Showing titles in English, Irish, Scottish & Welsh

One of Shaw's most enduring works, Pygmalion is an insightful comedy of class relations and perceptions, as played out between a Cockney flower girl and the irascible speech professor who has taken her on as a pet project.

The Soul of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will transport listeners into the heart of the Chronicles of Narnia. Listeners will discover that Narnia is more than just a magical place—it is a story reflective of the world we live in, our human condition, and our need for a Savior. Written...

In 1989, the literary world was rocked by an unprecedented event: Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Revolutionary Iran, issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book was considered by many Muslims to be blasphemy for its depiction of Mohammed, and...

Brought to you by Penguin. When Jack Sued Jill is the latest collection of original verse by maverick multimillionaire publisher Felix Dennis. Taking the innocence of nursery rhymes and turning them into something altogether darker, Dennis turns his piercing eye on the follies and absurdities of...

The is the heart-rending tale of carpenter Adam Bede's love for pretty, superficial Hetty Sorrel, her trial for the murder of her ilegitimate child, the plight of her seducer, and Adam's growing affection for Dinah Morris, a Methodist preacher. Eliot's comments on pastoral life and the wisdom and candor of Mrs. Poyser add zest and humor.

This remarkable poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, was Spenser's finest achievement. The first epic poem in modern English, The Faerie Queene combines dramatic narratives of chivalrous adventure with exquisite and picturesque episodes of pageantry. At the same time, Spenser is expounding a deeply-felt allegory of the eternal struggle between Truth and Error....

A spirited factory worker on a mission. A nerdy manager with a propensity for puzzles. An unexpected adventure. Charmingly British and off-beat, Miscellaneous 0125 is a story about following your dreams, healing past traumas, and the joy of truly being understood.

Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, which was originally performed in Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary quest to terminate the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, by advocating that the women deny all the men of the land any sex. At a meeting, Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their men. She has also persuaded the older women of Athens to seize the Acropolis.

Throughout history, there's always been a perfectly good reason to start a war. Never more so if it is over a "strategic" piece of old rock in the middle of nowhere. It is, after all, every citizen's right to bear arms to defend what they consider to be their own. Even if it isn't. And in such pressing circumstances, you really shouldn't let small details like the absence of an army get in the way of a righteous fight with all the attendant benefits of out-and-out nationalism.

Read by the author, John Stammers ‘Beneath the sharp social satire lurks a psychological insight, a sensitivity to a profound cultural inheritance’ The Times In 2023 the poet John Stammers was struck by a sudden and life-threatening health crisis and came very close to death. By some miracle...

The most famous, beautiful and spiritually moving poems of the twentieth-century, read by the most famous poet. Historic recordings of the cream of Eliot’s poetry. It is always something of a revelation to listen to a poet reading his own words, and these recordings are no exception. Eliot...

The acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Anthony Trollope's gently satirical tales of provincial life One of the most respected, successful chroniclers of nineteenth-century life, Anthony Trollope is still widely read and much-loved today. The Barchester Chronicles - witty moral comedies with...

This collection contains Oscar Wilde's four best-known comedies: The Importance of Being Earnest; Lady Windermere's Fan; An Ideal Husband; and A Woman of No Importance. All of them satirize upper-class English society of the 1890s, dramatizing scandalous secrets, political and marital intrigue, and dandyish bad behavior with Wilde's trademark wit and wisdom.

Two classic tales from acclaimed British science fiction writer John Wyndham. In The Chrysalids, ten-year-old David is a happy, ordinary boy, untroubled except for occasional strange dreams about a mysterious city – until he befriends Sophie, who is unlike anybody he has met before: she has...

Rosamond Frankland has married the love of her life, Leonard, who is blind. They have bought Porthgenna Tower, the manor where Rosamond grew up and where her mother died 20 years earlier. What they don't know is the dark secret that hovers over her family, that house, and the stories about a woman's ghost that haunts the north rooms. Is this a ghost story, a love story, a story with a tragic ending, or a lovely one?

Lesley Joseph stars as romantic novelist Angela Temple in these three sparkling series Angela Temple is a best-selling ‘bonk-buster’ writer beloved by her readers for her raunchy, bodice-ripping historical romances. To her adoring public, she’s demure, chaste and respectable – but in...

English novelist Barbara Pym’s career was defined, in many senses, by rejection. Her first novel Some Tame Gazelle was turned down by every publisher she sent it out in 1935, finally published only 15 years later. Though she picked up a publisher from there and received modest praise, the publishing industry grew restless and her sales spiralled downwards. By her seventh novel, she had been dropped. This brilliant biography, brimming with Pym’s private diaries and intimate letters, offers a first full insight into Barbara Pym’s life and how it informed her writing.

Edna O'Brien depicts James Joyce as a man hammered by Church, State and family, yet from such adversities he wrote works 'to bestir the hearts of men and angels'. The journey begins with Joyce the arrogant youth, his lofty courtship of Nora Barnacle, their hectic sexuality, children, wanderings...

This delightful anthology is a timeless collection of poems chosen by Classic FM listeners. With humorous limericks, romantic sonnets, traditional and modern classics, this book is a true refelction of the greatest and best-loved verse. Discover poems for special occasions, as well as poems to...

Charles Dickens offers a timeless meditation on the season in this tender, uplifting Christmas essay—an invitation to gather the living and the lost around the hearth of memory. With warmth and clarity, he traces our journey from childhood wonder to adult gratitude, forgiveness, and hope...