This collection of short stories, previously published in anthologies and newspapers, consists of miniature studies of the endless absurdity of human behaviour. It includes 'Our Lives Are Only Lent To Us', discovered amongst the author's papers after her death.

As Romeo and Juliet come from opposing families, their love must be concealed until after their marriage. But having slain Juliet's cousin Tybalt, Romeo is banished and despite the well-meaning intervention of Friar Laurence, fate ensures that the marriage is never truly celebrated. Dramatisation of the New Cambridge version of the text.

A classic tale of wizards, dragons and terrifying shadows. The young wizard Sparrowhawk, tempted by pride to try spells beyond his powers, lets loose an evil shadow-beast in his land. Only he can destroy it, and this quest leads him to the farthest corner of Earthsea.

Captain Gault has decided that his family must leave their home in Lahardane. They are after all Protestants living in the big house in rural Cork in 1921, and Ireland is in turmoil. But 8-year-old Lucy can't bear to leave the seashore, the old house, the woods - so she hatches a plan. It is then that the calamity happens - an accident almost, but...

'The Silver Spoon' continues the tale of Soames' daughter Fleur. Married to Michael Mont, in line for a Barony, the story focuses on Michael's start in Parliament and Fleur's dissatisfaction with her marriage. The American, Frances Wilmont, enters the scene bringing news that Fleur's real love, Jon, forbidden to her as the son of her father's ex-wi...

Michael Mont is succeeding in his public life in Parliament, but holds grave doubts about his private life and his wife, Fleur. Fleur's original love, Jon Forsyte, her cousin and the son of her father's ex-wife, returns to England where a meeting is inevitable. Fleur's undying love for Jon is disclosed.

On a bitterly cold night in the eerie silence of an old church, forensic anthropologist Dr Brennan digs carefully. She is there to exhume the body of a nun who died in 1888 and is now proposed for sainthood. But the body has been moved. Why have the nun's remains been disturbed? And what will Dr Brennan discover when she finally manages to lift the...

A richly comic tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families, the Hazards and the Chances, Angela Carter's witty and bawdy novel is populated with as many sets of twins and mistaken identities as any Shakespeare comedy, and celebrates the magic of over a century of showbusiness.

Solving the mystery of the Primrose Path Home proves to be the first of a collection of great new cases, as Rumpole defies hospital and returns triumphantly to defend the innocent - and the not-so-innocent.The stories contained within are: 'Rumpole and the Primrose Path', 'Rumpole and the New Year's Resolutions', 'Rumpole and the Scales of Justice'...

Every table at Quentins Restaurant has a story to tell: tales of love, betrayal and revenge. The staff who come and go have stories of their own, and the restaurant itself has had times when it looked fair for success and others when it seemed doomed to failure. Ella Brady wants to make a documentary about the renowned Dublin restaurant that has ca...

Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets o...

The first series of the Sony award winning radio show detailing the bizarre exploits of the inhabitants of a very peculiar Northern town. Meet Dr Chinnery, the lethally incompetent vet, Pauline, the monstrous Restart Officer at the Job Centre and Barbara, a taxi driver halfway through his sex change. Murderously funny and acutely observed, this is...

The quiet English village of Midwich is the very last place that anything unusual ever happens. But one night in September something very strange occurs. The next day, no-one who lives there can remember anything about the day before. So what really went on, and why do all the women in the village suddenly find themselves in the same condition? Joh...

Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old, expects never to fit into her gifted family: her father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism; her brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual ambitions; and her brilliant but distant lawyer-mom, Miriam. But when Eliza sweeps her school and district spelling bees in quick su...

The second book in the 'Search for Karla' trilogy which follows 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. George Smiley is chief of the battered British Secret Service at a time when the betrayals of a Soviet double agent have riddled the spy network. Smiley wants revenge. His method is attack, the quarry Karla, Soviet Chief of Espionage, the battleground Ho...

The sequel to 'The Clan of the Cave Bear'. Life on the glacial continent of the last Ice Age, when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth, is an exotic, primeval world where the beautiful Ayla leaves the safety of the clan who raised her and sets out alone on a journey of discovery. CONTAINS ADULT THEMES.

Until the time of her death in 2003, actress Thora Hird worked regularly with the playwright Alan Bennett. In this audiobook, Bennett recalls his work and friendship with Thora, and introduces three examples of their collaboration.

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci...

After an impulsive affair with his student sours, David Lurie retreats disgraced to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power is shifting in South Africa. He and Lucy become victims of a disturbing attack whic...

Where else to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? All along the coast, the Roman Empire's richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas. The world's largest navy lies peacefully at anchor. Only one man is worried. The engineer Marcus Attilius has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct t...

This is the complete first series from BBC Radio 4, including the pilot episode, which won the Sony Award. The audiobook includes the creations Daffyd, the only gay in the village; Emily 'I'm a lady!'; incoherant young offender Vicky Pollard; and Marjorie Dawes from FatFighters. CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND ADULT THEMES.