George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either...

Major BBC adaptations of Ford Madox Ford’s two most famous works, with stellar casts including Tom Goodman-Hill, Ruth Gemmell, Kyle Soller and Mark BonnarA forgotten great of British fiction, Ford Madox Ford wrote over 80 books, founded two trailblazing literary journals and was a friend and collaborator to some of the 20th century’s most significant authors, among them Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence, Ezra Pound and James Joyce. His two masterpieces – the ‘Parade’s End...

A thriller and love story set in 10th-century Japan.Lady Shonagon is an imperial courtesan, living at the court of the Japanese Emperor in the 10th century. When a series of disturbing thefts within the palace walls throws the court into confusion and unrest, Shonagon is appointed guide and assistant to Lieutenant Yukinari as he investigates.Together, Shonagon and Yukinari must solve the mysteries and escalating crimes that plague the Japanese court, and their romance bloss...