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A radio adaptation of Alan Bennett's short autobiographical play, originally directed by Nicholas Hytner for the National Theatre. Alan looks back on his early life with affection and sadness, revisiting some of the themes and conversations of his memoir 'A Life Like other People's'. Both he and his mother are seduced by the idea that other people's lives are much richer and fulfilling than their own.

Two noble teenagers are married against their will. Drugged, Deb has no recollection of events. Disgraced, Julian is banished to the continent. Years later, Deb falls in love with a wounded duelist, only to discover it is her husband, returned incognito! Can Deb forgive his calculated deception? Will their marriage survive beyond seduction?

It’s 1943, and the district nurses have two new recruits. As the country ramps up for D-Day, the new nurses are getting to know their patients on their patch in London’s East End. Lily is quite sure of herself and doesn’t believe she has anything new to learn. She’ll find out the hard way that anyone can be made a fool of when she meets a man who promises her everything.

Welcome to Villains Academy—the most prestigious villain school in the ENTIRE land. You will either leave here as a fully formed villain...or in tatters. It's werewolf Bram’s first day at Villains Academy. He really doesn’t feel like a villain at all, but the coveted Villain of the Week trophy is up for grabs, and Bram knows he’ll have to dig deep. With the help of new friends Mona the elf-witch, Bryan the lion, Shelia the ghost and Tony the skeleton, can Bram find his inner badness and become the villain he's always dreamed of being?

Lieutenant Charles Heywood has had his fill of adventure. Battle-weary and disillusioned, he returns to England, resolved to settle down to a quiet, uneventful life on an estate of his own. But arranging to purchase the property he desires is more difficult than Charles ever imagined. The place is mired in secrets, some of which may prove deadly. If he’s going to unravel them, he’ll need the assistance of someone as daring as he is.

Mordecai’s simple life as the son of a blacksmith is transformed by the discovery of his magical birthright. As he journeys to understand the power within him he is drawn into a dangerous plot to destroy the Duke of Lancaster and undermine the Kingdom of Lothion. Love and treachery combine to embroil him in events he was never prepared to face. What he uncovers will change his understanding of the past, and alter the future of those around him.

Aeris Relera has always drawn the short end of the stick in life—a self-absorbed ex, neglectful parents, and a past that continues to haunt her. When she's down on her luck one night, a mysterious knight in shining armor—or, more realistically, a knight in hockey shoulder pads—saves her from a few too many tequila shots.

It's the moment Kieran and Lexi have been preparing for. The Magical Summit. Ready or not, they will take their assembled team into the belly of the beast. The stakes couldn't be higher. If the powers that be don't approve of Kieran, he will not earn the official title of the Demigod of San Francisco. The real danger concerns Lexi, however. With Kieran away in meetings, she must brave the treacherous halls of the Summit with just her crew and her wards, fighting for social placement and status, open to attack from all angles.

This is a diverting delight, a window on romance in literature. There are high lovers and low lovers, tragic lovers, comic lovers, and lovers who shouldn’t be doing what they are doing at all and certainly not then and there. There is even Fanny Hill trying not to discover what physical love is about when set upon by an old roué who has paid for the privilege. Though of special interest for lovers and their special lover’s day of St. Valentine, it is an amusing and sometimes surprising collection.

Rome, AD 27 - Gaius Valerius Carbo has returned to the heart of the empire after 25 years of serving in the legions. He just wants to retire in peace. But his friends are gone, his family is dead, and his home now belongs to someone else. When local thugs attack the tavern where he is resting, he finds himself caught up in the fight and inadvertently becomes the new owner of the building - and the enemies that come with it.

It’s the summer of 1923, and the Christie family is assembled in Scarborough, embarking on what they hoped would become an enduring tradition: an annual holiday to the charming North Yorkshire seaside resort.

Moa is 14. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches....

Arch-Brutalist Sir Lucien founded his architectural practice on a commitment to brutalist concrete in all its forms. But fashion has been a cruel mistress, and four decades later things are not going well for Sir Lucien and his loyal(ish) employees. With no money and no commissions, times are tough – but it’s onwards and upwards (and upwards again) for the staff, as they go all out to win new contracts, deal with nightmare clients and fight to get their ambitious projects past the planners.

Essex Sinclair understands her family’s heightened senses are a result of a long-ago pact between the Sinclairs and the powerful Raven family, but has always struggled to feel worthy of bearing the legendary Sinclair name. Unlucky in love, Essie has resolved to live a quiet, solitary life as a healer and leave passion to the young and foolish. When Max Huntington falls into her herb garden, a bullet hole in his side, her only intention is to heal him quickly and send him on his way. Then she touches him, and from that moment on, fate steps in with dangerous consequences for both.

When Hitomi takes a job on the cash register of a neighbourhood thrift store, she finds herself drawn into a very idiosyncratic community. There is Mr Nakano, an enigmatic ladies' man with several ex-wives; Masayo, Mr Nakano's sister, an artist who has never married; and her fellow employee Takeo, a shy but charming young man. Every day, customers from the neighbourhood pass in and out as curios are bought and sold, each one containing its own surprising story.

All of the stories you've heard are wrong. They always tell you that starting a new life in a fantasy world is an amazing experience, full of magic, adventure, and true love...but they never tell you what happens when it's over. They don't tell you that it just happens again. And again. By the time you start your third new life in a row, all of that initial amazement wears off. That's where Lux finds himself now: dropped into yet another fantasy world, forced to restart his life all over again. He wants nothing more than to disappear...but it seems the world has other plans for him.

Press play on this compilation of bonus content from the Rock Chick series by Kristen Ashley. The stories of the Hot Bunch and Rock Chicks continue in the hero’s point of view for one more chapter in each book. What happens when Lee and Indy run into Cherry at the Mexican Joint? When Eddie first sees his purple bathroom? What’s Christmas like with Herb and Trish? What was going on with Boo after Jules got shot? Find out all of this and more in the Rock Chick Bonus Tracks, now available in one anthology.

This second volume of previously unpublished letters from the private correspondence of the Roxton family spans a 20-year period, from the 1760s to the late 1780s, and includes extracts from the diaries of Antonia, Duchess of Kinross, and her younger son Lord Henri-Antoine Hesham. Also included are letters by the fifth Duke of Roxton, written in the final stages of his illness, and addressed to his youngest son, Lord Henri-Antoine. The volume concludes with a letter by the latter’s wife, Lady Henri-Antoine Hesham, to her mother-in-law, the Duchess of Kinross.

As the new girl from the south side of town going to a prestigious academy for my senior year, I never expected welcoming open arms. But the bloody nose on my first day was a surprise. And the threat. And the...well, let me just say behind the botoxed smiles and shiny sports cars were the worst sort of people. And there was one that brought them to their knees. One who ruled Green Hills Academy like the monarchs he descended from. Knight King hated me. Hated what I represented. Hated that I wasn't wealthy and that I dared to enter his world.

When famed psychic Alicia Lysander is brutally attacked after leaving a seance at the home of an earl, Jason Redmond and Daniel Haze must retrace her movements to determine who might have had a motive to want Alicia dead. As they delve into the private life of the woman who had not only become a friend but had also helped Daniel to rescue his abducted daughter, they uncover buried secrets, bitter rivalries, and unexpected betrayals.