Grayson Perry has been thinking about masculinity - what it is, how it operates, why little boys are thought to be made of slugs and snails - since he was a boy. Now, in this funny and necessary book, he turns round to look at men with a clear eye and ask, what sort of men would make the world a better place, for everyone? What would happen if we r...

Written during his time in Reading Gaol, De Profundis is Oscar Wilde's moving letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, whose relationship with Wilde led to the poet's imprisonment. Here Wilde repudiates Lord Alfred and reflects on his ordeal, acknowledging how the depths of his sorrow have helped liberate him towards a fuller, freer wisdom. Brimming with bea...

Born in 1935, in the city of Bath, Mary's childhood was a curious mix of idyllic picnics and ramblings, and alarming air raids; of a spirited and outdoorsy home life and a dreaded school existence. All nearly cut horribly short by an almost fatal bout of polio when she was thirteen, which isolated Mary in hospital, away from beloved family and frie...

John Gordon Sinclair stars as Scotland's most celebrated doctor in six BBC Radio full-cast dramatisations. When Dr Cameron gets called in to see a patient, he doesn't expect it to be his new partner Dr Finlay. But the new doctor is full of surprises: caring, stubborn, idealistic and clever, Finlay might have been welcomed to the practice with a bla...

'Brian Gulliver's Travels' is a new adventure story from Bill Dare (producer of 'Spitting Image', 'Dead Ringers' and 'I've Never Seen Star Wars'). The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson ('Drop the Dead Donkey', 'Bridget Jones's Diary') and award winning star Mariah Gale (Ophelia in BBC TV's 2009 production of 'Hamlet'). We h...

Arthur and George grew up worlds apart in late 19th-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity. But as t...

Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can, and he's got bad news for them. The council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny, and they're not going to take it lying down...especially since it's Halloween tomorrow. Besides, they're beginni...

Dawn French takes a humorous look into the art of sulkiness in this complete BBC Radio 4 series. Professor Joy Klamp (Dawn French) welcomes you to the joy of sulks as she guides us on a humorous journey into the heart of sulkiness. Along with her Sourpussy Posse - Christopher Douglas, Sally Grace, Lucy Montgomery and Dan Tetsell - Joy will show you...

'The Daddy' introduces us to Mma Ramotswe as she embarks on her first case and takes on a new secretary, the resourceful and talented Mma Makutsi. Together, they must find the truth about a Daddy who appears to have returned from the dead - as well as investigating a wayward teenage girl and attempting to find a vanished child. 'The Bone' sees the...

Mayim Bialik, star of The Big Bang Theory and author of the #1 bestseller Girling Up, puts her Ph.D. to work to talk to teen boys about the science and pressures of growing up male in today's world. A must-have book for all teenage boys! Why does my voice crack like that? What should I eat to build muscle? How do I talk to someone I have a crush on...

What if we celebrated boys for their kindness as well their strength? For their generosity as well as their success? For their loyal friendship as well as their charm? The Good Guys introduces us to 50 heroes who have showed that changing the world doesn't require a sword or a corporate jet. Readers will find stories of extraordinary men including...

Follows the adventures of Max Axiom as he explains the science behind ecosystems.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Wizards and Robots by will.i.am and Brian David Johnson, read by Daniel Weyman, Ray Panthaki, Iwan Rheon, Becca Stewart and Brian David Johnson. When a young man breaks into her home claiming her life is in danger, Ada Luring's world changes forever. Geller is a wizard, on the run from his father's hidden c...

This is award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel's uniquely unusual five-part autobiography. Opening with 'A Second Home', in which Mantel describes the death of her stepfather, Giving Up the Ghosts is a wry, shocking and beautifully-written memoir of childhood, ghosts (real and metaphorical), illness and family. Finally, at the memoir's conclusion, Ma...

Noleen Delaney is one of an army of night cleaners at St Angelus hospital in Liverpool. Since her husband was injured in the war, she has supported her five children and the family; she just about gets by. When Finn, her youngest, passes the 11-plus exam, Noleen feels faint. Allowing Finn to attend the grammar will stretch her purse too far. As the...

'I still don't know why we had to check. Did we really think you would be there, curled up and sleeping on the stage? That we would put our arms round you, and take you home?' Naomi has vanished, leaving her family broken and her mother Jenny desperately searching for answers. But the traces fifteen-year-old Naomi's left behind reveal a very differ...

'But we don't know the first thing about looking after babies.' Phoebe's mum and dad are foster parents, and they're having a tough time. Her dad's moved out for bit, and her little foster brothers are playing up. So when Phoebe and her brother Adam find a baby abandoned in their den, they decide to try and look after her themselves ... ***EXTRA C...

We may think we know about it, but what was life really like for the British people during the First World War? The well-known images - the pointing finger of Lord Kitchener; a Tommy buried in the mud of the Western Front; the memorial poppies of remembrance day - all reinforce the idea that it was a pointless waste of life. So why did the British...

The Sweet Possessive is the last of three comic tales from BBC Radio 4's The Greengrocer's Apostrophe, inspired by those hand-written signs offering "Apple's and Banana's" which can be found in every town in Britain. Originally broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on 30 September 2010. Distracted by an apostrophe obsession, a woman fails to noti...

In this BBC full-cast production of Coriolanus, allies and enemies become blurred just as Rome is in sight...Coriolanus tells of a proud Roman general who captures the town Corioli but subsequently falls from favour with the Roman people. He allies himself with the Volscians and leads an attack on Rome, but allegiances are won and lost be...

Norman John Gillies was one of the last children ever born on St Kilda, five years before the whole population was evacuated forever to the British mainland. People had lived on these islands for over four thousand years, developing a thriving, tightly-knit society that knew nothing of crime or money, and took care of its weakest members without he...