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. 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.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.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

Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

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Francis Durbridge

Bernard Braden stars in an original 1940 full-cast production of the very first Paul Temple adventure 
 
Between 1938 and 1968 the exploits of amateur detective Paul Temple and his wife, Steve, enthralled generations of BBC radio listeners. Theirs was an exciting world of violence and glamour - car bombs and cocktail parties. 
 
In Paul and Steve’s very first adventure, starring Bernard Braden as Paul with Peggy Hassard as Steve, a spate of jewel robberies in the Midlands has left the police baffled. They are the work of a shadowy criminal mastermind known only as The Knave of Diamonds. But who is the Knave? And can he be stopped? 
 
All but one episode of the original 1938 BBC production of Send for Paul Temple are lost from the archives. However, this complete recording of a 1940 production - made for Canadian radio and based on the original BBC radio scripts - was recently rediscovered in the national Library and Archives of Canada. Digitally restored, all six episodes are now available for the very first time. 
 
Two bonus features are also included: the sole surviving sixth episode of the original 1938 production, starring the original Paul Temple, Hugh Morton, and an unbroadcast interview with the longest-running Paul Temple actor, Peter Coke. 
 
Caution: this programme contains language that may cause offense, and dated attitudes that reflect the age in which it is set.

Send for Paul Temple

A 1940 full-cast production of Paul's very first adventure

Agatha Christie

John Moffatt stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. 
 
The ABC Murders: A chilling letter sets the sleuth on the trail of an enigmatic killer. 
After the Funeral: A wealthy businessman is dead, and his sister thinks it was murder. 
Death on the Nile: Poirot is in Egypt when a chilling murder takes place. 
Peril at End House: Whilst on holiday, the sleuth encounters a young woman, a hat and a bullet. 
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: Mrs Farrars is found dead, one year after the death of her husband. 
Murder on the Orient Express: Poirot is aboard a snowbound train when a passenger is found murdered. 
Three Act Tragedy: Poirot is one of the guests at a party when a clergyman dies whilst sipping a cocktail. 
The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Poirot and Captain Hastings become re-acquainted in a quiet English village in 1916. 
 
These BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations showcase eight of the finest cases in Hercule Poirot's career. Based on the original novels by Agatha Christie, they feature a cast of outstanding actors playing an array of likely suspects... 
 
Starring: John Moffat, Simon Williams, Nichola McAuliffe, Jill Balcon, Hugh Dickson, Sean Arnold, Susan Jameson, Nichols Boulton, Philip Jackson, Annabelle Dowler, Hilda Schroder, George Cole, Gemma Saunders, Andrew Wincott, Terence Edmond, Bryan Pringle, David Thorpe, Elizabeth Conboy, Rosemary Leach, Donald Sinden, Stratford Johns, Tom George, Sylvia Syms, Sian Phillips, Francesca Annia, Frank Windsor, Peter Polycarpu, Desmond Llewelyn, Andre Maranne, Siriol Jenkins, Kate Binchy, Joss Ackland 
 
 
 ©2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Poirot’s Finest Cases

Eight full-cast BBC radio dramatisations

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the atmospheric murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie, first published in 1961. 
 
A dying woman confesses a terrible secret to her priest along with a cryptic list of nine names. Before he is able to uncover anything more, the priest is struck dead in the fog and the police discover the list in his shoe. 
 
Our hero Mark Easterbrook, a historian, learns of a secretive organisation known as The Pale Horse and of their supernatural connections in the village of Much Deeping. The list of names seems to foretell the deaths of several people and Mark must piece together the clues and unearth the connections between them all. 
 
Who is behind the strange powers of The Pale Horse? 
 
Dramatised by Joy Wilkinson 
Directed by Mary Peate

The Pale Horse

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation

Simon Brett

Jeremy Front

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast adaptation of Simon Brett's comic murder mystery, starring Bill Nighy as the irrepressible Charles Paris. 
 
Charles Paris (unsuccessful actor, bad husband, dipsomaniac) is currently appearing as a fork lift operator in a corporate video. It's not prime-time television or a major film, but it seems like easy money - until the fork lift is used to commit a murder. When Charles himself comes under suspicion, he decides to find out for himself who the murderer is. 
 
Meanwhile, as ever with Charles, life on the domestic front is not plain sailing. After inflicting damage upon his ex-wife's house, he finds himself offering her a berth on the houseboat he’s currently sitting for a friend. However, life on the water proves as tricky as life at work… 
 
Suzanne Burden, Tim McInnery and Jon Glover are also among the cast in this dramatisation by Jeremy Front. 
 
Written by Jeremy Front, based on the novel by Simon Brett.

Charles Paris: Corporate Bodies

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel, known to be a favourite among her own works. 
 
When Doctor Calgary visits the Argyle family, he believes he brings good news. He is there to clear the name of Jacko, who was convicted of the murder of his own mother, Rachel. But the doctor’s news is not greeted with the enthusiasm he expects, and the family seem intent on resisting both his help and the investigations of Inspector Huish. 
 
When a further murder is committed, it becomes apparent that a killer is among the gathered party. With almost everyone having a motive and the means for murder, they must all be on their guard. 
 
Eschewing the traditional detective format, Ordeal by Innocence examines how the innocent suffer more than the guilty when a crime goes unsolved. Along with Crooked House, it was Agatha Christie's favourite of her own works. 
 
Cast: 
Calgary...Mark Umbers 
Gwenda...Jacqueline Defferary 
Kirsten...Wanda Opalinska 
Hester...Phoebe Waller-Bridge 
Jacko...Arthur Hughes 
Leo...Sean Murray 
Mickey...Joel MacCormack 
Tina...Carys Eleri 
Philip...John Norton 
Mary...Priyanga Burford 
Marshall...David Seddon 
Huish...Michael Burtenshaw 
Doctor...Harry Jardine 
Hotel Receptionist...Georgie Fuller 
 
Adapted by Joy Wilkinson 
Directed by Mary Peate

Ordeal by Innocence

John Dryden

A three-part BBC Radio drama about modern-day spying set in Cairo against a backdrop of the "Arab Spring". Hard-up Coptic art expert Duncan Kavanagh scrapes a living as a private English language tutor and by showing tourists around the ancient churches of Cairo. He lives with his feisty, politically-aware, 15-year-old daughter Ola, who is half-Egyptian, in a modest flat they can barely afford. Since the revolution, the situation has become ever harder for Duncan with tourists in short supply. When approached by seductive Canadian student Tara Moore to deliver a letter - for money - to a prominent Egyptian politician whose son Duncan teaches, he accepts. It's a decision that will solve his short-term financial problems but embroil him in a complex web of secrets and misinformation and a struggle for his own and his daughter's survival. Written and directed by John Dryden. Starring Nigel Lindsay, Aiysha Hart and Sarah Goldberg.

The Reluctant Spy

John le Carré

‘You’re not to disturb, annoy or offend. They’re walking on a knife edge out there, anything could tilt the balance.’   Missing: one junior diplomat and 43 of the British Embassy’s most confidential files. The timing is alarmingly significant: with neo-Nazi riots and radical student demonstrations, the threat to Germany’s security  is all too apparent. Britain’s own Alan Turner is sent in, with instructions to tread carefully at all costs.   But will he find the missing man and the files before the political situation erupts?   Kenneth Haigh stars as Alan Turner with Bernard Hepton as Rawley Bradfield in a fast-paced, explosive dramatisation of John le Carré’s acclaimed spy story, dramatised by René Basilico.

A Small Town In Germany

In the third year of perestroika, London publisher Barley Blair is sent a manuscript from Moscow. Exposing Russian nuclear threats as a sham, the information - if it’s genuine - could shatter East-West relations. Jazz-loving, hard-drinking Blair is hardly the spymasters’ idea of the perfect agent, yet they are forced to send him to Moscow to make contact. But the Cold War thaws when Barley meets Katya, the beautiful Russian intermediary who is equally sceptical of state ideology. Mere pawns in a deadly game of international espionage, they nevertheless represent the breakdown of hostilities and a future which poses a huge threat to the entrenched professionals on both sides... Both a gripping spy saga and a poignant love story, The Russia House delivers all the excitement and tension expected from the master of espionage fiction. This BBC Radio 4 adaptation was dramatised by René Basilico.

The Russia House

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world’s second oldest profession is very much alive. Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus’ latest intake; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life.   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Patrick Malahide as Ned, this engrossing dramatisation brings le Carré’s masterful novel vividly to life.   'A radio triumph... Simon Russell Beale’s pitch-perfect master spy' - Financial Times.

The Secret Pilgrim

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   When a Russian émigré is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past. What follows is Smiley the human being at his most vulnerable and Smiley the case officer at his most brilliant; and it takes to a thrilling conclusion his career-long, serpentine battle with the enigmatic and ruthless Russian spymaster Karla...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Anna Chancellor, Lindsay Duncan, Maggie Steed, Alex Jennings and Kenneth Cranham, this enthralling dramatisation captures every nuance of le Carré’s complex and compelling novel - the final book in John le Carré’s Karla trilogy.   ‘a radio triumph... Simon Russell Beale’s pitch-perfect master spy’ - Financial Times.

Smiley's People

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   Smiley, now head of the Circus, must rebuild trust in the shattered organisation. He is also determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks. He recruits Jerry Westerby, occasional spy, occasional news reporter, full-time romantic - the Honourable Schoolboy of the title - and despatches him to the Far East, where, amidst the corruption and decay of former colonies, a new battle is about to begin...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Steed and Anna Chancellor, this gripping dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré’s intricate, intriguing novel, the second in the Karla trilogy.

The Honourable Schoolboy

Smiley, wrestling with retirement and disillusionment, is summoned to a secret meeting with a member of the Cabinet Office. Evidence has emerged that the Circus has been infiltrated at the highest level by a Russian agent. Find the mole, George. Clean the stables. Do whatever is necessary. Reluctantly Smiley agrees, and so embarks on a dark journey into his past - a past filled with love, duplicity and betrayal.   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Anna Chancellor, Alex Jennings, Kenneth Cranham and Bill Paterson, this epic dramatisation brilliantly depicts the complicated moral dilemmas of those who practise post-war espionage, and illuminates the murky corners of le Carré’s classic spy thriller - the first in the Karla trilogy.   '... a worthy audio version of the seminal spy drama, brilliantly depicting the complicated moral dilemmas of post-war espionage, and allowing Beale room to shine as the character of Smiley really comes into his own' - Herts Advertiser   'beautifully paced in a dramatisation which captures the essence of the book whilst working supremely well in its own right in the radio medium' - Chichester Observer   'This period dramatisation could not be bettered' - Observer

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   When word reaches 'The Department' - an ailing section of British intelligence - that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border, it seems the perfect opportunity to show Control and Smiley, their rivals over at the Circus, that The Department still has value. Former spy Fred Leiser is lured back from retirement to investigate, and manages to cross the border into East Germany in a dangerous night-time operation.   But the world has changed since The Department's glory days during the Second World War. The harsh realities of the Cold War now prevail, and there is no place for heroes...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Ian McDiarmid and Philip Jackson, this compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's chilling novel of deception and betrayal.

The Looking Glass War

Robert Forest

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt.   Leamas is recalled to London where, to his surprise, instead of being washed up and consigned to a desk he's offered a chance to have his revenge by becoming a pawn in a brilliantly-conceived plot to destroy Mundt. But in order to do so he has to stay out in the cold a little longer...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Brian Cox as Alec Leamas, this tense, compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, intricate thriller.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Anthony Price

Two award-winning Dr David Audley spy novels dramatized with a full-cast 
 
 
Anthony Price wrote espionage thrillers alongside being a journalist at the Westminster Press and Oxford Times. Both of the classic spy novels featured in this collection are award-winning: The Labyrinth Makers won the Silver Dagger Award and Other Paths to Glory won the Gold Dagger Award. 
 
The Labyrinth Makers – Why are the KGB so interested in old, wrecked Dakotas, and what has the Schliemann Treasure to do with a ruined flak tower in Berlin? Anthony Price's tale of treasure, treachery and unexpected romance stars John Stride as Dr David Audley and Paula Wilcox as Faith. Dramatised by Nick McCarty and directed by Hamish Wilson. 
 
Dr David Audley: John StrideFaith: Paula WilcoxTierney: Alan MansonSir Frederick: Peter D'SouzaMorrison: Neil PackhamMr Jones: Ian SexonMrs Harlin: Pat WilliamsJenkins: Mark ColemanRoskill: Michael MacKenzieButler: Raymond RossPanin: Laurance RudicMaclean: Sandy Neilson 
Other Paths to Glory – Why is it that anyone who has any kind of connection with one particular attack on the Somme front in 1916 - the fatal assault upon Bouillet Wood and the so-called Prussian Redoubt - is now being murdered? Adapted by Alison Plowden, directed by Harry Catlin. 
 
Dr Audley: Tony BrittonPaul Mitchell: Martin JarvisCol Butler: Ronald BaddileyMrs Mitchell: Lorna RosslynConstable Bell/Marcel Jarras: David GrahamMr Hutchinson/Capt Faversham: Douglas BlackwellNicole MacMahon: Silvie DattasGatekeeper/Sorel: Steve HodsonEdouard Olivier: Andre Maranne

Dr David Audley: The Labyrinth Makers & Other Paths to Glory

Two BBC Radio Full-Cast Spy Thrillers

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.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

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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