Showing titles in English, Irish, Scottish & Welsh

Thanks to the mindless actions of Teddy Deakin, a group of mismatched rail passengers find themselves stranded in a dark and isolated station, having missed the last connection of the night. Tales of superstition prevail as the local station master - unable to persuade them to leave - reveals that very night, 20 years ago, a train crashed leaving a number of passengers dead. Legend has it, that the station is still haunted as the train relives its final moments as it roars through the station to its demise.

The St. Charles Players present a unique telling of H.G. Wells' classic futuristic adventure, in a new multi-cast dramatization performed in exciting Radio Theatre style.

Dans cette œuvre brève et fulgurante d’Oscar Wilde, un désir interdit se mue en obsession, et les mots étincellent comme des lames. Portée par une langue somptueuse et sensuelle, la tension se resserre au rythme d’une fascination grandissante, où la beauté se heurte à la loi, où le regard devient pouvoir et la séduction, menace.

Anthony Trollope is most famous for his portrait of the professional and landed classes of Victorian England, especially in his Palliser and Barsetshire novels. But he was also the author of one of the most fascinating autobiographies of the nineteenth century. Trollope was born in 1815, the product of a formidable mother and a tragically unsuccessful father who was socially ambitious for his sons. He was the victim of vicious bullying at Harrow and Winchester. But he had inherited his mother's determination, and managed later to carve out a successful career in the General Post Office while devoting every spare moment to writing. How he paid his groom to wake him every morning at 5:30 a.m. and disciplined himself to write 250 words every fifteen minutes has become part of literary legend. His efforts resulted in over sixty books, a sizable fortune, and fame, and his autobiography. Trollope looks back on his life with satisfaction. Perhaps as interesting as the facts he reveals and the opinions he records about Dickens and George Eliot, politics and the civil service are the judgments he passes on his own character.

Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist. His plays have been translated into every major language, and are the most performed ever. His work contains stunningly modern insight, witty jokes and soaring passion; it is an endless source of amazement and inspiration.

Shakespeare's Othello is one of his finest and most famous tragedies. This highly acclaimed performance, which ran between November 2007 and February 2008 at the Donmar Warehouse in London, features Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Moor Othello, Ewan McGregor as the scheming Iago, and Kelly Reilly as the gentle Desdemona. This recording features music written specifically for the stage production which enjoyed huge success - each performance was a sell-out.

With Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc but unhappy with "the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition," he presents a realistic Joan at war not just with British invaders but with realpolitik. This is a masterpiece of the theater of ideas, presented in the most eloquent, vital, human, and moving terms.

Written and performed by London-based actor and poet Jade Anouka (His Dark Materials), Heart introduces us to a woman who finds herself married and divorced at age 28. As she begins the process of piecing her life together, she confronts the insecurities and self-imposed boundaries that have always held her back. In the process, she discovers love in the last place—and with the last person—she expected.

During his lifetime, Hopkins, who was ordained as a Jesuit priest, was best known as a scholar and a teacher of languages. In his youth, he composed poetry prolifically, but destroyed all his juvenile work in 1867. In 1874, he commenced writing poetry again, but little of his verse was published in his lifetime. His work was rescued from obscurity by his friend and supporter, Robert Bridges, who later became poet laureate.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a reclusive poet whose only friendships were carried out by letter. She wrote nearly 1,800 poems in her life, but very few were published until after her death. In this volume, the poems are presented in chronological order in their original form, unaltered by editorial revision. It offers a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the clunky rhyme schemes of her youth, through valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy writings of her last years.

Emmy Award winner Matthew Rhys stars in this fascinating and award-winning one-man show about international star of stage and screen Richard Burton. Written by Mark Jenkins, Playing Burton offers a penetrating look at the notorious actor’s life, from growing up in an impoverished mining community in South Wales to becoming one of the greatest performers of his generation.

Hilary believes fervently that consciousness is more than the sum of our biology. When she receives a position at a prestigious think tank, she develops a novel experiment to prove that humans are intrinsically altruistic, but the results are something she never anticipated.

Catching a sudden look of defiance from his granddaughter inspires Hugo Williams to take up his pen and write this deeply moving new collection of poetry - the first since I Knew the Bride (2014), short-listed for the Forward and T. S. Eliot prizes. He navigates assuredly from thoughtful reminiscences of childhood and accounts of the war, through various climes and sensitively drawn relationships, to grim humour in the hospital ward and growing older with its attendant doubts and disappearances.

The Prophet is Kahlil Gibran's most famous work. He focuses on human relationships, as well as many other topics, including love, friendship, passion, work, good and evil, and time in a beautiful, simple, lyrical style.

"Brother, you have often declared that you would not end your days in slavery. I see no possible way in which you can escape with us; and now, brother, you are on a steamboat where there is some chance for you to escape to a land of liberty. I beseech you not to let us hinder you. If we cannot get our liberty, we do not wish to be the means of keeping you from a land of freedom."

One of Charles Dickens's most personally resonant novels, Little Dorrit speaks across the centuries to the modern audience. Its depiction of shady financiers and banking collapses seems uncannily topical, as does Dickens's compassionate admiration for Amy Dorrit, the "child of the Marshalsea," as she struggles to hold her family together in the face of neglect, irresponsibility, and ruin. Intricate in its plotting, the novel also satirizes the cumbersome machinery of government.

The original 10 broadcasts from BBC Radio 4 - the sequel to the award-winning Jarvis's Frayn. Martin jarvis is seriously funny in this classic series of hilarious vignettes.

Jarvis and Frayn are a truly inimitable pairing - frequent collaborators on-stage, screen and audiobook, they are an eternally popular duo. This collection is perfect for anyone who has ever questioned the logic behind technobabble, computer jargon and eccentric human idiosyncrasies...that'll be everybody, then!

When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew. The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? With her father sinking into Alzheimer’s and her brother reluctant to help, it seems Cara will never find the answers to her questions. One thing is clear, though: someone knows more than they’re letting on.

Andrew Motion's prose memoir, In the Blood (2006), was widely acclaimed, praised as 'an act of magical retrieval' (Daily Telegraph) and 'a hymn to familial love' (Independent). Now, 12 years later and three years after moving to live and work in the United States, Motion looks back once more to re-create a stunning biographical sequel - but this time in verse. Essex Clay rekindles, expands and gives a tragic resonance to subjects that have haunted the poet throughout his writing life.

When psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the scientific research station hovering high above the surface of Solaris, he finds the place deserted except for two scientists, who have been driven mad by some unknown horror. The researchers had been trying to investigate the ocean planet, and probe...