Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. In the decade following the conquest, the north of England was one of the main focuses of...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. We are extremely lucky to have an exceptional eyewitness account of a plague outbreak in...

This fascinating collection of archive interviews with the renowned actress and MP begins with a radio interview in 1970 and runs through to a guest appearance on Desert Island Discs in 1997. Along the way Glenda Jackson appears on numerous programmes including Parkinson, In The Psychiatrist's Chair and Start the Week, during the course of which sh...

The extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most powerful women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She...

The complete second BBC Radio 4 series written and presented by Sir David Attenborough featuring all 20 episodes about some of the strangest insects and creatures from around the world. One of the nation's most popular presenters examines twenty marvels of the natural world from his extraordinary and pioneering experiences. How did Sir David track...

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's Beyond Westminster, in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government-and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and economic agenda-albeit amid parliamentary revolts and embarrassin...

The story of British Tommies sent 'over the top' to fight the Germans in the trenches of the First World War is a vivid emblem of powerlessness in the face of military discipline-and social pressures-that required young men to join up and do their duty. As the voices of the powerless become truly audible with the dawn of the recording era, we trav...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. The upheavals and turmoil of the sixteenth century transformed many aspects of religious...

In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg is in urban Lancashire to explore the warp and weft of the Industrial Revolution-how the upheavals of the new mechanisation affected workers who found their traditional trades, like hand-loom weaving, superseded and marginalised by the growth of industrialisation and mechanisation. He...

The first of Gerald Durrell's childhood memoirs on life amidst the olive groves and mountains of Corfu. The young naturalist Gerald lives with his family in chaotic harmony, welcoming a constant stream of eccentric visitors to their villa. He spends many blissful hours collecting all kinds of animals and insects including chameleon spiders, cicadas...

A portrait of Queen Victoria and the Victorian era. The author reveals the inner contradictions of the resolute, high-minded and cantankerous woman who became queen at the age of eighteen and reigned until her death sixty-four years later in 1901.

A wonderfully vivid memoir of Laurie Lee's childhood and youth in a remote Cotswold village. From the moment he is set down in the long grass, 'thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers', he depicts a world that is both tangibly real yet belonging to a now distant past.

In 1909, actress Sybil Thorndike wed Welsh-born actor/director Lewis Casson. This is the story of their great theatre partnership as told by their son John.

This audiobook examines all the phases of Kipling's poetic career, from his charming poetry for children to his political satire, and argues for him to be acknowledged as one of the most important English poets of the 20th century.

The first book in James Herriot's autobiographical series which formed the basis of the well-loved BBC Television's 'All Creatures Great and Small'. When newly qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss Siegfried?

Bill Bryson drove 14,000 miles in search of the mythical small town of his youth. Instead he found a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger joints; a continent lost to itself through greed, pollution and television, and lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country. A funny and analytical view of smalltown America.

The tragic story of Oscar Wilde, an accomplished author, poet and playwright who was to suffer at the hands of a censorious and hypocritical society. The accompanying music is by Widor, Curzon, Dvorak, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Chabrier.

The story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, illustrated with examples of his music. This biography tells of Mozart's childhood travelling the courts of Europe, and of how, after a brief period of fame in Vienna, his fortunes declined until his early death and his last resting place in a pauper's grave. This title features over 70 excerpts from Mozart's o...

Not only an epic military history, novelist E.M Forster described T.E. Lawrence's chronicle of his role in leading the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War as 'an unexampled fabric of portraits, descriptions, philosophies, emotions, adventures, dreams'.

A history of Britain by one of 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 fr...

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 within a vivid portrayal of 18th century London peopled by personalities of the time such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Wilkes, Oliver Goldsm...