Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Paul Bajoria

‘The nerdiest and longest-running quiz around’ The Spectator 
 
Have you got what it takes to tackle Radio 4's most fiendish quiz? 
 
Question: A fictional criminal psychologist, a former Conservative minister, and the eponymous protagonist of a Peter Hedges novel, might all serve on the board alongside some big cheeses. Can you explain?* 
 
The Round Britain Quiz is the oldest broadcast quiz anywhere in the world. Created in 1947 it has built and maintained a cult following from across the generations. Each series sees six teams from around the UK competing against each other to solve a series of seriously cryptic clues, with a chairman giving a steer on how to get to the answer. 
 
Compiled by long-serving series producer, Paul Bajoria, and with an introduction from the Chairman, BBC journalist Tom Sutcliffe, The Round Britain Quiz Book features 250 of the toughest and most challenging questions from the last 70 years as well as many new and exclusive conundrums, drawing on unpredictable fields of knowledge, to truly test the nation. 
 
*Answer: They might all be found on a cheeseboard, as accompaniments to the cheese. The psychologist referred to is ‘Fitz’ in the TV series Cracker, the former MP is Eric Pickles, and Gilbert Grape is Peter Hedges’ creation.

The Round Britain Quiz Book

250 challenging questions from Radio 4’s cult quiz show

Joanna Toye

Karen Farrington

The Archers, like life, is made of moments: marriages and births, loves and losses, triumphs and disasters. It has been the soundtrack of our lives for over six decades, from stooking corn with Dan Archer in the 1950s to the tragic death of Nigel Pargetter in 2011. 
 
We know the characters of Ambridge – from much-loved Phil and Jill Archer and the irrepressible Grundys to wayward Brian Aldridge – like we know close friends. This book is their tribute. 
 
The Ambridge Chronicles relives some of the defining moments in The Archers history, delving into the rich archive of its scripts, to celebrate the highs and lows that have made the world’s longest running radio serial so treasured.

The Archers: The Ambridge Chronicles

Moments that made the nation's favourite radio drama

Charles Dickens

QUIET AND DARK, BESIDE HIM STOOD THE PHANTOM, WITH ITS OUTSTRETCHED HAND 
 
A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843, is Charles Dickens’s timeless festive tale of transformation and redemption. On Christmas Eve Ebenezer Scrooge, the uncharitable miser, is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, who comes with a warning. 
 
Later that evening, Scrooge falls into a deep sleep and is called upon in the night by three more spectres, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. These apparitions bring strange visions and offer Scrooge the chance to absolve for his lifetime of avarice and greed. 
 
Accompanying a the three-part special from Steven Knight (Taboo, Peaky Blinders) starring Guy Pearce, Andy Serkis, Stephen Graham, Charlotte Riley, Joe Alwyn, Vinette Robinson, Jason Flemyng, Kayvan Novak and Lenny Rush. Written and executive produced by Steven Knight, executive produced by Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe and Mona Qureshi for the BBC.

A Christmas Carol BBC TV Tie-In

Julie Beckett

Blossom Hill Cottage – a secluded place with a dark past. It’s where Peggy discovered her husband Jack was an alcoholic, and it’s also where Helen stabbed her husband Rob, desperate in the face of his manipulation and control. 
 
And on to stately pile Lower Loxley – the Pargetters are proud of their centuries-old heritage, but how did Elizabeth arrive there, after her own turbulent early years, at odds with her family? 
 
This knowing excavation of Ambridge delights in the follies and everyday mischief of the inhabitants of England’s most famous village. Location by location, via the Bull and the occasional barn, the narrator takes us behind closed doors and picks up on all sorts of whispers around money, births, deaths and marriages, and romance and sex (often in inappropriate places …) 
 
In this canny, in-world exploration of Britain’s best-loved soap, we see how every relationship, each personal triumph and disaster, and all the hopes and dreams of a community over the years are folded into the personal stories of the characters we know so well today.

The Archers Unseen

A secret history of Ambridge

Jonathan Agnew

Phil Tufnell

Who played the best pranks on his fellow team-mates? Which member of the TMS team terrorised his teachers in the annual staff-pupil game? And the truth behind 'the greatest sporting commentary of all time'... 
 
Between them, Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell have probably watched more cricket than anyone alive, and they have many stories to tell, both as players and as commentators for Test Match Special. From their days as schoolboy cricketers, learning the ropes, to the shenanigans of the county circuit, and now their careers as commentators, they have seen it all. 
 
Joined by colleagues from TMS such as Isa Guha, Ebony Rainford Brent, Alison Mitchell, Carlos Brathwaite and Aatif Nawaz, Aggers and Tuffers share the highlights, mishaps and moments of brilliance and emotion that they have witnessed and experienced on pitches around the world.

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