Edward, preoccupied by the banishment of his lover, Gaveston, barely acknowledges the nascent crises that threaten his realm. Chief among his critics is the morally righteous Mortimer, horrified by the king's criminal lapse of duty and yet able to countenance the further crime of taking arms against his king. As their enmity develops, and Mortimer'...

Frederick Jaeger stars in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast Unabridged of the legend that has haunted the imagination of millions for over a hundred years! Summoned to the forbidden heart of the Carpathian mountains, in the depths of Transylvania, Jonathan Harker journeys to Castle Dracula. There he becomes the unwitting prisoner of the mysterious nobleman w...

Raskolnikov, a student in St. Petersburg, murders an old woman, a money-lender, to prove his theory that violence purifies the strong. But no sooner is the deed done than Raskolnikov begins to feel remorse. What follows is one of the greatest psychological studies in world literature.

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Arnold Bennett's tale of love, tyranny and rebellion, 'Anna of the Five Towns'. Originally broadcast as the 'Classic Serial' in two parts on 6 and 13 March 2011. Brought up in the repressive tradition of Methodism by her miserly father, Anna Tellwright dreams of independence and freedom. On coming of age she learns th...

Based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family's trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirl...

Helen Johns reads some fascinating early writings by Jane Austen from the fictionalised A Collection of Letters. A prolific letter writer herself, in this collection we see how the budding writer is experimenting, and starting to explore the medium as a literary convention.

Soames Forsyte's great desire to own things even extends to his captivating wife, Irene. Jealous of her friendships with others, he concocts a plan to move her away to the countryside, where he might come to own her completely. Resisting his bitter intentions, she falls for architect Philip Bossiney, who is unfortunately engaged to her best friend...

The second part of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, chronicling the downfall of an upper middle class family in the turbulent period of social change at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries. This book tells of the struggle between Soames and his beautiful wife Irene, who leaves him but cannot persuade him to grant a divorce. While Soa...

Gulliver's Travels has been in print since its first publication in 1726, due to its popularity with young and old alike. As well as a wildly imaginative tale of travel and adventure, it is a comment on human nature and an overblown explorer's story, rich in symbolism and humour. Lemuel Gulliver, an English surgeon, sets sail on expeditions to extr...

Victor Frankenstein decides to build a `man' from assembled body parts stolen from corpses. He becomes obsessed with his 'project' and believes that he is pioneering scientific discovery - without considering the potential consequences. What results, of course, is a `monster', who looks grotesque and frightens any living soul who ever comes into co...

Read by members of the cast of the exciting new film based on 'The Decameron', 'Virgin Territory', Boccacio's raunchy 14th-Century work is given a new lease of life in this inventive and witty production by CSA WORD. A group of Florentine youth escape to the mountain countryside during the time of the plague, only to regale each other with vignette...

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and twice adapted into films, The Good Companions also inspired the Yorkshire Television series of the same name. One of Priestley's best-known works, it follows the fortune of a group of misfits who decide to join a concert troupe. An excellent choice for audio due to Priestley's use of regional diale...

Set in the nineteenth century against a backdrop of island life and the vast surrounding seas, A High Wind in Jamaica is the gripping story of the Bas-Thornton children, whose parents send them back to England following a hurricane in the postcolonial Caribbean they call home. Having set sail, the children quickly fall into the hands of pirates.

Virginia Woolf's pioneering work on women in literature. An accessible yet fiercely astute essay, it is a crystallisation of the intelligent analysis behind her novels, and confirms her as a writer not only of style, but of undeniable substance. Ranging from discussing Austen's pandering to a male writing style, to imagining the dreadful fate of Sh...

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde is one of the classic horror stories of all time with Sir Ian Holm giving us a rare and defininitive reading.

A gritty and absorbing glimpse into the lives of women and men living in a small community, and the often unpleasant truths that relationships can sometimes hold. Bathsheba Everdene flees her abusive husband and spends the night by a stagnant and spooky swamp. When light begins to break over her hiding-place, she sees strong parallels between her...

Quasimodo is the lonely and deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame in Paris, will there ever be anyone that can brighten his life and relieve his sorrowful isolation? Quasimodo, the hunchback, is bell-ringer at Notre Dame. One day, he notices a gipsy girl dancing in the square below, and desires to get to know her. Events transpire so that the two mee...

Woof! Woof! I am a spaniel called Flush and owned by Elizabeth Barret Browning and her husband Robert and this is my amusing but ultimately sad autiobiography. Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Brownings spaniel was what she called "a little escapade", begun to "ease my brain" in the wake of The Waves (1931). The intensities of that m...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast Unabridged of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde by poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw. One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for radio bring...

Linda Marshall's BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of L. Frank Baum's children's classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Originally broadcast as part of the BBC Christmas 2009 season. When a tornado strikes her farmhouse in Kansas, young Dorothy and her dog Toto are lifted to the magical world of Oz, the strange land of the Munchkins. There she emba...

Arthur Conan Doyle delivers crime mysteries of the most thrilling kind as sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson look for suspects in three stories: The Adventure of the Empty House / The Adventure of the Devil's Foot / The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.