On the theme of love a second great collection of romantic short stories from yesteryear read by another husband and wife team Edward Fox and Joanna David. LOVE is a staple theme of many short stories and in this second off-beat selection from CSA it comes in many guises. There is love tragically thwarted by duty in Thomas Hardy's The Son's Veto; t...

Voltaire and Pangloss travel the world looking for the good in life, but can they find it? Candide and his tutor Pangloss travel the globe trying to follow the philosophy 'All is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds'. However, they are stung and let down at every turn, being robbed, tortured and ridiculed, amongst other trials. On...

Angela tells the story of a 'poor paralysed fellow' who becomes infatuated with a girl who visits him. A melancholy and emotive tale of longing, desire and loss, Angela is a well-crafted short story by the great W.S. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame).

Containing ten wonderful stories read captivatingly by Rosalind Ayres, Barbara eigh-Hunt, Juliet Stevenson and Harriet Walter, this collection is a winner with everyone. All stories have been carefully chosen for their strong female characters and are full of humour, drama and insight. Also containing some works about women by well-known male write...

This classic Irish short story is read fittingly by T. P. McKenna, whose commanding Irish brogue is a perfect suit for this vignette by William Carleton, a well-respected Irish 'peasant novelist'.

The first in CSA WORD's series of brilliant and strong women's stories. With stories from such female greats as Elizabeth Gaskell and Katherine Mansfield, this collection should appeal to women and men alike, with a strong and varied selection of stories by and about women.

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast enactment of Shakespeare's last great tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, with David Harewood and Frances Barber in the title roles. Originally broadcast as part of the 'Drama on 3' series on 27 June 2010. Telling the story of one of history's most famous couples, Antony and Cleopatra contains some of the most beautiful poetry i...

Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive is a topical, events-driven radio comedy hosted by comedy guru Iannucci, recorded in front of a live audience. With the sketchability of The Now Show, combined with the going-off-on-a-mad-streak of a maverick News Quiz round, Iannucci and his comedian guests pull apart the week's news, in an effortlessly original...

Following an otherwise-enjoyable literary luncheon, the celebrated crime novelist Ariadne Oliver is accosted by a particularly formidable woman who engages her in conversation about one of her many god-daughters, whom Ariadne hasn't seen since she was a child. She lands a bombshell with the question "What I want to know is this: did her mother kill...

Taken from the novel 'England Their England', The Cricket Match follows an amateur cricket team of literary (and other) people traveling to play a village team in rural England. Also adapted for a 1973 television feature directed by acclaimed director Stephen Frears.

One of the great adventure stories of literature, The Count of Monte Cristo is a classic tale of malice, conspiracy and retribution - with a moral at its centre. Edmond Dantes makes his audacious bid for freedom from the living death of the Chateau d'If, hell-bent on compensating his friends but destroying those who had falsely incriminated him. he...

A story of innate animal instinct and 'survival of the fittest' of sorts, this tale listens to a man relating a story of instinctive hate and its shocking consequences. The detached and matter-of-fact revelations of the narrator lend this story a chilling and unsettling air, and the story poses a listener questions about wrong and right when faced...

A BBC Radio 4 comedy drama starring James Alexandrou (Martin Fowler, EastEnders), originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 7 December 2010. A touchingly real and comically disingenuous story about the awkwardness of being misshapen, and the misery of not fitting in. Starring James Alexandrou as Liam, Candassaie Liburd as Ethel and Marcella R...

Born into an ordinary family, though not at all ordinary himself, our hero's parents discover that their son has been born with a gift - a brain made of pure gold. As a child, he was very protected by his parents and was unaware of his condition. However, when he discovers his secret, it begins to consume his life, leading to obsession and the feel...

Originally written in French, The Girl from Arles is a doomed love story concerning a young and handsome man named Jan, who falls in love with a woman who can never be his. A heart-rending and tragic-romantic short story that will move even the most hardened souls.

A doting Grandmother comes a cropper of temptation when attempting to prove to her daughter that she can care for her children. Set on showing the kids a good time, Gran plays dressing up, the children's favourite game, although getting carried away with the charade may prove misguided.

A short overture to the value of trusty animal friends, that also incorporates some historical interest and is a warming closer and thinking-point taken from CSA Word's 'Cats' collection'.

A husband and wife attend a function at which they hope the husband will be made president of a large charity organization. As the night wears on and the wife sees the husband do something rather shocking in public, she begins to question what really is important, as well as asking herself what is important in her marriage and their lives together,...

In this episode taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, Melvyn Bragg is in urban Lancashire to explore the warp and weft of the Industrial Revolution-how the upheavals of the new mechanisation affected workers who found their traditional trades, like hand-loom weaving, superseded and marginalised by the growth of industrialisation and mechanisation. He...

Andrew Sachs stars in this BBC Radio 4 'Afternoon Play' about painter Edward Lear. The Need for Nonsense was originally broadcast on 9 February 2009, and repeated on 17 January 2011. Julia Blackburn's play captures the warm, heartfelt and comic story of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear's lifelong friendship with his eccentric Greek servan...

Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, the BBC Radio 4 series in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at critical moments across the last 1,000 years. The upheavals and turmoil of the sixteenth century transformed many aspects of religious...