British Life

George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in the same year as Queen Victoria. Mary Ann might have lived a traditional Victorian-era life had she been pretty and ornamental. When she didn’t attract attention with her looks, however, she made use of her remarkable intelligence. By her early 20s, she translated articles from Latin and French into English and wrote her own reviews for a radical magazine. Discover a plethora of topics such as her life as a young radical, her journey to Switzerland, meeting George Henry Lewes, becoming George Eliot, and more.

Agatha Christie, born in upper-middle-class British society during the late Victorian era, turned into one of the most prolific and popular mystery writers of all time. Her novels have been translated into 44 languages and have sold over two billion copies worldwide. Her mysteries continue to sell as new generations of readers discover the delights of her main characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In addition, Christie’s plays have been a tremendous success, with The Mousetrap running in London for the past 70 years.

Discover the remarkable life of Virginia Woolf.... Virginia Woolf ranks among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Embracing the Post-Impressionist times in which she lived, her novels reflect the artistic shift from romanticism to abstract. Plot mattered very little to Woolf. Her writing was a stream of consciousness outside of time and place. Her novels, including her best-known work, Mrs. Dalloway, invariably dwell on gender roles and the concept of reality.

A newborn set of twins, a new apartment, and the ensuing chaos are keeping Ben and Kirsty on their toes, but their challenges don't stop there. Kirsty is an exhausted new mother, and Ben isn't faring much better. On top of that, their communication skills could be better compared to a comedy of errors or a Greek tragedy. The last thing Kirsty needs is for their zany extended family to bring their own issues into the mix, but the problems just keep on coming. It’s just as well that love will always find a way.

In 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of over a dozen conspirators in the famous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to assassinate England's King James I. When the plot was discovered on the 5th of November, Fawkes and other conspirators were quickly convicted and executed, and the King asked his subjects to remember the 5th November as "the joyful day of deliverance".

When DI Allie Shenton is called out to a murder suicide, it quickly becomes clear that it's a double slaying, and there is a killer on the loose. The bodies are found in a property owned by local entrepreneur/drug dealer Kenny Webb. Several young women are staying there, they are refusing to talk and one of them is missing. While she waits on forensic evidence, Allie decides to do what she does best. She takes to the community to see who will talk. Right now, she's the only one who can get answers. But then a third murder rattles everyone.

This spellbinding sequel to Midwife of Normandy focuses on Lucina as she begins her exciting new life in England… 1685. Set against the tumultuous background of King James II’s reign and the Glorious Revolution, precocious Lucina Dupres faces family secrets, jealousy, and tragedy following her harrowing escape from Normandy. As she navigates the conflict between childless Aunt Celia who wants to raise her as a proper lady in genteel society and her mother Clare who insists she follow the ancestral midwifery legacy, Lucina acquires lifelong friends in a peaceful country village who shape...

BEFORE I DIE: A Pact What would you do differently if you knew that in one year you were going die? This is the dilemma best friends Renata, Saffron and Charlotte face, after making a pact to end the discontent in their lives. Ending the pain is simple: after their proposed last year on Earth they plan to take a plunge off Deadman’s Cliff. Their reasoning is even simpler: if a person hasn’t sorted her life out by age thirty out chances are she never would. Renata, Saffron and Charlotte were simply over days that spun around like a broken record. They could choose to spend the next fifty...

Like many pop cultural icons (and rock icons in particular), Freddie Mercury is one of the most recognizable figures of the 20th century and yet one of the more enigmatic personalities as well. To be sure, anyone who was alive during the reign of Queen is well aware of who Mercury was and the sound of his music (even those who despise rock music are familiar with the blasting, deliriously over-the-top rhythms of songs like "We Are the Champions").

Fame fades. Regret lingers. Terry Sparkes was almost famous. A fleeting soap opera role in the 1970s catapulted him into brief stardom—and an even longer spiral of loneliness, missed chances, and quiet decline. Now, decades later, Terry sits alone in a dingy flat, clinging to old tabloid clippings and watching the Oscars, dreaming of the one actor who still inspires him: Sir Michael Brookes. But Terry has a secret. One decision—made in a rain-soaked moment of panic—may have changed both their lives forever. An Actor’s Life is a darkly comic, quietly devastating exploration of ...

Such is our task, and such lies before us all: Liberty or death. In the summer of 1775, fleeing from a death sentence, Octavian and his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, escape through rising tides and pouring rain to find shelter in British-occupied Boston. Sundered from all he knows Octavian hopes to find safe harbor. But in the midst of war, no place is safe. The city of Boston itself is under siege. What follows is a tale of skirmish and flame, flight and fury, and battle on sea and land.

The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions: printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error.

Former Legionnaire Jens Schacht is in hiding from the British Government after wiping out a British army unit in Iraq. He covertly enters the United Kingdom, intending to hide out in the Highlands of Scotland until the official heat dies down. But fate has other plans for him. A local woman in the police witness protection program has her cover blown and her gangster husband tries to kill her. When Schacht intervenes, he is rewarded with unwelcome attention by the local police. This in turn brings the SAS to Scotland, on the orders of the Prime Minister, to get revenge for Iraq. Not only ...

Immersive, fascinating and with an ending that will quite simply… blow your socks off! Who ever really knows themselves? And if you don’t know yourself, can you ever be truly happy? Mark Rasper is a thirty-year old man who has always had a fascination with Japan. It started when he played Metal Gear Solid with school buddy Paul, becoming thoroughly captivated not only by everything Japanese, but by the character Solid Snake. When a transfer opportunity turns up at the company he works for, he doesn’t hesitate, and before he has time to change his mind he is on a plane to Tokyo. Mark ...

A poignant, challenging and witty memoir by one of Britain’s most senior journalists about the history of - and resistance to - immigration in the UK. In April 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered a speech that was to frame the debate about immigration in the UK for the next 50 years. ‘We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to allow the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents,’ he said. ‘It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.’ Kamal Ahmed was six months old at the time of Powell’s speech.

The voice, the dressing-down, the cigarette in its holder, remain unmistakable. There is rarely a week when one of Private Lives, Hay Fever, and Blithe Spirit is not in production somewhere in the world. Phrases from Noël Coward's songs - "Mad About The Boy", "Mad Dogs and Englishman" - are forever lodged in the public consciousness. He was at one point the most highly paid author in the world. Yet some of his most striking and daring writing remains unfamiliar.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ British Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of Great Britain’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. In 19th century England, few families were as accomplished as the Huxley family, which included prominent figures in the arts, sciences, and literature, but the most famous of them all would come of age in the early 20th century. Aldous Huxley was one of the most unique intellectuals of his age, but he was also one of the greatest. While he was controversial for dabbling with mysticism, a belief in parapsychology and the supernatural, and for advocating the use of psychedelic drugs, nobody could deny his abilities. Having grown up among the Huxley family, Aldous was well-versed in everything from botany to zoology, which helped him write one of the seminal futuristic science fiction novels, Brave New World, which he claimed sprang forth from him because of his experience in "an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence".

Spying and treachery are as much a part of warfare as weapons and death. This has always been the case since the earliest battles and is not likely to change in the future. And yet, even within this irregular system, there are certain rules, especially in past eras such as the American Revolution. First, while spying on behalf of one's country is perfectly respectable, betraying one's nation is treason. Second, honorable men do not involve those too innocent to understand the consequences of their actions in their schemes.

The game of hide and seek is over, everyone has gone home, but little Lily Murphy hasn't been found. Her parents search the woods and tell themselves that the worst hasn't happened—but deep down they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again. Joanna moves into a new house. It seems perfect in every way, until she learns that this was once Lily Murphy's home. From that moment onwards, a sense of dread seems to follow her from room to room.

It doesn’t take long for Ray Spalding to realise that prison is nothing like an Elvis Presley movie. The warden has no intention of throwing a party and the only bands Ray encounters are gangs of hard men. When an old adversary seeks him out, Ray decides his only chance for survival is escape. Ray’s son, Jesse, is discovering that being on the run in the middle of winter is no fun. With his stamina stretched to the limits, he’s ready to surrender himself to social services. At least that way he can see his girlfriend again. Danny Boy is the man in the middle. He thinks he can break ...