Sandi Toksvig and her celebrity guests explore the Danish concept of 'hygge'One of the few Danish words that British people have become familiar with, 'hygge' is a specifically Scandinavian notion of snugness, comfort and contentment. It's all about enjoying the simple pleasures, like curling up with a book on a rainy afternoon or cradling a cup of hot cocoa while wearing a chunky sweater.In this convivial chat show, Danish comedian and author Sandi Toksvig ...

Mark Nelson and celebrity guests separate the good from the bad, with a few unexpected twistsHosted by Mark Nelson, this lively show sees a panel of celebrities competing to share the best, worst and most hilarious anecdotes from their daily lives. Each guest is vying for the audience's vote as they try to convince Mark that their 'good' story is the most joyful, serendipitous or worthy, and their 'bad' story is the most unfortunate, outrageous or unforgivable. To ...

Clive Anderson hosts the comedy panel game that fancies itself as an intelligent quizOstensibly a quickfire quiz, The Guessing Game is really a show that pushes facts aside in favour of flights of fancy and rewards the funniest, luckiest and most bizarre guesses. The premise is simple: host Clive Anderson fires off a series of difficult and implausible questions, and awards points to the panellists for their outlandish answers.What's the difference...

Twenty-four episodes of the popular topical comedy show, chaired by Andy ZaltzmanWith its brilliant blend of the silly, the serious and the satirical, The News Quiz has been a must-listen for comedy fans since 1977. Recorded in front of a virtual audience, these three series see Andy Zaltzman presiding over a motley crew of comedians and journalists as they trawl through news stories big and small to provide comedy, commentary, irony and irreverence. Among...

The complete Series 100 of the satirical radio panel show, presented by eight special guest hostsIt’s the one hundredth series of The News Quiz – let the centennial celebrations commence! To mark the occasion, each of these eight episodes is presented by a different guest host from the world of comedy, who keeps the chair warm in their own inimitable style (and with their cushion of choice).Zoe Lyons, Angela Barnes, Patrick Kielty, Andrew Maxwell, ...

Shirley Hazzard’s Collected Stories is a work of staggering breadth and accomplishment. Taken together, these twenty-eight short stories are masterworks in telescoping focus, ranging from quotidian strugglesbetween beauty and pragmatism to satirical send-ups of international bureaucracy, from the Italian countryside to suburban Connecticut. Hazzard’s heroes are high-minded romantics who attempt to fit theirfeelings into the twentieth-century world of office jobs and dreary ma...

A selection of essays on writing and reading by the master short-fiction writer Lydia DavisLydia Davis is a writer whose originality, influence, and wit are beyond compare. Jonathan Franzen has called her "a magician of self-consciousness," while Rick Moody hails her as "the best prose stylist in America." And for Claire Messud, "Davis's signal gift is to make us feel alive."Best known for her masterful short stories and translations, Davis's gifts extend e...

The gods of Olympus are the most colorful characters of Greek civilization: even in antiquity, they were said to be cruel, oversexed, mad, or just plain silly. Yet for all their foibles and flaws, they proved to be tough survivors, far outlasting classical Greece itself. In Egypt, the Olympian gods claimed to have given birth to pharaohs; in Rome, they led respectable citizens into orgiastic rituals of drink and sex. Under Christianity and Islam they survived as demons, allegories, and pla...

A moving portrait of Dorothy Hale, the legendary 1930s socialite immortalized in one of Frida Kahlo’s most celebrated paintings.Winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards, Pamela Hamilton delivers glamour, romance, tragedy, a close and stormy friendship with famed playwright and Vogue and Vanity Fair editor Clare Boothe Luce and the enchanting story of a woman navigating a world of incredible wealth and power in New York, Paris, Hollywood, and...

A spirited, engaging investigation into the concept of character, an enduring human obsession in literature, psychology, politics, and everyday lifeWhat is “character”? How can it be measured, developed, or built? Are character traits fixed or changeable? Is character innate, or can it be taught?Since Aristotle’s Poetics, philosophers, moralists, artists, and scientists have engaged with the enigma of human character. In its oldest usage, “character” derives from a word fo...

"...the sense of loyalty to one’s family history is so vivid in the novel that it is practically its own character.” —New York Times Book ReviewThe Family Tabor is the next audiobook from Cherise Wolas, acclaimed author of The Resurrection of Joan AshbyHarry Tabor is about to be named Man of the Decade, a distinction that feels like the culmination of a life well lived. Gathering together in Palm Springs for the c...

“Gripping and passionate . . . keenly recounted . . . full of poetry.”—New York TimesNow in a beautiful new edition, the spellbinding classic tale of man and nature, honor, and adventure, in which the peaceful life of an aging, book-loving widower in the Ecuadorean jungle is upended when an ignorant tourist provokes a mother ocelot.Antonio José Bolivar Proaño lives quietly in a river town in the rain-soaked jungle of Ecuador that i...