Air warfare was a terrible novelty of the modern age, requiring a new military outlook. From the beginning, the RAF's identity set it apart from the traditional services. It was innovative, flexible and comparatively meritocratic, advancing the quasi-revolutionary idea that competence was more important than background. Drawing from diaries, letter...

At the heart of Healthy Aging is Dr. Weil's belief that although aging is an irreversible process, there are myriad things we can do to keep our minds and bodies in good working order through all phases of life. To that end, he draws on the new science of biogerentology (the biology of aging) as well as on the secrets of healthy longevity- diet, ac...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. In this final episode Johnny Vaughan, Alan Davies, Roisin Conaty and Arthur Smith battle it out to see who...

Through the medium of four open letters, the comedian Tom Wrigglesworth investigates the myriad examples of corporate lunacy and maddening jobsworths in modern Britain. His subjects range from traffic wardens to estate agents, with Tom recalling his own funny and ridiculous experiences as well as recounting the absurd encounters of others.

'Genius Series 3' sees Dave Gorman and celebrity guests Charlie Brooker, Matthew Wright, Gyles Brandreth, Rob Newman, Germaine Greer and Simon Munnery chew over ridiculous, unworkable but sometimes genius inventions, schemes and policies of the public. Genius invites listeners to air those incredible concepts that strike you just before falling int...

From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society-and especially parents-to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans...

It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations inta...

In this 30-part BBC Radio 4 series, astronomer Heather Couper charts the history of our understanding of the universe. Her journey begins at the beginning as people first gaze in wonder at the life-giving Sun, the wandering planets and the changing phases of the Moon. Along the way we meet the ancient astronomers, as well as many pioneering scienti...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

At the age of 19 Laurie Lee had left home, walked to London and then travelled on foot through Spain. Here he describes a return journey to Spain in which he crossed the Pyrenees during the time of the Spanish Civil War. This audiobook is on the Edexcel reading list for GCSE.

In his own words, the heavyweight champion of the world pulls no punches as he chronicles the battles he faced in and out of the ring in this fascinating memoir edited by Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Toni Morrison. Growing up in the South, surrounded by racial bigotry and discrimination, Ali fought not just for a living, but also for respect and r...

It must seem strange to you that I've called a book Alanatomy. For anyone who has taken the time to see my stand-up performances or watched my chat show, 'Chattyman', knows that my body has hardly been kind to me - in fact there've been times when we've actually stopped talking to each other. Balding, myopic, often flaky with psoriasis, back fat th...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

The third episode, Obscure Animal Facts, of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, All of the Planet's Wonders, in which award-winning comedian Josie Long attempts to better herself through learning from reference books, with help from Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Originally broadcast 4 March 2009 and repeated on 30 December 2010. In Obscure Animal Facts...

No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Hailed by some as the "indispensable man", whose advice has been sought by every president from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, Kissinger has also attracted immense hostility from critics who have cast him as an amoral Machiavellian - the ultimate cold-blooded "realist"...

Victoria Coren Mitchell interviews Dawn French, Olivia Colman, Sarah Millican and Germaine Greer in this four-part BBC Radio 4 series. In these four episodes, presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell and guests discuss their lives as seen through the prism of the cars they have known, the journeys they've been on and the things they keep in their boot for...

'It's Your Round' is the comedy panel game where the format is simple: there is no format. Instead, each of the panellists has brought along their own round for the others to play, meaning that each show is unique, untried, and unpredictable. Angus Deayton is the host valiantly trying to make sure everyone comes out of it with their reputations int...

Is English an innately playful language? Are word games good for you? Do we divide into number and word players? And could Scrabble have been invented in any other language? In this special programme, Stephen examines many word games, and we'll hear some familiar voices playing unfamiliar games-Sheila Dillon from The Food Programme plays Font or Ch...

The second episode, The Enlightenment, of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, All of the Planet's Wonders, in which award-winning comedian Josie Long attempts to better herself through learning from reference books, with help from Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Originally broadcast 25 February 2009 and repeated on 29 December 2010. In the second episode,...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Key to Happiness written and read by Meik Wiking. Meik Wiking understands happiness better than anyone. In his role as Founder and CEO of the world's only Happiness Research Institute, he has travelled the globe interviewing the world's happiest people to discover the key components of happiness. In The...

The geeks are coming. And our world needs them. Whether we want to improve education or cut crime, to enhance public health or to generate clean energy, we need the experimental methods of science - the best tool humanity has yet developed for working out what works. Yet from the way we're governed to the news we're fed by the media we're let down...