The dizzying pace of technological change in the early 20th century meant that it took only a little over ten years from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to the clash of fighter planes in the Great War. A period of terrible, rapid experiment followed to gain a brief technological edge. By the end of the war the British had lost an extraordin...

The great Indian epic - the Ramayana - has been told and retold over thousands of years by poets, performers, and writers. It is a tale of courage and fear, love and hate, devotion and betrayal. The epic spans the three worlds of gods, humans, and demons. Here, the forces of good and evil collide, locked in a battle for the ultimate supremacy. Rama...

It's back! the Radio Four panel game that's not about sport, music, television, advertising, books, hats or gardening. Just funny rounds with funny ideas. Here are some quotes from last year's series: "The laughter that's worth every penny" Simon Garfield in The Mail On Sunday. "A hugely enjoyable addition to the comedy panel game genre" Heat magaz...

What is art? Why do we value images of saints, kings, goddesses, battles, landscapes or cities in eras utterly remote from our own? This history of art shows how painters, sculptors and architects have expressed the belief systems of their age-religious, political and aesthetic. From the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece to the...

Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins offer you more than your fair share of laughs, songs and silliness in their imaginatively titled BBC Radio 4 series.

Rates of stress and anxiety are rising. A fast, nervous planet is creating fast and nervous lives. We are more connected, yet feel more alone. And we are encouraged to worry about everything from world politics to our body mass index. - How can we stay sane on a planet that makes us mad? - How do we stay human in a technological world? - How do we...

Where do we go when we die? Or is there nowhere to go? Is death something we can do or is it just something that happens to us? Now in his ninth decade, former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, has spent a lifetime at the bedsides of the dying, guiding countless men and women towards peaceful deaths. In The Last Bus, he presents a positive, me...

This book includes extracts from dozens of interviews with some of the most successful black women in Britain. Where possible within this audiobook, we have used the original recordings of those interviews, which took place in a variety of locations; so, whilst the nature of the recordings vary, the insights and advice remain constantly inspiring....

Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as 'Human Computers', calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these 'colored computers' used pencil and paper to write the equa...

For over half a century, Henry Blofeld has conveyed his unfailing enthusiasm for the game of cricket as a much loved broadcaster and journalist. His characteristically patrician tones, overlaid with those of the bon viveur, have delighted listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special where the personality of the broadcaster comes second only to a deep...

Adam Hills is one the UK's best loved comedians. For 30 years he has been performing stand-up, hosting TV shows and winning the hearts of a nation. Taking us from the early days of the Sydney Stand Up scene to hosting his own radio show, touring the world and eventually landing on British TV, Best Foot Forward is a story of a life in comedy. Along...

What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially life-saving operation when it all goes wrong? In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to...

The true story of Melody, aged 8, the last of five siblings to be taken from her drug dependent single mother and brought into care. When Cathy is told about Melody's terrible childhood, she is sure she's heard it all before. But it isn't long before she feels there is more going on than she or the social services are aware of. Although Melody is a...

Tired of being talked over? Of social media making you feel crap? Of the pressure to 'have it all' and a hot bod too? Boudicca stuck up for herself and now she can help you do the same. It is time to start channelling the spiky superwomen of history to conquer today. It is time to turn to women like Frida Kahlo and Josephine Baker, Hypatia and Cleo...

Heartbreaking and darkly comic, these are the moments that litter the messy road from cared-for to carer, a journey that Robyn Hollingworth finds herself on when she's only twenty-five years old. Leaving London to return home to rural South Wales, Robyn finds that it's her old life - same teddy bears resting on her pillow, same view of the garages...

Enough plastic is thrown away every year to circle the world 4 times. More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. 300 million tonnes of new plastic is produced every year. An estimated 15-51 trillion pieces of plastic now litter the world's oceans. 38.5 million plastic bottles are used every day in the UK. Without big action,...

Narrated by the author, and featuring an interview with Jeremy Front. Sometimes things are more ordinary than you think. And sometimes they're a whole lot odder than you can possibly imagine. Rebecca Front has always drawn on experiences from her life in her award-winning acting and comic writing. In her debut book, she reveals herself as a master...

An overview of the positions, tactics, and history of association football written by one of the game's stars. John Cameron was a most interesting figure who played for both Everton and Tottenham. Learn the basics, improve your game knowledge, and reach your soccer playing goals. Do you get a kick out of soccer? Whether you're a youth league player...

As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has had a pretty busy time of it lately. In the 18 months it's taken for a reality star to go from laughingstock to leader of the free world, Jon has travelled the length and breadth of the United States, experiencing it from a perspective that most of us could only dream of: he has flown aboard Air Forc...

An ordinary lad from Sheffield, Jamie Vardy has become known as an against-the-odds footballing hero the world over. Yet a few years ago, things couldn't have been any more different. Rejected as a teenager by his boyhood club, Jamie thought his chance was gone. But from playing pub football and earning œ30 a week at Stocksbridge Park Steels,...

A short life of Dickens which celebrates the impact of the theatre on his life and work. Acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow captures the essence of Charles Dickens in a sparkling biography that explores the central importance of the theatre to the life of the greatest storyteller in the English language. From his early years as a child enterta...