As an actress, Diana Quick was forever trying on the mask of other people's lives - raiding her own memory to service the character she was playing. Coming from a large, noisy family in Kent that seemed to be plain-speaking and straightforward, she was astonished to find on her beloved father's death that his childhood in India was far from idyllic. She was then thunderstruck to hear that he was to have a requiem mass. She had no idea he was Catholic. She discovered that his stepmother had...

A comprehensive collection of dramatisations of Daphne du Maurier’s works'Containing performances from well-known actors from past and present, Daphne du Maurier: The BBC Radio Collection is a rich feast for all fans of the writer's work.' - Entertainment FocusDaphne du Maurier was one of the 20th century’s most popular writers. Extraordinarily prolific, she produced a string of bestsellers, many of which were adapted as a...

Winner of the 1997 Booker Prize. The richly exotic story of the childhood the twins Esthappen and Rahel craft for themselves amongst India’s vats of banana jam and mountains of peppercorns.Here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’ is an astonishingly rich, fertile novel, teeming with life, colour, heart-stopping language, wry comedy and a hint of magical realism.Set against a background of political turbulence in Keral...

An epic BBC radio adaptation of John Galsworthy's complete Forsyte Chronicles, narrated by Dirk Bogarde and with an all-star cast'Hallmarked with elegance and craftsmanship' The Evening StandardFirst broadcast in 1990, this monumental adaptation of John Galsworthy's Nobel Prize-winning novel series was a radio event. It was the most expensive drama serial ever produced, featured one of the biggest, most star-studded casts ...

BBC adaptations of four of Rosamond Lehmann’s best-known novels, plus short stories and a bonus documentaryRosamond Lehmann’s first novel, Dusty Answer, was published in 1927 when she was just 26. It was a scandalous success, and was followed by six more acclaimed novels exploring human relationships and the emotional lives of girls and women. Four of the finest are dramatised here, alongside readings of two of her short stories and a fascinating profile o...

‘An absolute belter of a biography’ MARINA HYDE A Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022 An LA Times Best Book of the Year 2022An intimate, revealing and profoundly moving biography of Jean Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea.An obsessive and troubled genius, Jean Rhys is one of the most compelling and unnerving writers of the twentieth century. Memories of a con...

Now a major new Channel 4 series starring Brenda Blethyn (Vera) and Jessica Reynolds (Outlander) from OBE‑honoured, award‑winning author Barbara Taylor BradfordOne girl. One secret. One unstoppable ascent.In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall. Emma Harte is sixteen, single and pregnant.By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glitte...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations of Sophocles’ finest Greek tragediesOne of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece, Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during his 60-year career, though only seven survive today. The most famous of these are the Theban Plays, all three of which are included in this collection alongside adaptations of Electra and Philoctetes, brought to life by celebrated writers, poets, and playwrights....

Towering over the other characters, Tolstoy’s beautiful tragic heroine, Anna Karenina, dominates the action of the great book which bears her name. Anna is sensitive, generous, warm-hearted and intelligent, but all her virtues count for nothing when she is overcome by passionate love for Count Vronsky. Handsome and sensual, Vronsky is everything Anna’s dry, legalistic husband is not. Their love, which flouts the rigid laws of marriage, proves disastrous. Russian high society will not forgi...

An intimate, profoundly moving biography of Jean Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea.Jean Rhys is one of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century. Memories of her Caribbean girlhood haunt the four short and piercingly brilliant novels that Rhys wrote during her extraordinary years as an exile in 1920s Paris and later in England, a body of fiction—above all, the extraordinary Wide Sargasso Sea—that has a passionate following tod...

Deadline looming and your characters have turned into bland pudding? Got a great idea but every word feels stale and stiff? Don't work harder, work quick and dirty!This book is designed for the busy writer. It is stuffed with all the tools you need to quickly get those characters back on track. You can dip in and grab a useful tip or two, or you can read the whole enchilada in an hour or less.That means you can get back to writing great characters and amazing stories as qui...

Penguin Classics presents Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actress Diana Quick.'How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?'Elizabeth Gaskell's compassionate, richly dramatic novel features one of the most original and fully-rounded female characters in Vic...