The famous Middle English poem by an anonymous Northern England poet is beautifully translated by fellow poet Simon Armitage. This audiobook features a brilliant reading of the translation by Bill Wallis; as a bonus, Wallis also masterfully tackles t...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Tumtum and Nutmeg is the first of a series of children's books by author Emily Bearn. The book is about Mr and Mrs Nutmouse who live in Nutmouse Hall, situated within the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage. Tumtum and Nutmeg have a wonderful life but the children who live in Rose Cottage, Arthur and Lucy, are miserable. So, one day Tumtum and Nutmeg decide to cheer them up.

Tumtum and Nutmeg

Although we think we know the story of the Titanic - the famously unsinkable ship that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America in April 1912 - little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy.  How di...

Shadow of the Titanic

London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright, and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark s...

Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance

When Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in h...

Imperium

There are some new residents in Rose Cottage. Bits of cake have been eaten, homework has been sabotaged and the doll's house has been trashed. But who are these mysterious intruders? Tumtum and Nutmeg make it their mission to get to the bottom of these unwanted house guests and when they finally uncover the truth the Nutmouses are horrified by what they find...

Tumtum and Nutmeg: Trouble at Rose Cottage

Horace Rumpole - cigar-smoking, claret-drinking, Wordsworth-spouting defender of some unlikely clients - often speaks of the great murder trial, which revealed his talents as an advocate and made his reputation down at the Bailey when he was still a ...

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders

Rumpole isn't particularly fond of Christmas; he finds it has a horrible habit of dragging on as he and She Who Must Be Obeyed go through the usual rituals in Froxbury Mansions.  After the exchange of presents (lavender water for her, a tie for him) ...

Rumpole at Christmas

An anthology of over 50 classic poems, read by some of our finest actors. This collection contains a selection of the very best poems, from verses inspired by love to war poetry, nature poems and children's rhymes. Here are much-loved favourites such...

Great Poems

Hidden in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage is the most delightful little house. Shh, it’s a secret. No one knows it’s there... This is the home of Tumtum and Nutmeg... When Arthur and Lucy are sent to stay with their Uncle Jeremy at the seaside, Tumtum and Nutmeg decide to go along and keep an eye on them. But then the mice stumble upon an abandoned doll’s house and a mysterious treasure map - and all sorts of adventures unfold!

Tumtum and Nutmeg: A Seaside Adventure

Victor Maskell has been betrayed. After the announcement in the Commons, the hasty revelation of his double life of wartime espionage, his photograph is all over the papers. His disgrace is public, his position as curator of the Queen’s pictures terminated… Maskell writes his own testament, in an act not unlike the restoration of one of his beloved pictures, in order for the process of verification and attribution to begin. 

The Untouchable

Major Ernest Pettigrew (Ret’d) is not interested in the frivolity of the modern world. Since his wife Nancy’s death, he has tried to avoid the constant bother of nosy village women, his grasping, ambitious son, and the ever spreading suburbanisation ...

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Rome, 63 BC. In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, seven men are struggling for power. Cicero is consul, Caesar his ruthless young rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina...

Lustrum

They dismissed the Mary Deare as ‘a piece of leaking ironmongery taken off the junk heap’. For 40 years this 6,000-ton freighter had tramped the seas, suffered shipwreck twice, and been torpedoed three times in two world wars. Then one March night, b...

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

'Dear Father Christmas, I'm very sorry that you couldn't come last year because the chimney was bricked up. We asked Pa to unblock it, so you could get down this time, but he said he couldn't because the wind would come in and we'd all be very cold.'...

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole whose court scenes are proverbial, and whose home is ruled by Mrs Rumpole, is back in these short stories by John Mortimer. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

The Trials of Rumpole

We last left Rumpole in his hospital bed after his sudden collapse in court. Now our hero finds himself in the Primrose Path nursing home - or a hospice as he persists in describing it. Things aren't looking good for Rumpole - until suddenly he begin...

Rumpole and the Primrose Path

In the dark days of the war on terror, only one man can be counted on to fight injustice, defend the innocent, and insist on a fair and decent trial for all, contrary to New Labour's new anti-terrorism laws. Rumpole's wig may be yellowing at the root...

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole continues to juggle the vagaries of the law, the ambiguities of crime, and the contradictions of the human heart. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

Rumpole and the Golden Thread

Hidden in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage is the most delightful house. Shh, it's a secret. No one knows it's there...  This is the home of Tumtum and Nutmeg. When General Marchmouse unexpectedly joins the Nutmouses on a camping trip things soon b...

ASBOs may be the pride and joy of New Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole - he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. When one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street, Rumpole soon realizes something fishy is going on.

The Anti-Social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole

This wonderful creation by G. K. Chesterton is a familiar favourite to many as a TV series in the 70s with Kenneth More. Chesterton's other works include The Man Who Knew Too Much.  These four stories test Father Brown in many ways, creating headache...

Father Brown

"I see murder in this unhappy hand...." When Mrs. Robinson, palmist to the Prince of Wales, reads Oscar Wilde's hand she cannot know what she has predicted. Nor can Oscar know what he has set in motion when, that same evening, he proposes a game of "...

Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder

In this collection of Rumpole stories the comic, courageous, and corpulent 'great defender of muddled and sinful humanity' is joined by a winning cast of villains and victims in tales whose wry humour and sparkling wit deftly send up the legal system...

Rumpole and the Angel of Death

Hidden in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage is the most delightful little house. Shh, it’s a secret. No one knows it’s there... This is the home of Tumtum and Nutmeg... When General Marchmouse takes Arthur’s toy bus for an adventure he gets a big surprise. A circus has come to town! But there’s more to this travelling troupe than meets the eye... The sixth fantastic 'Tumtum and Nutmeg' story from bestselling author Emily Bearn.

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole is back with seven marvelous stories by John Mortimer. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

Rumpole's Last Case

The undersecretary of the British embassy in Istanbul has died while attempting to swim the Dardanelles Straits. The circumstances of his death have to be investigated, so the Foreign Office sends out an officer: Sandor Seymour, an unobtrusive Special Branch detective.

A Dead Man in Istanbul

Cairo of 1908 lives by and in its cafes. Now, suddenly, Cairo's cafe culture is threatened by gangs in the protection business. The task falls to Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt and head of the secret police, to find out who is behind this threat to Cairo.

The Mingrelian Conspiracy

From the author who brought the world Paddington Bear, comes the new book in the delightful Parisian mystery series featuring Monsieur Pamplemousse and his canine partner, Pomme Frites.  In this latest adventure, they must get to the bottom of a myst...

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution

As the clouds of World War I threaten to engulf Egypt, Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt, head of the Secret Police, confronts a series of personal and professional challenges, from the pitfalls of his marriage, to a riot in Cairo's Camel Market.

The Point in the Market

Paris, 1883: Oscar Wilde, aged 27, has come to the city of decadence to discover its charms, to rekindle his friendship with the divine Sarah Bernhardt, and to collaborate with France’s most celebrated actor-manager, Edmond La Grange. Oscar discovers...

Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile

An anthology of over 60 classic love poems, read by some of our finest actors. Love has always been the supreme inspiration for poets, whether romantic or platonic, reciprocated or unrequited. This collection contains a range of the very best love po...

Great Love Poems

Just before dawn one late-summer morning, Captain Bruno Courrèges is roused from sleep by the wail of the town siren atop the Mairie, summoning the volunteer firemen of St Denis. Bruno, the only policeman in the small Périgord town, follows the fire ...

The Dark Vineyard

Alexander Cleave, actor, has left his career and his family behind and banished himself to his childhood home. He wants to retire from life, but finds this impossible in a house brimming with presences, some ghostly, some undeniably human. Memories, ...

Eclipse

Is the Greek alphabet all Greek to you? Is geometry your Achilles heel and does your knowledge of Homer have more to do with The Simpsons than the Sirens?  From engineering and architecture to drama and democracy, the world around us is founded on th...

A Classical Education

Four classic tales of the undead, read by Bill Wallis, Anthony Head, John Telfer and Cornelius Garrett.'The Vampyre' sees a young English gentleman accompanying an aristocrat on a tour of Europe. But Aubrey soon discovers that the charming Lord Ruthv...

Vampire Horror!

The year is 1931. The new and luxurious transatlantic liner Empress of Britain is on her eastward passage. Among the first-class passengers on board are two English confidence tricksters, making a discreet exit from a little awkwardness they have lef...

Closed Circle

Having delivered a particularly stirring speech at his recently deceased colleague's funeral, Monsieur Pamplemousse is more than a little disturbed when the coffin explodes during the ceremony. Luckily, his faithful hound Pommes Frites gave out a war...

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives

Naples, 1913. Sun-baked, blue-skied, and with its amazing bay it is one of the most beautiful spots in Italy. But it’s also one of the most corrupt. A new arrival here is a junior British official, Scampion, who has already been banished from Florenc...

A Dead Man in Naples

The Old Inn clings precariously to a cliff top above a storm-lashed ocean. Ethan and Cathy are sick. Their father has left them to fetch a doctor... but they are not alone for long.  A visitor comes begging for shelter, and so the children, who have ...

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship

During his time as an inspector with the Paris Sûreté, Monsieur Pamplemousse had been 'in at the death' on more than one occasion, but even he had to admit that the phrase took on an entirely new meaning when he was present at the spectacular ending ...

Monsieur Pamplemousse Hits the Headlines

Life in south-west rural France is not the sleepy idyll you might suppose. Local duck and goose farms are being attacked by animal rights protestors attempting to halt the production of foie gras. A senior policeman has been shot by terrorists believ...

The Crowded Grave

Here are 12 specially selected favourite love poems, read by acclaimed actors Bill Wallis and Jenny Agutter. This literary bouquet of blooms includes Andrew Marvell's classic "To His Coy Mistress"; a beautiful extract from "The Song of Solomon"; Chri...

A Dozen Red Roses

These five classic mysteries offer chilling darkness, drama, and intrigue. Includes: "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe; "Silver Blaze" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Secret of the Growing Gold" by Bram Stoker; "The Honour of Israel Gow" by G. K. Chesterton; and "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens.

Five Bloodcurdling Mysteries

First appearing around 1400, The Alliterative Morte Arthur, or The Death of King Arthur, is one of the most widely beloved and spectacularly alliterative poems ever penned in Middle English. Now, from the internationally acclaimed translator of Sir G...

The Death of King Arthur

Throughout John Mortimer's career, he established profound friendships with people accused of various crimes. He also indulged his passion for writing, penning Paradise Postponed and a series of stories about Rumpole, for whom he was often mistaken. With wit, wisdom and tenderness, he has written the story of his life.

Murderers and Other Friends

Le Guide, France’s top gastronomic guide, is failing to whet the appetite of its audience in America. Bribed by the director with offers of some time off, Monsieur Pamplemousse agrees to flex his literary muscles in a bid to address the problem by wr...

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint

IQ scores have the power to determine the chances we have in life: the people we meet, the schools we attend, the jobs we get, the lives we live. Very few of us, however, understand what IQ tests and ratings really mean. In this fascinating, provocative book, Stephen Murdoch explains the turbulent history and controversial current uses of intelligence testing

Six full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's classic tragedies. Treachery, betrayal and fatal power struggles are among the themes of these six iconic productions of Shakespeare's timeless tragedies. Featuring all-star casts, they are introdu...

BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies

'Rumpole and the Christmas Party' sees Rumpole celebrating with his Chambers colleagues and their wives and partners. There is plenty of claret, paper streamers and mistletoe, but where is She Who Must Be Obeyed?  Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

France’s Périgord region is the home of the black truffle and at five thousand euros a kilo, the exquisite ‘Black Diamond’ is a treasured local asset. When reports come in that this unique delicacy is being adulterated with a cheaper Chinese version,...

Black Diamond

Maggie Perowne is head of Old Masters at Klinsky's auction house in London. Ben Glazier is an art expert. Ben, not as young as he was, is inescapably in love with Maggie, but she has an unfortunate taste for such dubious men as the Hooray Henry in th...

Under the Hammer

Robert Harper is going back to school, and it is the first railway journey he has ever made alone. And it is not a very usual sort of railway journey. The train stops at the tunnel’s mouth and in order to help whileaway the time, a strange woman dres...

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Thomas Hardy, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, as you ...

Gothic Tales of Terror: Volume 1

'Rumpole and the Christmas Break' sees the irrepressible barrister defending a young Muslim man who has been charged with murder. As the case adjourns for the holiday, the cards are stacked against him and the judge is hostile. Stuck in a country hou...

In Rumpole and Father Christmas, a children's party is taking place in Chambers, and Claude Erskine-Brown has booked a 'genuine and convincing' Santa Claus. The gentleman in question does indeed have a red suit, a fuller figure, and a snowy beard - but does he have more than just presents in his sack?  Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

In 'Rumpole and the Boy', Rumpole has recently concluded a blackmail case when he finds himself babysitting a small boy. Edmund turns out to have a keen interest in criminal cases and he throws some unexpected light on the case Rumpole has just tried. Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Rudyard Kipling, Guy De Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Arnold Bennett, Daniel Defoe, Edith Nesbit and M.R. James. These tales a...

Gothic Tales of Terror: Volume 7

'Rumpole and the Health Farm Murder' finds the corpulent barrister spending a most untypical Christmas at a health spa, where he is gloomily trying to survive on a not-so-festive diet of yak's milk and steamed spinach. He is soon enlivened, however, when a murder is committed and he is asked to represent the chief suspect. Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is Christopher Marlowe's emotional appeal to his lady to run away with him and live a romantic rural idyll, read by Bill Wallis.

Edward Enfield has only ever had one garden, but his dealings with it have extended over half a century. He came to his three quarters of an acre knowing nothing about growing anything, and this book is an account of his horticultural successes and f...

Growing to a Ripe Old Age

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast dramatisation of Shakespeare’s classic Cymbeline, starring Bill Wallis. Originally broadcast in December 2006 as part of the Drama on 3 collection.  Shakespeare's play, set during the Roman invasion of Britain, centres around ...

Cymbeline (BBC Radio 3: Drama on 3)

Rumpole for the Defence

Following the best-selling Summer of a Dormouse, Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian, and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would we like to leave to our descendants? Not a third-ra...

Where There's a Will

Spoiled, arrogant, filthy rich, and breathtakingly beautiful, the young Lady Godiva Dacre is exiled from the court of Good Queen Bess (who can't abide red-haired competition) to her lonely estate in distant Cumberland, where she looks forward to bull...

The Reavers

'Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces' finds the claret-loving barrister spending Christmas in chilly Coldsands, staying with an old school friend of Hilda. When he is introduced to the new owner of the Old Manor House, he is surprised to realize that ...

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Charles Dickens, HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe and Jerome K Jerome. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, ...

Gothic Tales of Terror: Volume 6

In 'Rumpole and the Millennium Bug', the loveable barrister is regretting the advent of the 21st century, and the arrival of a new, computer-literate clerk. But as Christmas approaches, can Bernard 'the Millennium Bug' prove to Rumpole that technology can be useful after all?  Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

Edgar Allan Poe, considered the greatest of all writers of macabre stories, was born in Boston, Massachesetts, in 1809. His father, an Irish-American actor, died the following year, and his mother, an English actress, the year after, in Richmond, Vir...

Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar', and 'The Cask of Amontillardo'

Shortlisted for the 2014 Folio Prize.  Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat told with bristling tenderness and black humour the stories of that Titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Old Filth QC, and his clever, misunderstood wife Betty. Last Friends...

Last Friends

Gareth Cadwallader Owen is the Mamur Zapt, the Head of the Khedive's Secret Police. However, unlike his British colleagues, Owen works for the Khedive. It's not a comfortable perch, as agitation for political and social restructuring grows. Furthermo...

The Mark of the Pasha

After the short reign and mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the election of a new Pope takes place in an atmosphere of high tension between opposing factions within the Vatican, including those who want to elect the first non-Italian Pope for ove...

Conclave (BBC Radio 4: Friday Play)

Fed up with questions about what he was going to do when he retired, Edward decided to get on his bicycle and ride from Le Havre to the Mediterranean. He struggled in Normandy to get directions from old men tipsy on Calvados by 9 am, passed by prairi...

Downhill All the Way

Andrew Marvell's classic plea to his mistress to show her love for him while they are both still young and passionate, read by Bill Wallis.

When a bunch of mean and rotten pirates, led by a captain who is afraid of blood, raid an abandoned ship, they find far more than they bargained for on board. They find a baby girl whom they happily adopt and call Violet: "Vile" for short. Soon the p...

Violet and the Mean and Rotten Pirates

With the help of Willbury Nibble QC, some friendly boxtrolls and cabbage-heads, Marjorie the frustrated inventor, and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart the Snatcher's evil plans to take over the world?

The Ratbridge Chronicles, Volume 1: Here be Monsters!

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales featuring the macabre and chilling voices of writers as diverse as Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Edith Nesbit, and MR James. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, a...

Gothic Tales of Terror: Volume 3

For over half a century, the beautiful, ruined Temple of Apollo has been in the care of the old beekeeper Gabrilis. But when the value of the land soars, he is forced to sign away his interests – and hours later he meets a violent, lonely death.  Whe...

The Taint of Midas

When it comes to motives for crime, the past can never be forgotten. Sara Hirsch is a nervous elderly spinster who still lives in the flat above a long-standing Florentine antiquities shop in which she was raised. Frightened, she calls Marshal Guarna...

Some Bitter Taste

Charlie Bone wakes one snowy morning to find every creature in the city has vanished. What strange forces have been unleashed - and does the portrait of the Red King have something to do with it? The sixth thrilling story in the Charlie Bone series, from acclaimed author Jenny Nimmo.

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King

A loyal tribute to 10 glorious years from BBC Radio 4's Week Ending team. From the archives of the legendary satirical radio comedy series Week Ending comes this compilation of satirical and sardonic sketches based on Margaret Thatcher's first 10 yea...

Week Ending with Maggie

John Betjeman was by far the most popular poet of the 20th century. His collected poems sold over two million copies. Television audiences loved his quirky evocations of landscape and architecture. As Poet Laureate, he became a national icon, but beh...

Betjeman

The outrageous and irrepressible Baroness (Ida 'Jack') Troutbeck, Mistress of St Martha's, has another cultural battle to win against the British Establishment: this time, against the horror of modern art, as demonstrated by the likes of Tracey Emin ...

Killing the Emperors

Charlie and his friends are back in danger, and the balance of power between the Children of the Red King has never been more dangerous. In a dark laboratory deep within Bloor’s Academy, Manfred and Ezekiel are brewing up a very nasty kind of trouble for Charlie Bone...  The fifth fantastic story in the Charlie Bone series, from acclaimed author Jenny Nimmo.

Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors

When a body is found on the new electric railway line, Owen has to discover whether this is just another of Egypt's revenge killings or whether the murdered man had got caught up with the power groups jostling for position around the new railway.

The Fig Tree Murder

The expansion of the congestion charge zone, prices going up on the Underground, bendy buses - all ideas brought about to try to make the traffic situation in our capital city run more smoothly. Surely there must be a better way? In fact there is. In...

Vote for Caesar

Robert Burns' well-known poem celebrating the enduring power of true love, read by Bill Wallis.

Are you a day-dreamer? A bad loser? A nose-picker? Nothing wrong with that, you might think. But just see how GRIZZLY these things can get! Includes 'Revenge of the Bogeyman', 'The Upset Stomach' and 'Bunny Boy'. More horribly enjoyable short stories from bestselling author Jamie Rix.

More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

A. A. Milne is most prominently remembered as the author of the well-known Winnie-the-Pooh tales, written for his son, Christopher Robin. Milne was born in London and raised in his father's private school, Henley House, after which he attended Westmi...

The Red House Mystery

When Marshal Guarnaccia is called upon to investigate the murder of a young woman he is convinced that there’s more to the family than meets the eye, and wonders if the girl’s father, Paoletti, might have had something to do with her death.Enlisting ...

Vita Nuova

This is a story of impossible misfortune and improbable good luck - the compelling and uplifting account of the boy who made it out of the ghetto, survived Auschwitz and Stutthof, and endured the Dresden bombing before escaping to England.

Roman's Journey

Ratbridge residents are clamouring for miracle medicine Black Jollop, but a shortage calls for action! The Nautical Laundry must journey afar to gather its secret ingredient. But things aren’t what they seem... and soon the ship is under attack. Can Arthur and his friends triumph and return to Ratbridge with a cure for all its ills? A fantastically funny tale of pirates, poison and monsters from bestselling author Alan Snow.

The Ratbridge Chronicles: Worse Things Happen at Sea

Olivia, an American-born model, married Count Ugo Brunamonti, a feckless, soon impoverished aristocrat. After his death, she supported her children by starting a fashion house, which has prospered. When she is kidnapped, the crime is reported to Mars...

Property of Blood

In this eclectic selection of biographical sketches, Bill Deedes remembers some of the key figures of the 20th century. Political heavyweights such as Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Anthony Eden are reassessed and revalued while record breaker...

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