This compiliation brings together some of the best poetry that Ireland can lay claim to. Full or energy, emotion; at times raw at others sensuous and evocative. From Thomas Moore to Louis MacNeice through Katherine Tynan, John Millington Synge and Oscar Wilde and many others to the immortal WB Yeats.

A collection of BBC dramatisations and readings of William Boyd's award-winning novels and short storiesOne of Britain's foremost contemporary writers, William Boyd is renowned worldwide for his bestselling novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. He has won numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award (for A Good Man in Africa), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for An Ice-Cream War) and the Costa Book Award (for Restl...

Brought to you by Penguin.The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in hi...

Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the 2015 Folio PrizeRead by actress Niamh Cusack1960s Ireland. Nora Webster, a widow from a small town, is trying to piece her life back together while caring for her four children after the death of her husband. In a close community where everyone knows your business, Nora is trying to emerge from her own sorrow in private whilst blind to the suffering of her young sons. And yet there are ...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Stories by William Trevor, read by Niamh Cusack, Stephen Hogan and Tara Fitzgerald.In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive an...

Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce – plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his lifeUlyssesIn this full-cast dramatisation of Joyce’s epic modernist novel, the stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom combine as they meander through Dublin in the course of one day, 16 June 1904. Andrew Scott stars as Stephen, with Henry Goodman as Bloom, Niamh Cusack

Maeve Binchy is one of Britain’s most popular and bestselling authors, and this collection of four stories from the BBC Radio 4 archive shows her at her most insightful and imaginative. In The Garden Party, Helen envies her neighbour Debbie Kennedy’s garden – and her life – but discovers that things are not always as they seem; while The Special Sale sees lonely Yvonne arranging a special lunch for her friend Frank and his children on the day after Christmas. The Sens...

'Now's the time to curl up with a ghostly tale - and this collection should be your go to!' Fabulous'This cracking collection of spooky tales is perfect for the season of darkling nights' Mail on SundayFROM THE CREATORS OF THE HAUNTING SEASONAND THE WINTER SPIRITS COMES A BRAND NEW COLLECTION OF GHOSTLY TALESFeaturing new and original sto...

Bloomsbury presents I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud, read by Niamh Cusack.An unforgettable novel of mothers and daughters, wives and muses, secrets and outright lies‘Freud is a modern literary rarity: a born storyteller’ THE TIMES'Such a powerful book' RICHARD CURTIS'Delivers an emotional punch that left me in tears' RACHEL JOYCE'Utterly compelling' HANNAH ROTHSCHILD'I couldn't love it more' POLLY SAMSON'I loved this book' AMANDA...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations and readings from the bestselling author‘There’s nobody like Binchy for warming the cockles’ TimesMaeve Binchy was one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers and this compilation of her finest fiction, as heard on BBC Radio, demonstrates all the warmth, wit and compassion that made her so popular.Firefly Summer is a moving, humorous novel about a sleepy Irish town facing monumental change, dramatised in six parts with a full ca...

From bestselling author John Boyne, a gripping and profound exploration of guilt, blame, trauma, and the human capacity for redemption. This program features multicast narration.In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.The narrative follows a mother...

A sparkling seasonal anthology of BBC dramas and readingsChristmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood.Here are modern readings of classics such as Charles ...