THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER’Dark, clever, terrifying’ Paula Hawkins‘Gripping and moving’ Erin Kelly‘You won’t want to eat, sleep or blink’ Tammy CohenImagine your doorbell rings in the middle of the night. You open the door to the police. With them is your husband’s eleven-year-old love child. A daughter you never knew he had. Her mother has been found dead in their south London flat. She has nowhere else to go. WOULD YOU TAKE HER IN? Compulsive, dark and devastating, Give Me the Child is a uniquely skilful thriller with an unforgettable twist. ___ What readers are saying about Give Me the Child: 'Chilling and unnerving. I loved it.' 'A brilliantly crafted psychological thriller full of surprises, with a breathless climax.' 'A tension-filled family drama with plenty of twists and turns along the way, that will have you racing to the end.' 'A brilliant suspense-thriller. I highly recommend this book.' ‘I read this in one sitting. It's an excellent read, chilling and well written.' 'A psychological thriller with a difference and an evil twist, it kept me on the edge of my seat.' 'Excellent, a real page turner. All the more riveting as so very real.' 'I could not put it down…I loved it!!'

Give Me the Child

Rediscover one of the greatest love stories of all time with this new audio edition of Pride and Prejudice, masterfully narrated by actress Adjoa Andoh ('Bridgerton', 'Doctor Who'). Pride and Prejudice's prolific status as a beloved story is thanks to its dynamic, ever-evolving central characters, as well as the strength of the wit and satire wielded by Austen. It is a love story, yes, but it is also a profound critique of Georgian high society and the plight of women. Without a male heir, the Bennet daughters risk losing their home and their income when their father, Mr Bennet, passes. To save the family, the sisters must marry - and most importantly, marry well. It is in this predicament that we find the smart and spirited Elizabeth Bennet, who despite pressure from her family, is determined to live and marry on her own terms. The arrival of the haughty, wealthy Mr Darcy who is impervious to her charms begins a timeless comedy of manners, and endless drama, where first impressions are just not what they seemed. Pride and Prejudice is a classic tale with numerous screen adaptations, most notably the BBC’s TV adaptation starring Colin Firth and an Oscar-nominated film starring Keira Knightley. British actress Adjoa Andoh has had a prolific career on both the stage and screen, from starring roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre to popular television Bridgerton and the Witcher. She now delivers a captivating performance, breathing new life into this much-loved novel. There are few authors as iconic as Jane Austen (1775-1817). Her body of work contains some of the most beloved books and characters of all time which have been in print for over two hundred years and sold millions of copies worldwide. Austen was a trailblazer, famed for her satire, her astute social commentary and her strong-willed, passionate heroines. Her ability to wield humour with realism has found her favour with critics and readers for generations. Her most famous works include Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1816), Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Persuasion (1818), all of which have received success in adaptations for the screen, stage and radio.

Pride and Prejudice

Thomas Post is an expert on coincidences. He's an authority. People come to see him, to ask him if he can explain strange events that have befallen them, and he can always explain these things away. We poor humans, he would say, have a tendency to make patterns out of random shapes, or to construct meaning from the random behaviour of the universe. But one day Thomas gets a visit from Azalea Lewis, and his world will never be the same again. For Azalea's coincidences seem to go off the scale. The lives of Thomas and Azalea become entwined, their destinies entangled. And now, with Azalea apparently dead in a foreign land, Thomas must reassemble the pieces of her life in search for the patterns that drove it. And that means he must try to unravel the coincidences that so afflicted her. Read by Adjoa Andoh (p) 2013 Orion Publishing Group

The Coincidence Authority

Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece. Now available as a digital download. This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character. As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

Half of a Yellow Sun

A full cast edition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman’s modern classic, Coraline. While exploring her new home, a young girl named Coraline unlocks a door to reveal a hidden passage. Intrigued, she ventures deep into a mysterious mirror realm, a world eerily similar yet darkly different from her own. There another mother and another father greet her, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Before long, the miraculous turns sinister, and Coraline must use her wits and courage to save herself―and the other trapped souls she finds along the way. Filled with enchantments and terrors alike, this winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Awards is a dazzling feat of imagination from a modern literary master. Cast Julian Rhind-Tutt: Narrator Pixie Davies: Coraline Katherine Kingsley: Mother and Other Mother Julian Clary: Cat Jacqueline Boatswain: Miss Spink and Other Miss Spink Kevin McNally: Father and Other Father Adjoa Andoh: Miss Forcible and Other Miss Forcible Adrian Schiller: Mr. Bobo, Other Mr. Bobo, police, and the dogs Heather Nicol: Winged Ghost Girl William Parker: Ghost Boy Nicole Davis: Tall Ghost Girl

Coraline

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEY S WOMEN S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014. From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a powerful story of love, race and identity. As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face? Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning ‘Americanah’ is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today’s globalized world. “Actress Adjoa Andoh brings to life Adichie’s complex, beautifully wrought novel – which is both a love story and a nuanced analysis of political topics including systemic racism in America; immigration in the UK; and the class system in Nigeria.” VOGUE “One of the previous decade’s landmark novels… Andoh is a skilled, exciting narrator.” THE TIMES

Americanah

On a hill overlooking a refugee camp in Sudan, a young man strings up bedsheets that, in an act of imaginative resilience, will serve as a screen in his silent cinema. From the cinema he can see all the comings and goings in the camp, especially those of two new arrivals: a girl named Saba, and her mute brother, Hagos. For these siblings, adapting to life in the camp is not easy. Saba mourns the future she lost when she was forced to abandon school, while Hagos, scorned for his inability to speak, must live vicariously through his sister. Both resist societal expectations by seeking to redefine love, sex, and gender roles in their lives, and when a businessman opens a shop and befriends Hagos, they cast off those pressures and make an unconventional choice. With this cast of complex, beautifully drawn characters, Sulaiman Addonia details the textures and rhythms of everyday life in a refugee camp and questions what it means to be an individual when one has lost all that makes a home or a future. Intimate and subversive, Silence Is My Mother Tongue dissects the ways society wages war on women and explores the stories we must tell to survive in a broken, inhospitable environment.

Silence is My Mother Tongue

From the bestselling author of The Other Boleyn Girl. .Bristol in 1787 is booming, from its stinking docks to its elegant new houses. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs ready cash and a well-connected wife. An arranged marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah’s protection, Frances enters the world of the Bristol merchants and finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum and slaves. Once again Philippa Gregory brings her unique combination of a vivid sense of history and inimitable storytelling skills to illuminate a complex period of our past. Powerful, haunting, intensely disturbing, this is a novel of desire and shame, of individuals, of a society, and of a whole continent devastated by the greed of others.

A Respectable Trade

‘One of the best novels of the year so far’ The TimesA SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘Unlike anything I’ve read. Haunting and huge, and funny and sensuous. It’s wonderful’ Tessa Hadley ‘I just enjoyed it so very much’ Philip Pullman It is the 17th century and a wall is being built around a great house. Wychwood is an enclosed world, its ornamental lakes and majestic avenues planned by Mr Norris, landscape-maker. A world where everyone has something to hide after decades of civil war, where dissidents shelter in the forest, lovers linger in secret gardens, and migrants, fleeing the plague, are turned away from the gate. Three centuries later, another wall goes up overnight, dividing Berlin, while at Wychwood, over one hot, languorous weekend, erotic entanglements are shadowed by news of historic change. A little girl, Nell, observes all. Nell grows up and Wychwood is invaded. There is a pop festival by the lake, a TV crew in the dining room and a Great Storm brewing. As the Berlin wall comes down, a fatwa signals a different ideological faultline and a refugee seeks safety in Wychwood. From the multi-award-winning author of The Pike comes a breathtakingly ambitious, beautiful and timely novel about game keepers and witches, agitators and aristocrats, about young love and the pathos of aging, and about how those who wall others out risk finding themselves walled in.

Peculiar Ground

The critically acclaimed author of The House at the End of Hope Street combines love, mystery, and magic with her first foray into bewitching fantasy with a dark edge evocative of V.E. Schwab and Neil Gaiman. Once upon a time, a demon who desired earthly domination fathered an army of dark daughters to help him corrupt humanity . . . As children, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea dreamed of a strange otherworld: a nightscape of mists and fog, perpetually falling leaves and hungry ivy, lit by an unwavering moon. Here, in this shadowland of Everwhere, the four girls, half-sisters connected by blood and magic, began to nurture their elemental powers together. But at thirteen, the sisters were ripped from Everwhere and separated. Now, five years later, they search for one another and yearn to rediscover their unique and supernatural strengths. Goldie (earth) manipulates plants and gives life. Liyana (water) controls rivers and rain. Scarlet (fire) has electricity at her fingertips. Bea (air) can fly. To realize their full potential, the blood sisters must return to the land of their childhood dreams. But Everwhere can only be accessed through certain gates at 3:33 A.M. on the night of a new moon. As Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea are beset with the challenges of their earthly lives, they must prepare for a battle that lies ahead. On their eighteenth birthday, they will be subjected to a gladiatorial fight with their father’s soldiers. If they survive, they will face their father who will let them live only if they turn dark. Which would be fair, if only the sisters knew what was coming. So, they have thirty-three days to discover who they truly are and what they can truly do, before they must fight to save themselves and those they love.

The Sisters Grimm

PEREGRINE QUINN IS BACK FOR AN EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT ADVENTURE IN THIS SECOND INSTALLMENT IN THE OUTSTANDING NEW CHILDREN'S FANTASY SERIES! A Games. A thief. A mechanical lioness. It's just another week in the Cosmic Realm! The city of Cosmopolis is buzzing with excitement. The Cosmic Games are fast approaching, and eight champions are about to compete for a magical golden apple and a lifetime of glory. It's the event of a generation! But behind the scenes tensions within Olympus Inc. are running high as they struggle to hide signs of a rebellion, and the fact that a mysterious figure is trying to sabotage the Games. Who are they, and what do they want? In Oxford, Peregrine is desperate to return to the Cosmic Realm but her mum is not keen. Surely, Peregrine's life is adventurous enough? The decision is taken out of Penelope's hands when Peregrine receives a letter from Athene herself, asking for Peregrine to compete in the Cosmic Games. How can Peregrine possibly compete against the other Academy-trained champions? Especially when someone is making it very clear that she should not be allowed to win . . . ENTER THE PORTAL TO AN INCREDIBLE NEW WORLD IN THIS EPIC MIDDLE-GRADE ADVENTURE. PERFECT FOR FANS OF SKANDAR and PERCY JACKSON.

Peregrine Quinn and the Mask of Chaos (Volume 2)

Have you ever imagined a different life? Have you ever stood at a crossroads, undecided…Have you ever had a moment when you wanted to roar? Now an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ A story for every woman. A story for every moment. Whether you want to laugh To be moved To love To feel less guilt To cry To be comforted To ROAR There is a story for you. From Sunday Times bestselling author Cecelia Ahern comes a collection of witty, original and moving stories for women everywhere. ‘Funny, wise and weighty, in a very good way…read one or two of Ahern’s fables at a time [to] truly appreciate their wit, pathos and imagination.’ Independent ‘Witty, playful, entertaining but also thought-provoking, salutary and empowering’ Daily Mail A Radio 2 Bookclub Choice.

Roar

The UK's #1 bestselling children's author, David Walliams, is back with a thrilling historical adventure with life-or-death stakes—chock-full of Walliams’s unmistakable humor and perfect for fans of Stuart Gibbs and Gordon Korman. 1940. BRITAIN IS AT WAR WITH NAZI GERMANY. Eleven-year-old Eric practically lives at the London Zoo. And there’s one animal in particular he loves to spend time with: Gertrude the gorilla. But with German bombs raining over London, Eric realizes Gertrude is in terrible danger, and together with his Uncle Sid, a keeper at the zoo, the three go on the run. But while hiding out at the seaside, they uncover a top-secret Nazi plot…

Code Name Bananas

“A brilliant writer.” — New York Times Book Review The bestselling and beloved Brown Sisters series, from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Talia Hibbert, now in a single volume! This bundle includes the following novels: GET A LIFE, CHLOE BROWN: Tired of being boring, chronically ill computer geek Chloe Brown asks her mysterious, sexy neighbor to help her experience new things. As they check items off her “Get a Life” list, Chloe starts to wonder what really lies beneath Red Morgan’s rough, tattooed exterior… TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN: After a video of Dani Brown and her grumpy coworker Zafir Ansari goes viral, she agrees to fake date him in public and stay friends-with-benefits behind the scenes. Only, Zaf is secretly a hopeless romantic, and he’s determined to show relationship-averse Dani everything she’s missing. ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN: In order to prove she’s not just the hot mess of her family, Eve Brown takes a job as a chef at Jacob Wayne’s quaint B&B. But her sunny, chaotic energy turns his carefully controlled life upside down and has him falling hard—literally.

The Brown Sisters

Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters Book Set

Read by Adjoa Andoh LEGENDARY AGENT JAMES BOND CONFRONTS AN ENEMY UNLIKE ANY HE’S FACED BEFORE James Bond is not an easily intimidated man, but it’s hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses superstition and fear to control his vast criminal empire, he’s also one of SMERSH’s top American operatives. Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican island and funneling the proceeds to Moscow. With help from Solitaire, Mr. Big’s beautiful and enigmatic Creole fortune teller, and his old friend Felix Leiter of the CIA, 007 must locate the crime lord’s hideout, sabotage his operation, and reclaim the pirate hoard for England.

James Bond

Live and Let Die

The dazzling BBC Radio adaptations of Ursula K. Le Guin's famous fantasy saga and her ground-breaking science fiction masterpiece - plus bonus material Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the most revered and influential writers of the 20th Century. Her 'Earthsea' books have sold millions of copies and been translated into numerous languages, while her trailblazing novel The Left Hand of Darkness was a landmark in feminist science fiction and ranks among the greatest SF novels of all time. This BBC collection brings together the magical radio retellings of both these seminal classics. Set on an immense archipelago where magic is a part of life, Earthsea tells the stories of Ged, a young, reckless wizard, and Tenar, taken from her home as a child to become Arha, guardian priestess of the ominous Tombs of Atuan. Meeting for the first time deep within the tombs, their destinies become intertwined, and they unite to bring peace to their troubled world. Years later, their paths have diverged - but when Ged returns to Tenar's island on a dragon's back, they are caught up in an epic battle for the future of Earthsea itself. Starring James McArdle, Shaun Dooley and Robert Glenister as Ged, and Aysha Kala, Vineeta Rishi and Nina Wadia as Tenar with Toby Jones and Noma Dumezweni. The Left Hand of Darkness takes place on an alien world in the grip of an Ice Age. Genly Ai has been sent from Earth on a mission to persuade Gethen to join a planetary union, the Ekumen. But his task is fraught with difficulty. For this is a world whose people have no fixed gender, and Genly's encounters with the natives are marked by mutual incomprehension and mistrust. In coming to terms with their otherness and their sameness Genly must let go of his fixed ideas about identity, and embark on a dangerous journey across the snow plains with his only ally, First Minister Estraven. The stakes are high to save a world from war. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith stars as Genly, with Lesley Sharp as Estraven. Also included Ursula Le Guin at 85, in which novelist Naomi Alderman interviews Le Guin, with contributions from Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell and Karen Joy Fowler. Production credits Written by Ursula K.Le Guin Adapted by Judith Adams Earthsea Ged - James McArdle/Shaun Dooley/Robert Glenister Tenar - Aysha Kala/Vineeta Rishi/Nina Wadia Young Ged - Kasper Hilton-Hille Young Tenar - Nishi Malde Ogion - Paul Hilton/Michael Bertenshaw Manan - Zubin Varla Cob - Toby Jones Nilgu - Noma Dumezweni Other Cast: Souad Faress, David Hounslow, Adam Thomas-Wright, Mark Edel-Hunt, Jessica Turner, Lucy Hutchinson, Stephen Critchlow, Sam Dale, Ayesha Antoine, Richard Linnell, Jack Kane, David Acton, Chris Pavlo, Will Featherstone, Jude Akudwudike, Laura Elphinstone, Rosie Boore, Elizabeth Counsell, John Lightbody, Ryan Early, Stephen Hogan, Sean Murray, Emma Handy, Lauren Cornelius, Kerry Gooderson, Ryan Whittle, Steven Robertson, Joseph Ayre, Narinder Samra, Tom Vanson, Sabrina Sandhu Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko Original music by Jon Nicholls. Sound design by Caleb Knightley. First broadcast BBC Radio 4 Extra, 27 April-5 May 2015 (Series 1), 15-22 October 2018 (Series 2) The Left Hand of Darkness Genly Ai - Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Estraven - Lesley Sharp Argaven - Toby Jones Other Cast: Louise Brealey, Noma Dumezweni, Ruth Gemmell, Adjoa Andoh, Stephen Critchlow, David Acton, David Hounslow, Rhiannon Neads, Sam Dale, Ayesha Antoine Directed by Allegra McIlroy. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12-19 April 2015 Ursula Le Guin at 85 Presented by Naomi Alderman With Ursula K. Le Guin, David Mitchell, Neil Gaiman and Karen Joy Fowler Reader: Ayesha Antoine Produced by Allegra McIlroy. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 April 2015 ©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Complete Earthsea Series & The Left Hand of Darkness

NARRATED SPECTACULARLY BY ADJOA ANDOH, BEST KNOWN FOR PLAYING BRIDGERTON'S LADY DANBURY. DISCOVER THE PORTAL TO AN INCREDIBLE NEW WORLD IN THIS EPIC MIDDLE-GRADE ADVENTURE. PERFECT FOR FANS OF SKANDAR, PERCY JACKSON and ARTEMIS FOWL. Peregrine Quinn has always loved hearing her godfather Daedalus Bloom's stories about his life as an immortal, but that's all they were - stories. That is, until the portals that connect the Terran Realm with the Cosmic Realm mysteriously shut down and Daedalus, the only one who can fix them, is kidnapped. Peregrine is then swept into a nail-biting adventure, racing through the streets of Oxford, down the riverways of London and into the Under-Underground. She soon realises that not only are the creatures from her godfather's stories real, but they're shooting at her with laser blasters. Fortunately she has help from dryad librarian Rowan Strong and Olympus Inc. liaison (and faun) Callimachus Thorn. Together they must fix the portals and rescue Daedalus before an ancient evil rises and chaos takes over. Time is running out and the fate of all the realms is now in Peregrine's hands . . . GET READY FOR AN EDGE-OF-YOUR SEAT RACE BETWEEN WORLDS WITH PEREGRINE QUINN.

Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm

Moving between Ghana and London, Hold is an intimate, powerful coming-of-age novel. It’s a story of friendship and family, shame and forgiveness; of learning what we should cling to, and when we need to let go. Belinda knows how to follow the rules. As a housegirl, she has learnt the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi. Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven-years old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had. Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A pupil at her exclusive South-London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents. Until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda might be just the shining example Amma needs. So Belinda is summoned from Ghana to London, and must leave Mary to befriend a troubled girl who shows no desire for her friendship. She encounters a city as bewildering as it is thrilling, and tries to impose order on her unsettling new world. As the Brixton summer turns to Autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover the beginnings of an unexpected kinship. But when the cracks in their defences open up, the secrets they have both been holding tightly threaten to seep out.

Hold

“Absolutely charming... a flawless balance of humor, heat, sweetness, and depth, and I loved every page.” – Helen Hoang, USA Today bestselling author of The Bride Test Talia Hibbert, one of contemporary romance’s brightest new stars, delivers a witty, hilarious romantic comedy about a woman who’s tired of being “boring” and recruits her mysterious, sexy neighbor to help her experience new things—perfect for fans of Sally Thorne, Jasmine Guillory, and Helen Hoang! Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items? Enjoy a drunken night out.Ride a motorcycle.Go camping.Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.And... do something bad.But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job. Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit. But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

Get a Life, Chloe Brown

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by ten bestselling novelists: Jenny Éclair Mark Watson Veronica Henry Eva Verde Richard Madeley Katie Fforde Dorothy Koomson Vaseem Khan Helen Lederer Rachel Hore From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart. Stories to Make you Smile is a co-commission between The Reading Agency and Specsavers as part of World Book Night 2021.

Stories To Make You Smile

The jaw-achingly funny children’s book from No. 1 bestselling author David Walliams – a deliciously daft Tall Story of a child who had everything, but still wanted more. Meet the Meeks! Myrtle Meek has everything she could possibly want. But everything isn’t enough. She wants more, more, MORE! When Myrtle declares she wants a FING, there’s only one problem… What is a FING? Mr and Mrs Meek will do anything to keep their darling daughter happy, even visit the spooky library vaults to delve into the dusty pages of the mysterious Monsterpedia. Their desperate quest leads to the depths of the jungliest jungle where the rarest creatures can be found. But will they ever find a FING? An explosively funny, totally surreal Tall Story about two perfectly nice parents and their unbelievably monstrous daughter from the phenomenal bestselling author David Walliams.

Fing

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Maya Angelou's poignant, powerful autobiography, starring Adjoa Andoh, Indie Gjesdal and Pippa Bennett-Warner. Abandoned by their parents, Maya and her older brother Bailey are sent to live with their grandmother and uncle in the small Southern town of Stamps in Arkansas. Struggling with rejection, they endure the prejudice of their white neighbours and suffer several racist incidents. One day, their father unexpectedly returns and takes the children to live with their mother in St Louis, Missouri. Aged only eight, Maya is abused by her mother's boyfriend, an experience that haunts her for a lifetime. Filled with guilt and shame, she refuses to speak to anyone except Bailey – until she meets Mrs Bertha Flowers, who encourages her love of books, helping her to find her voice and regain her own strong spirit. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic, beloved worldwide, which recounts a youth filled with curiosity, wonder, disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and hard-won independence. This radio dramatisation, starring Adjoa Andoh, Indie Gjesdal and Pippa Bennett-Warner, plays out her extraordinary story with dramatic verve and poetic brilliance. Cast: Narrator (Older Maya)...Adjoa Andoh Maya...Indie Gjedsal/Pippa Bennett-Warner Bailey...Roshawn Hewitt Momma...Cecilia Noble Uncle Willie/Freeman/Daddy...Richard Pepple Steward/Lawyer...John Lightbody Girl...Francesca Elise Mother...Ellen Thomas Bertha Flowers...Nikki Amuka-Bird Spanish voices... Maider Jáuregui, Rocío Mesonero, Celia Romo, Julio Villa-García, Hugo Sánchez and Francisco Oda-Ángel @ Instituto Cervantes,Manchester Receptionist...Lauren Cornelius Dramatised by Patricia Cumper Produced by Pauline Harris

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Millions of young readers have loved the World’s Worst Children tales – now they will revel in this delightfully dreadful collection of the most gruesome grown-ups ever: The World’s Worst Teachers. Think your teachers are bad? Wait till you meet this lot. These ten tales of the world’s most splendidly sinister teachers will have you running for the school gates. Dr Dread teaches science and is half man, half monster… Watch out for the ghastly Miss Seethe. She is ALWAYS furious – and she’s on a detention rampage. And as for Phobe, he’s a teacher with a real difference. He is bone-shakingly terrified of… children! Millions of children have loved the World’s Worst Children – now they will revel in this delightfully dreadful collection of the most gruesome grown-ups ever, The World’s Worst Teachers. Brought to you by number one bestselling author, David Walliams, with every story illustrated in glorious colour by artistic genius, Tony Ross.

The World’s Worst Teachers

In this second hilarious Cinders and Sparks adventure, our chaotic comedy duo head for Fairyland to find Cinders’s mother – and get more than they bargained for . . . Perfect for readers of 7-9 and fans of Shrek and Frozen.Cinders and her talking dog Sparks are on the run, in the Deep Dark Forest, after Cinders performed magic at the castle and made everyone think she was a witch. The hapless Hansel is on the run with them, but only because he ate some of an actual witch’s gingerbread house and she got cross. If they can reach Fairyland, maybe they’ll all be safe. In the forest they will find three bears, a multitude of ridiculous adventures and one woman called Rapunzel in a tower. But Rapunzel may not be what she seems… Will Hansel eat the three bears’ porridge? Will Sparks offer useless advice at every turn? Will Brian the fairy godmother appear and actually help for once? The answers are: yes, yes and no.

Cinders and Sparks

Cinders and Sparks: Fairies in the Forest

WINNER OF THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2019 AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR A CBC BOOK OF THE YEAR The extraordinary story of an indomitable 95-year-old woman – and of the most extraordinary century in Ethiopia’s history. A new Wild Swans Featuring exclusive archive recordings from the author and her grandmother. A hundred years ago, a girl was born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar. Before she was ten years old, Yetemegnu was married to a man two decades her senior, an ambitious poet-priest. Over the next century her world changed beyond recognition. She witnessed Fascist invasion and occupation, Allied bombardment and exile from her city, the ascent and fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, revolution and civil war. She endured all these things alongside parenthood, widowhood and the death of children. The Wife’s Tale is an intimate memoir, both of a life and of a country. In prose steeped in Yetemegnu’s distinctive voice and point of view, Aida Edemariam retells her grandmother’s stories of a childhood surrounded by proud priests and soldiers, of her husband’s imprisonment, of her fight for justice – all of it played out against an ancient cycle of festivals and the rhythms of the seasons. She introduces us to a rich cast of characters – emperors and empresses, scholars and nuns, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents. And through these encounters she takes us deep into the landscape and culture of this many-layered, often mis-characterised country – and the heart of one indomitable woman.

The Wife’s Tale

City of Friends is the twentieth novel from the highly acclaimed number one bestselling author, Joanna Trollope. She glanced at her phone again. There were appeals from the girls, from her colleagues, a text from Steve reading with uncharacteristic imperiousness, 'Call me.' She couldn't. She couldn't call anyone . . . She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the bench, and stared at the ground. God, she thought, am I losing my mind? Is this what happens when you lose your job? The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, Senior Partner at one of the top private equity firms in London? As Stacey starts to reconcile her old life with the new - one without professional achievements or meetings, but instead, long days at home with her dog and ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home - she at least has The Girls to fall back on. Beth, Melissa and Gaby. The girls, now women, had been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and for all the happiness and heartbreaks in between. But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge that was supposed to remain secret, their long cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits . . .

City of Friends

Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world yet it is the strongest force in the universe. It was the first force to be recognised and described yet it is the least understood. It is a 'force' that keeps your feet on the ground yet no such force actually exists. Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'. And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from? Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the 'force' of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics. Read by Adjoa Andoh (p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group

The Ascent of Gravity

A Company of Swans is a sweeping tale of romance, freedom and the beauty of ballet from award-winning author, Eva Ibbotson. Weekly ballet classes are Harriet Morton's only escape from her intolerably dull life. So when she is chosen to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of the Amazon, she leaps at the chance to run away for good. Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiancé have begun to track her down . . .

A Company of Swans

“Sophisticated and erudite. . . . Hughes-Hallett is a natural heir to A.S. Byatt, delivering a densely patterned novel that shimmers with human interest as it probes our cultural story.”—Wall Street Journal The Costa Award-winning author of The Pike makes her literary fiction debut with an extraordinary historical novel in the spirit of Wolf Hall and Atonement—a great English country house novel, spanning three centuries, that explores surprisingly timely themes of immigration and exclusion. It is the seventeenth century and a wall is being raised around Wychwood, transforming the great house and its park into a private realm of ornamental lakes, grandiose gardens, and majestic avenues designed by Mr. Norris, a visionary landscaper. In this enclosed world everyone has something to hide after decades of civil war. Dissenters shelter in the woods, lovers rendezvous in secret enclaves, and outsiders—migrants fleeing the plague—find no mercy. Three centuries later, far away in Berlin, another wall is raised, while at Wychwood, an erotic entanglement over one sticky, languorous weekend in 1961 is overshadowed by news of historic change. Young Nell, whose father manages the estate, grows up amid dramatic upheavals as the great house is invaded: a pop festival by the lake, a television crew in the dining room, a Great Storm brewing. In 1989, as the Cold War peters out, a threat from a different kind of conflict reaches Wychwood’s walls. Lucy Hughes-Hallett conjures an intricately structured, captivating story that explores the lives of game keepers and witches, agitators and aristocrats; the exuberance of young love and the pathos of aging; and the way those who try to wall others out risk finding themselves walled in. With poignancy and grace, she illuminates a place where past and present are inextricably linked by stories, legends, and history—and by one patch of peculiar ground.

‘A fierce, big-hearted novel.’ Joe Treasure, author of The Book of Air ‘Pushes us to find our kinder selves.’ Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You ‘A wonderful book.’ Maurice Wren, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council One of the Guardian’s Readers’ Books of the Year Long listed for Not the Booker Prize Awarded the Victor Turner Prize in 2018 2nd March 1975 In Asmara, Eritrea, Yonas Kelati is born into a world of turmoil. At the same time, on the same day, Jude Munroe takes her first breath in London, England. Thirty Years Later Blacklisted in his war-ravaged country, Yonas has no option but to flee his home. After a terrible journey, he arrives on a bleak English coast. By a twist of fate, Yonas’ asylum case lands on Jude’s desk. Opening the file, she finds a patchwork of witness statements from those who met Yonas along his journey: a lifetime the same length of hers, reduced to a few scraps of paper. Soon, Jude will stand up in court and tell Yonas’ story. How she tells it will change his life forever. Fearless, uplifting and compelling, The Invisible Crowd is a powerful debut novel about loyalty, kindness – and the brief moments which define our lives. Amazon reviewers love The Invisible Crowd: ‘One of the best novels I’ve read this year.’ ‘I found myself absorbed from page one.’ ‘A delight to read while also being thought provoking and super relevant.’ ‘Beautifully crafted, emotionally resonant, I highly recommend it.’ ‘A debut novel with a huge heart.’ ‘The Invisible Crowd is compelling from the first page and will pull your heart kicking and screaming through the turmoil of finding a home, safety, and love.’

The Invisible Crowd

Discover the second of the two masterful hit novels adapted for the massive new BBC One Drama series In The Dark, featuring brilliant heroine Helen Weeks - continuing from number one bestseller Time of Death. 'Billingham produces an astonishing final twist' Sunday Telegraph A rainy night in London. Shots are fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement, ploughing into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister... One life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger; an ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. Two weeks away from giving birth, how will she deal with a world where death is an occupational hazard? In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, anything is possible. Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the story's final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come. The hugely acclaimed latest novel in Mark Billingham's bestselling series, Love Like Blood, is out now.

In The Dark

An intensely moving account of George III’s doomed attempt to create a happy, harmonious family, written with astonishing emotional force from a stunning new history writer. George III came to the throne in 1760 as a man with a mission. He wanted to be a new kind of king, one whose power was rooted in the affection and approval of his people. And he was determined to revolutionise his private life too – to show that a better man would, inevitably, make a better ruler. Above all he was determined to break with the extraordinarily dysfunctional home lives of his Hanoverian forbears. For his family, things would be different. And for a long time it seemed as if, against all the odds, his great family experiment was succeeding. His wife, Queen Charlotte, shared his sense of moral purpose, and together they did everything they could to raise their tribe of 13 young sons and daughters in a climate of loving attention. But as the children grew older, and their wishes and desires developed away from those of their father, it became harder to maintain the illusion of domestic harmony. The king's episodes of madness, in which he frequently expressed his repulsion for the queen, undermined the bedrock of their marriage; his disapproving distance from the bored and purposeless princes alienated them; and his determination to keep the princesses at home, protected from the potential horrors of the continental marriage market, left them lonely, bitter and resentful at their loveless, single state. At one level, ‘The Strangest Family’ is the story of how the best intentions can produce unhappy consequences. But the lives of the women in George's life – and of the princesses in particular – were shaped by a kind of undaunted emotional resilience that most modern women will recognise. However flawed George's great family experiment may have been, in the value the princesses placed on the ideals of domestic happiness, they were truly their father's daughters.

The Strangest Family

Perfect for readers of 7–9, Cinders & Sparks is a fresh, funny and fabulous take on Cinderella, for everyone who loved Frozen and Shrek.She will go to the ball. But nothing will go to plan… A magic girl. A talking dog. Let’s get this party started . . . Cinders lives a boring life with her selfish stepsisters and mean stepmother. So when her wishes start magically coming true it’s a surprise to say the least. Then Cinders meets her fairy godmother: she’s magic, she can fly, and she’s called . . . Brian. Soon, Cinders finds herself heading to the glamorous ball at the King’s palace. But Brian is NOT very reliable and Cinders is NOT very good at magic. Now her life isn’t boring at all – it’s total chaos!

Cinders and Sparks: Magic at Midnight

Go back in time with No. 1 bestselling author David Walliams for a whizz-bang epic adventure of action, laughter and secret plots – and the extraordinary friendship between a little boy and a huge gorilla that just might save the day… 1940. Britain is at war with Nazi Germany. Eleven-year-old Eric spends his days at the place that makes him most happy: London Zoo. And there’s one animal in particular he loves: Gertrude the gorilla. With bombs falling all over London, Eric must rescue Gertrude. Together with his Uncle Sid, a keeper at the zoo, the three go on the run. But while hiding out at the seaside they uncover a top-secret Nazi plot… Join David Walliams on this action-packed, laugh-out-loud adventure for all the family!

When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos, she's not thrilled to be there. Then Otto, an infant bonobo, comes into her life, and for the first time she feels responsible for another creature. But peace does not last long for Sophie and Otto. When an armed revolution breaks out in the country, the sanctuary is attacked, and the two of them must escape unprepared into the jungle. Caught in the crosshairs of a lethal conflict, they must struggle to keep safe. In Endangered, Eliot Schrefer plunges us into a heart-stopping exploration of the things we do to survive, the sacrifices we make to help others, and the tangled geography that ties us all, human and animal, together.

Ape Quartet

Endangered

The Duchess of Kokora, Phera Ylir Mdana, has entered the marriage games of the neighboring kingdom of Ryene. But she’s not there to woo the dashing Prince Dominic. Her true objective? To win back one of the other contestants, Lady Rocelle Virae—Phera’s true love and ex-fiancee. Love proves to be a game like any other when Phera must not only mend matters with her childhood sweetheart, but conceal her true intentions in order to earn votes and stay in the competition. And as long-brewing political tensions simmer beneath the surface, the playful veneer of the competition begins to crack. In the end, Phera, Dominic, and Rocelle find themselves united in a desperate bid to prevent a duel that threatens the integrity of the kingdom, the stability of the continent, and any hope for a happily ever after. Narrated by Adjoa Andoh, whom you might recognize as Lady Danbury from Netflix's Bridgerton as well as the narrator of Ann Leckey's Ancillary Justice and the recent run of Penguin's Austen and Bronte classics, this fresh Queer YA Romantasy novel comes to life in stunning audio.

The Love and War Trilogy

The Duchess of Kokora

She was the Queen of England, wife of "mad" King George III. But neither her king, her country, nor her lover knew … SHE WAS OF AFRICAN DESCENT! In this sweeping portrait of one of England's most unexplored yet beloved queens, award-winning writer Tina Andrews (Sally Hemings, An American Scandal) combines meticulous research with her adept mastery for "connecting historical dots." Her new novel boldly imagines the aristocratic intrigue, sexual deviance, and family dysfunction in the odyssey of Charlotte Sophia (1744–1818) whose ethnicity has remained a disputed and controversial secret for three centuries.

Charlotte Sophia

In Jackie Kay’s first collection of stories, ordinary lives are transformed by secrets. Her world might seem familiar – sex, death and family cast long shadows – but the roles of mothers, daughters and lovers are imagined and revealed in the most surprising of ways. Jackie Kay sees the extraordinary in everyday life, and lights it up with humour and generosity in a way that is uniquely her own.

Why Don't You Stop Talking

A middle class woman at her wits' end and a struggling migrant worker with few options for survival. When tensions boil over, who will be the first to snap? Will it be Theodora, finally breaking under the pressure? Or Mona, desperate to find a way out? Two women. Two stories. Who do you believe? 'An impressive debut from a writer we're certain to hear more about… Beautifully worked and with a sharp eye for the menace in the commonplace' DAILY MAIL

The Darkening Hour

Good Morning, Mr Mandela is the journey of an awkward young typist later chosen to become the President's most loyal servant, spending most of her adult life travelling with, and caring for the man she would come to call 'Khulu', or 'grandfather'. Here Zelda pays tribute to Nelson Mandela as she knew him. A man who forgave and respected all, but who was also frank, teasing and direct. Now she shares his inspiring gifts with the world.

Good Morning, Mr Mandela

When a frightened Russian woman seeks DCI Hanlon's help in finding her missing husband, Hanlon's not keen on the case. Until she hears a name she recognises only too well: Arkady Belanov, sadistic pimp and owner of an exclusive brothel in Oxford is involved. When her former partner and friend disappears, Hanlon is forced into an uneasy alliance with the London underworld to rescue him from the blood-stained hands of the Russian mafia.

DI Hanlon

A Hard Woman to Kill

Well before Precious Ramotswe founded her Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, as an eight-year-old girl she was already solving mysteries. Here, in this delightful, enchanting tale for children, we find out just who has been stealing her school friends’ snacks and how the young Precious became the crafty and intuitive private investigator we all know and love!

Precious and the Monkeys

Adjoa Andoh reads a dynamic new story featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose, as played on TV by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. When the Doctor diverts an asteroid from its collision course with Earth, the TARDIS is invaded by an ancient menace: a Solonite. Racing to save her friend's life, Rose lands the TARDIS in Northumberland, Earth in 1986, and they find shelter in an isolated farmhouse. Teaming up with Peggy, a grieving artist, the travellers realise the terrible truth: the Solonite has accompanied them to Earth, and is now at large. As the terrifying entity seeks to possess them, its fearful purpose becomes clear - and it involves the TARDIS... Adjoa Andoh, who played Francine Jones in the BBC TV series, reads Niel Bushnell's electrifying original story, with accompanying sound design. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Reading produced by Neil Gardner Sound design by David Roocroft Executive producer: Michael Stevens

Doctor Who: The Ashes of Eternity

Brought to you by Penguin. Don't Tell Alfred is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. 'I believe it would have been normal for me to have paid a visit to the outgoing ambassadress. However the said ambassadress had set up such an uninhibited wail when she knew she was to leave, proclaiming her misery to all and sundry and refusing so furiously to look on the bright side, that it was felt she might not be very nice to me.' Fanny is married to absent-minded Oxford don Alfred and content with her role as a plain, tweedy housewife. But overnight her life changes when Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. In the blink of an eye, Fanny's mixing with royalty, Rothschilds and Dior-clad wives, throwing cocktail parties and having every indiscreet remark printed in tomorrow's papers. But with the love lives of her new friends to organize, an aristocratic squatter who won't budge and the antics of her maverick sons to thwart, Fanny's far too busy to worry about the diplomatic crisis looming on the horizon. . . Don't Tell Alfred continues the histories of the characters Nancy Mitford introduced in The Pursuit of Love. 'A comic genius' Independent on Sunday 'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh © Nancy Mitford 1960 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Don't Tell Alfred

All six series of the BBC radio comedy centred around a village hairdressing salon - plus pilot episode Based in the little town of Bridgeford, High-Lites salon boasts the most misanthropic hairdresser in Britain: sharp-tongued, mean-minded Bev. With the help of her soft-hearted (though slightly dim) assistant Shirley, she tends to the tresses of a motley crew of local characters. As she cuts their hair, she finds out everything that's going on in their lives - and wastes no time in spreading some gossip of her own... In the pilot episode, one of her little lies takes on a life of its own - and a dodgy dryer nearly spells disaster. Series 1 finds the salon on the brink of bankruptcy, forcing Bev to take desperate measures to keep it afloat. In HighLites: Retouched, the two stylists go mobile when their premises are shut down by Environmental Health, and in HighLites: Split Ends, Bev tries to undercut her rival, Anton, to secure a lucrative wedding hair gig. HighLites: Wash and Blow finds the hairdressing duo heading out on a cruise, hoping to drum up a little business below deck. But it's not all plain sailing... In HighLites: Dye Another Day, Bev and Shirl are faced with a huge tax bill, and connive to inherit from a wealthy old man's will. And in HighLites: Natural Bounce, the world's worst hairdressers discover that there's money to be made in fitness, and decide to open a gym above the salon - but is this an expansion too far? Co-written by Steve Chambers and Phil Nodding, this fast-paced, farcical comedy stars Lorraine Ashbourne as Bev and Rosie Cavaliero as Shirley, with a supporting cast including Marlene Sidaway, Sheila Reid, Angela Lonsdale, Adjoa Andoh, Adam Nagaitis and Joel MacCormack. Production credits Written by Steve Chambers and Phil Nodding Produced by Jessica Dromgoole Directed by Colin Guthrie and Liz Webb First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 December 2009 (Pilot), 13-17 February 2012 (HighLites), 8-12 October 2012 (HighLites: Retouched), 2-6 December 2013 (HighLites: Split Ends), 5-9 May 2014 (HighLites: Wash and Blow), 8-12 June 2015 (HighLites: Dye Another Day), 25-29 July 2016 (HighLites: Natural Bounce) Cast Beverley - Lorraine Ashbourne Shirley - Rosie Cavaliero Matthew - Rhys Jennings/Owen Pullar Alice - Emerald O'Hanrahan/Marlene Sidaway Enid - Kate Layden/Nicola Sloane/Sheila Reid/Susan Jameson Nigel - John Biggins/Simon Bubb/John Norton/Chris Pavlo Lois - Joannah Tincey/Stephanie Racine Butt - Ewan Hooper/James Lailey/Robert Blythe/Sean Murray Paramedic - Joseph Cohen-Cole John - Carl Prekopp Henry - Gerard McDermott Melvin - Adam Billington Diane - Alex Rivers/Angela Lonsdale Wendy - Victoria Inez Hardy/Eleanor Crooks/Rhiannon Neads/Nicola Ferguson Harriet - Adjoa Andoh/Carolyn Pickles Hilary - Nicola Sloane Belinda - Stephanie Racine Satnav/Nurse/Tannoy - Sarah Thom Antony - Adam Nagaitis Gordon - Ben Crowe Lucinda - Liza Sadovy Ronnie - Michael Bertenshaw Liz - Christine Absalom Tess - Priyanga Burford Captain Andersen - Joel MacCormack Julie - Carys Eleri Doug - Stephen Critchlow Annabeth - Jane Slavin Daz/Tony - Sam Rix Beryl - Melanie Kilburn With Adie Allen and Scarlett Brookes ©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

HighLites: Series 1-6

The BBC radio adaptations of Judith Kerr's internationally acclaimed trilogy - plus bonus documentary Based on her own childhood experiences, Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a timeless classic loved by children and adults alike. By turns heart-rending and heart-lifting, it is even more resonant today than when it was first published in 1971. This story of a Jewish family who escape Germany just as the Nazis come to power is seen through the eyes of their young daughter Anna, and traces their perilous journey - splintered by conflict, driven by fear and eventually rewarded with reunion. The two sequels, Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away, follow Anna as she grows up, settles in London - and, many years later, returns to Berlin to confront the past. These three radio plays are the very first dramatisations of Kerr's trilogy, and feature a stunning cast including Anna Madeley, Paul Moriarty and Adjoa Andoh. Also featured is a bonus edition of World Book Club, in which Harriett Gilbert talks to Judith Kerr about her life and work. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit 1933. Leaving her beloved Pink Rabbit behind, nine-year-old Anna leaves her Berlin home to flee with her family across the Swiss border. As they cross Europe in search of sanctuary, she quickly adapts to being a refugee - but will she ever feel she belongs anywhere? Bombs on Aunt Dainty 1940. Teenage Anna is enjoying her new life in London, and looking forward to embarking on a secretarial course. But then her brother Max is interned as an enemy alien - and as the Blitz begins in earnest, she fears for the future of her family. A Small Person Far Away 1956. Happily married and living in West London, Anna gets a worrying telegram. Her mother, who has been living back in Berlin for seven years, has pneumonia, and Anna must go to her at once. With the Cold War heating up, can Anna bear to return to the city of her birth? World Book Club: Judith Kerr - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit The German-born author talks to Harriet Gilbert about her much-loved novel, answering questions from the audience about writing from a child's perspective, assimilating into British society, and staying happy despite the hardships she endured. Production credits Written by Judith Kerr When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit text copyright © Kerr-Kneale Productions Ltd 1971 Bombs on Aunt Dainty first published in Great Britain as The Other Way Round by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1975. Text copyright © Kerr-Kneale Productions Ltd 1975 A Small Person Far Away text copyright © Kerr-Kneale Productions Ltd 1978, 1989 Dramatised by Beaty Rubens Directed by David Hunter Cast Young Anna - Lauren Mote Older Anna - Anna Madeley Young Max - Hugo Docking Older Max - Adam Billington Mama - Adjoa Andoh Omama - Eleanor Bron Papa - Paul Moriarty Elsbeth - Xenia Mainelli Julius/Ken - James Lailey Aunt Sarah - Sheila Steafel Fraulein Lambeck/Barbara - Tracy Wiles Herr Rosenfeld/Cotmore - Gerard McDermott Other cast: Alex Rivers, Christopher Webster, Thelma Ruby, Susan Engel, Joanna Monro, Ann Beach, Harry Livingstone, Jack Holden, Malcolm Tierney, Simon Treves, Carl Prekopp, Sara Kestelman, Emerald O'Hanrahan, Peter Hamilton Dyer First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 11-25 March 2012 World Book Club: Judith Kerr - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Presented by Harriett Gilbert With Judith Kerr Produced by Karen Holden First broadcast BBC World Service, 6 March 2016

Out of the Hitler Time: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Bombs on Aunt Dainty, A Small Person Far Away

Eleven uncanny stories inspired by the master of uncanny terror, H.P. Lovecraft One hundred years ago, H.P. Lovecraft created the Necronomicon, a grimoire of lost souls, magical rites and forbidden lore. Now, locked away, the hoarder of horror is after new voices, new blood, to add to his collection. Listen as he shares the tales that come to him, whispered through the keyhole and written in the dust. From ghost stories to encounters with demons, haunted houses and a fateful Celtic goddess, they will draw you into his claustrophobic and disturbing world, stir your imagination and awaken your deepest fears and nightmares... Introduced by Stephen Hogan as H.P. Lovecraft, these chilling, intimate dramas feature full casts including Elizabeth Berrington, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Stella Gonet, Derek Riddell, Jamie Glover, Adjoa Andoh, Sara Poyzer and Eddie Marsan. Track listing: 1 - Out of the Depths by Melissa Murray 2 - The Loop by Chris Harrald 3 - Bleeder by Ed Hime 4 - The Fly by Lynn Ferguson 5 - Connected by Melissa Murray 6 - Split the Atom by Lynn Ferguson 7 - The House on Pale Avenue by Richard Vincent 8 - Original Features by Christopher William Hill 9 - The Burial of Tom Nobody by Richard Vincent 10 - Louisa's by Amanda Whittington 11 - Night Terrors by Lizzie Nunnery

Weird Tales

A BBC Radio double bill of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s award-winning drama about a group of 18th-century Australian convicts and their attempts to stage a play, plus the Restoration comedy that the prisoners put on Australia, 1789: A young lieutenant attempts to direct a cast of convicts in the first play ever to be staged in the country. But one of his actors is about to be hanged... Adapted from Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, Our Country’s Good tells the true story of the convicts and Marines sent to Australia as part of the first penal colony. An eloquent argument for the redemptive power of theatre, Wertenbaker’s classic drama celebrates the beauty of language – in the slang of the criminal classes and the poetry of the play – and at the same time examines how it is used as an instrument of power. In The Recruiting Officer, we hear the play that the prisoners staged. George Farquhar’s popular Restoration comedy is set in Shrewsbury during the War of the Spanish Succession, where wives are recruited while soldiers are wooed. During a lull in the fighting, the womanising Captain Plume comes to town to seduce soldiers into the army, and – if possible – recruit Silvia into marriage. These two captivating radio dramas star many of the same cast, including Paul Higgins, Ralph Ineson, Kate Fleetwood, Jonathan Forbes and Adjoa Andoh. Our Country’s Good Captain Arthur Philip – Nicholas Le Prevost Major Robbie Ross – Stuart McQuarrie Captain David Collins – Paul Moriarty Captain Watkin Tench – Adam Billington Captain Campbell – James Lailey 2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark – Paul Higgins Reverend Johnson – Simon Bubb Midshipman Harry Brewer – Rikki Lawton Mary Brenham – Francine Chamberlain Robert Sideway – Adam James John Wisehammer – Elliot Levey Liz Morden – Kate Fleetwood Dabby Bryant – Alex Tregear John Arscott – Ralph Ineson Ketch Freeman – Jonathan Forbes Duckling Smith – Adjoa Andoh Produced and directed by Sally Avens Our Country’s Good © Timberlake Wertenbaker, 1988, 1989, 1999, 2015 Based on the novel The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally © 1978 The Serpentine Publishing Company Pty, published by Hodder & Stoughton and Sceptre Timberlake Wertenbaker has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved The Recruiting Officer Captain Plume – Paul Higgins Silvia – Lisa Dillon Sergeant Kite – Ralph Ineson Mr Worthy – Adam James Melinda – Kate Fleetwood Captain Brazen – Elliot Levey Rose – Alex Tregear Bullock – Simon Bubb Justice Balance – Jonathan Forbes Lucy – Adjoa Andoh Appletree – James Lailey Pearman – Adam Billington Bridewell– Rikki Lawton Justice Scale – Paul Moriaty Justice Scruple – Gerard McDermott Produced and directed by Jessica Dromgoole The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar originally published in 1706

Our Country's Good and The Recruiting Officer

Journalist Orin Perth disappears in East Africa after delivering a powerful article on Christine Lokeka whose son Paul has been snatched by the militia. Orin's mother Liz is determined to find her son, despite her battle with cancer. As Liz and Christine deal with their sons' disappearances in different ways, Orin and Paul struggle to stay alive. This thrilling debut novel grapples with the ethical dilemmas of conflict reporting as seen through the complex relationships between mother and son.

In The Field

Philosophy lecturer Dr Gideon Fuller, with his penchant for high end sadistic sex, is in the frame, but Hanlon is not convinced. From the specialist brothels in Oxford and Soho, to the inner sanctum of a Russian people trafficker with a taste for hurting women, the trail leads Hanlon deeper and deeper into danger - until she herself becomes the killer's next target.

Cold Revenge

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