Joe Lampton is 25. He lost his parents during WW2 when their house was bombed and moves to Warley, where he meets the high-society set through the local ameteur dramatics society. He sets off on his quest to join them with a vengeance, hoping to achieve it through his choice of women and affected new persona.

The narrative opens in March 2003. A leading journalist and a forty-two-year-old woman meet at a dingy London cafe in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. Anna Adams has a story she is burning to tell, one that goes right to the top of the Cabinet. Her middle brother Jack, the black sheep of the family, has committed a shocking, violent...

Golding's best-known novel is the story of a group of boys who, after a plane crash, find themselves stranded on a previously uninhabited island. As memories of home recede and the blood from frenzied pig-hunts arouses them, the boys' childish fear turns into something deeper and more primitive, and their struggle to survive and impose order on the...

Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn her own living. When she is orphaned at 20, she decides her only option is to go and live with her relatives, the Starkadders, at Cold Comfort Farm. When she gets there she finds nothing but chaos, and sets about restoring some kind of order to their lives - with highly amusing res...

A middle-aged divorcee inherits a house in the Welsh village where she grew up and decides to start afresh and rebuild her life. She begins to renew old friendships, make new ones and re-examine her relationships with her mother and daughter.

Set in France before and during the First World War, this is the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married to a wealthy textile baron. Wraysford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according t...

Having got rid of their human master, the animals of Manor Farm look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite among them takes control, the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the old ways. Orwell's classic tale of power and corruption is an allegory of the Russian Revolution.

Set in Lyme Regis towards the end of the 19th century, Charles Smithson finds himself haunted by the face of Sarah Woodruff, who endlessly waits for the return of the French Lieutenant who has deserted her. He struggles to forget her and concedes to a life with the entirely more conventional Ernestina Freeman. However, Charles finds his initial cur...

Spanning seven turbulent decades, this audiobook traces the fabulous rise of poor but ambitious Charlie Trumper, a man who becomes embroiled in one family's battle to build London's greatest department store against overwhelming odds whilst undermining their enemies.

Ulysses is set in Dublin, and the events unfold over 24 hours, beginning on the morning of Thursday 16th June 1904. The story chronicles the experiences and adventures of Leopold Bloom.

The final part of the 'Alexandria Quartet'. Darley returns to an Alexandria ablaze with war-fever. He is healing, maturing and becoming capable of loving Clea Montis, a painter and the woman for whom he was destined.

Set in the heart of English farmland, this novel portrays a family at a tragic crossroads. Caro's death causes each member of the family to feel vulnerable to time and change, but they all underestimate Zoe's power as a catalyst for a transformation.

The third volume in the 'Alexandria Quartet'. The events surrounding the interwoven community of Nessim, Justine, Narouz, Pursewarden and the other major characters take on a new perspective as the world plunges towards war. David Mountolive, once emotionally involved with Nessim's set, now returns to Egypt as the British ambassador...

The second volume of the 'Alexandria Quartet'. Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes which attempt to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her husband Nessim, Clea the artist and Pursewarden the writer.

Justine is the first volume in the 'Alexandria Quartet', four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within a setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is the intense Justine, wife to the wealthy business man Nessim, whose emotional and sexual wildness fuels a high-charged atmosphere...

Two novellas: In 'Youth', the seaman Marlow tells the story of a young man's coming of age on his first voyage to the East. 'Heart of Darkness' describes the slide into corruption of an idealistic trader - Kurtz - in the Belgian Congo. The accompanying music is by Schreker, Szymanowski and Tanneyev.

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain's journal tells of an extrordinary eight months in the lives of her eccentric and bohemian family, which include a father who is suffering from writer's block; a stepmother Topaz, an artist's model; her fiery sister Rose and younger brother Thomas. When the rich young American landlords of their cold and crumbl...

Captain Yossarian is based on an island off the coast of Italy during the Second World War. He spends his time plotting how to survive the madness and stupidity that surrounds him. A satirical indictment of the military forces that mixes horrific scenes with hilarious characters

San Piedro Island in Puget Sound is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese-American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt...

Introducing the Larkins, a family with a place in popular mythology. Here they come, crashing their way through the English countryside in the wake of Pa, the quick-eyed, golden-hearted junk-dealer, and Ma, with a mouthful of crisps and a laugh like a jelly.

The life and times of 'Mr Chips', a much-loved classics master at Brookfield school since 1870. Full of the jokes and eccentricities of school life, Mr Chipping's journey starts as a diffident young master taking prep for the first time, progressing through middle-age and his encounters with Katherine, whose 'new woman' opinions create far-reaching...