Cutting edge scientific research has shown that exposure to the right kind of environment during the first years of life actually affects the physical structure of a child's brain, vastly increasing the number of neuron branches—the "magic trees of the mind"—that help us to learn, think, and remember. At each stage of development, the brain's ability to gain new skills and process information is refined.As a leading researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Ma...

A pigeon in the sky with diamonds pulls an ordinary woman into a perilous mystery, in this novel by an Agatha Award–winning author.Bettina Bilby doesn't have much fun living with her nagging, critical mother—but at least this weekend she gets to temporarily take in her friend's four cats. Then, after a rainstorm, one of her four-footed guests finds a dead carrier pigeon—and a fortune in diamonds—outside the house.As Bettina wonders what to do about this tre...

The cat who swallowed more than a canary …A lifetime of craving cuddlier companionship than her hectoring mother has led fortyish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors’ felines—an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face—for a long holiday weekend.But a freak storm sets the pigeon among the cats: a carrier bird downed on the doorstep with a tiny load of larg...

Full-cast dramatisations of three acclaimed novels by Elizabeth Taylor – including Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – plus 17 readings of her short fictionDescribed by Antonia Fraser as ‘one of the most underrated novelists of the 20th century’, Elizabeth Taylor was much admired for her witty, acutely observed stories of middle-class life. She never achieved widespread recognition during her lifetime – perhaps due to the fame of her Hollywood namesake – but si...

"The Diamond Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant portrays the complexities and consequences of keeping up appearances in the 19th century. Mathilde is a young and beautiful woman, struggling with the ordinary circumstances of her life and marriage. When she is invited to a fancy ball with her husband, she borrows a diamond necklace from a friend. To her horror, she finds the necklace to be gone by the end of the night. The couple must now find a way to quickly replace the necklace, but the cost...