Arts & Entertainment

Read by the author, Ruthie Henshall. From much-loved West End and Broadway star Ruthie Henshall, The Showgirl and the Prince is a funny, honest and touching real-life Cinderella story – if Cinders is a lycra-clad chorus girl from Bromley who drinks and smokes too much. In 1988, Ruthie was at...

Double double acts Newman & Baddiel and Punt & Dennis join forces in the radio precursor to their iconic TV show Launched in 1989 on Radio 1, The Mary Whitehouse Experience rode the alternative comedy wave for four series until 1990, winning a Sony Gold Award and sparking a hit BBC TV spin-off...

The seventeenth series of the much-loved panel show, in which a cast of curious minds and comic voices donate extraordinary exhibits to an ever-expanding imaginary museum. Join Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and curator Anna Ptaszynski as they open the doors once again to a collection of the...

The cult spoof show set in a fictional newsroom An effervescent mix of satire and sketches, The Way It Is ran for seven series on BBC Radio 4 between 1998 and 2002. Performed by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Simon Evans, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Fiona Allen, Dave Lamb, Chris Pavlo, Laura Shavin and Phil Cornwell...

Two BBC radio series by the hilarious comedy duo Armstrong and Miller Sketches, songs, spoofs and memorable moments from beloved comedy double act, Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. Hear the radio shows that inspired the duo’s hit TV sketch shows and introduced characters from the podcast...

Architecture is often discussed as a matter of form. This book argues that it is also, and perhaps more importantly, a matter of judgment. Addendum Two: Architecture Without a Scar continues the ideas first explored in Architecture Without a Scar, shifting the focus from buildings as objects to architecture as a professional act of stewardship.

For film buffs and literature lovers alike, Turner Classic Movies presents an essential guide to 40 cinema classics and the enduring love stories that served as their heart-tugging inspiration. What makes a good love story endure? Is it the courtship? The obstacles along the way? The happy...

The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon. Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon.

A memoir from the writer of BENT with a foreword by Ian McKellen Sherman takes us on a journey through America in the mid twentieth century, starting in New Jersey – where he was born in the 1930s to a Jewish immigrant family – ending on Broadway with the premier of his seminal play Bent...

Can nature be read like art? Does God sign his artwork? Do the wavy and weaving lines of tree branches reveal insights about their Artist in the same way that the impasto brushstrokes of a Van Gogh tree do about theirs? (Spoiler alert: The answer to all of the above is, Yes!) These and other unorthodox questions emerge in the mind of Ben Keys, who in the midst of a personal and career crisis, paints his way out of job-induced depression by re-discovering a long-lost childhood dream: becoming an artist.

Somewhere in Alaska, a garden gnome is standing in the rain, holding a watering can, completely unbothered. The Gnomes of Alaska is a humorous photo book five years in the making — a collection of real garden gnome photographs taken across the seasons of an Alaska backyard, each paired with a short comedic story told in the voice of someone who has been watching these gnomes a little too closely for a little too long. Meet Gunder, the original gnome, who lost his head in a windstorm and came back stronger.

Bloomsbury presents How Paris Became Paris by Joan DeJean, read by Patricia Rodriguez "This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel."--New Yorker At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Paris was known for...

The ultimate collection of the most historic trees on the planet. Uncover remarkable trees from around the world, many of which have borne witness to key moments in history or reached a scale and age that have allowed them to become a part of history themselves. “[A] rich history … it...

"For fans of reality television and those who like to understand how it’s made, the book is a real treat. It’s also a first-rate memoir—dramatic, passionate, and heartbreakingly honest." —Booklist A former Bachelor producer flips the script in this vulnerable memoir about her own journey...

In 1931 Universal Studios released Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. This box office success was followed by a string of films featuring macabre characters and chilling atmospherics, including Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man. With each new film, Universal established its place in the...

Multi award-winning TV personality Paul O’Grady stars as Lily Savage, the Scouse bombshell who catapulted him to superstardom. From her Lambeth Council flat to top billing on television and on the West End stage, the brash blonde shook the British comedy scene to its foundations throughout the 90s before eventually hanging up her heels for the very last time in 2004. This hysterical audiobook spans Lily’s career from her 1959 Miss Pears triumph to numerous shop-lifting convictions and finally her international sex-kitten status.

From the voice behind Ren, Stimpy, Doug, Bugs Bunny, nearly half the main Futurama characters, and much more, a revealing memoir of life before—and in front of—the mic Billy West is one the most accomplished and beloved voice actors alive today. He's brought to life original animated...

In the fall of 1984, in a darkened lecture hall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, two professors offered competing arguments about why beauty matters. The art historian said beauty connects. The film scholar said beauty instructs. Both were right, and both were incomplete. The question that has taken forty years to formulate is the question this book attempts to answer: if beauty connects and instructs, who controls the connection, and who writes the lesson plan? The Human Universal Beautiful proposes a new framework for understanding how beauty operates as a historical force.

This program is read by Yael Rizowy with actor Nelson Franklin, who plays Robby in New Girl. "Thorough and entertaining... hilarious and touching... a must for New Girl fans." —Library Journal Go inside the writers’ room and onto the set of the honorary queen of comfort shows—with...

From one of cinema’s wisest and most penetrating observers, an arresting new perspective on the sweep of film history. David Thomson has been called “the greatest living writer on the movies.” Here is a career capstone of sorts—a one-volume history of film and screens as illuminating and...

Can AI really turn an ordinary person into a music producer? For decades, music production belonged to specialists. Expensive studios, technical knowledge, years of training, and industry connections stood between ordinary people and professional-quality music. Becoming a producer meant mastering software, recording techniques, sound design, mixing, songwriting, and performance. The music industry was built around expertise, access, and technical barriers. Then artificial intelligence changed everything. Today, anyone with a laptop and an idea can generate songs within minutes.

Twenty-five years of Dave Matthews Band shows from the tailgate lots to the cheap seats . . . Before These Crowded Seats: A Dave Matthews Band Fan’s Journey Through 100 Shows offers an in-depth look at DMB from 2002 to present. Mike Carpenter charts the group’s history while reflecting on his personal experiences as a fan, from his first DMB concert in the winter of 2002 to his 100th during the 2026 Summer Tour.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Written nearly two millennia ago between 161 and 180 AD, Meditations is the most famous and influential work of Stoic philosophy ever produced. It was never intended for publication; instead, it is a compilation of the private, personal journals of...

He was dressing low-profile, but it was definitely him: red skin, horns, barbed tail, cloven hoofs, black goatee. He was unmistakable. Satan was buying soy milk and forty bucks' worth of unleaded fuel. In a small town two miles north of Hell, our deadbeat narrator spots Satan filling up his red...

Bloomsbury presents… The Birth of Breaking by Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian read by Greg Lockett The untold story of how breaking – one of the most widely practiced dance forms in the world today – began as a distinctly African American expression in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s...