Hilarious comedy caper set in Wales during the heyday of the Great British seaside holidaySet up the deckchair, pop a hanky on your head and order an ice-cream with a flake, as you settle in for a hilarious trip to Llantwit-on-Sea. It’s the 1950s, the Great British holiday is booming and recently widowed Eirlys Richards runs a lively boarding house in this Welsh seaside town.Wanting to spice up her life, Eirlys welcomes a lover into her holiday haven, howeve...

Christopher Lee's highly-acclaimed and award-winning BBC Radio 4 history of the British Empire.Britain had the biggest empire the world has ever known. At one time a quarter of the global land mass was British. Over a third of the world was insured at Lloyds. At his coronation, more than 400 million people saluted George V. Truly, the sun never set on this historical phenomenon. Whatever the day, whatever the hour, somewhere on the globe, the empire worked and play...

Three of the ever-popular Sheridan’s finest playsBorn in Dublin in 1751, Richard Brinsley Sheridan was a theatre impresario, statesman and the most celebrated playwright of his time. His brilliantly witty comedies of manners have become part of the literary canon, and are frequently performed around the world. This collection comprises three classic radio productions of his best works, performed by star casts including Barbara Mitchell, Rolf Lefebvre, Dorot...

An epic 13-part dramatisation of William Harrison Ainsworth’s historical romance, centring around the rise and fall of Lady Jane GreyWilliam Harrison Ainsworth was lauded by his contemporaries as a successor to Sir Walter Scott, and was named in 1847 as one of the three most popular writers in England (alongside Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Charles Dickens). His first three historical novels were inspired by the lives of Dick Turpin, ‘Honest Jack’ Sheppard and ‘the Adm...

In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration ...

During the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War, foreign agents conducted intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and subversive operations inside neutral countries aimed at damaging their opponents' interests. The essays contained in this collection analyze the risks of espionage operations on neutral soil as well as the dangers such covert activities posed for the governments of neutral states. In striving to avoid involvement in the firing line of the Second World War or the front lin...

Experts from key organisations such as the RSPO identify key production trends and challengesReviews latest developments in conventional and marker-assisted breeding as well as transgenic approachesAssesses ways of assessing and optimising yields through techniques such as better nutrient and soil management

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is one of the earliest and most compelling presentations of the story of a man who sold his soul to the Devil. It is based on the popular history of Johann Georg Faust (1466–1541) a German chemist and magician, who allegedly perished in an explosion during an alchemical experiment. In the theologically charged world of early reformation Germany, a report spread that his violent death was a demonstration that the devil had come to collect his soul. The...

This full cast presentation includes Part 1 and Part 2 of Shakespeare’s Henry IV.In 1598 appeared a Quarto with the following title:The History of Henrie the Fourth; With the Battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceits of Sir John Falstaffe. At London. Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598.This was the Fir...

In the stories that make up Oblivion**, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness — a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his.**These are worlds undreamt of by any other mind. Only David Foster Wallace could convey a father’s desperate loneliness by way of his son’s daydreaming through a teacher’s homicidal breakdown (“The Soul Is Not a Smithy”). Or could explore the...

These widely acclaimed essays from the besteselling author of Infinite Jest — on television, tennis, cruise ships, and more — established David Foster Wallace as one of the preeminent essayists of his generation.In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the suppos...

A collection of David Foster Wallace’s witty and deeply observant essays exploring everything from lobster festivals and politics to the nature of human suffering, from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest**.****"brilliantly entertaining...**Consider the Lobster **proves once more why Wallace should be regarded as this generation's best comic writer" —**Cleveland Plain DealerDo...