'I, Daniel Blake, am a citizen, nothing more, nothing less.'Dan is a carpenter. A Geordie through and through. He had a heart attack recently, but he's on the mend now.Katie has just arrived from London. She's finally got a council flat, somewhere for her and her daughter, Daisy. A fresh start.In adversity, people come together. But when the system is stacked against you, how does anyone get by? With 14.5 million people (Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2022 Pove...

"1857. Jaffy Brown is running along a street in London's East End when he comes face to face with an escaped circus animal. Rescued by Mr Jamrach - explorer, entrepreneur and collector of the world's strangest creatures - the two strike up a friendship. Before he knows it, Jaffy finds himself on board a ship bound for the Dutch East Indies. His journey will push faith, love and friendship to their utmost limits.Carol Birch's epic novel brings alive the smells, sights and flavours o...

Bex and Ollie are a couple of small-time and small-town domestic burglars. They do enough to keep themselves in beer and out of work and have no ambition beyond stealing. Narrator Bex talks and walks us through a dozen note-worthy jobs and gives us his thoughts on life, love - and nicking things...

Ian Bridges works as a hitman and is on permanent stand-by for West End gangster John Broad. He does maybe three or four jobs a year and spends the rest of his lite desperately trying to find Mrs Right so he can settle down, but can't and it feels like the world is conspiring against him. He's about to find out he's right. But he can't...

Starter for Ten is a comedy about love, class, growing-up and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom from the author of the smash hit One Day.It's 1985 and Brian Jackson has arrived at university with a burning ambition – to make it onto TV's foremost general knowledge quiz. But no sooner has he embarked on 'The Challenge' than he finds himself falling hopelessly in love with his team-mate, the beautiful and charismatic would-be actress, Alice Harbinson.W...

It's thirty years since Harry Starks and his gang kept the underworld of Soho under control, but the consequences of their brutal reign are still being felt.Julie McCluskey, the actress daughter of one of Starks' victims, has grown up without a father and now that she's discovered it was money from her father's murderers that put her through drama school, she's furious. Furious with her mother for accepting it, but even more furious with Harry Starks - and she's decided she wants r...

Michael "Moo" Nelson is an overweight 15-year-old who suffers relentless teasing from other kids. To find peace, he sits alone high on a bridge and watches traffic flow by. One day on the bridge, he witnesses a murder. When a gangster is framed by police for the crime, Moo faces a hard decision - help the corrupt police, or help a violent criminal? Kevin Brooks delivers an engaging novel that will keep listeners riveted until the end.

Stegs Jenner has always lived on the edge. No ordinary cop, he's never happier than when he's working undercover, consorting with criminals and fighting to bring them to justice. But suspicion falls on him when he strikes out on his own and the operation he's involved in goes horribly wrong. DI John Gallan and DS Tina Boyd are called in to investigate. What they cannot know is that their enquiries will take them both into the heart of one of London's most notorious criminal gangs - and one...

Five grand for a couple of hours work? It seems easy money, but the deal ex-mercenary Max Iversson is chasing has gone disastrously wrong. Two of his friends are dead. And now he wants to find out who's behind their killings. Detective Sergeant John Gallan is also looking for answers. He's investigating the fatal poisoning of a nightclub doorman. But leads are scarce and, when they do appear, so do bodies. What neither man knows is that they are heading towards a devastating confrontation ...

When Rob's girlfriend asks him to leave London and live with her in Manchester not only will it mean moving cities and changing the only job he's ever had, it'll also mean leaving behind his best mate in the entire world. Believing in love conquering all Rob takes the plunge and, convinced of his ability to make new friends, tries his best. But when six months in he still finds himself without even so much as a regular drinking buddy, he begins to realise that making friends in your thirti...

On the eve of his 36th birthday, author Mike Gayle picked up a pen and contemplated his life. He is nowhere near being an adult - even though his tenth wedding anniversary is looming and his second child due shortly. Appalled by this lack of maturity, Mike draws up a to-do list containing every item he's been meaning to do but keeps putting off...

Born in a shantytown, Ludo leaves, and returns on the opposite side of its social divide. Now he sells unaffordable products to the underclass into which he was born. He has an obsessive love for his adoptive sister, while her husband is his only friend. This is the story of a man whose destiny controls him and takes him to the brink of madness.