British Essays

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Natalie Dormer, best known for her standout role as Queen Margaery in Game of Thrones, as well as her roles in The Hunger Games and Captain America: The First Avenger. A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College...

Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt...

Placing the West's failure to acknowledge the most successful slave revolt in history alongside denials of the Holocaust and the debate over the Alamo, Michel-Rolph Trouillot offers a stunning meditation on how power operates in the making and recording of history...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, read by Beresford Bennett. From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race, equality...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Feel Free by Zadie Smith, read by Nikki Amuka-Bird. From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Changing My Mind and Swing Time - discover a second unmissable collection of essays from Zadie Smith 'Generous, courageous, and...

The British Bloke appears simple and straightforward. He loves football, cricket, beer, sheds, wearing socks and books about the SAS. But beneath that simple exterior lies a mysterious and complex being. In The British Bloke Decoded, writer, comedian and regular bloke, Geoff Norcott peels back...

A fascinating collection of rarely seen journalism and other writings by Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series. Narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt! Ian Fleming was best known for bringing to life the legendary character of James Bond, one of the most beloved and enduring icons of our time, but...

Every cheese tells a story. Whether it's a fresh young goat's cheese or a big, beefy 18-month-old Cheddar, each variety holds the history of the people who first made it, from the builders of Stonehenge to medieval monks, from the Stilton-makers of the 18th century to the factory cheesemakers of the Second World War. Cheesemonger Ned Palmer takes us on a delicious journey across Britain and Ireland and through time to uncover the histories of beloved old favourites like Cheddar and Wensleydale and fresh innovations like the Irish Cashel Blue or the rambunctious Renegade Monk.

Celebrating a decade of Columbia Global Reports, the Forerunners series revives groundbreaking works of investigative journalism and incisive analysis published a century before CGR’s founding. These texts, once forgotten or underexplored, reflect CGR’s core mission: fearless reporting...

It has been one hundred years since the sinking of the passenger liner Titanic in the North Atlantic, yet worldwide fascination with the epic tragedy remains as strong as ever. With Voyagers of the Titanic, Richard Davenport-Hines gives us a magnificent history of the people intimately connected...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by celebrated British novelist Jeanette Winterson, CBE. This definitive recording includes an introduction to the audio edition written and performed by Jeanette Winterson. Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had...

As a teenager, Elspeth Barker had two great desires: to have a passionate love affair with a poet and to be a writer. She achieved the first when she and the poet George Barker fell in love: although he was perpetually broke, had several children by previous lovers and couldn't marry her as his first wife refused a divorce, they were extremely happy together, had five children and finally married two years before George's death. They had five children and finally married two years before George's death.

Brought to you by Penguin. Two leading thinkers present alternative answers to one of the most difficult and divisive questions of our times: Is free speech under threat? Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, the leading free expression organisation, argues that alongside the necessary and...