***WITH AUDIO NARRATION***Step into the exquisite miniature world of the mice of Brambly Hedge in this beautiful new edition of the classic picture book.Bad weather is on the way and the autumn stores are still not gathered in!Quickly, all the mice of Brambly Hedge set to work to finish the harvesting before the rain begins. Primrose, Lord Woodmouse's daughter, meant to help, but somehow she daydreamed her way over the cornfield and into the Chestnut Woods, and befor...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream must be one of the most enduringly popular of Shakespeare’s plays, and it is not difficult to see why: the work blends several kinds of comedy with a powerful atmosphere of magic and mystery and a satisfying set of contrasts between city and country, reason and imagination, love and infatuation.

Tristram Shandy is an ironic masterpiece, a work of extraordinary originality, wit and learning. It is a work of considerable philosophical complexity but at the same time it is just a piece of flim-flam: it has been called the longest shaggy dog story in English literature. It is both a classic novel and an anti-novel. It includes passages of seemingly serious theology but it can also be read as an elaborate bawdy joke.

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…

Here are some of the finest narrative poems in the English language, dating from an age of rich inspiration: the nineteenth century. All tell powerful stories of human passion and endeavour, often reflected in vivid evocations of the medieval world. Includes ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ Le Morte d’Arthur and ‘Peter Grimes’

A blizzard has hit England. In the tiny village of Sittaford, on the fringes of Dartmoor, a party of six is gathered in Sittaford House, home of Captain Trevelyan. He has rented the house out for the winter and is staying in a nearby village. As evening draws in, a seance is proposed. The lights are lowered and the table turning begins: various questions are asked, and the guests are delighted when the table jerks and rocks, revealing the answers. But the game turns sour when the board spe...

An exclusive hotel on a tiny picturesque island seems to be the ideal retreat from the stresses of criminal detection for Hercule Poirot. But with the appearance of the beautiful Arlena Stuart, the quiet and peaceful atmosphere becomes charged with an indefinable erotic tension. And when she is found viciously strangled in a secluded cove, there are few, especially among the women, who seem to feel either surprise or regret. As Poirot follows a twisting path of bizarre and bewildering clue...

John Moffatt stars as the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in seven more BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations.Evil Under the Sun: On holiday in Devon, Poirot becomes embroiled in the murder of a glamorous American starlet.Sad Cypress: A poison pen letter begins a chain of events which is to end in tragedy.Murder in Mesopotamia: When death occurs at an archaeological site in the Iraqi desert, Poirot is on hand ...

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.

Christmas brings out the best and the worst in us, as can be seen in this evocative anthology. Among what Thomas Love Peacock calls the ‘many poetical charms in the heraldings of Christmas’ there are eulogies by saints and diatribes from curmudgeons. Here, Christmas is expounded by divines, sung by rustics, deplored by philosophers and made mystical in stories. This collection includes complete versions of old favourites and new discoveries: a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, an account of Chr...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in collaboration with his friend William Wordsworth, revolutionised English poetry; in 1798 they produced their Lyrical Ballads, poems of imagination and reflection using ‘the language of men’. They pointed the way forward for a generation of Romantic poets. Coleridge’s addiction to opium affected his poetic output, and yet the handful of poems he did produce were innovative. These ranged from the quietly conversational to the wildly imagined, and include two of th...

As Hercule Poirot sifts through his post one particular morning, he alights upon a letter from an elderly and (as it transpires), exceedingly rich spinster - Miss Emily Arundell. She is clearly in great distress and seeking his help, but doesn't say why. Her only specific mention is 'the incident of the dog's ball'. However, what intrigues Poirot is the date of the communication - it was written two months ago. He persuades Captain Hastings that they must visit the lady with all haste. On ...