The worldwide phenomenon from the best-selling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning  His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence - a mast...

Eye of the Needle

When sudden emergencies arise, James Bond is there to meet them. Whether dealing with the assassination of a Cuban thug in America, the destruction of an international heroin ring, or a mysterious death in the Seychelles, 007 gets the job done in his...

For Your Eyes Only, and Other Stories

A Sunday Times best seller.  A breathtaking and beautiful exploration of our planet, this groundbreaking audiobook accompanies the BBC One TV series, providing the deepest answers to the simplest questions.  'What is motion?'  'Why is every snowflake...

Forces of Nature

Framed as a first-person narrative from the eponymous horse, this much-loved family classic follows Black Beauty's journey from a well-born colt to a painfully overworked cab horse. Brimming with vivid detail and relatable characters, each chapter of...

Black Beauty

A companion book to the critically acclaimed BBC series.  The best-selling authors of Wonders of the Universe are back with another blockbuster, a groundbreaking exploration of our Solar System as it has never been seen before.  Mercury, a lifeless v...

The Planets

Young Claudio has fallen for the lovely heiress Hero, who also loves him. Their path to the altar looks smooth, until the evil Don John intervenes.  All ends happily, thanks to his incompetent assassins and the lucky discoveries of the bungling const...

Much Ado about Nothing

Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives to the unprecedented experience of the war itself.

Birdsong

This novel centres on the friendship of William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, who is searching for someone to write his biography.

The Swimming Pool Library

Set in the Dorset landscape familiar to Hardy novels, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-do-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of a dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Mrs Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked.

The Woodlanders

From a noted Cambridge zoologist, a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space. Scientists are confident that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet...

The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy

A glamorous prep school girl goes missing after a love affair with a teacher in this irresistible thriller from France's number one best-selling novelist.  Twenty-five years ago, on a campus paralyzed by a snowstorm, beautiful 19-year-old Vinca Rockw...

The Reunion

Oscar Wilde's first play confronts the hypocrisy of public "morality" compared with genuine, private kindness. When it opened in 1892, Lady Windermere's Fan was an instant success and now, more than a century later, it continues to be revived frequen...

Lady Windermere's Fan

A provocative and inspiring look at the future of humanity and science from world-renowned scientist and best-selling author Martin Rees. Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential ris...

On the Future

In Aramanth, exams are everything. When Kestrel rebels, her family are sentenced to the harshest punishment. To save them, Kestrel learns the secret of the wind singer and she sets out to discover the true source of the evil that grips Aramanth.

The Wind Singer

Naxos AudioBooks continues its new series of Great Poets, represented by collections of their most popular poems in one program. Although John Keats had a short life, he produced a series of outstanding poems, many of which appeared first in letters ...

The Great Poets

Henry V, which dates from 1599, is the last in Shakespeare's series of plays based on English history. It is also, of course, among the Bard's best-known and most-performed works. It's given rich new life here by a full-cast presentation that combines classic literature with classical music. 

Henry V

Tim Cornish thought he'd gotten away with murder. For months after he'd killed his lover off the Alaskan coast, there hadn't been a word. But then the letters started to arrive. It seems that someone knows what Tim has done.... This compelling thrill...

No Night Is Too Long

An unabridged audio edition of Graham Greene's classic gang-war thriller. A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold, who is determined to avenge a death.... Read by Samuel West.

Brighton Rock

John Keats' letters paint an unforgettably vivid and moving picture of the richly productive but also tragic final years of the poet's life. As he ponders on the nature of the writer's craft, he must first confront his brother's death from tuberculos...

Realms of Gold

The young and virtuous physician's daughter Helena desperately loves Count Bertram, but he regards her as beneath his notice. When Helena cures the king of France of a mortal illness, he rewards her with Bertram's hand, but before their marriage can ...

All's Well That Ends Well

A timeless classic - one of Jacqueline Wilson's Top Ten Books to Read Aloud. This is the story of the Velveteen Rabbit's journey towards becoming real - through the love of a child …  This gentle, beautiful recording is perfect for bedtime. It includes a story reading, soundtrack, and a song, all voiced by Samuel West.

The Velveteen Rabbit

Five years have passed. The city of Aramanth has become kinder - weaker. When the ruthless soldiers of the Mastery strike, the city is burned, and the Manth people are taken into slavery. Kestrel Hath is left behind, separated from her beloved brothe...

Slaves of the Mastery

In this late romantic novel, the author explores the powers of telepathy while telling a skilful tale that interweaves suspense with the familiar ingredients of Victorian melodrama.

The Two Destinies

BBC Radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard. Ri...

Richard II

Led by Hanno and Ira Hath, 32 mostly Manth survivors of the fall of the Mastery search for the fabled Homeland. Ira knows that as long as she feels the warmth on her face, despite the wintry conditions, they are heading in the right direction. She also knows that, according to the prophecy, she will die when they reach the homeland. She grows weaker with every step. Hanno must keep up the spirits of the marchers on the gruelling.

Firesong

In this BBC full-cast production of The Merchant of Venice, love, bigotry, greed and justice are entwined.  Shakespeare's classic play explores the eternal themes of love and hate, mercy and justice, with parallel stories centred on the moneylender, ...

The Merchant of Venice

A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson’s epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Sol...

Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1

Last Bus to Woodstock is the novel that began Colin Dexter's phenomenally successful Inspector Morse series.  'Do you think I'm wasting your time, Lewis?'  Lewis was nobody's fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity.  'Yes, sir.'  An engaging...

Last Bus to Woodstock

An urgent account of the revolution that has upended the news business, authored by one of the most accomplished journalists of our time. Technology has radically altered the news landscape. Once-powerful newspapers have lost their clout or been purc...

Breaking News

In this BBC full-cast production of Coriolanus, allies and enemies become blurred just as Rome is in sight.... Coriolanus tells of a proud Roman general who captures the town Corioli but subsequently falls from favour with the Roman people. He allies...

Coriolanus

The complete first and second series of Mark Tavener’s BBC Radio 4 comedy thriller set in a crisis-ridden Cambridge college. When prominent don and celebrity TV historian Peter Devanti dies after dining at High Table, his colleague Gilbert suspects f...

High Table, Lower Orders: The Complete Series 1 and 2

A special edition of Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan’s 70th anniversary.  It is 1944 and weeks before D-day. The Allies are disguising their invasion plans with a phony armada of ships and planes....

When sudden emergencies arise, James Bond is there to meet them. Whether dealing with the assassination of a Cuban thug in America, the destruction of an international heroin ring or a mysterious death in the Seychelles, 007 gets the job done in his ...

For Your Eyes Only and Other Stories

Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3

From Socrates to Charles I, Danton to Lincoln - here are some of history's most significant figures with their most important speeches. Fighting for justice, for freedom of speech, and sometimes even for their own lives, these orators demonstrate the finest resources of language in the service of the most dramatic issues of their day. 

Great Speeches in History

Winner of the 2014 AUDIE award for Best Original Work In early 20th Century England Hamilton James Macaulay relates the tale of how he found himself in a Scarborough Bric-a-brac shop. The owner of the shop has 13 long playing records that each contai...

Thirteen

A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson's epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Sol...

Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2

Morse was beset by a nagging feeling. Most of his fanciful notions about the Taylor girl had evaporated, and he had begun to suspect that further investigation into Valerie's disappearance would involve little more than sober and tedious routine.... ...

Last Seen Wearing

Naxos AudioBooks continues its popular The Great Poets series with A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman. Published at the author’s own expense in 1896, after rejection from publishers, the collection contains a cycle of 63 poems. Despite exploring theme...

A Shropshire Lad

In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did in Why Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible - and fascinating - to everyone.The subatomic realm has a re...

The Quantum Universe

A traveller on a train returning to London smells the burn of brakes as it hisses to a stop in the middle of the countryside. He sees a white-faced woman leap from the train and race to the aid of a sheep stranded on its back, unable to rise, in a fi...

An Imaginative Experience

Here are some of the finest narrative poems in the English language, dating from an age of rich inspiration: the 19th century. All tell powerful stories of human passion and endeavor, often reflected in vivid evocations of the medieval world. Includes "The Eve of St. Agnes", "Morte d'Athur", and "Peter Grimes".

Great Narrative Poems of the Romantic Age

In Second World War Poland, a prisoner closes his eyes and pictures a sunlit cricket ground. Across the yard of a Victorian poorhouse, a man is too ashamed to acknowledge the son he gave away. In a 19th-century French village, an old servant understa...

A Possible Life

Morse had never ceased to wonder why, with the staggering advances in medical science, all pronouncements concerning times of death seemed so disconcertingly vague.  The newly appointed member of the Oxford Examinations Syndicate was deaf, provincial...

The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

The acclaimed political thriller that first introduced the unforgettable Francis Urquhart MP and launched Michael Dobbs’ best-selling career.  Michael Dobbs’ entertaining tale of skulduggery and intrigue within the Palace of Westminster has been a hu...

House of Cards

Winner of the Booker Prize 1990 Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets.  Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.  Cover illustration © Aitch.

Possession

"I'm youth, I'm joy...I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg." The story of the little boy who refused to grow up has captured the imagination of generations of children (and the adults they grew into) since its publication in 1904. Peter P...

Peter Pan

The sweet countenance of Reason greeted Morse serenely when he woke and told him that it would be no bad idea to have a quiet look at the problem itself before galloping off to a solution.  Chief Inspector Morse was alone among the congregation in su...

Service of All the Dead

The thought suddenly occurred to Morse that this would be a marvellous time to murder a few of the doddery old bachelor dons. No wives to worry about their whereabouts; no landladies to whine about the unpaid rents. In fact nobody would miss most of ...

The Riddle of the Third Mile

The universe is in grave danger. The very fabric of time and space is being altered. The Doctor and Lucie must race against time to prevent the destruction of everything they hold dear. They may have to sacrifice everything to save the universe. Even themselves....  This release also includes bonus interviews with the cast. Note: This adventure continues from Doctor Who: Sisters of the Flame. 

Doctor Who - The Vengeance of Morbius

Glenda Jackson stars in this award-winning BBC Radio series, inspired by literature's greatest ever whistleblower, Émile Zola, and his epic saga of the Rougon-Macquart family. First published between 1870 and 1893, Émile Zola’s 20-book cycle chronicl...

Blood, Sex and Money

Morse switched on the gramophone to 'play' and sought to switch his mind away from all the terrestrial troubles. Sometimes, this way, he almost managed to forget. But not tonight...   Anne Scott's address was scribbled on a crumpled note in the pocke...

The Dead of Jericho

We are living through the greatest communication revolution since Gutenberg. In Breaking News Alan Rusbridger offers an open, personal and agenda-setting account of how we arrived at the news world of today.  The President of the United States regula...

Quietly, rather movingly, Strange was making his plea: 'Christ knows why, Lewis, but Morse will always put himself out for you.' As he put the phone down, Lewis knew that Strange had been right...in the case of the Swedish Maiden, the pair of them we...

The Way Through the Woods

Brought to you by Penguin. Vintage Classics Murdoch: Funny, subversive, fearless and fiercely intelligent, Iris Murdoch was one of the great writers of the 20th century. To celebrate her centenary, Vintage Classics presents special editions of her gr...

Under the Net

Human life is a staggeringly strange thing. On the surface of a ball of rock falling around a nuclear fireball in the blackness of a vacuum, the laws of nature conspired to create a naked ape that can look up at the stars and wonder where it came fro...

Human Universe

As he drove his chief down to Kidlington, Lewis returned the conversation to where it had begun.   'You haven't told me what you think about this fellow Owens - the dead woman's next-door neighbour.'   'Death is always the next-door neighbour,' said ...

Death Is Now My Neighbour

Samuel West reads ten of Rudyard Kipling’s famous tales, as broadcast on BBC Radio 4.  "How the Whale Got His Throat", "How the Leopard Got His Spots", "The Beginning of the Armadillos", "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin", "The Cat That Walked By Hims...

Just So Stories

'Where does this all leave us, sir?'   'Things are moving fast.'   'We're getting near the end, you mean?'   'We were always near the end.'  The murder of Yvonne Harrison had left Thames Valley CID baffled. A year after the dreadful crime they are st...

The Remorseful Day

He looked overweight around the midriff, though nowhere else, and she wondered whether perhaps he drank too much. He looked weary, as if he had been up most of the night conducting his investigations....  For Oxford, the arrival of 27 American touris...

The Jewel That Was Ours

Written by Matthew Solon. This play tells the story of the tense negotiation that followed the 2010 general election, which led to the country's first post-war coalition. Based on interviews with those who were at the meetings, political journalists ...

Five Days in May (Dramatised)

Bizarre and bewildering - that's what so many murder investigations in the past had proved to be.... In this respect, at least, Lewis was correct in his thinking. What he could not have known was what unprecedented anguish the present case would caus...

The Daughters of Cain

Morse sought to hide his disappointment. So many people in the Haworth Hotel that fateful evening had been wearing some sort of disguise - a change of dress, a change of makeup, a change of partner, a change of attitude, a change of life almost; and ...

The Secret of Annexe 3

That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks....   The body of Joanna Franks was found at...

The Wench Is Dead

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny gi...

Often described as ‘the father of realism’, Henrik Ibsen was a pioneer of modernist drama. He influenced playwrights as diverse as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Incl...

Henrik Ibsen

In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young Scottish woman, goes to occupied France on a dual mission: to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and to search for her lover, an English airman called Peter Gregory, who has gone mi...

Charlotte Gray

The number one sensation with over half a million copies sold in France.  French Riviera, winter 1992. On a freezing night, as her high school campus is engulfed by a snowstorm, 19-year-old Vinca Rockwell runs away with her philosophy teacher with wh...

Four full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's finest history plays. Introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these four iconic productions, featuring star casts, bring Shakespeare's gripping histories to life in all their rich complexity. Henry IV, Pa...

BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Four History Plays

The year is 1199, the place the Welsh Marches, where young Arthur de Caldicot practises his tilting and archery, learns to be a dutiful page to his father, and waits impatiently to grow up and become a knight. One day his father's friend Merlin gives...

The Seeing Stone

The heartrending story of a British boy's four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War.  Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mes...

Empire of the Sun

Juno Marlowe hurries away from the thundering planes overhead, having just said goodbye to the two men she has always loved. She finds herself rescued by a stranger, frail and older than his years, who offers the protection of his house and a little more.

Part of the Furniture

Morse had solved so many mysteries in his life. Was he now, he wondered, beginning to glimpse the solution to the greatest mystery of them all?  How can the discovery of a short story by a beautiful Oxford graduate lead Chief Inspector Morse to her m...

Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories

Penguin Classics presents Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Samuel West.  As you got older...you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he per...

Jude the Obscure

A collection of political tales - first published in British workers’ magazines - selected and introduced by acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appe...

Workers' Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain

A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime recording of Samuel West reading from the novella The Aspern Papers by Henry James, set against the decaying grandeur of Venice. Originally broadcast 26 April - 4 May 2010.  Henry James took as inspiration for this tale ...

The Aspern Papers (BBC Radio 4: Book at Bedtime)

Arthur de Caldicot, now page to Lord Stephen, sets off to Bruges and thence across France to Venice as the first stage in the preparations for going on a Crusade. On his journey, he looks into the shining stone that Merlin gave him and sees the legen...

Arthur At the Crossing Places

Three full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's most famous Roman plays. Featuring all-star casts and introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these three iconic productions of Shakespeare's dynamic Roman histories are full of political intrigue, passi...

BBC Radio Shakespeare

Francis Urquhart’s eventful career as Prime Minister comes to a spectacular end in the final volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy - now reissued in audio. He schemed his way to power in House of Cards and had a memorable battle of wills with the ne...

The Final Cut

It is 1202, and thousands of knights and footsoldiers are mustering in Venice for the Fourth Crusade. Among them is young Arthur de Caldicot, squire to Lord Stephen. It is thrilling to be part of this huge gathering; but as Christian falls upon Chris...

King of the Middle March

Allie Esiri’s anthology, A Poet for Every Day of the Year, is the perfect introduction to 366 of the world’s greatest ever verse writers. Perfect for listening and sharing with all the family, it is bursting at the seams with familiar favourites and ...

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