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Fair warning: Raised in Captivity does not slot into a smooth preexisting groove. If Saul Steinberg and Italo Calvino had adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage and raised him on Gary Larsen and Thomas Bernhard, he would still be nothing like Chuck Klosterman. They might be good company, though. Funny, wise and weird in equal measure, Raised in Captivity bids fair to be one of the most original and exciting story collections in recent memory, a fever graph of our deepest unvoiced hopes, fears and preoccupations.

Everyone has an online life, and when the great British public put pen to keyboard to leave a review, they almost always write something hilarious. One Person Found This Helpful is the panel game that invites an all-star line-up to celebrate the good, the bad and the baffling.

Here is a collection of Shakespeare's most inspiring speeches from the BBC Sound Archives. Hear timeless soliloquies from Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, and The Merchant of Venice, memorably delivered by some of the leading actors of the 20th century.

Funny and scary, romantic and gruesome - and featuring a childless queen who devours the heart of a sea monster cooked by a virgin, and who then gives birth the very next day; a lecherous king aroused by the voice of a woman whom he courts, unaware of her physical grotesqueness; and a king who raises a flea to monstrous size on his own blood, sparking a contest in which an ogre vies with men for the hand of the king's daughter - The Tale of Tales is a fairy-tale treasure that prefigures Game of Thrones and other touchstones of worldwide fantasy literature.

Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands and soldiers pounding at the door. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north. Meanwhile, Holmes needs the wisdom of his wife, whom he discovers has gone missing. As Holmes searches and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late.

Born the same year as Radio 4 itself, Just a Minute is one of the BBC's longest-running and most popular panel games. In these five series from 2016-2018, collected together to mark the 55th birthday of the show, Nicholas Parsons presides over more hilarious linguistic shenanigans. Highlights include a festive edition, Just a Minute Does Panto!, which sees the players journeying through Panto-land in search of the missing Golden Whistle. Also featured is Just a Minute: 50 Years in 28 Minutes, which was specially compiled to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary.

In Our Time is one of BBC Radio's most successful and best-loved programmes, with a weekly listenership of over two million. Since 1998, it has 'transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time' (The Times), introducing its audience to an astonishing array of intriguing topics, from the epic of Gilgamesh to the gin craze. This special thematic collection focusses on some of the most important rulers, philosophers and writers of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt.

Christopher Lee's highly acclaimed and award-winning BBC Radio 4 history of the British Empire.

Presented by writer, comedian and self-confessed listomaniac Susan Calman, this hilarious show celebrates the power of the humble list—from 'Buzzfeed' to 'bucket' and everything in between. Accompanying Susan for a spot of comic categorising are a panel of special guests, including Lucy Porter, Joe Lycett, Richard Herring, Katherine Ryan, James Acaster, Miles Jupp, Lucy Beaumont, Nat Luurtsema, Alun Cochrane, Sarah Millican, Ricky Wilson, Roisin Conaty and Isy Suttie. Together, they participate in a variety of anarchic games themed around lists both magnificent and mundane.

An exploited child worker in the silver mines of Bolivia finds an ally – but at what cost? A young woman's affair has terrifying repercussions when her lover's wife dies. A sailor's wife takes her communion with Nature a little too far…From a hungry young woman who is not what she seems, to a boy who has taken his mother's advice a little too seriously; from disfigured girls willing to pay any price to fit in, to an immigrant who cannot escape his tormentor; from a new home with a sinister secret, this collection plumbs the depths of the psyche and dredges up some very modern horrors.

By turns dark and light, funny and poignant, this unforgettable collection of stories takes us right to the heart of what it means to be young in today's world, from a CBCA award-winning author.

History is complicated, and to make sense of it, we construct a narrative, editing and shaping the past to form a coherent story. But in doing so, there is much we leave out, leading to gaps in our collective memory. In this series, broadcaster and former politician Michael Portillo revisits some of history's best-known moments to fill in some of these gaps, rediscovering forgotten events that augment our understanding and shift our perspective.

Childhood friends Juliet, Rebecca, Rose, and Matthew grew up in a small village outside Dublin. Now privileged, wealthy, and powerful, they appear to have it all. But when Juliet is involved in a suspicious accident and lies trapped between life and death at the bottom of a cliff, a secret that has been hidden for years threatens the seemingly perfect lives of the close-knit group.

Since 1977, The News Quiz has entertained the nation with its satirical take on contemporary events. In these three series from 2020, hosts Nish Kumar, Angela Barnes and Andy Zaltzman invite a panel of comedians and journalists to find the funny behind the headlines (a tricky task in this difficult year). Regular players including Mark Steel, Lucy Porter, Hugo Rifkind and Kerry Godliman rub shoulders with newer contestants such as Geoff Norcott, Sophie Duker, Sindhu Vee, Jess Fostekew, Daliso Chaponda and Athena Kugblenu.

Just a Minute is the grandaddy of panel games, entertaining Radio 4 listeners since 1967 with wit, whimsy and wonderful wordplay. To mark the show's 55th anniversary in December 2022, here are five fantastic series from 2011, 2012 and 2013, all chaired by the legendary Nicholas Parsons. Among them is Series 62, which commemorated JAM's 45th birthday with an episode tackling the same subjects given out in the very first series, and featured two special editions from Mumbai.

m the killing fields of the East Midlands to the mean streets of London, from the jazz clubs and clip joints of Soho to the barren fenlands of East Anglia, this is a world of broken families and run-down estates, revenge killings and prostitution, drugs, guns and corruption; a world of overstretched police forces and underpaid detectives, men and women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything, even friendship, has a price. Featuring familiar characters including Frank Elder and Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick.

This is a love story. But not every love story is the same. Boy meets girl and girl falls for boy - that much is true. But when Sienna meets Nick it's not the way it happens in love stories: it's because of a squirrel on water skis.... She sees Nick's dangerous brown eyes and thinks don't. Fall. Into. Them. Who will be there to catch Sienna when she falls? She is so fragile. She has so many secrets, and he is not that serious.... Funny and sad, this is the story of two people destined never to come together in the great love affair they crave.

Clued-up listeners will already be familiar with I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the only authentic antidote to panel games. Ardent fans, and those with less well-indulged ears, are in for a treat with this eighth collection of episodes which, as ever, muddy the line between ad-lib and sheer mayhem.

This gorgeous Christmas gift of a collection brings together 13 of the best-selling, award-winning and exciting debut authors: Abiola Bello, Annabelle Sami, Benjamin Dean, E.L. Norry, Elle McNicoll, Dominique Valente, Joanna Williams, Maisie Chan, Nizrana Farook, Patrice Lawrence, Roopa Farooki, Serena Patel and Sharna Jackson. Join them as part of the Very Merry Murder Club as they lead you on a snow-covered wintery journey of Christmassy crimes, festive foul play and murderously magnificent mysteries!

The exceptional talents behind some of the nation’s best-loved books - from The Gruffalo to The BFG, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt to the Charlie and Lola series - the Children’s Laureates are the perfect ambassadors for children’s literature. It’s been 20 wonderful years of the Laureateship and now all 10 former honourees have banded together to celebrate the only way they know how: through stories and poems.