The intricate structure of a Shellworld - an arti­ficial planet of spheres-within-spheres - is matched only by the machinations of its inhabitants. On the eighth sphere of Sursamen, a man witnesses the murder of his father and flees, searching for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother, this means a life lived un...

Dara Gaffney is fresh out of drama school when she lands the leading role in the revival of Eabha de Lacey's hugely successful yet controversial play. Based on the true story of the death of Cillian Butler, many claim that Eabha had an ulterior motive when she penned it. Cillian's death remains a mystery to this day, and Eabha and her brother, Aust...

England’s bravest monarch, history’s deadliest outlaw, this year’s greatest adventure. May 1194: Richard the Lionheart is in Normandy, locked in a long and bloody war with the French. By his side are Robert Odo, Earl of Locksley - the former outlaw Robin Hood - and Sir Alan Dale, Robin's protégé, a musician and warri...

From the Sunday Times best-selling author. In a time of war, what's holding them together could tear them all apart.... London, 1940. Winnie Berry is at the heart of the community in her pub, The Battersea Tavern. Her door is always open to those in need of a cup of tea and sympathy. Winnie's abusive husband has left, and she finds herself foolishl...

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 A RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME IN APRIL PROVENCE, 1920 Ettie moves through the remote farmhouse, silently creating the conditions that make her uncle's artistic genius possible. Joseph, an aspiring journalist, has been invited to the house. He believes he'll make his name by interviewing the reclusive pa...

San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city centre. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life - painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea. But over the course of one summer, San meets a cur...

Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England vs. Australia battles, having played in three series wins and also the whitewash defeat of 2013-14, when its intensity ended his international career. The mock obituary of English cricket in t...

London, 1944. With bombs raining over London, keeping the Battersea Tavern open is no easy feat for owner Winnie Berry - but the community need the warmth and familiarity of the pub more than ever. After marriage, Maureen Fanning had moved out to Wandsworth with her bad-tempered husband Brancher. But when he loses both his job and their lodgings, t...

An inspiring, witty 'East End growing up' memoir by leading Labour MP Wes Streeting. Wes Streeting might have ended up in prison rather than in parliament. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner. Brought up on a Stepney council estate, the youn...

The man known as Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action. Though the woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and aided his stratospheric rise, she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone Ska­ffen-A...

The Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. He is Master of every board, computer and strategy - he is The Player of Games. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the cruel and incredibly wealthy Empire of Azad to try their infamous game . . . a gam...

When he's caught stealing, young Alan Dale is forced to leave his family and go to live with a notorious band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Their leader is the infamous Robin Hood. A tough, bloodthirsty warrior, Robin is more feared than any man in the county. And he becomes a mentor for Alan; with his fellow outlaws, Robin teaches Alan how to fig...

History’s most dangerous outlaw. England’s most famous ruler. The year’s most exciting adventure. The third crusade is over. Richard the Lion heart is bound for England. But with the princes of Europe united against him, can the greatest warrior in Christendom make it safely home? The Lion is Chained. Captured. Bound. Imprisoned....

Arrows will fly. Swords will swing. Heroes will fall. Legends will survive. And the Holy Land will never be the same.1190 AD: Richard the Lionheart has launched his epic crusade to seize Jerusalem from the cruel Saracens. Marching with the vast royal army is Britain's most famous, most feared, most ferocious warrior: the Outlaw of Nottingham, the E...

Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back. Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the s...

Montgomery, Alabama. 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference in her community. She wants to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a tumbledown cabin and into the heart of the Williams family, Civil learns th...

In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed writer Alex Wheatle shows how music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse and his imprisonment as a young man protesting against systemic racism and police brutality. Abandoned as a baby to the British care system, Alex Wheatle grows up with no knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family h...

By the Costa Award-winning author of Pure, a profound and tender tale of guilt, a search for atonement and the hard, uncertain work of loving. An ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic living quietly in Somerset, Stephen Rose has just begun to form a bond with the daughter he barely knows when he receives a summons - to an inquiry into an incident dur...

Jamesina Ross is long finished with men. But one night a stranger seeking lodgings knocks on the door of her tenement flat. He doesn't recognise her, but she remembers him at once. Not that she plans to mention it. She has no intention of trusting anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable again. A lifetime ago, growing up in a Highland glen, James...

Begin a journey in the footsteps of the mysterious Nancy Moon and piece together the secrets of one extraordinary long-lost summer.... To unravel the story of that long-lost summer, she had to follow the thread.... Florence Connelly is broken-hearted; her beloved grandmother has just died and her marriage has collapsed. But things change when she o...

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin . . . Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You'll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder . . . He'll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the g...