Simon Barnes is one of Britain's leading bird writers and humorists. His weekly column in 'The Times', his essays for the RSPB magazine and his two books on bad bird-watching have made him one of the characters of the bird world. Here he reads his own illuminating introductions to the fifty main birds of Britain, supported by the distinguishing bir...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Short History of Europe written and read by Simon Jenkins. Europe is an astonishingly successful place. In this dazzling new history, bestselling author Simon Jenkins grippingly tells the story of its evolution from warring peoples to peace, wealth and freedom - a story that twists and turns from Greece a...

In this life-changing audiobook Blake D Bauer explains why depression, addiction, physical illness, unfulfilling work and relationship problems are caused by years of hiding your true emotions, denying your life purpose and living in fear. Having already helped thousands of people around the world find lasting solutions that conventional medicine,...

In today's Britain, more and more people spend longer at an office than ever before. It dominates lives. It's made more people middle class, transformed the lot of women, raised standards in education and been the reason for many technological advances. But the office itself seems to have no history and people accept without question the way they w...

Includes: Two Interviews from The Parkinson Show. Between and 1971 and 1982, Michael Parkinson interviewed some of the greatest show business talents in more than 500 episodes of Parkinson.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, read by Katherine Fenton. Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos; exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors. Exposi...

Do you want to stop thinking negatively? Are you looking for greater happiness and more confidence? Optimism is an attitude that sets us up for life success by helping us focus on what works and how we contribute to what works. Optimistic people have more fun, are healthier and achieve more of their potential. Optimistic thinking is a skill that an...

Global funny man Ross Noble hosts an evening of stand-out stand-up comedians from London's Comedy Store. These two programmes, first heard on BBC Radio 4, feature comedians including Richard Ayoade, Ronnie Golden, Milton Jones, Reginald D Hunter, Boothby Graffoe and Giorgio Serci and Dara O'Briain. Ross Noble has received a Perrier Award nomination...

The team from I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue present their own unique take on Lewis Carroll's most famous work, casting their reluctant chairman - the late Humphrey Lyttelton - in the title role, with support from Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Sandi Toksvig, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Rob Brydon, Jeremy Hardy and Jacke Dee, with Colin...

Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible? If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and irrationality. Yet, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer...

A guided tour of Roman Britain with historian Guy de la B‚doyŠre, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In 55 BC, Julius Caesar invaded Britain, which was then on the edge of the known world. But he was unable to conquer it. Where Caesar failed the Emperor Claudius, in AD 43, succeeded and the mighty Roman Empire came to stretch from Cairo to Carli...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Why Can't We Sleep by Darian Leader. One in four adults sleeps badly. Sleeping pill prescriptions have increased dramatically over the last three decades and our bookshelves and browser histories are littered with experts promising to 'fix' our insomnia. But is this so-called sleep crisis anything new? Our...

An introverted, unusual young boy, isolated by his obsessions and a loner at school, Chris Packham was only at home in the fields and woods around his suburban home. But when he stole a young kestrel from its nest, he was about to embark on a friendship that would teach him what it meant to love, and that would change him forever. In his rich, lyri...

A personal and powerful essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun, based on her 2013 TEDx Talk of the same name. 'I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is...

Gambling Fever sees Hamish becoming addicted to gambling after winning a Sporran Cosy in the Glen MacLottery, while in There's Something About Mrs Naughtie, the lady comes into an inheritance and attracts the advances of Hamish, Dougal and the Laird. In The Subsidence Adventure, Hamish & Dougal advertise as 'builders to the gentry', while in In...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Anger. Fear. Guilt. Denial. Silence. These are the ways in which ordinary white people react when it is pointed out to them that they have done or said something that has - unintentionally - caused racial offence or hurt. After, all, a racist is the worst thing a person ca...

THIS IS NOT A PARENTING MANUAL. THIS IS REAL LIFE. The Unmumsy Mum writes candidly about motherhood like it really is: the messy, maddening, hilarious reality, how there is no 'one size fits all' approach and how it is sometimes absolutely fine to not know what you are doing. The lessons she's learnt while grappling with two small boys - from birth...

Do you know someone who is incensed by compulsory tipping? Who is infuriated if kept on hold for more than a minute? Who is positively apoplectic if someone answers their phone during dinner? If so, you've probably encountered the phenomenon of the grumpy old man. Following their first massively successful BBC1 series, this autumn will see the grum...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato, read by Amy Finegan. Who really creates wealth in our world? And how do we decide the value of what they do? At the heart of today's financial and economic crisis is a problem hiding in plain sight. In modern capitalism, value-extraction is rewarded more highly...

Rachel Abbott is an author of psychological crime thrillers. Two of her books, Only the Innocent and The Back Road are available to borrow from our library.

When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?' Sadly, a recy...