You're not sure what you think about God. You're not an atheist – you're not that confident of his non-existence. You're not a Christian or a Muslim, though you've got nothing against either of them. You prefer to identify as a humble agnostic. Some would say you're sitting on the fence, but why not? It's a comfortable enough place to be. Why can't we all just admit we don't know?Yet sometimes you do have questions. Where did we come from? What happens when we die? Can anyone make ...

Anyone who has been through Sunday school can tell you that Jesus walked on water, fed the 5,000 and told a parable about a sower. Is there really much more to it than that? Aren't the Gospels supposed to be the "easy" bits of the Bible?Using Mark as a worked example, Andrew and Tim follow the most important things that have ever happened in the history of the world. They help us see a diagnosis of the human condition more perceptive than that offered by any physic...

One day the Fat Fairy turns up at Thomas Top's house to grant him a birthday wish. Thomas can't think what to ask for, so he wishes he could fly. That's how Thomas goes from being just an ordinary boy whom no one notices to being the most popular boy in the school. But it makes him sad that grown-ups can't see the wonderful things he can do. His flying gets him suspended from school, and that makes life at home much worse, because his dad gets so cross and it makes his mum miserable. But t...

When his parents are lost in space, Sam is left, heartbroken, in the care of the horrible Hilda Hardbottom. Then he finds a tiny spaceship in the cabbage patch and meets a little alien called Splodge. How Splodge makes him invisible, and how Sam uses his new talent in his darkest hour, makes a touching and extremely funny story with lovely memorable characters.Read by Andrew Sachs(P)2004 Orion Publishing Group.Ltd

From the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Quasimodo, the hunchback, looks down on the turmoil of Paris with a bitter eye. He is an outsider, tormented and derided because he is deformed and as ugly as a gargoyle. But love for the beautiful Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer, draws him fatally from the safety of isolation into the web of city life. Canon Frollo, the austere priest, is also utterly changed by his obsession with the enchanting girl. The fates of these three characters are inextricably ...

"This is not a political book, but simple a somewhat impressionistic study of the moods and atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years 1953-6." So wrote Lawrence Durrell in the preface to Bitter Lemons. Durrell, who lived abroad for much of his life, brilliantly captures the romance, beauty, excitement and sadness of the island, and the lives of the people of Bellapaix where he bought a house. In a compelling and atmospheric account beautifully suited to the Spoken Word mediu...

Selected by Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the century, Handful of Dust movingly and comically chronicles the breakdown of a marriage and the disintegration of English society in the years after World War I.**"Absolutely delightful" —**New York TimesAfter seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last has grown bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion t...

Phileas Fogg accompanied by his faithful valet, Passepartout, and hounded by the dogged, if unperceptive, Detective Fix, this imperturbable adventurer lets nothing stand in his way. First published in 1873, Jules Verne's classic novel depicting Fogg's epic race against the calendar still retains its power to thrill, despite the ease of long-distance travel provided by modern transport. The novel succeeds because it has all the elements of a great adventure story. Fogg falls in love, undert...

To this day Phileas Fogg’s epic race against the calendar retains its power to thrill, despite the ease of long distance travel provided by modern transport. The novel succeeds because it has all the elements of a great adventure story: Fogg experiences the risks and privations of the journey, undertakes dangerous rescue missions, suffers a case of mistaken identity and falls in love – all the result of a spur of the moment bet.

Having lost her husband and only child to the war in Afghanistan, a young woman turns to an Irish couple for hope in the form of a miracle. But dark forces are at work, and the price to pay for salvation may be too much to bear.

Hezekiah is a very hairy camel. He lives a quiet life in his enclosure at the zoo and seems to be the only animal without a friend. So Hezekiah decides to escape, and breaks into a safari park! There he meets another hairy character – and finally makes a friend.

All pterodactyls know that flying dinosaurs are superior, and all apatosauruses know that any dinosaur with only two legs is surely second-class. Nosy, a pterodactyl, and Banty, an apatosaurus, become great friends even though their parents have forbidden them to play together. With Nosy’s fast flying and Banty’s smarts, the two take on the biggest predator on the Great Plain, and conquer their parents’ prejudices in one great adventure.