Gabriel has no idea what the future will hold when he runs away from his apprenticeship with the bad tempered stonemason. But God himself, in the shape of playmaster Garvey, has plans for him. He wants Gabriel for his angel. Winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award.

Did you know: Square watermelons are sold in Japan? There is a River Piddle in Dorset? And that Americans use enough toilet paper to wrap around the world nine times! Join us on a fact-finding world tour.

'How to Snog a Hagfish!' explores the most bizarre, the most disgusting and the most fascinating creatures that inhabit the oceans. When attacked, the hagfish (also known as the slime eel) ties itself in a knot that travels the length of its body, squeezing out mucus by the bucketful and making it impossible for a predator to keep hold. To eat, a s...

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are the three nineteenth-century poets explored in this collection.

A cat's nine lives are full of adventure and excitement and none more so than Montezuma, the farmyard cat. From a young kitten to a grand old cat, he is cunning and proud while establishing his kingdom, but to Matthew, he's always loving and adorable.

Our hero Ben is bored beyond belief after he is made to stay at his grandma's house. She's the boringest grandma ever: all she wants to do is to play Scrabble, and eat cabbage soup. But there are two things Ben doesn't know about his grandma. a) She was once an international jewel thief and b) All her life, she has been plotting to steal the crown...

A group of palaeontologists have been savagely attacked while carrying out a study of fossilised dinosaur remains in an underground cave system on twenty-fifth century Earth. A party of troopers and Professor Kyle, the only survivor of the attack, are investigating the deaths of her colleagues when they discover the Doctor and his companions at the...

It was a footman who brought the news to ten-year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on December 10, 1936. Her father had become an accidental king just four days before his forty-first birthday when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. Edward VIII had been sovereign only nine...

Playing upon our most primal fears, Stephen King draws us into his sinister world - a place where sane men and women see their lives shattered, their realities distorted and destroyed. Now, listeners can probe even deeper into the mind of the master storyteller of the macabre, with this third unabridged production of 5 classic short stories, from K...

"A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." --William Styron From the moment of its publication in 1961, Revolutionary Road was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It's the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and...

Hear rare recordings from some of the world's most-respected poets reading their own works: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hoard; ee cummings, Prose Jottings; Archibald Macleish, The Old Man To The Lizard; Ted Hughes, Six Young Men; May Swenson, Naked In Borneo; Marilyn Hacker, The Dark Twin; Kenneth Patchen, 23rd Street Runs Into Heaven; Edith Sitwell, An Ol...

A full-cast dramatisation starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon The world's best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about one of his most intriguing cases in this full-cast dramatisation that has been specially adapted for radio from the original novel....

A full-cast dramatisation starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon The world's best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about one of his most intriguing cases in this full-cast dramatisation that has been specially adapted for radio from the original novel....

A full-cast dramatisation starring Nicholas Le Prevost as Inspector Maigret In 'Maigret's Little Joke', Maigret and his wife take a secret holiday in Paris. When a murder occurs, Maigret must get his information from the press and radio. How can he leave Janvier to solve the crime alone?

The first series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy, Mark Thomas: The Manifesto, recorded with participation from a studio audience. This series was originally broadcast on 25 June and 2 July 2009. Comedian and activist Mark Thomas creates a People's Manifesto, taking suggestions from his studio audience and then getting them to vote for the best. Some of...

Nicholas Le Prevost stars as the French detective in four new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatizations These new adaptations of classic stories find Maigret recreating four memorable cases for his creator Georges Simenon. In 'Maigret: A Man's Head', a convicted man is allowed to escape, then followed by police investigating a double murder. Maigret fin...

Joseph Millson reads Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1855 dark and lyrical poem Maud in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the poet's birth in 2009. Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the 'Classic Serial' slot on 26 July 2009 and repeated on 1 August 2009. A disturbed young man roams the windswept hills, haunted by his father's suicide and his moth...

Nicholas Le Prevost stars as the French detective in this BBC Radio full-cast dramatisation. In 'My Friend Maigret', Maigret investigates the murder of a tramp on the French island of Porquerolles - but he is hampered by the attentions of Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard.

Spoof theatre company The National Theatre of Brent take on the story of the Suffragette Movement in this hilarious Radio 4 series, first heard on the Woman's Hour Drama slot The award-winning National Theatre of Brent aka Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box present the entire epic struggle of the Suffragettes or the Giant Ladies as they was als...

A BBC Radio 4 documentary all about Johnny Morris of BBC TV's 'Animal Magic' fame, a household name and character who created charming, comic voices for the creatures in the show. 'Not Just Funny Animal Voices' presenter Terry Nutkins, (Johnny's TV side-kick, mentor and close friend until Johnny's death in 1999), explores Johnny's life and work, a...

The BBC Radio 4 play, 'Notes to Self' by Deborah Wain is a drama about Alzheimer's disease based on real experiences, and is interwoven with recordings of music sessions carried out in care homes and day centres in the UK. Doreen has been in a care home for two years. Her son Robert visits but finds it hard to have a meaningful relationship with hi...