Hamlet, which dates from 1600-1601, is the first in Shakespeare’s great series of four tragedies, the others being Othello (1603), King Lear (1605) and Macbeth (1606). In writing this extraordinary play Shakespeare effectively reinvented tragedy after an interval of roughly two thousand years we have to go back to the Greek dramatists of fifth-century Athens to find anything of comparable depth and maturity.

The complete collected dramatisations of C. J. Sansom's historical mystery seriesSet during the reign of Henry VIII, these six stunning dramas follow the adventures of hunchbacked lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake as he navigates the dangerous world of Tudor England, solving crimes and seeking out murderers.Dissolution - Winter, 1537. When a King's Commissioner is brutally murdered at Scarnsea monastery, Thomas Cromwell sends Shar...

Sinister supernatural forces are at work in this fast-paced tragedy of guilt and retribution, in which the power of human beings to control their own destiny is called into question.The brave warrior Macbeth allows himself to be persuaded by Lady Macbeth, his wife, to slay good King Duncan and seize the throne of Scotland for himself. Macbeth achieves his ambition, but one murder proves not to be enough as he desperately attempts to eliminate all who might threaten his ill-gotten p...

‘There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance.’ Published in 1945, Sparkling Cyanide is all about remembrance. It begins with six characters recalling the horrific death of Rosemary Barton, a beautiful but shallow young heiress poisoned by a cyanide-spiked glass of champagne whilst celebrating her birthday at a smart London restaurant. Rosemary haunts all six characters, each of them a suspect, throughout the story – and it’s not until her killer is found and her ghost laid to rest th...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation by Michael Butt about the death of the poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe, originally broadcast in the ‘Afternoon Play’ slot on 17 August 2010. In May 1593, the playwright Christopher Marlowe was killed. Apparently, it was because of an argument over a bill. Michael Butt's innovative drama dons the cloak of documentary to re-examine the unsolved case. Starring Paul Rhys as the narrator, Blake Ritson as Thomas Walsingham, Harry Lloyd as Thomas Kyd ...

Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the ’40s and ’50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. The Big Sleep finds the world-weary, wisecracking investigator consulted by a wealthy family man with two big problems: his children. Carmen Sternwood has got herself mixed up with ...

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have sent to the orphanage for a boy. So when a skinny, red-haired girl turns up, she is not quite what they had in mind. Anne Shirley soon sets the quiet island community of Avonlea talking of little else. With her incessant chatter and intense imagination, things are never dull with Anne - in fact, they are frequently fiery. But slowly the islanders realise that beneath the quicksilver tongue and the red-headed temper is a little girl with a heart of gold, wh...

New York Times bestselling and Newbery and Carnegie Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman has created a thrillingly reimagined fairy tale, ""told in a way only Gaiman can"" (GeekInsider.com), that the Guardian calls ""a refreshing, much-needed twist on a classic story.""In this captivating and darkly funny tale, Neil Gaiman has twisted together the familiar and the new as well as the beautiful and the wicked to tell a brilliant version of Snow White's ...

This ghost story is set on the wild Atlantic coast of North Devon and told through the eyes of Jenny, a girl of nearly nineteen, whose recently deceased grandmother Mary has bequeathed her Windover, the cottage where she is staying with her father and his girlfriend during summer vacation.Before long, Jenny is troubled by visions of two teenage girls and learns from a photograph taken in 1934 that these girls are her grandmother Mary and Mary’s friend Cathy. As the days go by, Jenn...

The final 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 volumes 6-10:1702-1760: The First British EmpireThe reign of George I; Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, and the first rendition of Rule Britannia.1760-1792: The Age of Revolution The Industrial Revolution begins; America declares i...

In a hushed Vatican reading room, the scene was shocking: a crazed professor shot dead after brandishing evidence of a grisly crime. Moments later, two bodies are found in a nearby church, each with a gruesome calling card from the killer.As the August heat takes Rome in its fiery grip, the news of the two brutal murders holds the city in thrall. And as the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case. Nic Costa is the son ...

Unabridged readings of four spine-tingling storiesThis suspenseful anthology collects together four gripping tales of gruesome scientific experiments and chilling supernatural events - all read in full by some of the very best voice actors. With over 18 hours of electrifying listening, tracked by chapter, these classic tales will have you on the edge of your seat.FrankensteinMary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece about young scie...