About 	 Lucy Rycroft: Lucy is the founder of The Hope-Filled Family, a ministry encouraging Christian parents, carers and all those investing in the younger generation. She is the author of several books for adults and children, including Busy Family Devotional and the Mighty Girl, Mighty God series. She is mum to four children ages 11 to 16, who arrived by birth and adoption, and is married to Al, a church leader in York, England.

	 Lucy Rycroft

5ive Guys FC

82ASK

A A Gill

About A D Swanston: Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

About A J Baime: A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

About A J Pollard: Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

About A K Benjamin: A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

About A L Berridge: A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

About A L Gaylin: Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

About A S Webb: A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

About A. A. Dhand / A. A. Dhand: A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

About A. B. Poranek / A. B. Poranek: A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

About A. C. Grayling / A. C. Grayling: Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

About A. D. Miller / A. D. Miller: A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

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James Joyce

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

Dubliners, Joyce's first major work and written when he was only twenty-five, brought his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. From 'The Sisters', a vivid portrait of childhood faith and guilt, to 'Araby', a timeless evocation of the inexplicable yearnings of adolescence, to 'The Dead', in which Gabriel Conroy is gradually brought to a painful epiphany regarding the nature of his existence, Joyce draws a realistic and memorable cast of Dubliners together in an powerful exploration of overarching themes. Writing of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, he creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.

Dubliners

Penguin Classics

Jess Gibson

Men and women confront the limits of their perception as reality shifts around them, in this startlingly original debut short-story collection 
 
A stone appears in a woman’s pocket like a charm only to end up lodged in someone’s throat. A psychic harnesses her talent for animal communication to extract a perfect revenge. While staying in a beautiful home, an art appraiser falls for her hosts but suspects their collection is fake. A condescending artist throws a dinner party, where he discovers a painful and consequential truth. 
 
In these twelve exquisite and uncanny stories, the world can change in an instant. The beautiful can suddenly become grotesque, the exalted disgraced, the genius an imposter. Ranging across the globe through the worlds of art, crime and fantasy, each character turns their gaze on themselves and on each other, to confront what they see with their good eye – and their bad.

The Good Eye

Rachel Khong

'Incandescent and explosive and compassionate all at once' BRYAN WASHINGTON 
 
'Rachel Khong is one of our best observers of the human condition' RITA BULLWINKEL 
 
'Beautiful, effortless' AIMEE BENDER 
 
From the author of the New York Times bestselling REAL AMERICANS comes a playful, richly inquisitive collection exploring the connections and disruptions which define us. 
 
Throughout MY DEAR YOU, normal people go through extraordinary transformations. A government injects its people with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. A factory worker develops an unlikely friendship with the artificially intelligent sex doll she is tasked with training. God decides that humanity is a lost cause and gives each person 24 hours to decide in which animal form they will spend the rest of their days. 
 
Along the way, characters are confronted with supernatural and otherworldly interventions, as well as the earthly, human concerns that shape our daily lives: capitalism and race, intimacy, memory, and mortality. 
 
Playful and tender, dark and witty, each of these stories is infused with a profound sense of compassion. They express a powerful curiosity about the human experience, and the inescapable choices that meet us all: to have or not have children; to pursue connections with others in spite of life’s impermanence; how to live – and live well. 
 
*** 
 
Praise for Rachel Khong 
 
'Mesmerizing' BRIT BENNETT 
'Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft' ANDREW SEAN GREER 
'Traverses time with verve and feeling' RAVEN LEILANI 
'A page turner' HA JIN

My Dear You

Naoko Higashi

THE REDISCOVERED JAPANESE CLASSIC 
 
Read the original and moving literary gem for fans of Banana Yoshimoto and Kawaguchi's BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, with stunning illustrated endpapers. 
 
What if you could come back after death to watch over your loved one, installing yourself in a treasured mug, for example, or perhaps your mother's hearing aid, a diary, or even a climbing frame, to feel the clambering limbs of a beloved younger sister? 
 
Eleven recently deceased protagonists find themselves floating in the afterlife where a nameless ghost offers them a joyous reunion with their loved ones. 
 
But not as you would expect. 
 
In a world where souls linger restlessly around after death, unwilling to depart, The Soul Catchers is a comforting, witty, and surprisingly sensual take on the Japanese folk belief that objects can be inhabited by human presences. Utterly charming, Higashi's classic is an original exploration of our eternal reluctance to let go.

The Soul Catchers

Mary Lavin

Mary Lavin is the great unsung voice of Irish fiction. Here are her very best, most electric stories: illuminating, moving, arrows in flight. 
 
‘This is a wonderful collection, and a reminder that Mary Lavin was – is – one of Ireland’s greatest writers’ Roddy Doyle 
 
Mary Lavin’s stories feature ordinary people in the tight confines of ordinary life. From rural Ireland and the streets of Dublin they charm, irritate and intrigue in complicated brilliance, appearing to us with unique freshness. Good friendships, bad deeds, frustrations, missteps, hope and laughter are all found in captivating stories where real and astonishing things happen. 
 
Few women were so consistently published in the New Yorker and yet today Lavin’s work is largely unpublished and overlooked. This collection re-establishes her as one of the most genius, irresistible and memorable voices of the last century. 
 
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY COLM TÓIBÍN 
 
‘She is, to come right out with it, magnificent’ New York Times 
 
‘A feast of quiet humour and heartbreak’ Emma Donoghue 
 
‘Mary Lavin's stories conjure sadness, profundity, hilarity and wildness out of thin air. They are simply masterful’ Colin Barrett 
 
‘Mary Lavin’s stories are a delight. They are delicate, but not too delicate to carry tragedy on one shoulder and comedy on the other’ Sunday Times

An Arrow in Flight

Lauren Groff

THE LATEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MATRIX 
 
'Brawler captures a towering talent.' 
FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'Groff conjures a whole world in each brilliant story.' 
CLAIRE FULLER 
 
'You'll walk away feeling more connected to other people and with more compassion for yourself.' 
HARPER'S BAZAAR 
 
'Groff reminds us of the myriad human galaxies around us, spinning off brightly into the dark.' 
MELISSA HARRISON 
 
Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region - from New England to Florida to California - these nine stories reflect and expand upon a single shared theme: the ceaseless battle between the dark and light in all of us. 
 
Among those caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling; a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult; a mother blinded by the loss of her family; and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by human fallibility, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. 
 
Precise, surprising and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated fracture points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and survival. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today. 
 
Praise for Lauren Groff 
 
'Her writing has a timeless quality' The Times on The Vaster Wilds 
'Groff's writing is muscular and precise, her themes wildly resonant' Sunday Times on Matrix 
'An audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic' Sarah Waters on Matrix 
'It's as brightly lit as an illuminated manuscript' Naomi Alderman on Matrix 
'One of its stories is a bracing read; together they form a masterpiece' Stylist on Florida 
'She's a writer whose turn of phrase can stop you in your tracks' Financial Times on Florida 
'Easily the year's best story collection' Vogue on Florida

Brawler

William Trevor

A collection of original radio dramas by the much-loved Irish literary legend 
 
One of Ireland’s greatest contemporary authors, William Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times, and was shortlisted four times for the Man Booker Prize. He received an honorary CBE in 1977 for his services to literature, was made a Companion of Literature in 1994 and in 2002, and received an honorary knighthood. These eight radio plays display all his hallmarks: his keen observation of human life, his mastery of dialogue and his distinctive voice. 
 
In Mr McNamara, which won the 1993 Writers’ Guild Award for Best Original Play, there’s a shock in store for 16-year-old Michael when he visits his dead father’s friend in Dublin… 
 
Travellers finds widowed Mrs Daveridge on holiday in Venice with her son – but she is troubled by memories and doubts. 
 
The residents of a remote Irish village are obliged to re-examine a tragedy in Events at Drimaghleen. 
 
In Running Away, a wife has a conversation with her husband that changes her world. 
 
The Blue Dress focuses on a middle-aged journalist obsessed with the truth who cannot stop asking questions – even when he falls in love. 
 
Scenes from an Album explores the sweep of Irish history through a seventeenth-century landowner and his 20th-century descendants. 
 
In Going Home, a boy and a lonely woman return from boarding school for the final time. 
 
In A Perfect Relationship, Mr Hambro and ‘business girl’ Sylvia have had a regular arrangement for 11 years: but how much longer can it last? 
 
Featuring Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis in one of his earliest roles (in Travellers), the ensemble casts of these stunning dramas include Maurice Denham, Sylvia Coleridge, Malcolm Hayes, Elizabeth Proud, Nigel Anthony, TP McKenna, Sarah Badel and Kate Binchy. 
 
Text copyright © 1970 (Going Home), 1973 (A Perfect Relationship), 1975 (Scenes from an Album), 1982 (Travellers), 1985 (The Blue Dress), 1988 (Running Away, Events at Drimaghleen), 1994 (Mr McNamara) 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Going Home & other plays

Eight Full-Cast BBC Radio Productions

A collection of some of William Trevor’s most acclaimed works, as heard on BBC Radio 
 
William Trevor was an Irish literary legend. In a 40-year career, he published a multiplicity of novels, plays, and short stories, and received numerous awards and honours. He was often compared to Chekhov for his extraordinary insight into the human condition, and in these eleven tales, he delves into the inner lives of ordinary people, with all their passions, secrets, fears and disappointments. 
 
We open this collection with two dramatisations taken from the BBC tribute programme I Am a Storyteller: William Trevor at 80, interspersed with excerpts from John Tusa’s 2005 interview with Trevor. 
 
Beyond the Pale, which garnered the author his first Giles Cooper Award, centres around four English tourists in Ireland whose complacency is shattered by an encounter with a troubled stranger. 
 
The Penthouse Apartment sees a shy spinster’s quiet life violently disrupted when she visits her neighbours’ opulent home. 
 
The Hill Bachelors tells the poignant tale of a young man caught between desire and circumstance. 
 
Sacred Statues sees a sculptor’s wife hatching a shocking plan to save the family from penury... 
 
My House in Umbria focuses on a romantic novelist who finds new purpose caring for three survivors of a train bomb. 
 
Autumn Sunshine, the winner of Trevor’s second Giles Cooper Award, concerns a recently bereaved canon, his estranged daughter and her objectionable boyfriend. 
 
Set in 1847, The News From Ireland revolves around an unhappy young governess, newly arrived at the Pulvertafts’ Irish estate. 
 
Adapted from Trevor’s Hawthornden Prize-winning 1964 comic novel, The Old Boys finds schoolboy rivalries resurfacing when the septuagenarian members of an alumni association convene to elect a new chair. 
 
A woman is haunted by visions of her potential replacement in The Mark 2 Wife. 
 
In dark comedy The Boarding House, a group of misfits mourn the loss of their landlord. 
 
An old Irish schoolteacher re-assesses her life in Attracta. 
 
Blending comedy, tragedy and pathos, these absorbing dramas feature a host of seasoned performers including Prunella Scales, Frances Jeater, Maurice Denham, Mary Wimbush, Cecil Parker, Cyril Cusack, Derek Waring and Eileen Walsh. 
 
Text copyright © 1964 (The Old Boys), 1965 (The Boarding House), 1967 (The Penthouse Apartment), 1968 (The Mark 2 Wife), 1977 (Attracta), 1980 (Beyond the Pale), 1982 (Autumn Sunshine), 1986 (The News from Ireland), 1991 (My House in Umbria), 2000 (The Hill Bachelors), 2002 (Sacred Statues) 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Old Boys & other stories

Eleven Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

Curtis Sittenfeld

YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE 
_____________ 
A New York Times Editor's choice 
 
'Messy and delicious' New York Times 
'Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Guardian 
'One of my favourite authors' KATE ATKINSON, author of Death at the Sign of the Rook 
'Anything Sittenfeld writes, we'll read' People 
'She understands women so well; like having someone look straight into your soul' Reader review***** 
______ 
Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times bestselling author. 
 
In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends. 
 
In ‘The Patron Saints of Middle Age,’ a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In ‘A for Alone,’ a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in ‘Lost but Not Forgotten,’ Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion. 
 
Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice. 
 
READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CURTIS SITTENFELD: 
 
'Small windows into modern life and as such highly entertaining. Curtis, you're a star!' ***** 
'Sittenfeld understands women so well, it’s like having someone look straight into your soul'***** 
'Devoured! You'll recognise yourself and others in these pages' ***** 
'No-one else writes with such precision and amusement' Red Magazine

Show Don't Tell

Kirsty Logan

'Absolutely obsessed. Savage, strange and spicy' Lucy Rose, author of Lamb 
 
Can 'no' be a declaration of love? What happens when love is savage, dangerous and all-consuming? In this gorgeous and unsettling collection, women navigate the complexities and cruelties of desire across time and place, from a medieval convent to a Victorian parlour to a 1990s high school. 
 
Intensely atmospheric, surprising and darkly funny, No & Other Stories is a richly flavoured feast from a brilliant writer in full command of the form. 
 
'Unsettling and addictive, glistening with transgressive thrills and erotic appetites' Daily Mail 
 
'Gleefully depraved, gloriously queer and thrillingly bold' Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells 
 
'A dark delight, steeped in blood red honey' Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds A Girl 
 
'A gothic homage to the visceral, haunting, unnerving nature of human connection' Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller 
 
'Full of strange beauty and shining humour' Stylist 
 
'No one writes about the horrific and the erotic, and the tangled up intersections of both, like Kirsty Logan' Anna Bogutskaya, author of Feeding The Monster 
 
'Darkly graceful, innovative, sexy and funny. Kirsty Logan is a jewel' Camilla Grudova, author of The Doll's Alphabet 
 
'Crackling with smarts, marvellously formally varied, deliciously strange' Laird Hunt, author of Zorrie

No & Other Love Stories

Guy de Maupassant

Francis King

Alexander Pushkin

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

H. G. Wells

Julian Symonds

Wilkie Collins

Honoré De Balzac

W. Somerset Maugham

Stacy Aumonier

Ten vintage dramas on the theme of murder, written by internationally recognised authors and set across the globe 
 
‘Murder is murder, anywhere in the world. The taking of life, the most terrible crime a human being can commit, is the same in any language, whether it springs from vengeance, greed, hate, love or whatever...’ 
 
Conceived by BBC World Service producer Derek Hoddinott, the 1976 anthology series Murder International comprised half-hour adaptations of famous murder mysteries by world-renowned writers past and present, set in locations ranging from Corsica to St Petersburg, Malaysia, France and Spain. Collected here are ten of those thrilling dramas, each with a different theme, ranging from ‘murder by the supernatural’ to ‘murder by duel’. Bringing them to life are a host of leading actors including Denis Quilley, Maureen O'Brien, George Cole, Christopher Cazenove, Joss Ackland, Michael Denison and George Baker. 
 
In The Hand by Guy Maupassant, an English aristocrat awaits his nemesis – alongside a gruesome trophy from his days in Africa. 
 
Mess, by Francis King, sees an adolescent boy taking extreme measures to escape his chaotic home life. 
 
The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin finds a high-stakes gambler risking his life and his sanity when he discovers the secret of how to win at cards. 
 
Face to face with the state assassin, a dissident writer defends his right to free speech in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Conversation at Night. 
 
Three men, maddened by greed for gold, turn on each other in The Treasure in the Forest by H.G. Wells. 
 
Serial wife-killer Clayton Allenby meets his match with bride number four in Julian Symons’ The Accident. 
 
The youngest son of the Monkton family seems afflicted with hereditary madness in Wilkie Collins’ Mad Monkton – but is he insane, or cursed? 
 
The Executioner, by Honoré de Balzac, centres on a young Captain in the Napoleonic wars, who is ordered to carry out a terrible crime. 
 
Somerset Maugham’s Footprints in the Jungle concerns a charming married couple with a shocking skeleton in their closet. 
 
In Stacy Aumonier’s The Fall, when a petty crook turns murderer, Inspector Tolozan uses the man’s greatest fear to extract a confession... 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio, 4 21 July - 29 September 1976 
 
With warm thanks to Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle 
 
NB: Some of the language on these vintage recordings reflects the era in which it was first broadcast, and due to the age of the source material, the sound quality may vary 
 
Conversation at Night © 1986 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Murder International

Ten Classic Full-Cast BBC Radio Crime Dramas

Paul Theroux

The stories in The Vanishing Point are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form.

The Vanishing Point

R.D Wingfield

A collection of vintage thrillers from popular crime writer RD Wingfield 
 
Well known as the creator of Inspector Jack Frost, RD Wingfield scripted numerous twisty, suspenseful dramas for BBC Radio between 1968 and 1995. Many of the thirteen tales in this collection were originally thought to be lost, but thanks to the diligent efforts of Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle, who tracked down the missing audio, they are once again available to enjoy. 
 
In Cat and Mouse Game, a wealthy woman goes missing, and her husband is suspected of murder. Ambitious security officer Hastler has a lot to lose when a surveillance operation goes wrong in Saturday Roster, and in Nightmare, a killer has escaped from a psychiatric ward and may be returning to the scene of his crime. Blood Money finds a branch manager forced to deal with a ransom demand, while Better Never than Late features a policeman on the brink of retirement determined to crack an unsolved kidnapping case. 
 
Warring colleagues Davenport and Desmond discover the advantages of working together in Compensating Error, and in Slow Fuze, an unexploded bomb proves to be a golden opportunity for Major Derry. The Tenth Anniversary concerns the strange disappearance of a detective inspector exactly a decade after the famous Monkstead murders, Death of the Insured sees a terminally ill private eye hired to find an errant husband, and Balance Brought Forward and The Night They Deliver The Money both focus on bank directors faced with potential disaster. Smiling and Beautiful Death, meanwhile, centres around a concussed motorist, a mysterious midnight funeral and a village full of sinister locals… 
 
Capping off our collection is the six-part serial The Killing Season, written under the pseudonym Arthur Jefferson and set in a sleepy town experiencing an unprecedented Christmas crime wave. Among the casts of these intriguing dramas are Nigel Havers, Frances Jeater, Leslie Sands, Garard Green, Deryck Guyler and Andrew Sachs. 
 
With warm thanks to Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by RD Wingfield 
 
Contents 
 
Cat and Mouse Game 
Saturday Roster 
Nightmare 
Blood Money 
Better Never Than Late 
Compensating Error 
Slow Fuze 
The Tenth Anniversary 
Death of the Insured 
Balance Brought Forward 
The Night They Deliver the Money 
Smiling and Beautiful Death 
The Killing Season 
Written by Arthur Jefferson (pseudonym of R.D Wingfield) 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

R.D Wingfield: Nightmare and Other Thrillers

13 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

Monika Radojevic

'Tender, humorous and moving’ COSMOPOLITAN 
 
'Visceral, wild, and so beautifully necessary.' SALMA EL-WARDANY, author of THESE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 
 
'Radojevic’s stories and fragments are so sharp-edged they could draw blood. Fierce, funny and angry.' CATHERINE MAYER, author TIME/LIFE 
 
*** 
 
Across thirty striking tales, Monika Radojevic weaves together the surreal with the everyday, confronting the experiences of contemporary womanhood with a tender ferocity shot through with humour.A woman walks into a bar, and nobody notices. A newly married couple are punished for their childlessness with an unsettling nocturnal invasion. A girl trades her vocal cords for a chance at freedom. A door-to-door salesperson offers the antidote to women’s fear – but it comes at a high price. 
 
Bubbling with an urgent rage that occasionally tips over into vengeance, Radojevic deftly charts the moments that make a life: from the warmth of first love to the recognition of anger, and the possibilities that take shape as we find or lose our ability to speak. A Beautiful Lack of Consequence explores the ways in which the world bends and breaks women with the pressure it puts on them – and what happens when those women snap back. 
 
Moving and irreverent, dark and otherworldly, A Beautiful Lack of Consequence is a blazing debut collection from the winner of the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize. 
 
*** 
 
'Thoughtful, introspective and darkly funny' READER REVIEW 
 
'So beautiful and raw' READER REVIEW 
 
'Biting . . . a must read!' READER REVIEW

A Beautiful Lack of Consequence

Harper Lee

***A gorgeous deluxe special edition of Harper Lee's The Land of Sweet Forever nestled within a slipcase. This edition features high production values, a bespoke book cover design and an exclusive piece of extra content from Harper Lee's nephew, Dr. Edwin Lee Conner, providing a glimpse into life with his aunt and the ways in which her novels intersect with this new book of never-been-seen short stories and collected works.*** 
 The New York Times bestseller from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a posthumous collection of newly discovered writing, offering a fresh perspective on the remarkable literary mind behind To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. 
 
Featuring an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee's appointed biographer.‘Written with all of Lee's character and descriptive brilliance.' The Times'A new window into one of America's literary icons.' i PaperHarper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon – thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery.The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee’s never-before-seen short stories and published nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels.Combining Lee's early short fiction and later nonfiction, The Land of Sweet Forever offers an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice.Praise for The Land of Sweet Forever and Harper Lee:'Thrilling ... helps explain how the little girl from South Alabama Avenue turned herself into a bestselling author.' Guardian'Cast[s] a new light on the literary giant.' Sunday Times'Unmistakably Lee' The Telegraph

The Land of Sweet Forever

Cast of Critical Role

Jess Barber

Martin Cahill

Rebecca Coffindaffer

Aabria Iyengar

Sam Maggs

Sarah Glenn Marsh

Rory Power

Nibedita Sen

Izzy Wasserstein

Kendra Wells

Liam O'Brien

In these ten stories, see the legendary adventuring party anew through the eyes of some of the most memorable characters whose lives were touched by Vox Machina. 
 
Within its pages: 
• Shaun Gilmore reflects on the life he has chosen, as told by Aabria Iyengar. 
• Raishan, racked by a pestilent curse, plots to release the Cinder King from his fiery prison, as told by Rory Power. 
• Trinket the Wonder Bear accompanies the next generation of Vox Machina on their first adventure, as told by Sarah Glenn Marsh. 
• Plus seven more hilarious, heartbreaking, and heroic tales featuring Kaylie, Doty, Kevdak, and more! 
 
The adventure began in 2015 with a group of friends sitting down in front of a camera to roll some dice, bring their characters to life, and tell a story that would become immortalized in their livestream tabletop roleplaying game: Critical Role. What started as a humble home game eventually grew into a worldwide phenomenon that has touched countless people with its poignant, larger-than-life storytelling – and in that same vein, this collection celebrates the characters whose lives were touched by Vox Machina but whose stories are yet to be told. 
 
Contributors: Foreword by Liam O’Brien • Jess Barber Martin Cahill • Rebecca Coffindaffer • Aabria Iyengar • Sam Maggs • Sarah Glenn Marsh • Rory Power • Nibedita Sen • Izzy Wasserstein • Kendra Wells

Critical Role: Vox Machina - Stories Untold

Salman Rushdie

If old age was thought of as an evening, ending in midnight oblivion, they were well into the eleventh hour. 
 
Two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, experience private tragedy against the backdrop of national calamity. Revisiting the Bombay neighbourhood of Midnight's Children, a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire. In an English university college, an undead academic asks a lonely student to avenge his former tormentor. 
 
These five dazzling works of fiction move between the three countries that Salman Rushdie has called home – India, England and America – and explore what it means to approach the eleventh hour of life. They are the reckoning with mortality that we all must one day make, and speak deeply to what the author has come from and through. 
 
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? How can we bid farewell to the places that we have made home? How do we achieve fulfilment with our lives if we don't know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time. 
 
‘More than 40 years after Midnight's Children, there is still nobody who spins a yarn quite like Salman Rushdie’ Spectator 
 
‘Rushdie has not just enlarged literature’s capacities, he has expanded the world’s imaginative possibilities’ The Times 
 
‘Salman Rushdie is a genius’ A.M. Homes

The Eleventh Hour

'A masterful collection' MAXINE PEAKE 
'Astonishing and long overdue, you really need to read this’ ALAN MOORE 
'An absolute treat' ADAM S. LESLIE 
 
Unleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voices 
 
A phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old stew made of severed body parts; a bigoted woman working at an ossuary, the bones she watches over her only remaining friends; three siblings who set out to scatter their father's ashes, a man none of them could stand; and a hag stone sitting in the pocket of a witch. 
 
Uncanny and unsettling, wild and wyrd, the ten stories in this collection showcase the best of folk horror. Set in and across England, they celebrate working-class culture and history, and, sharp as a guillotine blade, reveal the real monsters that stalk our green and pleasant land. 
 
Includes writing from: A.K. Blakemore, Daniel Draper, Emma Glass, Mark Colbourne, Mark Stafford, Hollie Starling, Jenn Ashworth, Natasha Carthew, Salena Godden and Tom Benn. 
 
'Deeply unsettling and totally radical' LALLY MACBETH, author of The Lost Folk 
'Everything folk tales and folk horror should be' TABITHA STANMORE, author of Cunning Folk 
'Feral and furious' CHARLIE COOPER, star of THIS COUNTRY

Bog People

A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror

P.G. Wodehouse

Frank Skinner

Roddy Doyle

Alan Titchmarsh

Dominic Sandbrook

Deborah Frances-White

Andrew Hunter Murray

Scarlett Curtis

Jasper Fforde

John Finnemore

Ian Moore

William Rayfet Hunter

Fergus Craig

'FULL OF FIZZ AND VARIETY' Sunday Times 
 
'JOLLY GOOD FUN' i Paper 
 
'WHIP-SMART' Daily Mail 
 
'FUN AND FROLICS FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON' Saga Magazine 
 
FEATURING HUGE NAMES FROM LITERATURE, COMEDY AND BEYOND - INCLUDING RODDY DOYLE, FRANK SKINNER AND ALAN TITCHMARSH - THIS ANTHOLOGY OF STORIES REIMAGINES JEEVES AND WOOSTER THROUGH FRESH EYES. 
 
The irrepressible duo first appeared on the page in 1915, coming to feature in more than 35 short stories and eleven novels over the course of Wodehouse’s lifetime. 
 
Each story in this new collection offers a delightful and original reimagining of the incomparable Bertie Wooster and his gentleman’s gentleman – seeing them journey to the horse races in Paris, solve puzzles at a wartime Bletchley Park, and even transported forward in time to the year 2025. 
<ul><li>Frank Skinner</li><li>Roddy Doyle</li><li>Alan Titchmarsh</li><li>Dominic Sandbrook</li><li>Deborah Frances-White</li><li>Andrew Hunter Murray</li><li>Scarlett Curtis</li><li>Jasper Fforde</li><li>John Finnemore</li><li>Ian Moore</li><li>William Rayfet Hunter</li><li>Fergus Craig</li></ul> 
JEEVES AGAIN is a joyful celebration of Wodehouse as a much-beloved British literary icon – as well as a timely and entertaining reminder of the lasting impact of his characters on a whole new generation of readers and writers. 
 
*** 
 
HEAR FROM THE WRITERS . . . 
 
'A Wodehouse book is a journey into joy.' RODDY DOYLE, Booker Prize-winning author of PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA 
 
'Anybody who has even a vague interest in good writing should read Wodehouse.' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, author and co-host of THE REST IS HISTORY 
 
'I simply adore Wodehouse.' ALAN TITCHMARSH MBE, broadcaster and writer 
 
'To stumble into the world of Wodehouse is like sinking into a warm bath.' SCARLETT CURTIS, Sunday Times bestselling author of FEMINISTS DON'T WEAR PINK (AND OTHER LIES) 
 
'What Wodehouse is still today, just as much as ever, is funny.' JOHN FINNEMORE, creator of CABIN PRESSURE

Jeeves Again

Twelve New Stories

Pedro Almodóvar

The Last Dream brings together twelve stories from legendary film director Pedro Almodóvar’s personal archive. Delivering a tantalising glimpse into Almodóvar’s world, together they reflect his most intimate obsessions, as well as his daring evolution as an artist. 
 
Ranging from a beautiful chronicle of the death of Almodóvar’s mother in ‘The Last Dream’, to a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a cult film director out in search of painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, the original story behind the film Bad Education, and a gothic tale of a repentant vampire, these mischievous stories delight and surprise. 
 
The Last Dream is a celebration of the relationship between life and art, fiction and reality, bursting with desire and playful humour.

The Last Dream

Susan Stokes-Chapman

A beautiful collection of seasonal stories inspired by the Christmas carol, from the Sunday Times No. 1 Bestselling Author 
 
The air glitters with hope as the snowy village of Merrywake celebrates the Christmas season after the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. 
 
As the Viscount’s famous Twelfth Night Ball draws closer, many of the villagers have a story to tell – we meet a lovelorn vicar and kindly maid reunited after a misunderstanding, three sisters vying for the hand of a dastardly duke, two servants hiding a dangerous secret and a solider making his way home, unsure of the welcome he might receive. As their tales braid together, we see life and love in the village from belowstairs to high society. 
 
Reimagining each of the traditional carol's gifts, and written in tribute to Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, The Twelve Days of Christmas is a collection of festive tales filled with seasonal cheer and heart-warming characters. Will the challenges and mysteries that the Viscount’s guests encounter be resolved by the night of the ball? 
 
'Kind, heartwarming historical fiction at its most glorious...Witty, delightful and hugely satisfying...the perfect gift' Kate Griffin 
‘A glorious treat…uplifting, poignant and astutely observed, this felt like being whirled away into a Regency ball' Naomi Kelsey 
 
Clever, funny and heartfelt... I found myself laughing and crying along with the characters. It’s the perfect comfort read. Fans of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer will love it' Theresa Howes 
 
Readers love Susan: 
'So addictive... the perfect mix of historical fiction, mystery, fantasy and romance' 
'Wonderfully atmospheric' 
'A beautifully written piece of historical fiction' 
'Crackles with danger and mystery... a joy to read' 
'An utterly magical book full of secrets, love and hope' 
'Beautifully written, gripping and evocative'

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Hiyoko Kurisu

A charming book of linked stories with a sprinkling of cosy fantasy and a fable-like touch . . . 
 
The Amberglow Candy Store in the Night Alley introduces the reader to half-fox shopkeeper Kogetsu, whose magical wagashi sweets from his shop on Gloaming Lane promise to change his customers' lives for the better. 
 
We follow an array of characters from various walks of life through their encounters with Kogetsu, who himself learns some major life lessons along the way, and reveals his own backstory in the process.

The Amberglow Candy Store

Mizuki Tsujimura

Book Two in the LOST SOULS series of a young man with special powers to connect the living with the afterlife. For fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD and LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR 
____ 
 
The much-anticipated follow-up novel to Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon picks up seven years later with go-between Ayumi, a young man caught between the demands of everyday life and his extraordinary gift: reuniting the living with the dead. 
 
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain. Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten 16th-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love. 
 
Luminous, magical, and deeply heartwarming, How to Hold Someone in Your Heart is an unforgettable novel from bestselling storyteller Mizuki Tsujimura and a profound meditation on living without regret, embracing the unexpected, and cherishing the fleeting moments we’re given. 
 
Readers adore it: 
‘Warms your heart’ ***** 
‘I can’t express how good this is. Made me feel the weight of human life’ ***** 
‘The relationship with the dead, the messengers, the clients, and the existence of fate – it all felt so intimate to me’ ***** 
'As good as the first book'*****

How to Hold Someone in your Heart

Ágota Kristóf

I don’t care: it’s not even pretty. The song is sad, and old, so old. 
 
I Don't Care presents the best short fiction by the Hungarian master Ágota Kristóf, selected by the author herself and available in English for the first time. Written immediately before her acclaimed Notebook trilogy, the works here oscillate between parables, surrealist anecdotes, and stories animated by a realism stripped to the bone. By turns harrowing and whimsical, cruel and sharply funny, Kristóf’s world shifts our gaze to a shared reality, past and present. Here exile and existential alienation are undeniable – as is the force of every sentence, making for extraordinary and essential reading.

I Don't Care

A BBC radio anthology of the very best short stories by Stacy Aumonier 
 
Stacy Aumonier was an author, stage performer, 'society entertainer', World War One private and draughtsman, who gained an unrivalled reputation for his short fiction in the 1920s. John Galsworthy described him as ‘one of the best short-story writers of all time’, and several of his tales were adapted for television by Alfred Hitchcock. 
 
Full of wit, warmth and empathy, the eleven stories in this collection offer beautifully constructed insights into the various absurdities of human behaviour. 
 
In ‘The Baby Grand’, starring Trevor Peacock and Oona Beeson, a young girl struggles to study the piano amidst her family’s hostility. 
 
Aumonier’s World, first broadcast in 1993, comprises the four dramas: ‘Where Was Wych Street?’, ‘A Source of Irritation’, ‘Freddie Finds Himself’ and ‘Funeral March’. Starring John Baddeley as Aumonier, with Oona Beeson, Colin Pinney, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Fiona Fullerton, they centre around a pub argument that brings the world to a crisis, life in the First World War trenches, a young man’s discovery of his true vocation and the mysterious allure of the rich Mme Vieninoff. 
 
Initially aired on Radio 4 in 2011, Extremely Entertaining Short Stories contains two stories read by Mark Heap and Mathew Horne respectively. ‘The Brown Wallet’ features a man facing financial ruin who discovers a wallet containing £2000 in the back of a taxi, while in ‘The Room’, a bedsit dweller dreams of escape – then his landlady knocks on his door… 
 
Also included are four stories read by John Baddeley – ‘Dark Red Roses’, in which the titular flowers spell doom rather than romance, ‘Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty’, about a middle-aged spinster on her first trip abroad, ‘One Sunday Morning’, which sees a peaceful Sunday spoiled, and ‘An Adventure in Bed’, in which George’s lazy life is transformed by the beautiful Maisie... 
 
First published 1918 (‘A Source of Irritation’), 1921 (‘Where Was Wych Street?’, ‘An Adventure in Bed’), 1923 (‘The Brown Wallet’, ‘Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty’), 1924 (‘Freddie Finds Himself’), 1926 (‘The Baby Grand’, ‘Funeral March’, ‘The Room’), 1929 (‘Dark Red Roses’, ‘One Sunday Morning’) 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Stacy Aumonier: A BBC Radio Collection

Eleven Dramatisations and Readings

Graham Greene

Graham Greene, known for his iconic novels, also wrote extraordinary short stories. Here some of the best have been arranged into pairs - to be read as a duel or duet - by novelist and Greene aficionado, Yiyun Li. 
 
Twenty-two of Greene’s very best stories are collected here, each of them bearing the hallmark themes that characterise his great novels: innocence and vengeance, love and hate, pity and violence. 
 
Writer and Greene aficionado, Yiyun Li, has arranged the stories into pairs, to be read together in contrast or in harmony – as a duel or a duet. In doing so Li draws out the extraordinary power in Greene’s work, creating an ingenious new perspective on a writer we thought we knew. Unexpected, surprising and wide-ranging, this is the short fiction of one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most adored storytellers, revealing his brilliance as never before. 
 
‘No twentieth-century writer had a subtler mind for human comparison’ Zadie Smith 
 
‘Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature’ John le Carré 
 
'One of the most important British writers of the twentieth century' Daily Telegraph 
 
‘A superb storyteller’ New York Times 
 
‘One of the finest writers of any language’ Washington Post 
 
‘One of our greatest authors’ Independent 
 
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY YIYUN LI

Duel Duet

Selected Stories

Jerome K Jerome

BBC adaptations of the 19th-century humourist’s best-loved tales, plus Judith French’s sly comedy based on Jerome’s experiences as a would-be actor 
 
Jerome K Jerome is best known for his comedy classic Three Men in a Boat and its sequel Three Men on the Bummel. Both hilarious tales are included here, alongside two spooky short stories, extracts from Jerome’s humorous essays and theatrical memoir, and a comic drama about his acting career. 
 
Three Men in a Boat – This 1962 musical adaptation of Jerome’s comic masterpiece about three friends who journey down the River Thames stars Leslie Phillips as George, Kenneth Horne as Harris and Hubert Gregg as ‘J’. 
 
Three Men on the Bummel – After their adventures afloat, the intrepid trio take to two wheels, deciding to embark on a cycling tour of Germany. Adapted and performed by Jeremy Nicholas. 
 
The Dancing Partner – When a group of young women bemoan a lack of dance partners, toymaker Papa Geibel gets creative… James Hayter, Rolf Lefebvre and Sheila Grant star in this dramatisation of Jerome’s spine-chilling story. 
. 
After Supper Ghost Stories – Christmas Eve 1891, and in Laburnum Grove, Tooting, Uncle John’s whisky-punch and Aunt Maria’s lobsters aren’t the only frights on the menu. Starring Dinsdale Lansden, Geoffrey Matthews and Linda Polan. 
 
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow – In these five sparkling essays, read by Hugh Laurie and abridged by Neville Teller, our hapless narrator offers us his entertaining observations on the topics of being idle, cats and dogs, love and romance, eating and drinking, and babies. 
 
On Stage – Adapted and read by Stephen Surrey, these witty, whimsical extracts find the author looking back on his time treading the boards, recalling his performances and his fellow thespians. 
 
One Man on a Stage – Judith French’s scintillating play imagines Jerome’s life as a jobbing actor, working alongside the enthusiastic no-hopers of the provincial Victorian stage. Starring Joseph Millson. 
 
First published 1885 (On the Stage – and Off), 1886 (Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow), 1889 (Three Men in a Boat), 1891 (‘After Supper Ghost Stories’), 1893 (‘The Dancing Partner’), 1900 (Three Men on the Bummel), (One Man on a Stage) text copyright © Judith French 2007 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by Jerome K Jerome 
 
Three Men in a Boat 
 
Three Men on the Bummel 
 
The Dancing Partner 
 
After Supper Ghost Stories 
 
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow 
 
On Stage 
 
One Man on a Stage 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Jerome K Jerome: A BBC Radio Collection

Three Men in a Boat & more

Lee Child

I was the guy who always found a way. 
 
I was the guy that couldn't be stopped. 
 
From the world's number one thriller writer, twenty pulse-pounding short stories are collected for the first time in one edition, complete with an introduction from the author. 
 
Here are twenty meticulously plotted, intimate portraits of humanity at its best and worst, featuring assassins, CIA agents, gangsters, and more. A drug-dealing hit man unburdens his fears to a stranger. An overlooked rookie cop is assigned to the department’s file room. A ruthless killer only kills bad guys. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he’s outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection… 
 
Each story is entirely distinct. And with their economical prose and unexpected twists, each could only have been written by the creator of Jack Reacher. 
 
 
The stories included in this collection are: 
 
The Bodyguard * The Greatest Trick of All * Ten Keys * Safe Enough * Natural in Every Way * The .50 Solution * Publica Transportation * Me and Mr. Rafferty * Section 7 (a) (Operational) * Addicted to Sweetness * The Bone-Headed League * I Heard a Romantic Story * My First Drug Trial * Wet with Rain * The Truth About What Happened * Pierre, Lucien & Me * New Blank Document * Shorty and the Briefcase * Dying for a Cigarette * The Snake-Eater by the Numbers

Safe Enough

And Other Stories

Kotaro Isaka

'Fascinating and thought provoking with some genuine surprises and incredibly clever ideas that kept me thinking about it long after I finished it… a Japanese Black Mirror!' Ajay Chowdhury, author of The Waiter 
 
Some mother-in-laws are hard. This one might be murder. 
 
Miyako suspects her mother-in-law is a murderer. It’s not just a case of them rubbing each other up the wrong way – there is definitely something suspicious going on. But Miyako isn’t exactly what she seems either. Her husband has no idea about her past life as a secret agent. When she decides to use her professional skills to investigate her mother-in-law, the delicate equilibrium of their lives is thrown wildly out of balance. 
 
Many decades later, in a future world where electronic communication has been irrevocably compromised, confidential messages must be delivered by trusted couriers like Mito. But one delivery pulls Mito into a conspiracy beyond his wildest imaginings, and forces him into a race against time to defeat a world-changing technological threat. 
 
Seesaw Monster contains two sharp, thrilling linked novellas - SEESAW MONSTER and SPIN MONSTER - from the bestselling and multi-award-winning writer Kotaro Isaka, internationally celebrated for his offbeat humour and inventive talent for twists. 
 
PRAISE FOR KOTARO ISAKA: 
 
‘Unlike anything you're likely to have read before . . . white-hot with double-crosses’ Financial Times 
 
‘Entertaining . . . high-speed . . . with lots of twists and turns’ The Times 
 
‘Thoroughly enjoyable’ Guardian

Seesaw Monster

Adrian Mourby

Twelve make-believe spoof comedy documentaries charting the lives of celebrated fictional characters 
 
‘Gorgeously silly’ The Independent 
 
Have you ever wondered what became of the protagonists from your favourite childhood stories? Well, wonder no more: in these hilarious mockumentaries, the astonishing afterlives of some of the most famous figures in fiction are revealed... 
 
The scourge of smugglers and the stalwart of the Famous Five, George, reflects on her life – and divulges the fate of the rest of the adventurous gang; Cinderella’s siblings The Ugly Sisters speak out, giving their versions of what happened after the ball; Doctor Who’s granddaughter Susan discloses the real story of her travels in time and space; and The Big Bad Wolf gives a perfectly plausible explanation for his behaviour towards the Three Little Pigs and Red Riding Hood’s granny. 
 
We also follow the fortunes of Billy Bunter’s beastly form master Horace Henry Samuel Quelch, angelic aristocrat Little Lord Fauntleroy, Popeye, Pinocchio, Mowgli, Postman Pat, The Seven Dwarves and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Their fates may surprise and even shock you – but they’re sure to make you laugh. 
 
Written by Adrian Mourby, who won the Sony Silver Award for Creative Writing on Radio for the first series, these witty tongue-in-cheek pastiches feature star casts including Warren Mitchell, Prunella Scales, Michael Williams, Eleanor Bron, Rosemary Leach, Jane Asher, Sir Michael Hordern, Leslie Phillips and Andrew Sachs. 
 
Production credits 
Written by Adrian Mourby 
Produced by Brian King 
 
George 
Popeye 
The Ugly Sisters 
Horace Henry Samuel Quelch 
Doctor Who’s Granddaughter Susan 
Little Lord Fauntleroy 
The Big Bad Wolf 
Pinocchio 
The Seven Dwarves 
Mowgli 
Postman Pat 
Dorothy 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Whatever Happened to….? Popeye, Dorothy, The Ugly Sisters and more

A BBC Radio Comedy of Ultimate Sequels

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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