How do you make a dog? Why are helium balloons lighter than air? What are the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone? 'It's Elementary' takes an amazing look at the stuff that stuff is made of. Discover the elements that make up everything from you to your dog. See what the elements are, how they were discovered and the extraordinary ways they affect o...

In the tradition of Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads', Lynne Truss' twelve monologues are about love, romance, friendship and family. Here are six men and six women, each with a very different story to tell, ranging from the wife who feels better when her husband disappears to the pedant who undergoes a TV makeover and the Olympic swimmer who can't es...

Explore 'Othello' at your own pace. This audiobook contains comprehensive analysis, commentary, historical and social background, study and exam strategies.

Maggie Hope started out as Winston Churchill's secretary, but now she's a secret agent-and the only one who can figure out how the missing violin ties into a series of horrifying murders. London, December 1943. As the Russian army repels German forces from Stalingrad, Maggie Hope takes a much-needed break from spying to defuse bombs in London. But...

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband - and of the man obsessed with uncovering her motive.... Famous artist Alicia Berenson shoots her husband in the head five times and then never speaks again. Five years later, forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber must find a way to get Alicia to...

A city torn apart. Glasgow, 1969. In the grip of the worst winter for years, the city is brought to its knees by a killer whose name fills the streets with fear: the Quaker. He takes his next victim - the third woman from the same nightclub - and dumps her in the street like rubbish. A detective with everything to prove. The police are left chasing...

The menopause. There - we've said it. It's a huge part of every woman's life and yet it remains one of society's last taboos. An emotionally complex issue that can trigger a whole host of physical and mental side effects, it's a big deal. So why aren't we talking about it? Talking about stuff is what women do best; we share and offload, we laugh an...

Tom lives in a perfect world: no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. . . oh, and time travel. When he loses the love of his life, going back to fix it seems like the only answer. . . what could possibly go wrong? Elan Mastai's breakthrough novel brings a whole new dimension to a classic love story So, the thing is, I come from the world we wer...

When her father remarries, the honest, innocent Molly Gibson suddenly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, worldly and impetuous. This would be more than enough to deal with, but the new wife is the deeply snobbish (and darkly secretive) Hyacinth. Thwarted love, scheming ambition and small-town gossip underlie the warmth,...

We share our planet with an incredible range of life - millions of species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Although we are the most intelligent of all life-forms, we are, like other creatures, biological machines that walk, feed, drink, and behave. And, in our case, talk, create, think, and remember. For all those who want to "look u...

On sabbatical from the Franciscan order, Father Paolo Baldi is working as a philosophy lecturer in Dublin when his life takes an unexpected turn and he finds himself helping the police to solve crimes. In The Sick Rose, Paolo and Tina discover that a priceless hybrid plant leads to little peace and serenity in the newly designed Garden of Contempla...

The ninth and penultimate episode of the first series of Matthew Broughton's 'Planet B', the BBC Radio 7 sci-fi drama set in the virtual world of a futuristic game. Originally broadcast 12 March 2009. Still stuck in a virtual world, it's John's last chance to save Lioba by navigating an escape path in The Fast Track.

Our narrator stays on a Mediterranean island much longer than he intended to for a number of reasons. One reason is to prove his mother and his girlfriend wrong, who both say that to decamp to an island for a whole winter to write a novel is melodramatic and rather a clich‚. Most nights, to abate loneliness and pass the time, he talks to the...

Jane Austen makes two appearances on this brilliant collection that also includes such revered writers as Mary Shelly and Virginia Woolf. With stories ranging from tear-jerkers to passionate tales of love and jealousy, this collection has something for everyone, young or old, male or female.

The story of Phil and Grace's troubled courtship and all too brief marriage. Grace was the Fairbrothers' daughter, Phil their farm manager, and so they were on unequal footing from the start. Grace's money and social status continued to cast a shadow even after her death.

Due to popular demand, and after a long break, a fifth volume of episodes from the irreverent radio comedy series which ran between 1964 and 1973. Starring John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie, ISIRTA is a mix of quickfire sketches, bad puns, humorous songs, and TV & cinema parodies. It quickly d...

Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which...

From I, Coriander to Invisible in a Bright Light, Sally Gardner's first middle grade novel in 14 years soars with the imagination of a master story-teller. A pitch perfect, haunting story about a crystal chandelier shaped like a galleon that splinters into a thousand pieces, a girl abandoned as a baby on the steps of an opera house and a dangerous...

The true story of a 6-year-old boy with a dreadful secret. Oskar's school teacher raises the alarm. Oskar's mother is abroad and he has been left in the care of 'friends', but has been arriving in school hungry, unkempt, and with bruises on his arms, legs and body. Experienced foster carer Cathy Glass is asked to look after him, but as the weeks pa...

How perfect is too perfect? Ross Ransome is at the top of his profession; one of the most successful, and certainly one of the richest, plastic surgeons in the business. Such a man would expect his wife to be perfect - and why not? After all, he has spent enough hours in surgery to get her that way. But when his wife falls ill she turns her back on...

Summer 1939: After touring an unsettled Europe to promote her latest book, Romily Temple returns home to Island House and the love of her life, Jack Devereux. But when Jack falls ill, his estranged family are called to his bedside. With war now declared, each member of the family is reluctantly forced to accept their new stepmother and confront the...