A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy novels and is an ambassador for Wattpad, known as @agatharoza. Entwined is her first novel.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

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Christopher Lee

All five volumes from the landmark BBC radio series This Sceptred Isle: The Twentieth Century 
 
Christopher Lee's vivid, compelling history tells the story of Britain from the death of Queen Victoria to the dawning of a new millennium. This collection includes the original volumes 1-5: 
 
1901-1919: The Victorian era comes to an end, Suffragettes demand 'Votes for Women', the Titanic sinks and the Great War casts a long shadow. 
 
1919-1939: Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour PM, millions of workers take industrial action during the General Strike, Wall Street crashes and Hitler rises to power. 
 
1939-1959: The horrors of the Second World War and the onset of the Cold War, Indian independence, the founding of the NHS, the beginning of a new Elizabethan age and the Space Race. 
 
1959-1979: War in Vietnam, Profumo causes a scandal, the Beatles generate worldwide hysteria, Britain joins Europe and Thatcherism is born. 
 
1979-1999: The nation celebrates a fairytale royal wedding, Argentine troops invade the Falklands, disaster strikes at Chernobyl, the Berlin Wall falls - and as the year 2000 approaches, construction begins on London's Millennium Dome. 
 
Narrated by Anna Massey, with additional readings by Robert Powell, this is the definitive radio account of one of the most exciting and fast-moving periods in the history of the United Kingdom. 
 
 
NB: Due to the age of these recordings, sound quality may vary 
 
 
Production credits 
Written by Christopher Lee 
Narrated by Anna Massey, with additional readings by Robert Powell 
Produced by Pete Atkin 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 August-31 December 1999

This Sceptred Isle: Collection 3: The 20th Century

The Classic BBC Radio History

Lucy Worsley

Lucy Worsley presents a ten-part BBC radio exploration of Queen Victoria’s reign via notable encounters 
 
In this revealing series, acclaimed historian and Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley, explores the reign of Queen Victoria through pivotal figures in her life. We meet ten key individuals – some well known, others less so – and find out how they influenced the Queen, what she thought of them: and what they thought of her. 
 
Beginning with Victoria’s Prime Minister and closest advisor, Lord Melbourne, Worsley goes on to introduce us to the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings; the Mayor of Newport, Thomas Phillips, governess Louise Lehzen and two popular American entertainers, Tom Thumb and Buffalo Bill – as well as dresser Frieda Arnold; celebrity nurse Florence Nightingale; royal ‘favourite’ Abdul Karim and Bishop Randall Davidson. 
 
There are also encounters of a different kind, as Lucy Worsley chronicles Victoria’s grief at the death of her husband, Prince Albert, and records Victoria’s own final days and the crowd of people who gathered as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch breathed her last. 
 
Travelling from Kensington Palace to a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur, Worsley talks to eminent writers and historians and draws on letters and diaries including the Queen’s own journal to provide fascinating insight into Victoria’s world and those who helped shape it. 
1 Accession Day and Kinky Lord M – 1837 
With historian Philip Ziegler 
 
2 Poor Lady Flora – 1839 
With historian Kathryn Hughes 
 
3 A Wounded Welshman – 9 December 1839 
With historians Les James, Rhian E. Jones and curator Oliver Blackmore 
 
4 The Governess – 3 September 1842 
With Historic Royal Palaces curator Claudia Williams 
 
5 American Idols – 1844 and 1887 
With historian Helen Davies and V&amp;A curator and writer Nicholas Rankin 
 
6 The Dresser – Frieda Arnold, 1854 
With Beatrice Behlen, Senior Curator at the Museum of London and Joanna Marschner, Senior Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Kensington Palace 
 
7 A Nightingale at Balmoral – Florence Nightingale – September 1856 
With historian Mark Bostridge 
 
8 An Encounter with Death – 13 December 1861 
With historian Helen Rappaport 
 
9 Mutiny Against an Indian – 1897 
With historians Priya Atwal and Shrabani Basu 
 
10 The Sinking of a Great Ship – Bishop Randall Davidson – 25th January 1901 
With writer and historian A.N. Wilson 
 
Extracts from Queen Victoria’s Journals by Gracious Permission of Her Majesty The Queen

Encounters with Victoria

Queen Victoria's Reign Through Significant Meetings

Nick Robinson

In the Complete Series 1 and 2 of this fascinating and absorbing Radio 4 series, the BBC's Nick Robinson explores how Prime Ministers have used their power and responded to the great challenges of their time. 
 
In the first series he explores the premiership of Sir Robert Walpole; the first and longest-serving prime minister; Lord North; remembered as the prime minister who lost America; Sir Robert Peel; who put national interest before party; Lord Palmerston; who cultivated a cavalier image and dominated mid-Victorian politics; Benjamin Disraeli turned his skills as a novelist to politics and became Britain’s first Jewish-born prime minister; David Lloyd George, Welsh radical who set up the early welfare state, became a presidential PM in the First World War and split the Liberal party; and Stanley Baldwin, the first prime minister to master radio broadcasting, his notion of Englishness shaped inter-war Britain.Clement Attlee, who lacked any charisma, but created the modern welfare state and managed the big political beasts in his Cabinet. 
 
In the second series he takes a look at William Pitt the Younger, who became Prime Minister aged only 24 and held the post for almost 19 years in total; Earl Grey, who passed the Great Reform Act and abolished slavery in the British Empire; William Gladstone was our oldest ever premier and finally left Downing Street for the last time aged 84.Herbert Asquith, who had the longest uninterrupted spell in office among twentieth century prime ministers until Margaret Thatcher; Ramsay MacDonald, who became the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, but seven years later came to be seen as a traitor by his party; Harold Macmillan took over from Eden after Britain’s humiliation in the Suez crisis, and whose upbeat approach earned him the nickname of ‘Supermac’; Harold Wilson captured the mood for change in the 1960s, but his two terms at Number 10 were increasingly dominated by Britain’s economic problems; and Edward Heath, who took Britain into the EEC (now the European Union) in 1973, which still divides opinion. 
 
Extract from speech by Lloyd George: © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved.

The Prime Ministers with Nick Robinson

The Complete BBC Radio 4 Series 1-2

All ten episodes of BBC Radio 4’s ambitious global series, presented by Neil MacGregor 
 
‘Insightful, provocative, satisfying’ Telegraph 
 
With the United Kingdom on the brink of potentially momentous change, historian and broadcaster Neil MacGregor embarks on a worldwide voyage to discover how Britain is perceived from abroad. 
 
Visiting Germany, Egypt, Nigeria, Canada, India, Singapore, the United States, Spain, Australia and Poland – all countries with significant historical links to the UK – he talks to leading opinion formers to find out how they, as individuals and members of their wider communities, see Britain. 
 
His interviewees reveal what they learnt about Britain at school, and how key events and cultural influences, as well as their own personal experiences, have shaped their impressions of the country now. Each has a defining image that symbolises the UK to them: from Shakespeare to Monty Python, the 1966 World Cup, the Suez Crisis, the Financial Times, ‘99’ ice cream and The Crown. 
 
Throughout his travels, MacGregor uncovers tensions and frustrations, admiration and affection – along with an underlying sense of hope and a desire to retain close links with Britain as it prepares to reevaluate its relationship with Europe and the world.

As Others See Us

The BBC Radio 4 series

Bridget Kendall

Bridget Kendall presents an oral history tracing decisive moments of the Cold War. 
 
The Cold War is one of the furthest-reaching and longest-lasting conflicts in modern history. It spanned the globe - from Greece to China, Hungary to Cuba - and lasted for almost half a century. It has shaped political relations to this day, drawing new physical and ideological boundaries between East and West. 
 
Bridget Kendall explores the Cold War through the eyes of those who experienced it first-hand. This landmark series draws on exclusive interviews with individuals who lived through the conflict's key events, offering a variety of perspectives that reveal how the Cold War was experienced by ordinary people. From pilots making food drops during the Berlin Blockade and Japanese fishermen affected by H-bomb testing, to families fleeing the Korean War and children whose parents were victims of McCarthy's Red Scare, Cold War covers the full geographical and historical reach of the conflict. This is essential listening for anyone seeking to understand how the tensions of the last century have shaped the modern world, and what it was like to live through them. 
 
1. The Greek Civil War 
2. The Czech Coup 
3. The 1948 Election in Italy 
4. The Berlin Blockade 
5. The Fall of Shanghai 
6. The Korean War 
7. McCarthyism 
8. The H-Bomb 
9. The East German Uprising 
10. The Iran Coup 
11. Khrushchev’s Thaw 
12. The Hungarian Revolution 
13. The Congo Coup 
14. The Berlin Wall Crisis 
15. The Cuban Missile Crisis 
16. The Fall of Khrushchev 
17. The Chinese Cultural Revolution 
18. The Prague Spring 
19. America’s Vietnam War 
20. The Coup in Chile 
21. The Fall of Saigon 
22. Ostpolitik 
23. The Angolan Civil War 
24. The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan 
25. The Birth of Solidarity in Poland 
26. The New Cold War 
27. Gorbachev’s Perestroika 
28. The Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification 
29. The Baltic Singing Revolution 
30. The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Cold War: Series 1 and 2

Stories from the Big Freeze

The Sceptred Isle provided the definitive radio account of the British nation, from 55BC to the end of the 20th century. Now its attention turns towards the incredibly powerful families which have wielded power behind the scenes for the past 1,000 years. The Dynasties relates how the loyalties of this privileged elite, many of whom are older than the monarchy itself, were tested and rewarded; it also uncovers a multitude of murderous plots, bloody battles, adulteries, intrigues and shocking executions. 
 
The first volume examines three powerful houses: The Godwines, the north-dwelling Percys and the royalist Despensers. 
 
Volume two looks at the Mortimers, the Berkeleys and a triumvirate of warring Irish dysnasties: the Macmurroughs, the Fitzgeralds and the O'Neills. 
 
The third volume investigates the Churchills, the Cecils and the Scottish Dalrymples. 
 
In the fourth volume the Cavendishes appear, along with the Comptons and the Russells. 
 
In the fifth and final volume, the families examined include the Carringtons, the Waldegraves and the Norfolks. There is also a look at the families who today continue the tradition of dynastical power at the highest levels.

This Sceptred Isle: The Dynasties

The complete BBC collection

Martin Sixsmith

Power struggles have a constant presence in Martin Sixsmith’s story of Russia. Collected here in 50 episodes, he chronicles the Mongol hordes invading in the 13th century, through the iron autocratic fists of successive Tsars, to the fall of the Soviet Union and Russia’s re-emergence as a superpower. 
Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great – all left their mark on a nation that pursued expansion to the East, West and South. Many Tsars flirted with reform, but the gap between the rulers and the ruled widened until, in 1917, the doomed last Tsar, Nicholas II, abdicated. After the whirlwind of the revolution, the Bolsheviks struggled to consolidate their victory. To rescue the economy and save the regime, Lenin made concessions to the people. But after his death, Stalin introduced forced collectivisation and industrialisation, condemning the Soviet people to conditions worse than those experienced under the Tsars. Nikita Khrushchev reversed the worst excesses of Stalinism, and in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on radical reforms of the communist system – unleashing unforeseen consequences that swept him from power and destroyed the USSR. 
Martin Sixsmith brings his firsthand experience of reporting from Russia in the 1980s and ‘90s to his narrative, witnessing the critical moment when the Soviet Union lost its grip on power. He asks if the recurring patterns of Russian history can help us understand what has happened since 1991, when the promise of Western-style democracy aroused so many hopes for change. Eyewitness accounts, archive recordings and personal testimony enrich his narrative, as well as readings from Russian authors and historians such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman, plus music by Stravinsky, Prokofiev and others.

Russia: The Wild East

The complete BBC Radio 4 series

Joanna Bourke

Eyewitness accounts from the BBC Archive are at the heart of this unique history of the latter half of the 20th Century, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith. 
 
The events of 1950-1999 are described by the people who saw them happen, from the Festival of Britain in 1951 through to dawn of a new millennium at the end of 1999. 
 
Inbetween are the eras of the Angry Young Men, the Teddy Boys and the Punk Rockers; the arrival of rock and roll and the permissive society; the advent of industrial strife in England and sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland; the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher; the miners’ strike, three day week and Winter of Discontent; the Queen’s Silver Jubilee; the IRA’s campaign of bombing and the eventual Good Friday agreement; the marriage of Prince Charles, the death of Princess Diana, the Poll Tax riots, and the British participation in wars in the Middle East and Bosnia. 
 
Events both joyful and sorrowful are illustrated with fascinating and rarely heard archive recordings, with a linking narration by the historia Joanne Bourke. Thought-provoking and moving, these are the voices of the past speaking to the present day.

Eyewitness: 1950-1999

Voices from the BBC Archives

The first five volumes from the landmark BBC radio series This Sceptred Isle. Christopher Lee's epic history tells the story of Britain from the Romans to the death of Victoria. This collection includes the original first five volumes: 
 
55BC-1087: Julius Caesar to William the Conqueror From Britannia under the Romans to the Dark Ages and the invasions of Angles, Saxons, Danes, and Norwegians. 
 
1087-1327: The Making of the Nation The Crusades, Welsh and Scottish rebellions and the foundations of the modern state - including Magna Carta and the fledgling English Parliament. 
 
1327-1547 The Black Prince to Henry VIII The Hundred Years' War, the Peasants' Revolt, the Wars of the Roses and the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
1547-1660 Elizabeth I to Cromwell Elizabeth I's long reign; the Civil War, the execution of Charles I and the establishment of Cromwell as Lord Protector. 
 
1660-1702 Restoration and Glorious Revolution The return of Charles II, the Great Plague and Great Fire of London, and a ruler from a different country on the throne: William of Orange. 
 
Narrated by Anna Massey, with extracts from Sir Winston Churchill's A History of the English-speaking Peoples read by Paul Eddington and Peter Jeffrey, this is the definitive radio account of the events and personalities that have shaped our nation. 
 
The audio files for this title have been updated and they are now in the correct order. 
 
Duration: 15 hours approx.

This Sceptred Isle: Collection 1: 55BC - 1702

Jimmy Perry

David Croft

Twenty episodes from the second BBC Radio series, starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. 
 
In 1973 the BBC adapted its hit TV series for radio, featuring the original TV cast and characters. Three series were broadcast between 1974 and 1976, with episodes adapted from their TV counterparts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles. 
 
Now you can enjoy once again these unique recordings, with a supporting cast including John Laurie, Arnold Ridley and Ian Lavender. Among the twenty-one episodes are Don't Forget the Diver, Put That Light Out, Mum's Army, A. Wilson - Manager, and The Day the Balloon Went Up.

Dad's Army: Complete Radio Series Two

Samuel Pepys

Hattie Naylor

Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways star as Mr &amp; Mrs Pepys in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the world famous diaries. 
 
Samuel Pepys was 26 when he decided to start keeping a diary, in January 1660. For the next ten years he faithfully recorded the day's events and confessed his innermost thoughts. That diary has since become one of our most important, and fascinating, historical documents. 
 
Pepys gave us eyewitness accounts of some of the great events of the 17th century, including the Great Fire of London and the Second Dutch War. He also told us what people ate and wore, what they did for fun, the tricks they played on each other, what they expected of marriage, and even how they conducted love affairs. He described London - the frozen river Thames, the rising crime rate and the poverty - and recorded the details of his own life: his wife, rivals, lovers and friends, his work for the Navy, his drinking and social life. 
 
Over 350 years may have passed since Pepys first put pen to paper, but the man and his preoccupations feel surprisingly familiar. In this major BBC Radio dramatisation of the journals, the sights and sounds of his world are vividly conjured. This collection comprises all ten radio series plus a special Saturday Drama centring on the Great Fire of London. 
 
 
Featuring Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways, as well as; ewan Baily, Rebecca Newman, Matthew Gravelle, Manon Edwards, Blake Ritson, Dick Bradnam, Lee Mingo, Andrew Wincott, John Biddle, Stephen Marzella and Bendan Charleson.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

The BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Twenty episodes from the first BBC Radio series plus an hour-long Christmas special, starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. 
 
In 1973 the BBC adapted its hit TV series for radio, featuring the original TV cast and characters. Three series were broadcast between 1974 and 1976, with episodes adapted from their TV counterparts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles. 
 
Now you can enjoy once again these unique recordings, with a supporting cast including John Laurie, James Beck, Arnold Ridley and Ian Lavender. Among the twenty-one episodes are The Man and the Hour, The Battle of Godfrey’s Cottage, Sgt Wilson’s Little Secret, Something Nasty in the Vault, The Menace from the Deep and No Spring for Frazer.

Dad’s Army

The Complete Radio Series One

Guy de la Bédoyère

A guided tour of Roman Britain with historian Guy de la Bédoyère, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In 55 BC, Julius Caesar invaded Britain, which was then on the edge of the known world. But he was unable to conquer it. Where Caesar failed the Emperor Claudius, in AD 43, succeeded and the mighty Roman Empire came to stretch from Cairo to Carlisle. The Romans in Britain tells the story of four hundred tumultuous years under Roman rule. A colourful and cosmopolitan people, the Romano-British created a unique corner of the ancient world by merging their own Celtic traditions with the sophistication of Roman civilization. Presented with warmth and wit, historian and archaeologist Guy de la Bédoyère takes us on a fascinating tour through Britain which is as much an adventure in social geography as it is a lively and surprising history.

Romans In Britain

Katie Hickman

In this fascinating BBC Radio series, Katie Hickman examines the lives of 'diplomatic women' through their letters and diaries. From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still today, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants. Accompanying their spouses in the most extraordinary, tough, sometimes terrifying circumstances, they have struggled to bring their civilization with them. Their stories - from ambassadresses downwards - never before told, are a feast of eccentricity, genuine hardship and genuine heroism, and make for a hilarious and compelling series.

Daughters Of Britannia

Will Gompertz

The Royal Collection is one of the most wide-ranging collections of art and artefacts in the world and provides an intriguing insight into the minds of the monarchs who have assembled it. In this series, BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz examines dozens of these unique objects, in a quest to 'use the Collection as a prism through which to better understand the art of being a monarch'. From intimate portraits to epic tapestries, from the Coronation pen to the Investiture sword, from a treatise against Martin Luther to the first televised Christmas message, each has an absorbing history. Famous objects such as the Gold State Coach and the Imperial State Crown rub shoulders with lesser-known but still fascinating artefacts such as the Exeter Salt and the Wriothesley Garter Book. With the help of historians, academics and Royal Collection curators, Gompertz selects choice items to find out what secrets they reveal about the art of monarchy.

The Art Of Monarchy

Clare Balding

Apart from the English language itself, the invention of modern sport has been our major cultural legacy to the rest of the world. In this 30-part narrative history series, with the help of the academic team from the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Clare looks at the unique and vital role sport has played, and continues to play, in our national life. Clare travels to Rugby, which can claim to be the birthplace of the modern Olympics, and she also investigates the role our sporting heroes play in shaping national identity - and rivalry. She discovers the vital role gambling has played, as well as the change from amateur to professional sport. From the birth of broadcasting to the way television has changed our relationship with sport forever - via the British Empire and the importance of sport between both world wars - this is a historic series about our national passion and how the British took sport to the world. Due to copyright reasons, this contains edited versions of the episodes that were originally broadcast.

Sport And The British

Melvyn Bragg

Broadcaster and arts presenter Melvyn Bragg fronts 'The Written World', a five-part BBC Radio 4 series following the origins of writing from its first appearance 6,000 years ago and exploring how it has shaped the world's intellectual history.  In the first programme he looks at the technology of writing, and how making signs on clay, wood or parchment enabled the development of human culture. The second programme sees Bragg considering the impact of the invention of the book and examining one of the earliest surviving examples. The third programme examines the role of writing in the spread of religions and the fourth programme looks at how the invention of writing made it possible to record history, and how oral poetry traditions were transformed into the new medium of literature. Bragg concludes his survey of the written word by considering how the invention of writing made the scientific revolution of the Englightenment possible.

In Our Time

The Written World

Dr David Musgrove

To accompany the August 2011 issue of BBC History Magazine, expert historians discuss the life and reigns of the five Tudor monarchs with BBC History Magazine editor Dr David Musgrove. 
 
Dr Steven Gunn, of Oxford University, discusses Henry VII. Professor George Bernard, of Southampton University, introduces us to Henry VIII. Reading University’s Professor Ralph Houlbrooke talks about Edward VI. Dr Anna Whitelock of Royal Holloway University of London invites us to reconsider Mary I. Oxford University’s Dr Susan Doran reviews the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Tudors (BBC History Magazine)

Brian Johnston

Down Your Way was one of the most popular programmes on BBC Radio from 1946 until 1992. Every week the presenter would visit a different city, town or village in the UK and interview six local people about its history, traditions and customs. Brian Johnston presented the series for fifteen years and for this recording, his son Barry has selected more of the fascinating people and places that his father visited on his travels. Brian meets famous people such as the former England footballer Nat Lofthouse, Australian cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman, and steeplejack and TV personality Fred Dibnah, as well as marvellous local characters, including the British snuff champion, a lady gurning champion, and a Scottish sheep shearer. He also takes a boat trip down the River Thames, visits Tower Bridge and Abbey Road studios, and goes to Salisbury Cathedral and Wigan Pier. This delightful recording illustrates the rich and colourful heritage of the people and places of Great Britain.

Brian Johnston Down Your Way: Favourite People And Places Vol. 2

Down Your Way was one of the most popular programmes on radio and spanned six decades. Every week the presenter would visit towns and villages throughout the UK, discovering fascinating people and places. Brian Johnston presented the series for fifteen years and 733 programmes. For this recording, his son Barry has selected the most eccentric, famous and interesting people, and the most colourful places, that his father visited on his travels. Along the way Brian meets such famous people as Sir Roger Bannister, HRH Prince Philip, Denis Compton and John Laurie (Private Frazer in Dad’s Army), as well as Frank Searle, who has spotted the Loch Ness Monster. Brian also takes in Land’s End, Alice Springs, and even goes underground to visit the Cabinet War Rooms and the Bank of England’s gold vault. Released for the first time on audio, this recording includes part of Brian Johnston’s final programme. It presents a timeless view of Britain, a land peopled by countless characters among its rich heritage.

Brian Johnston Down Your Way: Favourite People And Places Vol. 1

Jonathan Bardon

From The Ice Age to Northern Ireland's Peace Settlement and everything in between, the acclaimed academic Dr Jonathan Bardon presents a history of Ireland spanning 10,000 years. 
 
Beginning with the Ice Age and Ireland's first plants and wildlife, this history encompasses the arrival of Christianity, the age of the Celts, the Viking era, Brian Boru, the Norman invasion, the plantation and the famine through to rebellion, partition and the creation of the Irish Free State. 
 
Recorded to mark BBC Radio Ulster's 30th birthday, this landmark series gets behind the historical headlines to produce a marvellous mosaic of Ireland's rich and turbulent history, delivered with clarity and narrative skill. 
Each programme was read by local actors Frances Tomelty, James Greene and Richard Dormer, who interweave eye-witness accounts, letters and diary extracts from the times with the historical facts.

A Short History Of Ireland

Hugh Cunningham

Written by Hugh Cunningham and presented by award-winning children's author Michael Morpurgo, this genuinely ground-breaking history of British childhood teaches us about the key elements that have shaped children's lives. The Invention of Childhood explores how gender, geography and ethnicity has impacted the development of children throughout the ages. Beginning from the year 1000, Cunningham studies the many important events in history for our children, ranging from Britain's earliest child-care guru in the Middle Ages to the first ever Foundling Hospital in the 18th Century. This hugely enjoyable piece of teaching that delves into the idea of how childhood has been constantly reinvented through the centuries, and why the role of children in society continues to obsess us today. 
 
Fascinating and thought-provoking, it will appeal to parents, grandparents and anyone who has ever been a child themselves.

The Invention Of Childhood

Simon Schama

Timothy West reads the second volume of Simon Schama’s compelling chronicle of the British Isles. The British wars began on the morning of 23 July 1637, heralding two hundred years of battles waged within and away from our isles. Most would be driven by religious or political conviction, as Republicans and Royalists, Catholics and Protestants, Tories and Whigs, and colonialists and natives vied for supremacy. Of those battles not fought on home territory, a great number took place across Europe, America, India and also at sea. Schama’s examination of this turbulent period reveals how the British people eventually united in imperial enterprise, forming what he calls ‘Britannia Incorporated’. The story of that change evokes the memory of such enduringly influential people as Oliver Cromwell, as well as lesser known but equally extraordinary individuals. A story of revolution and reaction, progress and catastrophe, this is a vivid account of two centuries which changed Britain.

A History Of Britain

Volume 2 - The British Wars 1603-1776

Volume 3 - The Fate of Empire 1776-2000

Volume 1: At The Edge Of The World? 3000BC - AD 1603

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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