Staying Strong is an immensely human story of how a working-class boy from Tyneside in the north of England became a world champion BMX dirt rider in America – then went downhill through partying and drugs and alcohol, until he hit rock bottom. But, with determination and hard work, Stephen Murray had the tenacity to fight his way back to the top of his sport and, in 2007, he was once again riding in a world championship final. Then tragedy struck – he crashed and broke his neck, flat-line...

A historian of medieval art and architecture with a rich appreciation of literary studies, Stephen Murray brings all those fields to bear on a new approach to understanding the great Gothic churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Plotting Gothic positions the rhetoric of the Gothic as a series of three interlocking plots: a spatial plot tied to the material construction of the churches, a social plot stemming from the collaborative efforts that made Gothic output ...

Notre-Dame of Amiens is one of the great Gothic cathedrals. Its construction began in 1220, and artistic production in the Gothic mode lasted well into the sixteenth century. In this magisterial chronicle, Stephen Murray invites readers to see the cathedral as more than just a thing of the past: it is a living document of medieval Christian society that endures in our own time.Murray tells the cathedral’s story from the overlapping perspectives of the social groups connected to it,...

Notre-Dame of Amiens is one of the great Gothic cathedrals. Its construction began in 1220, and artistic production in the Gothic mode lasted well into the sixteenth century. In this magisterial chronicle, Stephen Murray invites readers to see the cathedral as more than just a thing of the past: it is a living document of medieval Christian society that endures in our own time.Murray tells the cathedral’s story from the overlapping perspectives of the social groups connected to it,...

Ten full-cast vintage BBC Radio crime dramas featuring Michael Gilbert’s most enduring characters, including Mr Calder and Mr Behrens, Inspector Hazlerigg and Inspector PetrellaA treat for any fan of crime dramas, this collection stars legendary voices including Prunella Scales, Maurice Denham, Peter Gilmore, Carleton Hobbs and James Bolam.Smallbone Deceased: When ...

A wide selection gritty and hard hitting plays from the award-winning English playwright Edward BondEdward Bond was an English playwright, theatre director, poet, dramatic theorist and screenwriter.He was the author of some 50 plays, among them Saved (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK. Early Morning was banned by Lord Chamberlain. His play Saved became an intern...

A BBC Radio 4 production of Wynyard Browne’s classic play about a 1950s family homecoming at Christmas.It is Christmas Eve and the family are gathering at Reverend Martin Gregory’s Norfolk vicarage. A soldier son destined for Oxbridge, two elderly aunts with a passion for chatter, a cousin with a military background and a pair of daughters who are both hiding secrets join the vicar to celebrate the festive season.But family tensions soon come to the fore, and as skeletons tum...

A 60th anniversary celebration of the much-loved nautical comedy, featuring seventeen classic episodes plus bonus materialOn 29 March 1959, The Navy Lark sailed the airwaves for the very first time. Starring Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Stephen Murray, with regular appearances from Ronnie Barker and Heather Chasen, it soon became a radio favourite, and ran for 18 years – one of the longest-running radio sitcoms.This 60th anniversary collection c...

BBC radio productions of H. G. Wells' finest fiction - plus hear H .G. Wells in his own words in a selection of original radio broadcasts from the 1930s and 40sH. G. Wells is one of the founding fathers of science fiction, renowned for his futuristic tales in which he predicted space travel, lasers, the atomic bomb and wireless communication. But in addition to his 'scientific romances', he also wrote numerous ghost stories, domestic comedies and Utopian novels esp...

Stephen Murray and Hilton Edwards read a collection of Milton's finest work.

The eighth and ninth series of the vintage comedy about life aboard a Royal Navy frigateThere's more fun on the ocean waves in these 33 hilarious episodes, as the hapless Captain Povey and his reluctant subordinates are caught up in more comic capers.Contained here are the complete Series Eight and Nine of the popular show, which sees Murray courting Heather, Phillips pursuing the new Wren and Pertwee planning some special commemorative gifts for Troutbridg...

The tenth and eleventh series of the side-splitting Senior Service spoofLeft hand down a bit! The clueless crew of HMS Troutbridge have returned to port after months at sea, and are soon getting into more hilarious scrapes...Included here are the complete Series Ten and Eleven of the fondly-remembered show, remastered and restored for your listening pleasure. In these 34 vintage episodes, Troutbridge is assigned a new Captain, the seasick ...