In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg visits Merthyr Tydfil to look at the plight of the miners in the Depression. The industrial communities of South Wales, built first on iron smelting in the 18th century, and coal in the 19th, had known great prosperity. Merthyr Tydfil was once the largest town in Wales, and in 1914, 25...

Visiting the Hebridean island of Mull today, it's not long before someone mentions the steep decline in population that the Scottish highlands and islands suffered 150 to 200 years ago. And it was a depopulation that the crofters were powerless to do anything about-in a phrase that sounds a knell almost as chilling as today's 'ethnic cleansing', th...

Melvyn Bragg looks at how English has evolved over 1,000 years, looking at the disappearance of old dialects like that of Cumbria, and how it has been enriched by foreign languages, from Latin, Old French, and then dozens more as conquest, trade and immigration played their part in recent centuries.

Dr Heidigger's Experiment is a short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, about a scientist who claims to have been sent water from the Fountain of Youth. He calls together his old friends and invites them to taste the waters. The tale explores the transience of youth, and the desires that many have but few acknowledge.

This ghostly story by O.Henry tells the tale of Danny, on his first day away from home, in the 'Big City'. Looking around his new apartment, he begins to discover hints of who the previous occupant could have been. This story about beauty, warmth, loneliness and regret will touch the heart of any who read it.

Bingo Little, friend of butler Jeeves' master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club, is also a hopeless romantic. Our heroes Jeeves and Wooster often try to help him into or out of romantic entanglements but to little avail, or at least they often make matters worse! Sublime comedy from the master of humor.

Richard "Bingo" Little falls in love with the daughter of a left-wing (probably communist or socialist) leader called Charlotte Corday Rowbotham. In an attempt to get close to her, Little joins the group, called the Heralds of the Red Dawn, whose aims are to "massacre the bourgeoisie, sack Park Lane and disembowel the hereditary aristocracy". This...

Nothing in this world ever seems to be absolutely perfect, and that is certainly the case in this story. Young Billy, in love with a young and beautiful woman, attempts to woo her by making plans to rescue someone with his trusted group of friends. However, the scheme doesn't quite go according to plan, and the consequences are not necessarily as d...

A typically shambolic and hilarious romp from the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster, who find themselves embroiled in college initiation rites in this story of students, aunts and three rather irate cats. Throw into the heady mix of comedic fancy a luncheon appointment with Sir Roderick, and the scene is set for a farcical showdown of epic proportions....

A comical romp of an adventure involving Jeeves, Wooster and 'Bicky', whose uncle, the Duke of Chiswick, has the potential to be a wealthy benefactor to his nephew. Unfortunately, the Duke is what's known in the right circles as a 'hard-boiled egg' - ie 'notoriously the most prudent spender in England'. When Bicky contacts Bertie, our jaunt begins,...

Bertie is feeling really rather spiffing, when he receives a surprise visit from the writer Lady Malvern and her son Wilmot. A friend of Bertie's Aunt Agatha, Lady Malvern requests that Wilmot stay with Bertie for a couple of weeks whilst she is away in America. Whilst not perfectly happy with the idea, Bertie agrees, to find that the seemingly mil...

Hapless and often hopeless romantic Bingo Little has fallen for yet another young lady in this Jeeves and Wooster story of terrible cravats, far-from-fine dining and love's perhaps-not-so-young dream. Bertie is rather confounded by Bingo's love for a girl below his rightful station, so long-suffering Jeeves is roped in to talk to Bingo's uncle, who...

A short story first published in the United States in The Saturday Evening Post on November 28, 1916, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1923 edition of Strand Magazine. Its first book publication. From 'Carry on, Jeeves'. Uncle Willoughby guest-stars in this story of engagement, surprise and of course, a whole lot of raucous comedy.

This tale is a cultural insight into the exotic land of India. Based in Narsipur, where panthers and leopards are hunted, the narrator is assisted in this story by local shikari, Subhar. He is unlike other natives, and the pair adventure together in this compelling study of life in India and story of big game hunting.

A surprisingly shocking short story which is darkly comical, mainly concerning female submission and the necessary loss of identity to survive in an unfair male-dominated world. Humphrey's mother meets an intriguing stranger at a dance and agrees to go for a walk with him. The events that follow shape the rest of her life, that of her husband and o...

Actor J. Kingston Platt makes an appearance in this amusing story about a supposed 'get away' to the country that is not all that it seems. Asked by his agent to accompany him and his girlfriend down to a country cottage in the Cotswolds, Kigston Platt reluctantly agrees, to find out that there is more to the trip than meets the eye. Entangled furt...

Holidays need to be reformed. Children work really hard at school but don't get enough time off from school to rest their brains. The sometimes- irascible William Brown holds great stock in these statements. He believes that he sorely needs to rest his brain and that altering the school holidays time to term time, and term time to holiday time is a...

Jimmy's brother Roger and Roger's two friends Charles and Bill are an inseparable trio who call themselves 'The Three Musketeers'. One morning, they set out in search of an adventure, hoping to find some valuable hidden treasure. There's only one small set-back: they don't know where to look for it, although their preparation is second-to-none. Cha...

Home for the Holidays' is a wonderful story of everyone's favourite loveable scamp William Brown. Taken from its namesake collection from CSA Word, this unabridged story is a chucklesome treat that sees William getting up to his trademark mischief and driving the adults around him to distraction and despair - even if he does have dubiously good int...

An insight into early science fiction full of marvelous imagination and rare scientific genius reaching far beyond the author's time.

When Irish protagonist Bryden suffers from blood poisoning, his doctor advises him to go on a voyage overseas to aid his recuperation. He travels to Ireland from New York, and on returning home he gets a job - also a big shock at how different Ireland is to New York...and starts to reevaluate the advantages of a slower, village life.