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A superb collection of dramas guaranteed to thrill and entertain from best-selling author Peter Ackroyd. Set in the heart of London, these star-studded adaptations feature parallel investigations into killings across two centuries, black magic, haunted houses, holy ghosts and a stunning performance by Simon Callow as the magnificent Charles Dickens. Novelist, biographer and critic Peter Ackroyd has cemented his place at the heart of the culture and history of London. This fantastic collection is full of vitality from a world-class author and stellar cast.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917-2007), known today as the architect of John F. Kennedy's presidential legacy - and the myth of Camelot - blazed an extraordinary path from Harvard University to wartime London to the West Wing. The son of a pioneering historian - and a two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner in his own right - Schlesinger redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, his best-selling record of the Kennedy administration, remains immensely influential.

European citizens feel the full force of German injustice, but not all are willing to bend the knee. From France to Poland, Resistance groups fight from the shadows to thwart Nazi rule and hinder their goal to exterminate Jews. In Russia, Wilmot Vogel struggles to survive the ravages of a frigid winter, compounded by the German army’s lack of progress. Hit by a surprise Russian attack on the front lines, however, he finds himself facing an even greater challenge than the freezing weather and Soviet bullets.

"One mistake doesn't make you a failure". I always saw relationships as a burden instead of a gift...until my world imploded...until Wynn showed me their true value. Now, I have to find a way to convince her that I've changed my tune. Bass player, Lonnie Brennan, is known as the band's overgrown jokester. He came to Tennessee to make sure his best friend and bandmate didn't disappear after falling in love and moving across the country in just three short weeks. What Lonnie doesn't expect is to fall in love himself...

The only family the Painted Daisies singer and harpist Fiadh Kane has left in this world is her band. When their leader―her best friend who stood by her through the worst―is killed, she's determined to find who did it and make him pay. Fiadh is convinced the band's new label owner knows more about the murder than he's shared. She plans to reveal Asher's skeletons by any means possible, even if it means using the magnetic lure blooming between them in ways she never expected.

These treasured stories from the most influential authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries are selected for their literary importance as well as their dramatic, oral qualities. Listen to these 10 unabridged classics by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, O. Henry, and Willa Cather.

Belle Toby lost her fiancé in a tragic accident. She left Bridgewater as soon as she could and vowed never to return. When she unexpectedly inherits Havenwood Farm—and her childhood home that she’d just as soon sell if it means ridding herself of the memories within those walls—Belle is forced to return to settle the property.

This is the story of an Abraham Lincoln many Americans aren't at all familiar with: Lincoln as a reluctant husband in an abusive relationship; Lincoln who came within moments of fighting a duel with a political adversary; the first and only president to patent an invention; and the first future president to argue before the Supreme Court.

No other narrative from within the corridors of power has offered as frank and intimate an account of the making of the modern Chinese nation as Ji Chaozhu's The Man on Mao's Right. Having served Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist leadership for two decades, and having become a key figure in China's foreign policy, Ji now provides an honest, detailed account of the personalities and events that shaped today's People's Republic.

It's a classic story of the American Dream. George Mitchell grew up in a working class family in Maine, experiencing firsthand the demoralizing effects of unemployment when his father was laid off from a lifelong job. But education was always a household priority, and Mitchell embraced every opportunity that came his way, eventually becoming the ranking Democrat in the Senate during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Modern perceptions of Classical Greece are almost invariably based on Athens and Sparta, but there are perhaps few areas as consistently undervalued as the island of Rhodes. Although solidly part of the Greek world for as long as there has been one, Rhodes, located just off the coast of Asia Minor, was also from its earliest times a port opening to the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Rhodes was involved in every significant moment in ancient Greek history.

Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.

On a cold, cloudy day in early February 1985, Shelley Wachsmann, then resident nautical archaeologist for the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, drove to Kibbutz Ginosar, an agricultural settlement near the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Two brothers, avid amateur archaeologists, had found a boat buried in the lake, its outlines revealed by receding lake waters. The boat was "possibly ancient," according to the handwritten note placed on Wachsmann's desk a day or two before.

Featuring Norman Rossington as Big Jim, listen to these six funny and anarchic tales from those demob days “when we was going to build the new Jerusalem – you know, before the world turned lax and sour”. Set on the building site of a seaside town in the1950s, and narrated by comedy legend Bernard Cribbins, this is classic BBC comedy at its best.

Emma Goldman harshly criticizes Puritanism and its reign of terror in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. She claims that it hurt writers like Oscar Wilde and Shelley, and alienated Byron from his native land. She calls Puritanism a censor of the artistic expression of people, facilitating only the dullness of respectability.

Paul Revere is one of the most famous Americans in history and one of the first that schoolchildren learn about. Although he is known almost entirely for his legendary midnight ride before the Battles of Lexington and Concord today, in colonial Boston he was praised for the quality of the silver he made, and he was known for being one of the patriotic Sons of Liberty and a militiaman. With 16 children, Paul Revere supported his large family by doing everything from dentistry to casting church bells and engraving the most popular image of the Boston Massacre.

The formation of the state is a natural stage in the development of society. This is a very lengthy process, so any event that marks the transition to the state forms of life is very conditional. Primitive society could exist, guided by two basic principles that regulated social life: custom (tradition) and the right of the strong. Centuries-old traditions were rarely challenged, so there was no need for some special mechanisms to ensure their compliance. However, as primitive society gradually changed, the relations between the congeners became more and more diverse.

The fighting in North Africa during World War II is commonly overlooked, aside from the famous battle at El Alamein that pitted the British under General Bernard Montgomery against the legendary "Desert Fox", Erwin Rommel. But while the Second Battle of El Alamein would be the pivotal action in North Africa, the conflict in North Africa began all the way back in the summer of 1940, when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared Italy’s entrance into the war, seeing an opportunity for Italy to enlarge its colonial holdings in Africa by seizing portions of the British Empire.

The Founding Fathers have been revered by Americans for over 200 years, celebrated for creating a new nation founded upon the loftiest ideals of democracy and meritocracy. But if the American Dream has come to represent the ability to climb the social ladder with skill and hard work, no Founding Father represented the new America more than Alexander Hamilton.

When 18-year-old Eva Walker enters the local talent showdown, she hopes it’ll will rekindle her love of music. She doesn’t expect it to ignite a fire in her heart. Rafe Hunter is everything Eva should stay away from. Tattooed, brooding, and mysterious. Not to mention the fact he’s the bassist for one of the world’s hottest rock bands. Their weekend of lust, laughter, and music changes everything.