook, Dr Bessel van der Kolk offers a new paradigm for effectively treating traumatic stress. Neither talking nor drug therapies have proven entirely satisfactory...

Guhl. Gworl. Gurl. Girl! No matter how you say it, there's undeniable power behind Black Girl Magic. Journalist and writer Kenya Hunt moved to London at the dawn of the Obama administration, just as social media was gaining momentum. Spending the last decade away from home, she writes about the unique love language between Black women, both in the...

Immediate Action is a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary life, from the day Andy McNab was found in a carrier bag on the steps of Guy's Hospital to the day he went to fight in the Gulf War. As a delinquent youth he kicked against society. As a young soldier he waged war against the IRA in the streets and fields of South Armagh. As a...