British Life

Learn and improve your English with the BBC. Collected here for the first time are 12 episodes from BBC Learning English's popular 6 Minute English series. Aimed at intermediate-level learners of English, each programme examines a different topic which is discussed and explained to help learners...

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of the best-loved films of Classical Hollywood cinema, a story of despair and redemption in the aftermath of war that is one of the central movies of the 1940s, and a key text in America's understanding of itself. This is a film that remains relevant to our own anxieties and yearnings, to all the contradictions of ordinary life, while also enacting for us the quintessence of the classic Hollywood aesthetic.

Sunday Times Bestseller ‘A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement’ Charles Foster Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September) Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter...

Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, 19 prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it.

From the host of The Rest is Classified podcast, this is the secret history of MI6 - from the Cold War to the present day. 'The history of MI6 in the words of real spies' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'The best post-1949 account of British intelligence I have read' SPECTATOR 'As gripping as any novel'...

‘A delightful odyssey through the history, nostalgia, fascination and British love of cake. Quirky, charming, and fun.’ PRUE LEITH The British take cakes seriously. We hold strong opinions about how to bake a brownie with the perfect squidge, the correct proportions of icing to sponge, and...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This “excellent, all-embracing” (The New York Times) biography of Queen Elizabeth II is a magisterial study of the woman known only from a distance—and a captivating window into her decades-long reign. From the moment of her ascension to the throne in 1952 at...

""The heartrending story of a two people, a marriage, and a century from the author of A Suitable Boy. . . . “[A] thoughtful, evocative, moving book.”—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World Two Lives is an extraordinary tapestry of India, the Third Reich and the Second World War...

Patrick Vernon's landmark 100 Great Black Britons campaign of 2003 was one of the most successful movements to focus on the role of people of African and Caribbean descent in British history. Frustrated by the widespread and continuing exclusion of the Black British community from the mainstream popular conception of 'Britishness', despite Black people having lived in Britain for more than 1,000 years, Vernon set up a public poll in which anyone could vote for the Black Briton they most admired.

Perfect for fans of The Crown, legendary New York Times bestselling biographer Andrew Morton provides the definitive story of Queen Elizabeth II's life and legacy. Painfully shy, Elizabeth Windsor’s personality was well suited to her youthful ambition of living quietly in the country, raising...

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the first Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’. THE FIRST INSPECTOR FRENCH MYSTERY At the offices of the Hatton Garden diamond merchant Duke and Peabody, the body of old Mr Gething is discovered...

A wallflower and a rake join together to solve a mystery in this charming grumpy/sunshine historical rom-com—the first book in a new series from the bestselling author of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem!...

A poignant, challenging and witty memoir by one of Britain’s most senior journalists about the history of - and resistance to - immigration in the UK. In April 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered a speech that was to frame the debate about immigration in the UK for the next 50 years. ‘We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to allow the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents,’ he said. ‘It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.’ Kamal Ahmed was six months old at the time of Powell’s speech.

In The People's War, John Willis unearths untold stories of everyday bravery, moments of terror, and tales of life-affirming community, that guide us through the years of the Second World War. From soldiers in North Africa and prisoners of war in East Asia, to evacuees in the British countryside and women in the factories, The People's War is a truly ambitious and comprehensive journey through a devastating and pivotal period of our history, as you've never read before.

Mike Gayle: emotions you'll never forget, stories you'll want to share. Helen and Ben parted as heartbroken 18-year-olds and went their very separate ways. Twenty years later, mother-of-two-teenagers Helen is still in Manchester, a part-time primary teacher, stunned by the behaviour of her...

'I absolutely love Fiona Gibson's funny, emotional, relatable writing.’ Jenny Colgan The brand-new, heartwarmingly hilarious novel from the Sunday Times and Number 1 bestselling queen of romantic comedy, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Jill Mansell and TikTok sensation Mama's Still Got It...

'The perfect romcom' Lucy Vine ❤️A laugh-out-loud romcom in 2024 perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and Elena Armas ❤️ Committing to a fake romance is easy. It’s keeping it fake that’s the problem … 'Charming, funny, relatable' Sophie Cousens 'I’m still swooning, and I don’t...

The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series turns her prodigious talents to this World War I standalone novel, a lyrical drama of love struggling to survive in a damaged, fractured world. By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since...

Date with Justice, the ninth novel in Julia's Chapman's witty and engaging Dales Detective series, sees Delilah's brother under suspicion of murder. Can Delilah and Samson prove he's innocent? The Dales Detective Agency is on the brink of closure. Samson O’Brien has returned to his position as...

If you’re a man of a certain age you’ll know there comes a point in life when getting a sports car and over-analysing your contribution to society sounds like a really good idea. With a good job in sales and marketing and a nice house in Manchester that he shared with his wife and kids, John...