The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart.

'I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.' So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and her truly unique family secret, born on the slopes of Mount Olympus and passed on through thr...

The second volume of Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed. Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with...

Ben is still desperately trying to forget that Katy had a one-night stand just before she announced she was pregnant. Nine months later a new baby explodes into their lives, creating utter chaos. Being a stay-at-home dad isn't as simple as it seems, in fact it's a disaster. Then help arrives, in the most unlikely form: the wife of Katy's ex-lover....

In utter disbelief, Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr Rafiel, an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. Recognising in Miss Marple a natural flair for justice, Mr Rafiel had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was inv...

Meet Ladarat Patalung-the first and only nurse detective in Thailand. Two nights ago, a young woman brought her husband into the emergency room of the Sriphat Hospital in Thailand, where he passed away. A guard thinks she remembers her coming in before, but with a different husband-one who also died. Ladarat Patalung, for one, would have been happi...

This House Is Not For Sale Araminta Spookie lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby Aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house - Araminta has to stop her! With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush t...

In this second installment of Carola Dunn's cozy mystery series set in 1923 England, plucky Daisy Dalrymple embarks on another assignment for Town and Country magazine and discovers that daffodil bulbs aren't all that's buried in a country estate's flower bed. The merest hint of spring has arrived in Cheshire, and so has Daisy Dalrymple. The feisty...

Lou Clark has lots of questions. Like how it is she's ended up working in an airport bar, spending every shift watching other people jet off to new places. Or why the flat she's owned for a year still doesn't feel like home. Whether her close-knit family can forgive her for what she did eighteen months ago. And will she ever get over the love of he...

In this book of tales from Africa there are stories about an evil-hearted shark, an extremely cunning hare, a very greedy spider, and the strongest man in the world. There are also answers to such questions as why the crab has no head, why the sun and moon live in the sky, and why flies buzz. Drawn from all parts of Africa, these stories illustrate...

This text is part of a series building into an extensive library of knowledge for tomorrow's young scientists. Lively and accessible, each of the 10 volumes focuses on a major area of scientific knowledge and draws the reader into the dynamic world of the modern scientist. Covering up-to-date discoveries, events and ideas, the expert authors aim to...

A practical audio guide to help listeners improve their assertiveness skills. By the end of the programme they will feel that they have had a personal coaching session and put into practice the tips they have been given. It will be the audio self-help guide to expressing oneself clearly and confidently.

We all have low moods from time to time. Usually, the mood passes after a few days and we get back to our normal way of living. We may say that we have been 'depressed', 'down in the dumps', 'fed up' or have had the 'blues'. But low moods like this are not what doctors call depression. Instead, they use the term to describe a more severe illness wh...

Series 3 of the fast paced, lively stand-up comedy and sketch show, hosted by the energetic Irish comic Jason Byrne, in which he tackles themes including marriage, fashion, fears, work, technology and attitudes to happiness. In Episode 1, he looks at the juicy subject of marriage. Would you describe your marriage as a Halley's Comet of a partnershi...

The grandaddy of all panel games with Nicholas Parsons in the chair. This time Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock and Ian MacMillan are panellists and the the programme is a guest of the British Library as part of its Evolving English Exhibition.

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Alexandre Dumas's swashbuckling epic, starring Jamie Glover, Robert Glenister and Timothy Spall. 17th Century France. Dashing young swordsman D'Artagnan heads for Paris, dreaming of serving the King as a member of his elite guard. On arrival, he meets the three musketeers - Athos, Porthos and Aramis - and the four men...

More tales from the Walming-on-Sea Home Guard, especially adapted for radio from the original TV series. Captain Mainwaring does his best with his rag-tag platoon in the episodes 'The Man and the Hour', 'Museum Piece', 'Command Decision' and 'The Enemy Within the Gates'.

Featuring: The Treasure of Loch Lomond, The Greenslade Story, Wings Over Dagenham, The Rent Collections Anarchic. Anarchic, ground-breaking and hilariously inventive, The Goon Show re-shaped comedy and set new standards in the genre. The mix of brilliant wordplay, mental slapstick and surreal clowning ensures the popularity of Spike Milligan, Peter...

The heart-lifting, heartbreaking new story by Michael Morpurgo, the nation's favourite storyteller. In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there. When the Bismarck sinks, one of the only...

It's back! the Radio Four panel game that's not about sport, music, television, advertising, books, hats or gardening. Just funny rounds with funny ideas. The line up for this show is Tom Binns, Nick Frost, Marcus Brigstocke and Peter Serafinowicz and was broadcast on 9th August 2001.

He's back! Budleigh Salterton's most famous citizen is off round the world on another five adventures. Meet Giles Wemmbley Hogg. 2m's, 2g's. Traveller, backpacker, ethnologist, fearless investigator of cultural diversity, and upper middle-class student ponce from Budleigh Salterton. And this time, Giles has graduated from University, with a first!...