“Deep time” is a term which attempts to capture temporal scales far beyond human comprehension. These are stretches of time epitomised by geological and cosmic scale processes, vast enough to make the entirety of human existence appear as little more than a footnote. The past few years have seen a boom in texts dedicated to the study of deep time, extending across a broad range of disciplines which fall markedly outside of its geological roots. These studies are unified by two ideas in par...

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of John Mortimer's brilliantly funny Quite Honestly, read by Marc Warren and Beth Goddard.Life couldn't be better for Lucinda Purefoy. Granted it's a little embarrassing, her father being the Bishop of Aldershot, but she's got a steady boyfriend, a degree in social sciences from Manchester University and the offer of a job in advertising. With all that, she felt she should 'pay back her debt to society' and 'do a little good in ...

Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel, by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic. Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax device; unprepared for more murders and wholly unprepared for the truth.

Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the dilemmas of modern life what would an intellectual poet have to write about…

Another Wexford mystery read by George Baker"We're all racist in this country" said Wexford. "Without exception. People over 40 are the worst and that's about all you can say. " But until he became involved with the Akandes, whose daughter had gone missing, Wexford hadn't applied that reality to himself. Melanie Akande was black, one of only eighteen black people living in Kingsmarkham, and her father Raymond was Wexford's doctor. So he had a personal interest in the case. Melanie ...

Sent to London for a rest by his doctor, Wexford can’t resist getting involved in the investigation of a mysterious murder. Read by TV’s Chief Inspector Wexford.In a vast and gloomy overgrown London cemetery, a girl is found murdered. A girl with a name that isn’t hers, and little else that is. A girl with no friends, no possessions and no past. Chief Inspector Wexford has been sent to London by his doctor for a rest – no late nights, no rich food, no alcohol and above all, no crim...

Devastatingly moving and full of psychological insight, A PERFECTLY GOOD MAN is a warm, humane Cornish novel from the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER'A convincing, moving account of man's struggle with faith, marriage and morality' Sunday TimesOn a clear, crisp summer's day in Cornwall, a young man carefully prepares to take his own life, and asks family friend, Barnaby Johnson, to pray with him. Barnaby - priest, husba...

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:the singular, pitbull-in...

A satirical account of English society in the early 20th century, Crome Yellow is Aldous Huxley's first novel. Henry Wimbush is the owner of Crome, a stately manor house, and the host of a large party. His guests take advantage of his hospitality, pursuing their own romantic, political, and social agendas. Denis Stone, the hero of the tale, attempts to record the events of the party in poetry even as his own romantic plans go awry. A send-up of the traditional English country house novel, ...

Chief Inspector Wexford tries to solve a murder with no evidence, not even a body. Read by the star of the TV series.Anita Margolis had vanished. There was no body, no crime – nothing more than an anonymous letter and the intriguing name of Smith. According to HQ, it wasn't to be a murder enquiry at all. In fact, Inspector Burden has no trouble seeing a pattern in the Margolis case. Anita was wealthy, flighty, and thoroughly immoral. Decent women had clean, tidy homes, and were eit...

Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual, particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty, which was shared with many of those living in the slums of post-war Britain, but in its transition from two-parent family to single mother and then to no parents at all...This is essentially the story of two incredible women: Alan's mother, Lily, who battled against poor health, poverty, domestic violence and loneliness to t...

15 years after the Painter case had been closed someone wants the case re-examined, history changed, and Wexford proved wrong15 years after the Painter case had been closed someone wants the case re-examined, history changed, and Wexford proved wrong