According to FIFA, 16-stone Adebayo Akinfenwa is the strongest footballer in the world. With a larger-than-life personality to match, it's no wonder 'The Beast' has become an icon, attracting millions of social media followers, launching his own clothing label, and still banging in the goals for Wycombe Wanderers. With such fame and adoration, it's...

When war came to Alaa Aljaleel's hometown, he made a remarkable decision to stay behind, caring for the people and animals caught in the crossfire, and building a sanctuary for the city's abandoned cats. In turn, he created something unique: a place of tranquility for children living through the bombardment and a glimmer of hope for those watching...

George the Poet knows better than anybody the importance of understanding your surroundings. Born to Ugandan parents on the St Raphael's Estate in Neasden, north-west London, George Mpanga has always been aware of his community. It was both his teacher and his inspiration - giving him the language, the experiences, and the skills to become the pers...

Misconceptions have stalked Andrew Cole like a hatchet-man defender determined to cut him down to size. In the world of modern-day football, his reserved demeanour was often interpreted as surly intransigence. Alongside an aptitude for goalscoring, it was widely believed, ran an attitude problem. In Fast Forward, a candid and inspirational autobiog...

A Glasgow Girl is the coming of age story of Aasmah Mir's childhood growing up in 1970s Glasgow. From a vivacious child to a teenage loner, Aasmah candidly shares the highs and lows of growing up between two cultures - trying to fit in at school and retreating to the safe haven of a home inhabited by her precious but distant little brother and Hele...

Just shy of 18, Deborah Orr left Motherwell - the town she both loved and hated - to go to university. It was a decision her mother railed against from the moment the idea was raised. Win had little agency in the world, every choice was determined by the men in her life. And strangely, she wanted the same for her daughter. Attending university wasn...

Brought to you by Penguin.SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONRaw and radical, strange and beguiling - a love letter to Britain's breathtaking flatlands, from Orford Ness to Orkney, and a reckoning with the painful, hidden histories they containFor readers of W. G. Sebald's Rings of Saturn, Amy Liptrot's The Outrun and Richard Mabey's...

Brought to you by Penguin.THE HILARIOUS BOOK FROM TIKTOK AND INSTA SENSATION HAYLEY MORRISBrain: We left the oven on!Me: No don't say that, I've not got time for this!Brain: The house is probably on fire!Me: Stop it, I need to write this book description.Brain: But the blazing fire.Me: We didn't even use the oven today.Brain: But what if -Me: No. W...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids Selected as Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph, i paper, Metro and Harper's Bazaar 'Magical' GUARDIAN 'A gripping tale of the search for meaning in times of turbulence - expressed with Smith's signature poetic flair' VOGUE 'Extraordinary ... A tense, teasin...

Brought to you by Penguin.When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history?Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and th...

Eric Liddell was as close to a saint as any man in modern history has been. Renowned for his athletic prowess, it was also his deeply entrenched values that set him apart from the crowd. These qualities were never better illustrated than in the 1924 Paris Olympics when, having declined his place in the 100 metres owing to the fact that the race was...

THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER TRANSLATED BY INTERNATIONAL BOOKER SHORTLISTEE ANTON HUR 'Will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside.' - Red PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don't know, I'm – what's the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Seh...

Brought to you by Penguin.Lee Evans is one of the best-loved comedians in the country; a Hollywood star able to sell out arenas in the blink of eye. But he was not always such a roaring success. Read unabridged by the man himself, and with the humour (and the voices!) that he brings to the stage, the audiobook edition of The Life of Lee is his utte...

Meet Mallory Weggemann: a Paralympic gold-medalist, world champion swimmer, ESPY winner, and NBC Sports commentator whose extraordinary story will give you the encouragement you need to rise up to meet any challenge you face in life. On January 21, 2008, a routine medical procedure left Mallory paralyzed from her waist down. Less than two years la...

We interview comedian, writer and podcaster Adam Buxton about his varied career and his experience writing an autobiography. Photo credit Ben Catchpole.

Charlie is a successful actor, writer and comedian. All five books in his Young Bond series have featured in bestsellers lists and are available in the Listening Books library. Image © Andy Paradise

We interview actor Hugh Fraser, known for playing Captain Hastings in a number of Poirot TV adaptations, as well as narrating many Agatha Christie audiobooks.

We interview Jasper Fforde, author of the popular Thursday Next and Nursery Crime novels.

Was Shakespeare gay? The answer is both simpler and more complex than you might think . . . Shakespeare's work was profoundly influenced by the queer culture of his time - much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. From a relentless schooling in Latin and Greek homoeroticism, to a less formal education on the streets and in smoky tavern...

In her early twenties, drifting and directionless, Marina Gibson fled the city for the countryside, and picked up a fishing rod for the first time in years. She was returning to a childhood pursuit and a passion passed on by her mother. Fishing overtook Marina's life as she grew enraptured by the quiet magic of angling. Whiling away hours by a High...

Vivid, self-confessional and darkly humorous, The Happy Nomad is the story of how Charlotte Bradman breaks free from her turbulent past, mounting debts and the nine-to-five treadmill, and finds a simpler way of life living full-time in her beloved campervan. Freed from the burden of a thirty-year-old boiler on the edge, temperamental ceilings that...