From the BBC Radio 4 series presented and written by Nick Robinson that explores how prime ministers have used their power and responded to the great challenges of their time and how they made the...

The King James Bible is the most widely published and the most influential book in the English language. To mark its 400th anniversary and celebrate its language, imagery, poetry and storytelling,...

Volume Three of David Reynolds’ award-winning BBC Radio 4 series runs from the origins of the Cold War to the inauguration of Barack Obama.This epic narrative tells the saga of the United...

Between 1485 and 1688 England became a Protestant country under Henry VIII; his daughter Elizabeth battled for succession at home and supremacy at home, and the discovery of 'the round world'...

Packed with nuggets of information about language, culture, history and power, this title traces the way that the English language has twisted and turned in response to the way the world has changed.

Talk of the town, talk of the pit in Ashington, Northumberland.

It's been called the most beautiful dialect in England. It's the talk of coastal Northumberland that until recently...

Alistair Cooke presents his own personal selection of ‘Letter from America’ broadcasts from the early years 1946-1968.Alistair Cooke is the microphone’s great observer, the doyen of...

Readings of selected correspondence between the poet Philip Larkin (played by Alan Bennett) and the writer Kingsley Amis (played by Robert Hardy). A meeting at Oxford University during World War...

'Paul’s Letter to the Romans':Roger McGough reads the first of the 'Letters of Paul', in which he explains how salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Specially composed music...

This is volume 1 of the eagerly-awaited follow-up to Christopher Lee’s highly-acclaimed and award-winning BBC Radio 4 series.The original ground-breaking series of 'This Sceptred Isle' was a...

Beginning with the founding myths of Romulus and Remus and a succession of probably fictitious kings, Anthony Everitt charts the development of Rome from its origins as a small market town in the...

‘Churchill: A Life’ follows Winston Churchill from his earliest days to his moments of triumph. Here, the drama and excitement of his story are ever-present. Martin Gilbert gives us a vivid...

‘Brief Lives’ is an affectionate and fascinating collection of biographies of people W.F. Deedes had encountered in his seventy years as a journalist.In this eclectic selection of...

The final programme in the series considers the future of English dialects.

In the last programme in the series Melvyn looks at Standard English. He is joined by Lynda Mugglestone,...

In 1869, when five women enrolled at university for the first time in British history, the female brain was thought to be 1500 grammes lighter than a man’s, and doctors warned that if women...