Colin is in many ways an ideal citizen. A responsible job for the council, visits to his aged mother Norah, and cooking and shopping for her. But no-one knows about his other - much more secret - life that involves a garden shed, a circus acrobat, and a much-adored three-year-old charmer.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in Cockermouth, in the Lake District. His Lyrical Ballads, written in collaboration with Coleridge, was published in 1798, and shortly afterwards he settled in Dove Cottage, Grasmere, with his sister Dorothy. Inspired in his early manhood by the French Revolution, he grew disillusioned with revolutionary poli...

Few can forget where they were thirteen years ago when they first heard "Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation". The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writer...

She came, she saw, she criticised. Yes, this is the complete 4-part series where Jo Caulfield, 'the funniest female stand-up on Radio 4' presents her glorious mixture of bitchy friendliness, waspish likeability and foot-in-mouth populism - but always with charm. In the series, Jo is, as ever, failing to Shut Up about - love, marriage, dating, celeb...

The fascinating story of England's history and of the public and private life of her Royal Family is highlighted by extracts from the diaries and speeches of English Monarchs and observations by their contemporaries.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Home Sweet Murder by James Patterson, read by Peter Ganim. Two true-crime cases from the hit TV series Murder is Forever HOME SWEET MURDER: Lawyer Leo Fisher and his wife Sue are enjoying a quiet Sunday dinner at home. Until a man in a suit rings at their front door claiming to be an SEC agent. By the...

A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are tr...

The fifth book in the bestselling, award-winning GEEK GIRL series. Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is. She knows duck-billed platypuses don't have stomachs. She knows that fourteen squirrels were once detained as spies. She knows that both chess and snakes and ladders were invented in the same country. And for once, Harriet knows exac...

It is 1925 and the war is long over. But much has been lost and life will never truly be the same again. Castle Deverill, cherished home to the Deverill family in the west of Ireland for hundreds of years, has burned to the ground. But young and flighty Celia Deverill is determined to restore the sad ruin to its former glory. Celia married well and...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Frazzled, written and read by Ruby Wax. Five hundred years ago no-one died of stress: we have invented this concept and now we let it rule us. Rest has become a dirty word, and our idea of satisfaction is answering the last email. We're sleepwalking through our own lives. Ruby Wax...

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined...In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de...

Nicholas Parsons chairs this complete series of the devious BBC Radio 4 word game. Featuring in these 12 episodes are panellists Paul Merton, Julian Clary, David Mitchell, Gyles Brandreth, Charles Collingwood, Tony Hawks, Dave Gorman, Josie Lawrence, Liza Tarbuck and Graham Norton.

Series 2 of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom written by and starring Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary, set in a Glasgow corner shop. More shop-based shenanigans and over-the-counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. This second series sees guest appearances from Nina Wadia and Hardeep Singh Kohli. Gerard Kelly also reprises h...

Hat Grant is getting married. She is having a proper, big wedding. That is until something goes wrong - six weeks before the wedding, her fiance dumps her. Hat is devastated. This is her special day, she can't cancel everything - what about the flowers, her dress the photographer, the caterers, her ghastly mother? So, she doesn't - she decides to g...

A sparkling BBC Radio 4 adaptation of J.B. Priestley's comic play, starring Alan Bennett, Brenda Blethyn, Gwen Taylor, Alun Armstrong, Michael Jayston and Nicola Pagett. Three eminently respectable Yorkshire couples are in the midst of their joint silver wedding celebrations when they receive a rude shock - they are not legally married. Confronted...

Few can forget where they were twenty years ago when they first heard Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writers Gu...

Few can forget where they were twenty years ago when they first heard Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writers Gu...

BBC Radio 4 dramatisation starring David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T. P. McKenna. 'Prodigal Son': In the first of this murder mystery series set in Dublin, Paolo Baldi, Franciscan priest and philosophy lecturer, accidentaly becomes involved in solving a murder at an Italian chip shop. 'Keepers of the Flame': Paolo Baldi, priest, philosophy lect...

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch admits he may not be the sharpest knife in the cutlery drawer - he might not even be a spoon. But he's dogged and honest and he'll be damned if he lets anyone disturb his city's always-tentative peace - and that includes a rabble-rousing dwarf from the sticks (or deep beneath them) who's been stirr...

Afua Hirsch is British. Her parents are British. She was raised, educated and socialised in Britain. Her partner, daughter, sister and the vast majority of her friends are British. So why is her identity and sense of belonging a subject of debate? The reason is simply because of the colour of her skin. Blending history, memoir and individual experi...

Come to the Comfort Food Cafe for sunshine, smiles and plenty of truly scrumptious lemon drizzle cake. For Willow, the ramshackle caf‚ overlooking the beach, together with its warmhearted community, offers friendship as a daily special and always has a hearty welcome on the menu. But when a handsome stranger blows in on a warm spring breeze,...