The remarkably honest and brilliantly entertaining memoir of one of our finest acting Dames whose long and celebrated career includes her much-loved performance as Livia in I, Claudius and who was married for 20 years to the hell-raising Hollywood star Peter O'Toole.Siân Phillips has a long and celebrated career on both stage and screen. For the first time, her two bestselling volumes of memoir Private Faces and Public Places will be avai...

Featuring acclaimed humorist David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this illustrated collection of animal-themed tales is an utter delight.Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life. In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty," a cynical feline struggles to sit th...

It comes as no surprise to the average Welsh person that their culture continues to thrive despite centuries of seeming servitude to the English. Wales, exemplified by the symbol of the Welsh dragon, is a small proud nation of many talents, large imaginations and even bigger hearts.Saint David's Day, or the Feast of Saint David falls on the 1st March each year on the anniversary of his death in 589 AD. The feast has been regularly celebrated since his canonisation in the 12th centu...

On a summer’s day we have perhaps all wish to take flight and view life and the world from the vantage point of a clear blue sky. Our feathered friends do it as a matter of course and in this volume some of our finest wordsmith’s speak with imagination, longing and desire on their behalf.

The first volume in Cliff McNish's bestselling debut trilogy.In a blaze of light, rush of wind and scrabble of claws, Rachel and Eric are ripped through the wall and hurtled on to another world. Like thousands of other children before them, they have been snatched away by the Witch.But this time the Witch has met her match. Rachel discovers that she has extraordinary gifts: she can transform herself into a feather, or fly on an owl’s back, just as the Witch can. The Witch i...

The final volume in Cliff McNish's bestselling debut trilogy.The magic of all children has been released. Throughout the skies of Earth they swoop, crossing continents, changing shape, diving to the ocean depths and playing the deadly new spell-games.Rachel bides her time, watching the skies for what she knows will happen - the invasion of the Witches. But when it comes it is not in the way anyone expects, and there is also a new enemy — the huge, terrifying Gridda-breed.

Four of L. P. Hartley's finest novels adapted for BBC radio, plus bonus short storiesAn acclaimed novelist, short story writer and critic, Leslie Poles Hartley is best known for his 1953 novel The Go-Between, which won the W. H. Heinemann Award and was adapted as a BAFTA-winning film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates. Included here is a radio dramatisation of that classic tale, alongside adaptations of three further novels and five short stories....

Comedy about the ruling family of Renaissance Italy's most inconsequential city-stateIn Monte Guano, a ridiculously small and penniless principality in Renaissance Italy, Prince Ludovico II finds his rule constantly undermined by those around him: his shrewd wife, his official mistress, and his three disappointing - if not outright humiliating - sons.As well as having to manage the ever-increasing tributes demanded by the Pope, Prince Ludovico must also con...

Jane Marple is being treated to a few days' holiday by her niece, staying at Bertram's Hotel - a dignified, establishment tucked away in a back street of busy Mayfair. It is a place where sedate upper-class ladies, retired military gentlemen and the higher echelons of the clergy can indulge in the comforts of a bygone age. But Miss Marple begins to feel uneasy. Something sinister lurks beneath the polished veneer. Why are so many major crimes associated in some way with the hotel and those...

In this delightful tale, an Eastern Prince arrives in England with some family jewels which he's having reset as a gift for his fianceé. However, the Prince also has a mistress. She asks to wear one particularly enchanting piece that features a huge ruby, and then promptly disappears with it. Poirot discovers a connection with a house party at the home of Colonel and Mrs Lacey and, in order to pursue his investigation, an invitation is procured for him to the Laceys', ostensibly to enjoy a...

A star-studded BBC radio production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – plus bonus drama The ‘B’ Word, telling the story of the play’s scandalous opening night.Irascible phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can train Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to talk ‘like a lady’ and pass as a duchess at the Ambassador’s Ball. As the day of reckoning approaches, can Eliza convince the assembled aristocrats th...

Seven BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of P.D. James’ acclaimed mysteries, plus P.D. James In Her Own WordsThis collection includes:Cover Her FaceP.D. James' debut novel, introducing her famous detective Adam Dalgliesh. Starring Robin Ellis as Dalgliesh.A Taste for DeathDalgliesh investigates when two bodies are found murdered at a London church. Starring Richard Derringt...