BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the da...

This ghost story recounts in vivid detail the experiences of a man's stay in a 'haunted' villa, terrorized by strange and hideous apparitions.

Mark and Molly, a married couple, share the same birthday although occupy different positions on the astrological chart. Molly is fastidious, devoted and frugal and hopes that Mark can appreciate her approach to life and adopt it for the sake of their growing family. A poignant story about the innate power of nature over nurture and the pointlessne...

Written with biting satire, much humor and a pervading melancholy, this story is a fine example of Fay Weldon's exquisite and accomplished talent for short story writing.

Billy Bunter becomes involved in Sir Hilton Popper's incredibly valuable stamp, the Blue Mauritius which is stolen by a local thief. After the usual hilarious romp Bunter of course comes up trumps!

Money goes missing from the Head's drawer and the hunt is on for the money and the thief, with lashings of silly business and clumsy incidents along the way! The very rotund British schoolboy proves a hit with listeners yet again!

Billy Bunter, affectionately known as 'The Fat Owl of the Remove' first appeared in the Magnet boys' magazine in 1908. Quintessentially British and nostalgic, Billy Bunter is a champion of the chubby, who steals cakes and jam from other boys with glee, and is a lovable often hilarious and likeable oaf. For children aged 8-80+! In this adventure, Bi...

A classic and puzzling Father Brown mystery to amaze and delight with twists and turns galore and wonderful characterization by Edward Hardwicke - TV's Dr. Watson from The Adventures of Sherock Holmes. Hardwicke's gravelly low tones are a perfect suit to any detective story and a reader will be totally captured after his first few words.

Our hero, a carpenter, loves Hetty Sorel, but she loves Arthur Donnington, a local squire. The story soon progresses onto powerful themes, such as: who has the right to determine who lives and who dies? A non-judgemental examination of human relationships and nature, Adam Bede has been highly praised for achieving something 'beyond' realism.

In this bumper edition of episodes from the fifth and sixth series, Graham Norton meets his match in Brian from Big Brother, Rabbi Lionel Blue is stranded on a reality radio version of Desert Island Discs, and demons quake when they face Hyacinth the Vampire Slayer. Russell Crowe and John Gielgud take starring roles in Scooby Doo, whilst the soothi...

Dead Ringers is the satirical radio impressions show which has become a firm favourite with Radio 4 fans of all ages. Merciless in its lampooning of the politicians and celebrities who occupy the nation's headlines, the sketch-based series often has no holds barred. This release features both the Archers Christmas Special broadcast in 2000 and the...

Meera Syal reads this exclusive audio story featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. The ice-planet Vinsk, in the year 2112. The all-new anti-viral hand wash, Gemini, has been laced with Meme-Spawn: a sentient micro-organism which makes the user fluent in every language in the universe. However, manufacturer Zalnex made one crucial mistake. They...

Sometimes our goals seem like unobtainable fantasies, but the key to success is making motivational thinking part of everyday life. In Get Up & Do It! Beechy and Josephine Colclough explain how to develop a plan to achieve your goals by planning, practising and adopting positive thinking, as well as motivational and other problem-solving skills...

The heart-lifting, heartbreaking new story by Michael Morpurgo, the nation's favourite storyteller. In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there. When the Bismarck sinks, one of the only...

When sculptor Ken Harrison is permanently paralysed in an accident, he resolves to die rather than live with his physically helpless state. His struggle for the right to die makes a powerful play which raises important issues of human dignity and medical ethics. It is witty and compassionate, thoughtful and fast moving.

What do tigers, giant pandas, blue whales and great white sharks have in common? Within a generation they may join dinosaurs, dodos, woolly rhinos and great kangaroos - they will become extinct. Human dominance on earth may be good news for us, but it's bad news for many other animals that share our planet. 'Countdown to Extinction' looks at the ca...

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of falsifying records and political literature, thus e...

The animals in the farmyard decide that working for humans is doing them no favours, so under the leadership of Napoleon, the only Berkshire Boar on the farm, and the other pigs, they drive out the farmer and his cohorts and set about structuring their own society. Based on a list of supposedly animal-friendly rules such as "four legs good, two leg...

This chilling classic Irish short story is one of the best in the genre and is read in a fitting Irish brogue by T.P. McKenna. The very beautiful Nora Guare and her Mother live in the lonesome district of West Munster in Ireland. Their cabin is the only one within a three mile radius. One day along comes the Brown man on his Brown horse wearing Bro...

Legal loopholes, mistaken identity and unreliable evidence all feature in this story of a murder trial where all is not as 'cut and dried' as it seems. An old woman has been murdered, but who did it, and will retribution be forthcoming?

A selection of fictional murders committed by reason of love and hate: crimes passionnel. Stories: Mad / de Maupassant First Hate / Algernon Blackwood A Double Tragedy / Louisa M. Alcott Inside Information / Stephen Phillips Who Killed Zebedee? / Wilkie Collins. A thrilling and involving collection of blood-thirsty and psychologically intreguing cr...