When we think of great events in the history of the world, we tend to think of war, revolution, political upheaval or natural catastrophe. But throughtout history there have been moments of vital importance that have taken place not on the battlefield, but between the pages of a book. Here Melvyn Bragg explores a wide and controversial selection of...

This audiobook is the astonishing story of the struggle to freedom by thousands of African-American slaves who fled the plantations to fight behind British lines in the American War of Independence. With gripping, powerfully vivid story-telling, Simon Schama follows the escaped blacks into the fires of the war, and into freezing, inhospitable Nova...

At midnight on 15 August 1947, India left the British Empire. This defining moment of world history had been brought about by a handful of people: Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the new nation of Pakistan, Mohandas Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation, and Louis and Edwina Mountbatt...

The Apollo moon programme has been called the last optimistic act of the twentieth century. Over a strange three-year period between 1969 and 1972, twelve men made the longest and most eccentric of all journeys and all were indelibly marked by it. In this audiobook, Andrew Smith sets out to find and interview the remaining moonwalkers in order to l...

Wentworth House in Yorkshire is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain and belonged to the Fitzwilliam family. It is England's forgotten palace which belonged to Britain's richest aristocrats. This audiobook tells the story of its demise: family feuds, forbidden love, class war, and a tragic and violent death played their part. But coal,...

One of the great classics on democracy, this audiobook was first published in England in 1791 as a vindication of the French Revolution and a critique of the British system of government. In direct, forceful prose, Paine defends popular rights, national independence, revolutionary war, and economic growth - all considered dangerous and even seditio...

Jane Rochford was sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and Lady of the Bedchamber to Catherine Howard, whom she followed to the scoffold in 1542. Hers is a life of extraordinary drama as a witness to and participant in the greatest events in Henry VIII's reign. Her supposed part in both Anne Boleyn's and Catherine Howard's downfall has led her to being rev...

In the wake of its 30th birthday celebrations in 2006, BBC Radio Ulster marked the beginning of a new broadcasting era by embarking on the station's most ambitious project to date, the recounting of the history of Ireland! For easy digestion, and across the course of a year, the story of the island is told in a series of 240 short documentaries - s...

This is the first of three audio volumes taken from the 90-part Radio 4 series. It tells the story of America through the voices of those who were there, from presidents to slaves. It celebrates the American achievement and evokes the sound and colour of daily life; it also explores the paradoxes of American history.

Simon Schama's sweeping history of Britain breathes life into our past centuries, vividly depicting exactly what life was like for our ancestors and how their experiences have shaped modern British culture and identity. A informative and entertaining mixture of anecdote and analysis, Schama's work offers a real insight into what it is to be British...

Britain had the biggest empire the world has ever known. At one time a quarter of the global land mass was British. Over a third of the world was insured at Lloyds. At his coronation, more than 400 million people saluted George V. Truly, the sun never set on this historical phenomenon. Whatever the day, whatever the hour, somewhere on the globe, th...

Britain had the biggest empire the world has ever known. At one time a quarter of the global land mass was British. Over a third of the world was insured at Lloyds. At his coronation, more than 400 million people saluted George V. Truly, the sun never set on this historical phenomenon. Whatever the day, whatever the hour, somewhere on the globe, th...

Presented by award-winning children's writer Michael Morpurgo, this genuinely ground-breaking history of British childhood from the year 1000 to the present explores, through a wide and colourful range of primary sources, how the idea of childhood has been constantly reinvented down the centuries and why the role of children in society continues to...

An engrossing BBC Radio 4 series spanning the history of the home and domestic relationships over the past 500 years, presented by Amanda Vickery. Professor Amanda Vickery is one of the most charismatic historians in Britain today. In 'A History of Private Life' she reveals the intimate secrets of life at home, from the Tudor mansion to the modern...

Robinson presents the inspiring story of the first young women who overcame all the odds to get their education and attend university. Using the words of the women themselves, this book charts the fight for and expansion of higher education for women.

Volume Two of David Reynold's major BBC Radio 4 series traces America's story from the Civil War to World War Two. This epic narrative tells the saga of the United States through the voices of those who lived it - presidents and farmers, mothers and children, settlers and soldiers, immigrants and Native Americans. This is also the story of how ordi...

Christopher Lee's history of Britain, This Sceptred Isle, provided the definitive radio account of the nation from the arrival of Julius Caesar to the death of Queen Victoria. This Sceptred Isle, The Twentieth Century, continues the story, taking us through decades of whirlwind change and technological advancement in the diverse and colourful count...

Christopher Lee's history of Britain, This Sceptred Isle, provided the definitive radio account of the nation from the arrival of Julius Caesar to the death of Queen Victoria. This Sceptred Isle, The Twentieth Century, continues the story, taking us through decades of whirlwind change and technological advancement in the diverse and colourful count...

Christopher Lee's history of Britain, 'This Sceptred Isle', provided the definitive radio account of the nation from the arrival of Julius Caesar to the death of Queen Victoria. Volume 2, covering the years 1919-1938, looks at a Britain ravaged by war and at the mercy of millions of striking workers. It also takes in the lighter side of life in the...

First-hand accounts featuring the RAF pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain - one of the chief turning points of World War Two. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" - Winston Churchill The "Few" were the nearly 3,000 RAF pilots who fought against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, which rag...

A BBC Radio 4 "Book at Bedtime" recording of Samuel West reading from the novella The Aspern Papers by Henry James, set against the decaying grandeur of Venice. Originally broadcast 26 April - 4 May 2010. Henry James took as inspiration for his tale The Aspern Papers the story of a mistress of Byron's who outlived the poet into lonely old age. H...