Here is the riveting story of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a regional dialect to its current preeminence as the one global language, spoken by more than two billion people worldwide. In this groundbreaking book, Melvyn Bragg shows how English conquered the world. It is a magnificent adventure, full of jealousy, intrigue, and war—against a hoard of invaders, all armed with their own conquering languages, which bit by bit, the speakers of English absorbed and made thei...

Melvyn Bragg's first ever memoir - an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which lyrically evokes a vanished world. 'The best thing he's ever written . . . I loved it' Observer 'A memoir bursting with affection' Sunday TimesIn this elegiac and heartfelt memoir, Melvyn Bragg recreates his youth in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton: a working-class boy who expected to leave school at...

The Seventh Seal is probably Bergman's best-known work and the film that most clearly bears the director's unmistakeable signature.The opening scene sets the tone: a stony beach under a leaden sky, the knight alone with his thoughts, then the approach of black-clad Death, whom the knight invites to play a game of chess. Bergman's medieval allegory of faith and doubt is dark with the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague. But it is also shot through with bright flashes of...

The Timeless Romance of Heloise and Abelard Is Given New Life in this Poignant Novel by an Award-Winning Author, for Fans of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth ChadwickThe tale Heloise and Abelard has captivated the attentions of romantics since the twelfth century. Heloise was a woman beyond her time: educated, fierce, and unafraid to be herself. When Peter Abelard, a radical philosopher determined to reform the archaic practices of the Church from wi...

A Son of War presents Melvyn Bragg’s second installment in what the Sunday Telegraph calls one of the finest literary sagas of postwar Britain.” Continuing the story of the Richardson family begun in the award-winning The Soldier’s Return, this powerful novel depicts how the terrible upheavals of World War II reverberated in the peace that followed. After returning from the campaign in Burma, Sam Richardson was determined to leave his small hometown of Wigton fo...

Right from the start, when the train carrying British soldier Sam Richardson home to Wigton after his service in the Burma campaign breaks down two miles from town and he and his army comrades have to walk home, it is clear we are in the hands of a compassionate, clear-sighted writer. Bragg's work has been compared to that of Hardy and D.H. Lawrence, not without some justice. His smalltown people are closely and warmly observed, but without a shred of sentimentality, and although this stor...

On the BBC radio show Reflections with Peter Hennessy, the preeminent historian of British political life interviewed leading figures from the UK’s governing parties during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Bringing together transcripts of the collected interviews for the first time, The Complete Reflections features interviews the biggest names from the Thatcher era, the New Labour years, and the coalition government of the 2010s.In The Com...

A fascinating, in-depth history of the King James Bible (KJV)—the best-selling book in the world—and its lasting impact on language, literature, politics, and religionThe King James Bible has often been called the “Book of Books,” both in itself and in what it stands for. Since its publication in 1611, it has been the best–selling book in the world, and many believe, it has had the greatest impact.The King James Bible has spread the Protestant faith. It has...

'An enjoyably pacey read.' Times Literary Supplement'Eloquent... brilliant and very moving.' Paul Cartledge, Emeritus Professor of Greek culture, University of Cambridge'On the morning of 6 October 1536, a frail scholar was taken from a dungeon in the castle at Vilvoorde, just north of Brussels. Armed guards kept the crowds at bay as he was led through the streets of the small town. He was to be burned. The funeral pyre, a wigwam stack of p...

Following The Soldier’s Return, heralded as a novel written in fine steel sentences and granite paragraphs” by the Washington Post, and the equally brilliant A Son of War, Melvyn Bragg brings one of the finest sagas of postwar Britain” (London Sunday Telegraph) to a stunning conclusion. Set in the 1950s, this absorbing novel follows the intertwined fates of people crossing boundaries in their lives. Alive with a wide cast of characters, Crossing th...

Melvyn Bragg and guests analyse 25 key poets and literary works, tracing the evolution of poetry over 550 years'The best programme coming out of the entire corporation these days' Sunday TelegraphSince its debut in 1998, In Our Time has amassed a dedicated following of more than 2 million listeners. Hosted by Melvyn Bragg, with a panel of guest experts, each show features a plethora of fascinating facts and inspir...

An epic full-cast play about Robin Hood, plus an episode of In Our Time setting him in his historical context and four dramatic interpretations of his storyRobin Hood has captured the English imagination for centuries. His tale has been told in ballads, novels, plays, TV shows and films – and with each retelling, it has evolved and transformed. We know Robin today as a forest-dwelling outlaw who led a gang of merry men, loved the beautiful Maid Marian and ...