Having filled roles in films as varied as 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Star Wars', Guinness is one of the most distinguished and beloved movie actors of his generation. His charmingly sincere diary entries offer a glimpse of the private side of his often very public life. What makes Guinness a fine and versatile actor is precisely what also makes him...

Actress, comedienne and raconteur Joyce Grenfell brings to life her experiences working in radio and in film, on the stage and war-time entertainment tours. Her glamorous and madcap American mother, aunt Nancy Astor and husband Reggie are just some of the larger-than-life characters in this reading.

The story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, one of the most flamboyant women of the 18th century. Georgiana was, in turn, a compulsive gambler, astute political operator, drug addict, adulteress and darling of the common people. Winner of the Whitbread Biography of the Year Award.

This audiobook presents Karl Marx as a man of both brilliance and frailty: as a poverty-stricken Prussian emigre who became a middle-class English gentleman; as an angry agitator; as a gregarious and convivial host; as a devoted family man; and as a deeply earnest philosopher who loved drink and cigars.

In one of the most extraordinary memoirs of recent years, Lorna Sage brings alive her experience of growing up in the 1940s and 50s. From her early childhood - dominated by her grandfather, a boozing, womanising vicar - to finding herself pregnant without even realising she has lost her virginity, this portrait of a young girl is unsurpassed.

Mary Warnock entered the public eye when Margaret Thatcher made her Chairman of the highly charged Enquiry into Human Fertilization. In this audiobook she reflects on the places and people who have influenced her including the Oxford school of philosophy in the 1950s and 60s.

The true story of three men; a cowboy, a car salesman and a jockey blind in one eye, and their dreams for an ungainly racehorse - Seabiscuit - that symbolised a pivotal moment in American history as the country began to emerge from the hardships of the 1930s Depression era. Winner of the William Hill Sport Book of the Year.

'The Rivals' is an insider's view of the potent alliance between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Behind the public face of a prime minister and chancellor united in policy and instinct, James Naughtie reveals the tensions of power in action. This is a unique account of the most enduring, complex and important relationship in recent times.

At the age of 26, David Attenborough applied for a job at the BBC - which then meant radio - and was turned down. It was suggested that he tried television, and fifty years later he is still one of British television's most well-loved figures. This audiobook covers both his hectic half-century in television, as well as expeditions to some very wild...

To mark their thirtieth anniversary, the Medici String Quartet asked composer George Fenton and writer Alan Bennett to collaborate on a piece for performance at the Harrogate International Festival. The result was 'Hymn', a meditative piece, in which Bennett looks at the part which music played in his childhood. George Fenton's score, which accompa...

Born in 1725 to Italian and Spanish parents, Giacomo Casanova was a scholar and adventurer, not to mention a notorious seducer of women, who lived a long and exciting life. This first volume of his memoirs charts his childhood and life as a young man in Venice and Italy.

The mastermind behind Apple sheds his low profile and steps forward to tell his story for the first time. Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young...

After three years of research, bestselling journalist Joe McGinniss presents his already controversial and much anticipated investigative chronicle of Sarah Palin as an individual, politician, and cultural phenomenon. On Election Day 2008, McGinniss began his on-the-ground reporting that culminated, famously, in his moving next door to Sarah Palin...

Orwell was arguably one of the first 'gonzo' journalists. In this unabridged, enlightening and often shocking expose of life on the streets of two of Europe's most romanticised and celebrated cities, Orwell describes in detail the day-to-day life of a 'down-and-out', which involves hunger, filth, derision and often prejudice and violence. Alcohol i...

Robert Graves relates his time in the trenches. Robert Graves's writing is versatile and intense. Famous as a war poet, his prose works are on a stage of their own, especially this piece, which is an autobiographical account of Grave's school days and life as a soldier in the trenches in World War 1. Political as well as personal, the piece is imp...

To tie-in with Radio 4's new versions of the Raymond Chandler classic thrillers aired in February 2011, Harriett Gilbert presents a reappraisal of the life and legacy of the man from Upper Norwood who invented the PI as we know him. 'I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had...

Fred Perry conquered the tennis world and remains the last Englishman to win Wimbledon. Yet despite achieving fame and fortune, his life began in humble surroundings on the banks of the River Goyt in Stockport.

This fascinating collection of archive interviews with the much-loved comedy actor and diarist begins in 1961, with an appearance on the BBC TV Tonight programme, and culminates in 1987 when Kenneth Williams is a guest on Desert Island Discs. Along the way are several interviews on Parkinson, conversation from The John Dunn Show, and a number of ra...

It was a footman who brought the news to ten-year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on December 10, 1936. Her father had become an accidental king just four days before his forty-first birthday when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. Edward VIII had been sovereign only nine...

A BBC Radio 4 documentary all about Johnny Morris of BBC TV's 'Animal Magic' fame, a household name and character who created charming, comic voices for the creatures in the show. 'Not Just Funny Animal Voices' presenter Terry Nutkins, (Johnny's TV side-kick, mentor and close friend until Johnny's death in 1999), explores Johnny's life and work, a...

This fascinating collection of archive interviews with the acclaimed playwright, whose centenary was celebrated in 2011, begins in 1969 with a radio appearance on Out This Week. It culminates with an interview for Kaleidoscope in 1977, recorded a few months before his death. Inbetween are several major radio features on Rattigan's life and work, in...