‘Call me Ishmael’ Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write ‘a mighty book about a mighty theme’ and so he did. It is a story of one man’s obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of the Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history and a mass of information about whaling through the ages. This epic story, here presented in unabri...

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Jack London's haunting classic, White Fang, read by the actor William Hootkins, star of Star Wars, Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark.Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang - half-dog, half-wolf - is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of affection and love. Will this fiercely indepen...

The United States themselves are, essentially, the greatest poem’ said Walt Whitman. Here are the much-loved examples of the free spirit of America in all its glory.

The godfather of the hard-boiled detective novel, Dashiell Hammett is widely acknowledged as one of America's greatest mystery writers. This collection brings together the BBC radio adaptations of his works for the first time, including the iconic The Maltese Falcon featuring his most famous character: Sam Spade.The Maltese FalconSan Francisco, 1928. When his partner is murdered on an assignment, private detective Sam Spade is drawn into a ...

A collection of dramas by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author David MametA novelist, playwright, filmmaker and director, David Mamet ranks among America’s most famous living writers. He has penned more than 40 stage plays and over 20 screenplays, won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross, and was twice nominated for an Academy Award. Included here is one of his best-known plays, Oleanna, along with five pieces from ear...

When the Bates Motel looms up out of the storm, Mary Crane thinks it is her salvation. The rooms are musty but clean. The manager, Norman Bates, seems like a nice enough fellow, if a little strange. Then Mary decides to take a shower and the nightmare begins...

Four gripping historical dramas centred around key figures who shaped America in the 20th centuryAward-winning writer Mike Walker has created many acclaimed docudramas and historical dramas for Radio 4, including The Stuarts, Tsar, Caesar! and Plantagenet. This collection includes four nuanced dramas featuring a trio of controversial men who stamped their mark on American history: J Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Baines Nixon. Amo...

Poetry can sometimes be elusive, the real meaning layered beneath another. In this volume American Poets give voice to their Nation, their hopes and aspirations. Whitman, Emerson and Dickinson are joined by Poe, Holmes, Dunbar and others to pleasure our ears and minds with a rambling stroll through their works. It doesn’t define America but it captures her mood and flavours her soul of these early times in the American dream.

Longfellow’s great narrative poem has been unjustly neglected in recent years though it gives a sympathetic portrait especially of Hiawatha, reared by Nokomis, daughter of the Moon, and his bride Minehaha. It is famously underpinned by its hypnotic rhythm, which makes it ideal listening.

Walt Whitman was an immense talent. And a prodigious one at that. Associated with the Free Verse movement his poems are usually on the longer side. Iconic works such as Leaves Of Grass divided opinion on their publication. Some argued it was obscene others such as Ralph Waldo Emerson rallied to his cause. Whitman was born on May 31st 1819 on Long Island. By the age of 11 his schooling was finished and he embarked on a series of jobs that eventually led to various newspaper editorships. He ...

This is the first book featuring Erast Fandorin, the famous gentleman sleuth.Moscow 1876. A young law student commits suicide in broad daylight in Moscow's Alexander Gardens. But this is no ordinary death, for the young man was the son of an influential industrialist and has left a considerable fortune.Erast Fandorin, a hotheaded new recruit to the Criminal Investigation Department, is assigned to the case. Brilliant, young, and sophisticated, Fandorin embarks on an investi...

Akunin is an outstanding novelist...Fandorin is a beautifully drawn character who more than lives up to comparisons with Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes...The characters are delightful and you can imagine them in a Woody Allen version of an Agatha Christie novel...Akunin's work is gloriously tongue-in-cheek but seriously edge-of-your-seat at the same time' Daily ExpressOn 15th March 1878 Lord Littleby, an English eccentric and collector, is found murdered in his Paris house toget...