A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the pastIt’s London, 1960, and Aoife Kelly—once the sparkling object of young men’s affections—runs pubs with her brusque, barking husband, Cash. Their courtship began in wartime London, before they returned to Ireland with their daughters in tow. One of these daughters—fiery, independent-minded Rosaleen—moves back to Lo...

A perfectly crafted, brief, tense tale of two strangers on a winter’s night in a quiet, secluded hotel and the stories they tell each other, from the acclaimed author of Ghost Wall and Summerwater.Tell me the worst thing you’ve ever done.One winter’s night, in a hotel on Ireland’s west coast, a man and a woman meet for the first time. As a snowstorm gathers outside, the hotel windows twinkle with fairy lights and they share a meal...

The language of Poetry is an art that most of us attempt at some point in our lives. Although its commonplace exposure has been somewhat marginalised in today’s often fast-paced lives we all recognise good verse that can empathise with our thoughts or open us up to experience new things in new ways, to better understand and to enjoy the many strands of our lives.But finding a starting point can be overwhelming, even off-putting, so in this series we offer up our Top 10 classic poet...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations and readings from the bestselling author‘There’s nobody like Binchy for warming the cockles’ TimesMaeve Binchy was one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers and this compilation of her finest fiction, as heard on BBC Radio, demonstrates all the warmth, wit and compassion that made her so popular.Firefly Summer is a moving, humorous novel about a sleepy Irish town facing monumental change, dramatised in six parts with a full ca...

Maeve Binchy is one of Britain’s most popular and bestselling authors, and this collection of four stories from the BBC Radio 4 archive shows her at her most insightful and imaginative. In The Garden Party, Helen envies her neighbour Debbie Kennedy’s garden – and her life – but discovers that things are not always as they seem; while The Special Sale sees lonely Yvonne arranging a special lunch for her friend Frank and his children on the day after Christmas. The Sens...

Collected radio plays and short stories by Rachel JoyceRachel Joyce captured the hearts of millions with her bestselling debut novel, which told the moving tale of an ordinary man, Harold Fry, who embarks on an epic journey to deliver a message and save a life. But Harold’s story began its life on radio, in the award-winning play which opens this collection: To Be A Pilgrim, starring Anton Lesser, Anna Massey and N...

From bestselling author John Boyne, a gripping and profound exploration of guilt, blame, trauma, and the human capacity for redemption. This program features multicast narration.In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.The narrative follows a mother...

Three lively retellings of Daniel Defoe’s classic novels, plus two bonus programmes about his extraordinary life and far-reaching influence.Robinson Crusoe and his Farther AdventuresAn imaginative blend of the famous castaway tale and its lesser-known sequel, this thrilling drama sees Crusoe setting sail for the far north. Facing danger in the Siberian wastes, he keeps terror at bay by telling his companions campfire tales of his many advent...

This compiliation brings together some of the best poetry that Ireland can lay claim to. Full or energy, emotion; at times raw at others sensuous and evocative. From Thomas Moore to Louis MacNeice through Katherine Tynan, John Millington Synge and Oscar Wilde and many others to the immortal WB Yeats.

A collection of full-cast dramatisations plus interviews with Laurie LeeLaurie Lee was a poet, novelist and screenwriter renowned for his bestselling autobiographical trilogy Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War. Among the best loved memoirs in the English language, the books chart Lee’s life from his boyhood summers in a remote Cotswold village to joining the Republican International Brigade during the Spani...

Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce – plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his lifeUlyssesIn this full-cast dramatisation of Joyce’s epic modernist novel, the stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom combine as they meander through Dublin in the course of one day, 16 June 1904. Andrew Scott stars as Stephen, with Henry Goodman as Bloom, Niamh Cusack

10 dramas focusing on women's untold stories from history.This diverse, eclectic collection of plays explores an array of social, political and historical events from a female point of view. In these captivating dramas, we see the world through their eyes, giving us a fresh perspective on a female history that is too often unrecorded, misrepresented or misunderstood.Featuring a multiplicity of styles and genres, and written by a wide variet...