In this, the first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus tells the heroic tale of the Greeks’ resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, King of Persia, as recently retold in the feature film 300. Here are not only the great battles Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.

A superlative collection of Jacobean comedies and tragedies from 'our other Shakespeare', Thomas MiddletonOne of the most prolific playwrights of the Jacobean era, Thomas Middleton achieved great success with his cynically satirical comedies and bloodthirsty tragedies. Considered the only true rival to Shakespeare, Middleton is widely believed to have collaborated with the Bard on several plays, including Timon of Athens. This dazzling collection comprises...

BBC radio productions of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, plus selected shorter fiction and bonus programmes exploring his life and workOne of the most important and influential Russian writers of the 19th Century, Fyodor Dostoevsky is admired worldwide for his great realist novels, exploring questions of morality, philosophy and the nature of existence. This compilation contains the BBC radio productions of his four most famous novels - as well as three lesser-known wor...

Young Robinson Crusoe has a burning ambition to be a sailor. Paying no attention to his parents’ warnings he runs away to sea to embark on a series of thrilling adventures: struggles with Barbary pirates, a shipwreck and the extraordinary meeting with Man Friday... Roy Marsden plays the older Robinson Crusoe looking back on a life of recklessness, daring and adventure – and the survival of twenty-eight years, two months and nineteen days on a desert island. Based on the real-life adventure...

THERE IS NO better way to introduce children to classical music than with Prokofiev's musical fairy tale of the little boywho, with the help of a bird, outsmarted the big, bad wolf. A new retelling by Janet Schulman follows the basic story, but with a kinder ending for both the big, bad wolf and the argumentative duck. Peter Malone's paintings have the luminous quality of old Russian masters.

The brilliant conclusion to the Palliser novels, this touching story follows the elderly Duke of Omnium, the former prime minister of England, as he struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must also deal with the willfulness of his three adult children as he tries to guide and support them—his plans for them are quite different from their own.While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling...