Historical Tragedy

A selection of Euripides’ renowned Greek tragedies, adapted for BBC Radio Acclaimed by Aristotle as ‘the most tragic of the poets’, Euripides was one of the pre-eminent playwrights of 5th century Athens. Included here are seven of his masterpieces: powerful, shocking tales of passion...

The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time...

Brought to you by Penguin. Following her bestselling, critically acclaimed The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker continues her extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest myths. Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE WORLD-BURNING HORROMANTASY, BRINGING TOGETHER LITERATURE'S MOST FAMOUS LADY VILLAINS, LADY MACBETH AND KLYTEMNESTRA . . . For fans of A Dowry of Blood, Clytemnestra, and Piranesi, Vile Lady Villains is an unforgettable ride into the realm of stories With the...

Bogen er den første biografi om Olga Eggers' dramatiske skæbne fra elsket forfatterinde til en af landets mest forhadte nazister. Det private og det politiske i hendes liv er forbundet i talrige knuder, og fortællingen udfolder hendes dramatiske og farverige tilværelse. Måske er Eggers' liv knap så uforståeligt, hvis det faktisk forstås historisk, altså i forhold til den tid, hun levede i.

Full-cast dramatisations of three insightful novels by Christopher Isherwood, plus a bonus interview Novelist and playwright Christopher Isherwood is best known for The Berlin Stories of pre-Hitler Germany, which inspired the musical Cabaret. Many of his works have been adapted for stage and...

Inspired by a true story, this is a moving reimagining of loss, legacy and the fragile truth between memory and myth… She was never meant to be a symbol, but the world made her one In 1912, fourteen-year-old Helen ‘Melville’ Smith loses her father, Captain Edward J. Smith of the Titanic...

The rural town of Stockton, New York, is famous for nothing: No one was born there, no one died there, nothing of any historical import at all has ever happened there, which is why Solomon Kugel, like other urbanites fleeing their pasts and histories, decided to move his wife and young son there...

Beautifully brought to life by three-time Academy Award-winner Meryl Streep. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Colm Toibin’s The Testament of Mary is the moving story of one of the most famous mothers in history, the Virgin Mary. Years after her son’s crucifixion, Mary finds herself...

When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. He hurries to the railway station. But he doesn’t reach his destination alive. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called upon to investigate this tragedy on the railway. It soon becomes apparent that Cambridge’s hopes of success in the forthcoming boat race rested on Pomeroy’s shoulders.

Full-cast adaptations of two of Jane Harris’s gripping novels - plus an interview with the author Listen now to these two stunning, suspenseful historical dramas, performed by a full cast and based on the novels by best-selling author, Jane Harris. The Observations transports listeners to...

Bloomsbury presents The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, read by David Sibley. A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: Sunday Times * Irish Times * Spectator * Financial Times * Telegraph * Aspects of History ‘The history book you need if you want to understand modern Russia' ANNE APPLEBAUM ‘A...

'This heartfelt story is perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Katie Flynn' - Candis 'Gritty and moving story-telling' - Peterborough Telegraph Annie Murray's The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and...

A powerful portrait of the lives of four boarding school graduates who died too young, John F. Kennedy, Jr. among them, by their fellow Andover classmate, New York Times bestselling author William D. Cohan. In his masterful pieces for Vanity Fair and in his bestselling books, William D. Cohan...

Thought to be the first novel written by a Black female slave in the 1850's, this work is both a historically important literary event and a gripping autobiographical story. When her master is betrothed to a woman who conceals a tragic secret, Hannah Crafts, a young slave on a wealthy North...

In this, perhaps Dickens' most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip's childhood to a thrilling climax that mingles tragedy and triumph.

In this riveting, beyond-belief true story from the author of The Borden Murders, meet the five children who captivated the entire world. When the Dionne Quintuplets were born on May 28, 1934, weighing a grand total of just over 13 pounds, no one expected them to live so much as an hour...

“EMINENTLY PROVOCATIVE AND READABLE.”—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Sir Alistair Horne has been a close observer of war and history for more than fifty years and in this wise and masterly work, he revisits six battles of the past century and examines the strategies, leadership, preparation, and...

Almost 7,000 fans eagerly packed into the Ringling Brothers big top on July 6, 1944. With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events.