In the summer of 1959, an Antiguan immigrant in north west London lives the last day of his life, unknowingly caught in someone else's story of hate and division, resistance and revolt. A mother looks back on her early forays into matters of the human heart - and other parts of the human body - considering the ways in which desire is always an act...

Be cruel to animals at your peril - this story extols the virtues of being kind to all creatures to achieve happiness in life, a lesson that our unhappy protagonist is far from learning, whether in regards to human or animal life. A shocking story told with a dry dark humor, this tale is to be heard to be believed and is a true classic from the mas...

Kabu kabu-unregistered illegal Nigerian taxis-generally get you where you need to go. Nnedi Okorafor's Kabu Kabu, however, takes the listener to exciting, fantastic, magical, occasionally dangerous, and always imaginative locations you didn't know you needed. This debut short story collection by an award-winning author includes notable previously p...

In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all of Hilary Mantel's gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in 'Comma'; nurses clash in 'Harley Street' over something more than professional differences. Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain r...

A series of three brand new short stories written and performed by leading comedians. Stairlift Us Up Where We Belong, written and read by Sarah Millican, is a poignant and funny monologue exploring the tricky turning point in a woman's life, when she goes from being thought of as useful to becoming invisible. In Spooky and the Van, written and rea...

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.

Three more short stories which capture the atmosphere of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Recorded live at The Pleasance last week, leading comedians perform their own work in front of a packed audience. The Woman Who Sniffed, written and read by Susan Calman, is a wry look at office politics. Just When You Thought It Was Safe to be Green, written an...

Three short stories written and performed by leading new comedians at The Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh as part of the Festival Fringe. In May Contain Nuts, by Janey Godley, a woman glimpses her own mortality when she calculates that only twenty-seven years separate her from her cantankerous father. The Hair of the Dead, by Sarah Millican, is a mo...

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.

The master of surreal and wonderful fiction presents a story about one of his most famous characters - the perpetually grinning and ever-riddling Cheshire Cat. Alice's friend/tormentor in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat has been immortalized in art, film, cartoon, television and now on audio.

Set in the gold and quartz-mining community, this queer and amusing little vignette explains why Dick Baker's cat, who always had such a propensity for finding the premium gold-panning plots, takes strongly against quartz mining and never is to be swayed otherwise. A sweet, funny and well-written short, that showcases Twain's wit and skill brillian...

In a sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the hush-hush floor of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, the characters we encounter range from young dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning. Gentle,...

After a six-year hiatus, a man and a woman who used to be lovers or close friends meet in a caf‚. An insightful study of relationships and nostalgic ideals, this story also looks at the difference money, or the lack of it, can make, especially if one half of a couple (romantic or otherwise) is financially better off than the other.

A compilation of five chilling stories from M. R. James, including four previously unreleased stories and originally recorded for the Radio 4 'Woman's Hour' in Christmas 2007. M. R. James is an important part of the nation's celebration of Christmas. In the oral tradition, many of his thirty or so tales were penned as Christmas Eve entertainments a...

In the tradition of Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads', Lynne Truss' twelve monologues are about love, romance, friendship and family. Here are six men and six women, each with a very different story to tell, ranging from the wife who feels better when her husband disappears to the pedant who undergoes a TV makeover and the Olympic swimmer who can't es...

Our narrator stays on a Mediterranean island much longer than he intended to for a number of reasons. One reason is to prove his mother and his girlfriend wrong, who both say that to decamp to an island for a whole winter to write a novel is melodramatic and rather a clich‚. Most nights, to abate loneliness and pass the time, he talks to the...

Jane Austen makes two appearances on this brilliant collection that also includes such revered writers as Mary Shelly and Virginia Woolf. With stories ranging from tear-jerkers to passionate tales of love and jealousy, this collection has something for everyone, young or old, male or female.

Kurt Vonnegut is a master of contemporary American Literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Siren's of Titan in 1959 and established him as a "true artist" (NY Times) with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He is, as Graham Greene has declared, "one of the best living American writers." W...

A foolhardy mouse named Mervyn with great faith in his own courage and invincibility, sets off to antagonize the household cat, Pouncetta. His family and friends fear the worst and lament his untimely demise, they may be surprised by the strange turn of events, facilitated in part to a perhaps unduly paranoid feline...

Another top-notch selection of Irish stories, once again superbly read by that master story-teller, T.P. McKenna. Stories: Grace - James Joyce, Home Sickness - George Moore, The Ghost & The Bone-setter - Sheridan Le Fanu, Two Or Three Witnesses - C.E.Montague, The Stolen Sheep - John Banim

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...