A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy novels and is an ambassador for Wattpad, known as @agatharoza. Entwined is her first novel.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A. M. Ellis

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

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Four acclaimed novelists write their first stories for radio. The Coup by Tom Rachman describes how a protest threatens to turn into a coup, in London' s genteel Kensington, which is next door to where the two Geralds have just moved in.  Steak by Evie Wyld, describes how a group  of male barflies in small town Australia are unsettled by the appearance of Mariella..   In She Wiped The Surface, Louisa Young, describes how  a mother happily arranges her daughter's birthday party, but this masks a family bereavement. How to cope? In Holding On by Ross Raisin, a woman stands at the end of a cliff, which is at the end of her garden - which means what,  exactly?

Friday Firsts ( Complete Series)

Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy is one of Britain’s most popular storytellers, and these four tales demonstrate the warmth and compassion that have made her many novels bestsellers.   In 'Homecoming', read by Sean Campion, the Brennans run Quentin’s restaurant in Dublin for the owner, who lives abroad. But what will happen when he suddenly pays a visit?   'Telling Stories', read by Joanna Myers, sees Irene’s fiancé turning up the night before the wedding with a face as white as the dress that is to be worn the next day. Then trouble starts...   In 'Needy', read by Patricia Hodge, Heather is painfully aware that Valentine’s Day declarations of love should be viewed with suspicion, even if the sender is the one she loves.   And in 'The Interview', read by Kate Binchy, Bessie is deaf and needs a place in a special school. But will she pass the interview?   Finely crafted and full of wit and charm, these are stories that no fan of Maeve Binchy will want to be without.

The Homecoming & Other Stories

Elizabeth Taylor

Full-cast dramatisations of three acclaimed novels by Elizabeth Taylor – including Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – plus 17 readings of her short fiction Described by Antonia Fraser as ‘one of the most underrated novelists of the 20th century’, Elizabeth Taylor was much admired for her witty, acutely observed stories of middle-class life. She never achieved widespread recognition during her lifetime – perhaps due to the fame of her Hollywood namesake – but since her death in 1975, her work has been rediscovered. This collection showcases the very best of her oeuvre, as heard on BBC Radio.Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is the poignant tale of an elderly lady who moves into a genteel London hotel and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young writer. Jean Anderson stars as Mrs Palfrey in this 1974 adaptation, with Tony Robinson as Ludo. In A Wreath of Roses, starring Angela Pleasence, a violent and disturbing incident at the start of her holiday proves to be a memory Camilla cannot escape, while In a Summer Season sees wealthy widow Kate marrying a younger man, provoking gossip among her conventional 1950s community. Kate Buffery stars in this moving drama about love and the transience of happiness.Taylor’s short stories, a number of which appeared in The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar, are regarded by many as her crowning achievement. Included here are 15 of them, beginning with three tales read by Joanna Tope – ‘The Idea of Age’, ‘Plenty Good Fiesta’ and ‘The Blush’. Also featured is the Radio 4 anthology Dangerous Calm, comprising five stories abridged by Richard Hamilton: ‘The Letter Writers’, ‘The Benefactress’ and ‘Hotel du Commerce, read by Joanna David; and ‘Spry Old Character’ and ‘A Dedicated Man’, read by David Troughton. Seven more short pieces follow – ‘The Devastating Boys’ (abridged by Di Speirs), ‘Sisters’, ‘Swan Moving’, ‘Simone’, ‘Flesh’, ‘Gravement Endommage’ and ‘In and Out the Houses’, read by Sarah Badel, Sheila Mitchell, Fiona Walker, Ann Windsor, Rosemary Leach, Shireen Shah and Cécile Chevreau respectively.Two 13-part Woman’s Hour serials conclude our compilation. In The Wedding Group, read by June Barrie, two rebellious young people, each escaping their families, make an unhappy marriage. And in The Sleeping Beauty, read by Nigel Anthony, a 50-year-old bachelor becomes smitten with an enigmatic recluse – but both of them are nursing secrets... 
Contents 
Dramatisations:Mrs Palfrey at the ClaremontA Wreath of RosesIn a Summer SeasonShort Stories:The Idea of AgePlenty Good FiestaThe BlushThe Letter WritersThe BenefactressHotel du Commerce Spry Old CharacterA Dedicated ManThe Devastating BoysSistersSwan MovingSimoneFleshGravement EndommageIn and Out the HousesThe Wedding GroupThe Sleeping Beauty© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Elizabeth Taylor: A BBC Radio Collection

20 dramas and short stories from the acclaimed 20th Century novelist

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

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Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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