This audiobook presents Karl Marx as a man of both brilliance and frailty: as a poverty-stricken Prussian emigre who became a middle-class English gentleman; as an angry agitator; as a gregarious and convivial host; as a devoted family man; and as a deeply earnest philosopher who loved drink and cigars.

Follow comedian Mark Steel (Mark Steel Lectures, The News Quiz) as he visits six lesser-known bits of Britain, finds the funniest moments in their history - and then performs a stand-up show for the local audience. In his first show, Mark finds himself in a livestock auction hall in Skipton, Yorkshire, celebrating canals, castles and cows, while in...

Set in the deep American South between the wars, this is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie, and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, si...

A second collection of eight BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations based on the popular books by Alexander McCall Smith. 'this full- cast production will charm listeners whether they already know and love these stories or are hearing them for the first time' - Audiofile Magazine 'How to Handle Men through the Application of Psychology': Precious Ram...

A powerful issue-driven young adult novel tackling eating disorders and the pressures social media puts on contemporary teens from the best-selling author of the Blue Bloods and Disney Descendants series. I hate mirrors. Glass is dangerous. Anything that reflects me back at myself is a threat. Liv Blakely knows how important it is to look good. Her...

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: he thinks and feels in nearly human ways. He has educated himself by watching extensive television and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo realises that racing is a metaphor: that by applying the techniques a driver would...

As teenagers, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love in a Nigeria under military dictatorship. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America, where Obinze hopes to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, after so long apart and so many changes, will they find th...

Graham Norton's debut novel, Holding, was a Sunday Times best seller and loved everywhere. His new novel, A Keeper, is a twisted tale of secrets and ill-fated loves that once again demonstrates Norton's understanding of human nature and all its darkest flaws. The mystery of Elizabeth Keane's father is one that has never been solved by the people of...

Jeremy can hear voices. But when he admits this, the townspeople of Never Better treat him like an outsider. Life has been tough after his mother left and his father became a recluse, but one voice in particular proves his salvation: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm. Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered...

Tiffany Aching put one foot wrong, made one little mistake . . .And now the spirit of winter is in love with her. He gives her roses and icebergs, says it with avalanches and showers her with snowflakes - which is tough when you're 13, but also just a little bit . . . cool.And just because the Wintersmith wants to marry you is no excuse for neglect...

Six weeks before she is due to take up her position as the first female head of MI6, Amelia Levene vanishes without a trace. Her disappearance is the gravest crisis MI6 has faced for more than a decade. There has been no ransom demand, no word from foreign intelligence services, no hint of a defection. Should news of Levene's disappearance leak out...

The night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother's pink scarf. Inspector Harry Hole is conv...

Bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth trilogy, Ken Follett's novels are frequently featured on the New York Times Bestsellers lists. c Quintas-Fundacion Catedral Santa Maria

Series 2 of the sociable show in which Arthur Smith invites the audience into his Balham flat for comedy, music and entertainment. In Episode 4, blues band Nine Below Zero has popped round, while Arthur's comic guests include Phill Jupitus, Josh Widdicombe and Marlon Davies. Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith.

Journey Into Space Again is written and presented by Charles Chilton. It includes extracts from the series and interviews with its leading actors, Andrew Faulds (Jet Morgan) and David Jacobs.

Let me tell you a story. Long ago, in the frozen Arctic wastes, an alien army landed. Only now, 10,000 years later, it isn't a story. And the army is ready to attack. New York is one of the greatest cities on 21st century Earth...But what's going on in the Museum? And is that really a Woolly Mammoth rampaging down Broadway? An ordinary day becomes...

The well-intentioned, wealthy physician Dr Jekyll is fascinated by the duality of human nature. He discovers a drug which can separate the good and evil sides of his character. But can he stop his dark side, the hideous Mr Hyde, from taking control?

In a dingy apartment on the Passage du Pont Neuf in Paris, Therese Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin Camille. The tedium of her life is suddenly shattered when she embarks on an affair with her husband's friend Laurent, and their passion for each other soon causes the lovers to commit a shocking crime that will haunt the...

The story of a family overshadowed by the Marshalsea, London's debtors' Prison. The Father of the Marshalsea is William Dorrit. He is tended by his daughter Amy, Little Dorrit, to whom the prison is home. She becomes the novel's liberator in her selfless devotion to her father and her redeeming love for Arthur Clennam.

Eight seasonal stories from BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. Everyone loves a bedtime story. And here are eight of the best, each with a Christmas theme, written by an array of literature's best-known names: Laurie Lee, Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen are just some of the storytellers included in this collection. Amongst those giving voic...

'Not only is Hawk the world's best skater, he's also good to talk to. So I talk to Tony Hawk, and Tony Hawk talks back. Because just when it seemed like everything had come together for me, I had to go and screw it all up. It only took five seconds. But all of me knew. One risk. One mistake and my life would never be the same. Hawk had a few things...