How does Audible work? How much it costs, how to get free books and how to cancel
Audible is an Amazon subscription service offering audiobooks, podcasts and more. Here's how it works.
Listen up all bookworms, podcast listeners and audio fans – if you're looking for somewhere to source your favourite auditory entertainment, Audible is the perfect platform for you. Audible is an Amazon service offering a huge variety and number of titles, all wrapped up in an affordable subscription package. It's great for those who are struggling to find time to read, or for those on the lookout for a new podcast to get stuck into. Books are either read out to you by a narrator, the title’s author or a well-known celebrity, while podcasts often have famous hosts. The book fanatics at RadioTimes.com have rounded up some of the best audiobooks and best non-fiction audiobooks that you'll find on Audible. If you’ve got little ones looking for a bedtime story, we’ve got a list of the best kids' audiobooks, too. If you’re tempted to sign-up for Audible, we’ve outlined the answers to all the main questions you might have about the service and how it works below. The good news is that, at the very least, the first month will either be free or very cheap, since there's always a promotional offer around to entice potential new subscribers. Head to our piece on how to get an Audible free trial in the UK for the latest information. In our best Audible offers article, we share the top deals each month to help you bag the subscription service for free or for less, and we tell you how to get free audiobooks. And you can also head to our Audible Gift Card piece if you want to treat a loved one to the subscription service this Christmas. Start your 30-day free Audible trial undefined Quality audiobooks deserve quality audio – and if you're looking for something to play your audiobooks through at home, don't miss our best DAB radio recommendations and best Amazon Echo deals. Jump to: What is Audible? How much does Audible cost in the UK? How does Audible work? What are Audible credits? What do you need to use Audible? How to buy books on Audible How to get free books on Audible How to return a book on Audible How do you cancel an Audible membership? What is Audible? Audible is an audiobook service from Amazon, offering the world’s biggest selection of titles ranging from much-loved classics to new releases and original podcasts. Listeners can download or stream their chosen titles with a membership to Audible. Books may be read aloud by a narrator, the authors themselves, well-known stars or even performed by an audio cast. Many podcasts also have famous hosts — for instance, Michael Caine’s podcast Heist is about famous robberies, and then there's From the Oasthouse, Alan Partridge's podcast, which, of course, is read by the East Anglian superstar himself. There are constantly new releases being added to Audible too – new this month includes Fearless by Lauren Roberts. Start your 30-day free Audible trial How much does Audible cost in the UK? The cost for an Audible membership depends on the plan you sign up for, and the Audible tiers have changed slightly in recent weeks. There are two monthly plans and two annual plans, and we've broken them all down below: Standard Monthly | £5.99 per month — Select one audiobook a month from the entire collection, and listen to your selected audiobook as long as you're a member Premium Plus Monthly | £8.99 per month — Get one credit a month to buy any audiobook from the entire collection, the book is yours to keep, even if you cancel, listen to thousands of additional audiobooks and originals from the Plus Catalogue, and enjoy exclusive sales and discounts Premium Plus Annual (12 credits) | £69.99 per year — Get 12 credits a year for any audiobook in the entire collection, listen to thousands of additional audiobooks and originals from the Plus Catalogue, and enjoy member-only deals and discounts Premium Plus Annual (24 credits) | £109.99 per year — Same as the 12 credits option, except with 24 credits a year. To entice you in even more, if you want to test Audible out before you commit, you can also trial the monthly services for free for 30 days. Start your 30-day free Audible trial undefined How does Audible work? By signing up to Audible on the standard membership, you receive one new audiobook every month you are a member. You can choose from a range of membership plans and which one you have will determine how many Audible 'credits' you receive each month, which can be exchanged for audiobooks on the service. You're not limited to one book a month, though, many are available for free and you can buy more. Also, you can listen to all the Audible Original Podcasts with unlimited streaming and there are also a number of exclusive offers and deals throughout the month, including the 'Daily Deals' which offer a different title for up to 80% off each day. What are Audible credits? Audible credits are the service's internal currency, with one credit purchasing one audiobook: nice and simple. But different memberships afford different credits, ranging from one credit per month to 24 credits per year, as we've mentioned above. What's great is that Audible works with a rollover scheme, so that if, say, you have a hectic month and don't get the chance to use your monthly credit, it can be used in the following month instead. But keep in mind that credits will eventually expire after a year of disuse. Have you heard the Nintendo Switch 2 release date has been announced? Plus, here's the up-to-date Nintendo Switch 2 UK stock. What do you need to use Audible? You can access Audible via your internet browser. However, it's easier to install the app on your device of choice; Audible is compatible with nearly every single phone and tablet out there. One thing you'll need to make sure is that you have an Amazon account — Audible is a subsidiary company of the retail giant after all. Plus, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you get more for your 30-day free trial. Instead of picking one audiobook with the free trial, Prime members can pick two! Titles include classics such as JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, or the much-talked about biography The Woman in Me from Britney Spears, and many more. And what's best, they're yours to keep, plus after the trial members will receive one credit per month. Looking at switching music streaming services? Take a look at our what is Amazon Music and Amazon Music vs Spotify, Spotify vs Apple Music and Apple Music vs Amazon Music guides. How to buy books on Audible If you are using a device like a smartphone, you can search and download from the app. If you are on a laptop or computer, you can buy audiobooks through the usual Amazon site, just make sure you're logged in. On the left of the main search bar, select the category 'Audible Audiobooks' from the dropdown menu to search for a title. After clicking on a book title you have searched for in the search bar as normal, you should see boxes with various options including 'Kindle Edition', 'Paperback' and 'Audio Download'. In the 'Audio Download' box, it should list a price or the option to purchase with one credit. By selecting this option you’ll be able to buy the audiobook outright or purchase with any unused credits. You can also do this from the mobile version of the online website. How to get free books on Audible When you sign up to a free 30-day membership with Audible, you’ll receive one free audiobook to get you started. If you continue your membership on one of Audible’s plans, you'll receive regular credits which can be exchanged for a title of your choice. One token entitles you to one audiobook, no matter the price, without having to shell out any extra cost. If you find you don't manage to use a credit every month, it's possible to get in touch with Audible customer services and request to 'freeze' your account for a few months. This allows you to catch up and use the credits you have without paying more and getting swamped, or cancelling your subscription entirely. How to return a book on Audible If you aren’t enjoying a book or have downloaded the wrong one by mistake, you're able to return it and use your credit on something else. To do this, you need to log into your account on the Audible website and click on 'Account Details' from the drop-down menu under your name. From here you can choose 'Purchase History' to see a list of all the audiobooks you've bought. On the right of the title you want to exchange, you should see a button saying 'Return Order' which can simply select to send it back. Start your 30-day free Audible trial We've written great guides on how to read books in order; just take a look at how to read Silo books in order, how to read Heartstopper books in order, and how to read Jacqueline Wilson books in order. How do you cancel an Audible membership? Your Audible membership will automatically renew at the end of your plan. This is includes your free trial period. If you want to cancel your membership, log into the Audible website and go to the 'Account Details' page. Under 'Account Settings' you should see the option, 'cancel my membership'. Select this and follow the instructions on screen to terminate your Audible plan. If you have paid for an audiobook on Amazon, it will remain in your Audible library forever even once your subscription has ended. This should also apply to items purchased during your free trial. Any credits you have not used, however, will disappear, so make sure you use them up before cancelling your membership. Start your 30-day free Audible trial Do you love reading as much as listening? Don't miss our pick of the very best Kindle deals. Find something to watch tonight with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.
ACOTAR 6: Release date speculation and latest news
Author Sarah J Maas just delivered an exciting update.
It's been a long time coming, but finally fans of the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) book series got the news they've been waiting for – the first draft of the next novel has been completed. Fans have been waiting for the book, currently only known as ACOTAR 6 as there are already four novels and one novella in the series, since A Court of Silver Flames was released in 2021. Now, they can start getting excited in earnest. The romantasy novel series comes from author Sarah J Maas, who is also behind the beloved Throne of Glass and Crescent City series. There was at one time an ACOTAR TV adaptation in the works, but plans for that have seemingly been placed on hold as Disney is set to lose the rights to the books in late summer and Maas is expected to take them to a different studio and platform. But what do we know about ACOTAR 6 thus far, and when is it likely to be released? Read on for everything you need to know. When will the next A Court of Thorns and Roses book be released? We don't yet know when ACOTAR 6 will be released, but we do know it is in the works. In 2024, Maas told Today: "The next [book] I’m supposed to be writing right now… I know much more about. That’s gonna be the next Court of Thorns and Roses book." While speaking in a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@spotify/video/7446551909537680686?embed_source=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404358%2C121497414%2C121477481%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C74173097%2C121487028%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121819198%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.thecut.com%2Farticle%2Facotar-6-next-sarah-j-maas-book-release-date-plot-news.html&referer_video_id=7446551909537680686" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok for Spotify in December 2024, Maas then confirmed that it's going to be "a long book", before adding: "It’s too early for me to tell you who it will be about and what’s going to happen, but I hope to have more details for you soon." Most recently, in July 2025, Maas announced on Instagram that she had finished the book's first draft – meaning hopefully there isn't too much longer to wait. Cryptically, she actually said that first "drafts" had been finished – could there be more than one book on the way? Fans may have been waiting longer than ever before for a new ACOTAR book (the most recent came out in 2021), but that certainly doesn't mean the author has been idle. On the contrary, since 2020 she has also released three books in her new Crescent City series, with the most recent coming out in 2024. She has also explained that her writing pace has slowed somewhat since having children. She told Today: "Before I had kids, I was writing two books a year, but I also had no social life. Like, I was basically Gollum in my little writing cave, just writing all day. "But now I get to see the sunlight thanks to my children needing to, like, go out to school. So the writing pace has slowed down a little bit – you know, a book a year, a book every year and a half. It’s a tough thing, to have a job and to need to show up and focus on that job, but then to also be able to focus on your children." So, what does all this mean for ACOTAR 6's release date? Well, we'd imagine that, given a first draft has already been completed, a 2026 release might seem the most likely. Of course, though, nothing is certain, and we will make sure to update this page once we get more news. What will ACOTAR 6 be about and what has Sarah J Maas said? We don't yet know for certain what ACOTAR 6 will be about, or even what it's called. However, most fans are pretty certain that the new novel will be about Feyre's youngest sister, Elain. Back in 2022, during an interview with LiveTalksLA, Maas said that "as soon as [Feyre's older sister] Nesta and Elain came back onto the page in A Court of Mist and Fury, I knew that they would have journeys beyond, like, what the readers were seeing". She continued: "They were in the middle of their own journeys." Given that we've already had a book based on Nesta's journey, A Court of Silver Flames, one focusing on Elain seems likely. Maas also said that she "thought it was pretty obvious" who the fifth book would be about during an Instagram Live – so it seems like fans are on the right path. Check out more of our Books coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty confirms sequel book with time jump
The second Big Little Lies book is officially happening.
In the world of TV adaptations of beloved novels, it's safe to say that buzz continues to remain around Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies. Not only did the bestselling novel become an instant must-read when it was released back in 2014, but it also spawned a hit HBO series that starred the likes of Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Zoë Kravitz, Shailene Woodley and more. While rumours have continued to swirl for quite some time now about the future of the TV series, we have some major good news for fans of the original novel. Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the release of her new novel, Here One Moment, Moriarty revealed that an anticipated book sequel to her original Big Little Lies novel is currently in the works. She said: “With Big Little Lies, all I can tell you is I’m writing a sequel to my own book, following on from my own story. "Because I wrote Big Little Lies when my children were little and the children in the story are just starting kindergarten and now, of course, my children are all teenagers so they’re providing a wealth of teen material. "So, I’m writing a sequel with all the children as teenagers so now the women are the parents of teens.” So, will there be a significant time jump? “Yes, yes exactly,” she explained. As so much of the novel and the resulting TV series centred on Witherspoon's Madeline, will this new sequel novel focus on a specific character? “Not honing in on anyone in particular," Moriarty said. "It’s still early stages so I can’t really tell you anything much except that they’re parenting teens. I’ve got them [all the main women], they’re all there for sure.” When pressed on whether there will be any new additions to Big Little Lies in the novel or in a potential third season of the show, Moriarty said: “Only that in the new novel, I’d be putting in new characters.” Read more: David Tennant squares up to Aidan Turner and Alex Hassell in Rivals trailer The Wives viewers are not happy about the ending – and all the unanswered questions While the third season of Big Little Lies has not been officially greenlit as of yet, there's been plenty of buzz around it recently after Nicole Kidman said in June of this year (via Variety): “We’re moving fast and furious. Liane [Moriarty] is delivering the book. We’re in good shape.” While writing the sequel novel after the success of the acclaimed series can't be an easy feat, Moriarty does admit that she's "really separating" her ideas of the world of the novel and the TV series. She explained: "And then, if they want to adapt the book, it’s up to them to put it back in Monterey and do all the things they need to do to turn it into a television series. I will admit, though, that because of the series, I totally forgot one character that I had in the book. "In the book, Madeline has another child called Fred and when I picked up the book to read it, I thought ‘Oh, that’s right – Fred’. I’d totally forgotten him and I was thinking to myself that maybe I should do something maybe sort of meta and have Fred in his bedroom and say ‘Fred just stays in there playing video games all day long, it’s like he never existed’ or something like that. I’ll have to bring him in [to the new novel], it has to follow on completely from the novel. That’s the best thing.” Could Fred perhaps make an appearance in a potential season 3 of Big Little Lies? Moriarty jokes but says: “They can’t put Fred in the show because where was he?” While we don't yet know if season 3 of the TV series is a-go, we certainly know that Moriarty's sequel novel will definitely go down a treat with fans. Unlike the series, Moriarty's original novel was set in Sydney's Northern Beaches and not in Monterey County, California. But, as in the series, we follow Jane, Madeline and Celeste as the core group of women who all have young children and start to bond. With some new characters on the horizon and an all grown up bunch of kids, we can only imagine what Moriarty has in store for the women at the centre of this twisted tale – we can't wait! Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty is available to purchase now. Big Little Lies is available to stream on NOW. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Booker Prize 2024 shortlist revealed - with history-making line-up
The Booker Prize 2024 has confirmed its shortlist this year, and it contains the most female authors represented since the competition launched. Five of the shortlisted titles were written by women, while one was penned by a man. The list also includes the first ever Dutch writer to be shortlisted and the first Australian author in 10 years. To be eligible for the prize, the books must be written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. The six shortlisted Booker Prize 2024 books are: James by Percival Everett Orbital by Samantha Harvey Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner Held by Anne Michaels The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood Get to know the six books below, and find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Booker Prize 2024 shortlist revealed - with history-making line-up James by Percival Everett What is James about? James retells the story of Huckleberry Finn, this time from the perspective of Jim. What did the judges say about James? "Through lyrical, richly textured prose, Everett crafts a captivating response to Mark Twain's classic, Huckleberry Finn, that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy James by Percival Everett now Orbital by Samantha Harvey What is Orbital about? Six astronauts are on board the International Space Station, and though they have the privilege of seeing Earth as so few have, dreadful news from home prompts them to see the planet in a different light. What did the judges say about Orbital? "Orbital offers us a love letter to our planet as well as a deeply moving acknowledgement of the individual and collective value of every human life." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy Orbital by Samantha Harvey now Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner What is Creation Lake about? Sadie Smith is an undercover agent and must infiltrate a commune of radical ec0-activists in this comedic thriller. What did the judges say about Creation Lake? "What's so electrifying about this novel is the way it knits contemporary politics and power with a deep counter-history of human civilisation. We found the prose thrilling, the ideas exciting, the book as a whole a profound and irresistible page-turner." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner now Held by Anne Michaels What is Held about? A man returns from World War One and reunites with an artist, and when they reopen his photography business, he finds that ghosts of his past begin to show themselves in his pictures. What did the judges say about Held? "Appropriately for a novel about consciousness, it seems to alter and expand your state of mind. Reading it is a unique experience." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy Held by Anne Michaels now The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden What is The Safekeep about? It's 15 years after World War Two and Isabel is a creature of habit - but all of that is thrown in the air when her brother brings back his new girlfriend, Eva. Isabel soon becomes infuriated by Eva's behaviour, but a discovery throws all she thought she knew out of the window. What did the judges say about the Safekeep? "We loved this debut novel for its remarkable inhabitation of obsession. It navigates an emotional landscape of loss and return in an unforgettable way." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden now Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood What is Stone Yard Devotional about? A middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to her childhood home and live with a small religious community. But she receives three visitations plunge her into her past. What did the judges say about Stone Yard Devotional? "The novel thrilled and chilled the judges – it’s a book we can’t wait to put into the hands of readers." Find out more about the judges' comments by visiting the Booker Prize website. Buy Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood now Shop the shortlist below: Buy James by Percival Everett Buy Orbital by Samantha Harvey Buy Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner Buy Held by Anne Michaels Buy The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Buy Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Superworm Puzzle & Activity Book offer*!
Claim a copy of this Superworm Puzzle & Activity Book, with the 2021 Radio Times Christmas issue (p&p applies).
Superworm Puzzle and Activity Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler - this year's Radio Times Christmas issue book offer*! In anticipation of the Superworm animation coming to our screens this Christmas, we’re offering our Radio Times readers the opportunity to claim a copy of this Superworm Puzzle and Activity Book - full of striking illustrations and fun activities and puzzles inspired by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s book. This A4-sized glossy special edition is exclusive to RT and includes wordsearches, colouring in, dot-to-dots, a craft project to make a bug hotel, a butterfly cake recipe and even a two-page board game with cut out counters! Share photos of your Superworm book with us on social media using #ChristmasRadioTimes — we will post our favourites! HOW TO CLAIM THE BOOK Complete the coupon on page 47 of the Radio Times Christmas double issue (listings dated 18 - 31 December 2021), including payment details to cover £2.65 p&p*, and send to Radio Times Zog Book Offer, PO Box 12635, Colchester, CO7 5AN. Coupon must be received by Friday 17 December 2021 for the best chance of delivery by Christmas. Please note, there may be localised postal delays. *£2.65 p&p applies. Final closing date 31 January 2022. Terms and conditions The book is subject to availability and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis by postal redemption. Coupons must be received by 31 January 2022. Only one free book per coupon. Photocopied coupons are not accepted. Coupons are only redeemable against the promotional Superworm Puzzle and Activity Book as described in RT. Postal applications that arrive without a completed coupon will not be processed. Allow 28 days from the closing date for delivery. We cannot guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. Offer only available in the UK. Promoter Immediate Media Company London Ltd. Your personal information will be used as set out in our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed here.
30+ of the best audiobooks for kids to download now
Keeping the kids entertained is no mean feat - especially if they're stuck indoors. And if you find it hard to get them opening up a book, another way to introduce them to the magic of literature is via the audiobook. The best source of spoken-word storytelling is, of course, Audible, a service that puts literally thousands of children's classics, old and new, at your disposal. You can both pay for Audible titles as a one-off purchase, or else subscribe on a monthly basis (and you'll find there's a 30-day trial to take advantage of, too). To find out more about subscription costs, make sure you read our how does Audible work explainer. We've put together a list of our favourite kids audiobooks that you'll find on Audible. Many of these have even been narrated by the authors themselves - who better to tell a story that the person who wrote it? Others have been read by actors and other high-profile figures. Read on for our pick of the best audiobooks for kids on Audible - from Roald Dahl to Rudyard Kipling. For adult titles, you may also want to check out our articles on the best Audible audiobooks and best free Audible podcasts. Listen for less – Audible deals in the Prime Early Access sale From the 10th October until 18th December, you can get Audible for just £2.99 a month! For your money, you’ll get one monthly credit to spend on an audiobook of your choice, plus access to countless free audiobooks and podcasts. Whether you want classic literature, cracking comedy or true crime – there’s something for everyone. Get Audible for £2.99 per month — then £7.99 (auto renews) 30 of the best audiobooks for kids From Roald Dahl to Philip Pullman and Beatrix Potter to David Walliams, there's a story for every child or young adult. Here's our pick of the best books on Audible for kids. 1. The Restless Girls By: Jessie Burton Narrated by: Thandie Newton Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins Read by actress Thandie Newton, this feminist retelling of a well-known fairytale follows twelve princesses, whose mother's death in a car accident has far reaching consequences when their father, King Alberto, attempts to ensure his daughters' safety at all costs — costing them their freedom... Buy the audiobook for £5.24 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 2. George's Marvellous Medicine By: Roald Dahl Narrated by: Derek Jacobi Length: 1 hr and 35 mins Narrated by the acclaimed actor Derek Jacobi, Roald Dahl's hilarious and grizzly tale follows eight-year-old George, who decides to teach his grouchy grandmother a lesson by brewing up a very special potion just for her, using everyday ingredients from around the house — with explosive and unexpected results... Dahl's Matilda is also available on Audible, and is voiced by Oscar-winner Kate Winslet. Buy the audiobook for £15.25 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone By: J.K. Rowling Narrated by: Stephen Fry Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins No one reads Harry Potter aloud better than the beloved Stephen Fry. Kick things off where it all began, at Number 4 Privet Drive, where the odious Dursleys have a sneaking suspicion that their rather unusual (or, more accurately, magical) connections are about to catch up with them — but nothing can prepare them for the small bundle left on their doorstep one night... Buy the audiobook for £17.99 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Also available in the Harry Potter series: Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 4. The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories By: Rudyard Kipling Narrated by: Bill Bailey, Richard E. Grant, Colin Salmon, Tim McInnerny, Bernard Cribbins, Celia Imrie, Martin Shaw Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins This award-winning adaptation features an all-star cast that kids and adults alike will appreciate, with voices lent by Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant, Celia Imrie and Doctor Who's Bernard Cribbins, among others. The beloved tale follows Mowgli, a young human boy raised by wolves in the depths of the jungle. Buy the audiobook for £5.94 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 5. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls 2 By: Francesca Cavallo, Elena Favilli Narrated by: Alicia Keys, Ashley Judd, Danai Gurira, Janeane Garofalo, Phillipa Soo, Esperanza Spalding, Samira Wiley, Mozhan Marnò, Rowan Blanchard Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins With the all-star slate of narrators including the Alicia Keys and Hamilton's Phillipa Soo, this brilliant compilation is the sequel to the New York Times bestseller, and takes kids through 100 empowering stories. Buy the audiobook for £9.62 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 6. Noughts and Crosses By: Malorie Blackman Narrated by: Syan Blake, Paul Chequer Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins Malorie Blackman's bestselling dystopian young adult novel follows Sephy, a member of the ruling black class, the 'Crosses', and her childhood friend Callum, a 'Nought' and member of the white underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. Buy the audiobook for £19.33 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 7. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them By: J.K. Rowling, Newt Scamander Narrated by: Eddie Redmayne Length: 1 hr and 54 mins Narrated by none other than Newt Scamander (aka Eddie Redmayne) himself, discover the inspiration behind the hit Harry Potter spin-off film series, starring Redmayne. JK Rowling presents a complete guide to magical beasts, from manticores to phoenixes and unicorns. Buy the audiobook for £12 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 8. Zog By: Julia Donaldson Narrated by: Imelda Staunton Length: 28 mins If you know a child who enjoyed BBC One's animated adaptation of Zog, why not introduce them to Julia Donaldson's original? Harry Potter's Imelda Staunton (she played the sickly-sweet and secretly evil Dolores Umbridge in the franchise) narrates. Donaldson's best-known work, The Gruffalo, is also available on Audible, and is narrated again by Staunton. Buy the audiobook for £4.37 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 9. Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales By: Beatrix Potter Narrated by: Gary Bond, Michael Hordern, Rosemary Leach, Janet Maw Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, The Flopsy Bunnies, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin, Tom Kitten, Jeremy Fisher... Beatrix Potter's iconic animal characters are brought to life in this complete collection of her beloved children's tales, narrated by a range of talented readers, including Gary Bond. Buy the audiobook for £15.75 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 10. Winnie-the-Pooh: The Complete BBC collection By: A. A. Milne Narrated by: Alan Bennett Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins Alan Bennett narrates this compiled collection of A.A. Milne's iconic children's stories, following a bear with a taste for honey and who frequently gets himself into scrapes, along with his friends Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore and Owl — and not to mention their human friend, a boy called Christopher Robin. Buy the audiobook for £15.74 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 11. The Complete Chronicles of Narnia By: C. S. Lewis Narrated by: Maurice Denham, Full Cast Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins Radio 4's classic full-cast dramatisations are preserved here, as well-known actors including Fiona Shaw and Timothy Spall lend their voices to bring C.S. Lewis' classic books to life. From The Magician’s Nephew to Prince Caspian and, of course, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the collection is perfectly rendered for kids of all ages. Buy the audiobook for £28 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 12. How to Train Your Dragon By: Cressida Cowell Narrated by: David Tennant Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins Broadchurch and Doctor Who star David Tennant - who also voiced a character in the How to Train Your Dragon films - tells the story of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (otherwise known as Hiccup), the scrawny young Viking who defies all odds to become a feared dragon-trainer, 'The Dragon Whisperer' — with just a little help from his secret pet dragon... Buy the audiobook from £12.24 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 13. The Ice Monster By: David Walliams Narrated by: Jane Horrocks, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Serafinowicz, Nitin Ganatra, James Goode, David Walliams Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins Victorian London, and news arrives of a woolly mammoth found at the North Pole. Orphan Elsie is determined to see the 'ice monster' for herself, no matter what, and her journey takes her across London and all the way to the Arctic. Author David Walliams is joined by an ensemble cast. Buy the audiobook for £7.43 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 14. The Tales of Beedle the Bard By: J.K. Rowling Narrated by: Warwick Davis, Noma Dumezweni, Jason Isaacs, Jude Law, Evanna Lynch, Sally Mortemore, Bonnie Wright Length: 1 hour and 35 minutes This spin-off book from the Harry Potter universe consists of fairytales for wizarding children, including the story of the Deathly Hallows. The tales are narrated by stars of the films including Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood, Bonnie Wright (Ginnie Weasley) and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy). At least 90% of the proceeds from this book go to The Lumos Foundation which helps children out of institutions across the world. Buy the audiobook for £10.50 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 15. The World’s Worst Teachers By: David Walliams Narrated by: David Walliams Length: 2 hours and 51 minutes This collection of 10 stories tells of a whole host of terrible teachers, from ones who are half monster to those who are terrified of children. The book follows the popular World’s Worst Children collection from much-loved children’s author David Walliams and is sure to keep kids laughing. Buy the audiobook for £6.99 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Read the best David Walliams books here. 16. The Boy Who Grew Dragons By: Andy Shepherd Narrated by: Ewan Goddard Length: 3 hours and 8 minutes Tomas finds an usual tree at the bottom of his grandad's garden and can’t believe it when one of its fruit hatches into a real-life dragon, who he names Flicker. Tomas is just about figuring out how to look after his new friend when lots more dragons begin to hatch from the tree, too. Buy the audiobook for £13.12 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 17. Matilda By: Roald Dahl Narrated by: Kate Winslet Length: 4 hours and 18 minutes If kids haven’t already read the book, they’ll surely be familiar with Matilda from the film or even the stage play. A very clever child to not-so-clever parents in a school run by an evil headmistress, Matilda has a lot to deal with. Luckily, she has a friend in Miss Honey and some very special talents of her own. Buy the audiobook for £15.75 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 18. The Gruffalo By: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Narrated by: Imelda Staunton Length: 25 minutes The much-loved story of the Gruffalo has become a modern classic. It follows as mouse on a stroll through the woods as he comes face to face with a big hungry Gruffalo. This audio edition is read by Imelda Staunton, who kids will know best as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter Films. At 25 minutes long it’s not as long as most other tales, which might work better for younger children with a slightly shorter attention span. Buy the audiobook for £3.49 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 19. Northern Lights: His Dark Materials Trilogy By: Philip Pullman Narrated by: Philip Pullman Length: 10 hours and 45 minutes Philip Pullman’s trilogy won both the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award and His Dark Materials has since been made into a TV series on BBC One. In the first book, 12-year old Lyra sets off on a rescue adventure with the help of a bear, a daemon and a witch-queen. This edition is read by the author and the following two books in the series are also available as audio versions. Buy the audiobook for £17.23 Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Also available in the His Dark Materials trilogy: Book 2: The Subtle Knife Book 3: The Amber Spyglass 20. The Boy at the Back of the Class By: Onjali Q. Rauf Narrated by: Imogen Wilde Length: 5 hours and 4 minutes This heart-warming story follows a 9-year-old child and his friends who find a new boy called Ahmet has joined their class. Ahmet doesn’t talk and he doesn’t like sherbet lemons which all seems very unusual, Then, they learn that Ahmet is a refugee and the friends decide to hatch a plan. Buy the audiobook for £10.49 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 21. The Tiger Who Came to Tea By: Judith Kerr Narrated by: Geraldine McEwan Length: 9 minutes Judith Kerr’s much-loved children’s classic is available as an audiobook for bedtime listening or daytime fun. It’s another short one at only nine minutes long so it’s great for younger kids. In the story, a hungry tiger arrives at the door of Sophie and her mum, just as they are about to have their tea. Buy the audiobook for £1.74 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 22. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas By: John Boyne Narrated by: Michael Maloney Length: 4 hours and 55 minutes One of slightly older kids and a top pick for lessons in school, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells the story of a little German boy called Bruno during the Holocaust. They’ve moved to a strange house in the middle of nowhere, where Bruno makes friends with a little boy who lives on the other side of the chain fence. Shmuel is a little boy just like Bruno, except he always wears a pair of blue striped pyjamas. Buy the audiobook for £15.74 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 23. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief By: Rick Riordan Narrated by: Jesse Bernstein Length: 10 hours Percy Jackson thought he was just a normal kid, but it turns out he is the son of a Greek God which makes him a “half-blood” with special powers. Now, somebody has stolen a lightning bolt from the powerful god Zeus and Percy needs to try and find it before it’s too late. This one is the first in a whole series of Percy Jackson books which can also be listened to. Buy the audiobook for £22.74 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Also available in the Percy Jackson series: Book 2: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters Book 3: Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse Book 4: Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth Book 5: Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes 24. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory By: Roald Dahl Narrated by: Douglas Hodge Length: 3 hours and 17 minutes One of Roald Dahl’s most adored stories, Charlie and the Chocolate factory is known the world over and has been made and remade into Hollywood films. Charlie Bucket and his parents don’t have much money, so imagine his luck when he finds a coveted golden ticket in one of his scarcely afforded chocolate bars. The ticket means he gets to visit the curious chocolate maker Mr Willy Wonka and his fantastical factory. Buy the audiobook for £15.75 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 25. Room on the Broom By: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Narrated by: Josie Lawrence Length: 24 minutes As a witch flies along on her broom, she offers rides to helpful forest friends who retrieve the lost items she drops along the way. Then, the broom breaks and the friends tumble down to where a hungry dragon is roaming around. Buy the audiobook for £3.49 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 26. The Hunger Games By: Suzanne Collins Narrated by: Tatiana Maslany Length: 10 hours and 35 minutes The first in the now famous trilogy, The Hunger Games is set in a world where an elite Capitol is surrounded by 12 impoverished districts who must each offer a teenager as tribute. The tributes fight to the death on the live TV show, so when Katniss Everdeen hears her younger sister’s name announced for their district, she volunteers to fight in her place. Buy the audiobook for £15.74 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Book 2: Catching Fire Book 3: Mockingjay For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides. 27. Funny Bones: The Collection By: Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg Narrated by: Stephen Mangan Length: 35 minutes This audio book is a collection of charming tales from the friendly skeleton pals as they go about their night-time adventures. The edition includes The Pet Shop, Bumps in the Night and Dinosaur Dreams among other tales. Buy the audiobook for £10.49 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 28. Treasure Island By: Robert Louis Stevenson Narrated by: Sam Taylor Length: 6 hours and 44 minutes Originally written in the 1800s, this classic story from Robert Louis Stevenson is set in a world of buccaneers and buried treasure. The adventurous novel is a coming-of-age story which set the precedent for the fictionalised world of pirates as we know them today. Most of all, watch out for the infamous Long John Silver. Buy the audiobook for £0.78 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible 29. Disney: 365 Bedtime Stories By: Disney Press Narrated by: Greg Tremblay Length: 14 hours and 35 minutes One for every night of the year, this audio collection of 365 bedtime stories for children should have them drifting off in no time. The stories include all their favourite Disney characters like Toy Story’s Woody as he and his friends go camping plus Frozen’s Elsa, Anna and Olaf having a sleepover. Buy the audiobook for £29.92 from Amazon Free with a 30-day trial of Audible If your kids still can’t get enough of their favourite friends, the new Disney+ streaming service has all the classics available to stream instantly on any device. 30. The Highway Rat By: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Narrated by: Imelda Staunton Length: 29 minutes Another gripping story from favourite children’s duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, this tale follows a mischievous, horse-riding rat who rides along the highway stealing food. That is until he encounters a crafty duck. Buy the audiobook for £4.37 Free with a 30-day trial of Audible Ditch your headphones! Take a look at our best smart speaker pick to listen to these classics with your kids.
Why A Discovery of Witches had to make some big changes to the book for season 2
The second season of the Deborah Harkness adaptation goes in a few new directions – but they had the author’s blessing, says star Matthew Goode.
Sky original drama A Discovery of Witches has found success in bringing the smash-hit novels of author Deborah Harkness to the small screen, with the team at Bad Wolf Studios working closely with Harkness to help her tale of warring vampires, daemons and witches come to life. However, despite this close relationship the stars of the series have now revealed that some big changes from the text are in store for season two – with Harkness happily on board when it comes to the alterations. “They’re incredibly difficult books to adapt, so there are going to be people who are huge fans of the book that might be like I am, where you’re not disappointed but you’re like, ‘Why isn’t that in there?’” series star Matthew Goode, who plays vampire Matthew de Clairmont, told RadioTimes.com on the set of season two, when we visited in late 2019. “Obviously you have to make those changes and they can be occasionally quite broad. But we think we’ve made something so far that’s going to appease both sides. “It can be a difficult story to follow. So we’ve had to change the order of events. We now go to see my father first and then head on to see the emperor, as opposed to coming back and then… you know.” The biggest change, however, comes from the inclusion of a second timeline. As in Harkness’ book Shadow of Night, the story shifts in season two to 1590s England as Matthew and Diana “time-walk” into the past – but in a change to the text, season two also continues the present-day storylines alongside Matthew and Diana’s story. “We have massive modern threads,” Goode told us. “In the original – in the second book, it doesn’t go back to modern times. So we wanted people to know what was going on with those characters too.” Such a change could have been controversial – but to Harkness, it was an easy request to say yes to. After all, in her mind it was really just an extension of what she’d been planning to do anyway. “There’s definitely a contemporary storyline in the book too,” Harkness told RadioTimes.com during a streamed panel discussion for season two. “Those moments propel us towards series three, which was the purpose of them for me narratively. “But they were really kind of touchpoints that were related to an anomaly where the past had suddenly bumped up against the present. “Those were the places where the screenwriters had a lot more latitude, because it wasn’t on the page, to explain how we got from place to place.” In other words, season two is able to fill in the gaps of what happened to the present-day characters while Matthew and Diana were living in the past, getting them to the point where Harkness picked up with them again in her third book. For example, episode four of the new series takes place entirely in the present day, following Edmund Bluemel’s Marcus as he faces a new challenge. “Doing an adaptation is always a challenge, and tricky, because you have to stay within the bounds of what exists, right?” Harkness told us. “But what was great, I hoped, with the contemporary lines is that it did give them a bit more latitude to play and invent.” “It’s all under the guise of Deb Harkness, which is great,” Teresa Palmer, who plays witch Diana, told us. “And Deb, she gives suggestions to make sure the world works within [her vision]. “Man, it comes with its challenges, absolutely. But knowing that she’s steering this ship, it takes the pressure off, I think, because the fans really look to her to dictate how the story goes, and what’s included, and what’s not.” “Permissions have been sought,” Goode added. Overall, it sounds like the new series will just add more to the world that Harkness created – and might even bring some surprises for her most dedicated of fans. “Provided we still got from point a to point b to point c, how we got there was not established within the covers of Shadow of Night, which is the second book,” the author told us. And we’re sure that how will be a big draw for viewers as A Discovery of Witches turns time upside down for season two. Sky original drama A Discovery of Witches Series two is coming to Sky One and NOW TV on 8th January 2021, with all episodes available at once. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide.
Star Wars’ High Republic project will scratch your Jedi itch
The new spin-off books and comics kick off with Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi, which offers a compelling look at the galaxy’s great protectors.
While the Star Wars prequels may have had a bit of a critical reappraisal in recent years, it’s hard to argue that their depiction of the Jedi isn’t still pretty disappointing. After decades of teases and hints, the prequels were supposed to show us what the Jedi Order was really capable of, revealing the platonic ideal that Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker was trying to revive – but instead fans were greeted by a band of chin-stroking, officious monks whose only real role in the story was to foreshadow their own demise. Not quite the heroic pacifists most were hoping for – and as the sequel movies showed Luke’s plans to restore the Jedi crumble, fans would be forgiven for giving up on seeing “real” Jedi after all. Still, in recent years projects like the Clone Wars animated series and various video games have filled in the blanks a little more for what the Order was and could be again – and now a new multimedia project from LucasFilm, dubbed The High Republic, finally threads the needle to give us the version of the Jedi Knights fans had been hoping for. Or at least it does based on Charles Soule’s first book for the spin-off project, titled Light of the Jedi. Set hundreds of years before the events of The Phantom Menace when the Jedi were at the height of their powers and the Sith were all but eradicated, the book creates a more positive, forward-thinking universe – almost Star Trek like – where the needs of the many definitely outweigh the needs of the few. And from the start, Soule’s book really leans into the idealised vision of the Jedi plenty of fans would have once imagined. After a series of chapters filled with death and destruction (this book has quite a lot of death, be warned) the Jedi burst onto the scene characterised explicitly as “hope”, wearing stunning white robes (a ceremonial uniform they happened to be wearing at a nearby event) that presents them as an even more romanticised version of themselves. Heroic and self-sacrificial, these Jedi save lives, work against impossible odds and perform incredible feats with the Force (no spoilers, but one triumph is particularly notable) as they try to navigate a near-cataclysmic event – the sort of deep-space disaster that requires more subtle saves than decapitating a few battle droids with a lightsaber. View oEmbed on the source website Later, as the book continues we see Jedi engaged in other adventures, battling to save kidnapped settlers on the galactic frontier (in what feels a little like an episode of Firefly, in a good way) while their fellows continue to investigate a shadowy conspiracy. While you’d be forgiven for struggling to keep all the new Jedi characters in your mind’s eye at once – Avar Kriss, Te-Ami, Bell, Sskeer, Jora Malli, Elzar and Loden Greatstorm to name but a few – they’re united in their commitment and belief in the Republic and the Jedi Order, and their desire to protect innocents. They may have some minor philosophical differences – how much or how best to use the Force, the Jedi’s role in interplanetary conflict and so on – but they’re more like the disagreements of colleagues, rather than the ritualised shame and doubt cast on various characters in the Star Wars prequels. Really it’s a fun book that created a version of the Jedi I want to hear more about – and even if I do know it’ll all come crashing down eventually when Anakin Skywalker wanders into the Coruscant Temple, it’s still an intriguing world to explore. From the sounds of it, the High Republic – which officially spans books, comics and magazines, and is rumoured to have an animated series in the pipeline – is just getting started. And to slightly paraphrase its official tagline, the Jedi are already lighting the way for it to be one of the more engaging Star Wars projects in recent years. Star Wars: The High Republic books Light of the Jedi and A Test of Courage are on sale now. Want something to watch? Check out our full TV Guide.
My Fantasy Bookshelf: Sandi Toksvig shares the books which influenced her life and career
The writer and presenter shares her top reads as her latest book hits the shelves.
Sandi Toksvig is a comedian, novelist, actor, broadcaster, activist and, of course, bonafide national treasure. You’ve likely seen her presenting QI or, until the current series, in the famous Bake Off tent alongside Noel Fielding. Her latest book, Toksvig’s Almanac 2021, is a collection of remarkable women of history, from pirate nuns to astronauts. She is also preparing for a tour of her one-woman show The National Trevor, in Spring next year. Here, Sandi Toksvig shares some of the books which have inspired her varied career and chooses the top titles to line up on her Fantasy Bookshelf. She shares the next book on her reading list, how her father’s work inspired her own writing and a career highlight voicing Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger. What was your favourite book growing up? Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. At last here was a girl in literature who I could identify with. Determined, independent and given to observing the world. It gave me hope that I was not alone. If you could give one book to every child to read, what would it be? There are so many but definitely The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. It is the most wonderful princess and dragon story with complete role reversal. Also, I quite fancy wearing a paper bag. Who has inspired your own writing? My father inspired me. He wrote books but also journalism which is how I learned to write to a deadline. He wrote a book called Edited Reality about how hard it is to distil what is happening in the world into bite-sized chunks. He was concerned about the duty of the honest journalist to inform without trying to persuade. Is there anything you’ve read which has influenced your outlook on your career? Emily Dickinson’s poem I am Nobody had a huge effect on how I view being in the public eye. It is about the absurdity of fame and has been a guiding light in a celebrity obsessed world. If you could go back in time and convince the author of a book to change one event in their story, what would it be? Why oh why couldn’t Dr Zhivago have a happy ending? Spoiler alert but the last sentence tells us that Lara is "forgotten as a nameless number on a list which was later mislaid, in one of the innumerable mixed or women's concentration camps in the north." I mean it’s a heck of a big read to end on that horror. Who would be your dream character to narrate in an audiobook? I played Tigger once in a Winnie the Pooh audio drama and I’m not sure I will ever do better. Are there any stories you wish there were more books about? I would love there to be a wider range of general literature where lesbians are just characters and not serial killers or mad or both. Which book has taught you the most or made you think about something differently? Weirdly The Ashley Book of Knots had a huge impact on me. It is an encyclopaedia of knots which took eleven years to write and has thousands of illustrations of what can be done with a piece of rope. It made me think about the making of all things – food, writing, decisions – first consider what you want to create and then take the time to find the pattern which achieves that. The same piece of rope can result in a multitude of outcomes. What is the best reading recommendation you’ve ever been given? Janet and John by Mabel O'Donnell and Rona Munro. The best because these were the books which taught me to read although I never really felt Janet came to the fore as fully rounded a character as John. What’s next on your reading list? Paris: The Secret History by Andrew Hussey. It’s one of several books about Parisian history which I am reading for a new project. Mostly I read factual research for one work assignment or another. Sadly I mostly lack the time for fiction. Sandi’s new book Toksvig’s Almanac 2021 is out now and she will be touring the UK in spring 2021 with The National Trevor tour. For details of the book and tour visit www.sanditoksvig.com Read Sandi Toksvig’s Fantasy Bookshelf Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh Buy the book The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch Buy the book The Edited Reality by Claus Toksvig Hope is the Thing with Feathers: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson Buy the book Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne Buy the book Listen to the audio book (featuring Sandi Toksvig as Tigger) The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Warren Ashley Buy the book Janet and John by Mabel O'Donnell and Rona Munro Buy the book Paris: The Secret History by Andrew Hussey Buy the book
My Fantasy Bookshelf: Ben Miller shares the books which influenced his life and career
The Bridgerton actor shares his top reads ahead of the release of his new book and latest Netflix series.
You might know actor, comedian and author Ben Miller as Agent Bough, the long-suffering side-kick to Rowan Atkinson’s Johnny English, as one half of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller (with Alexander Armstrong) or as the original lead detective on Death in Paradise. His latest role is in Bridgerton, the Netflix period drama which has been binge-watched across the nation, and his new book for children, The Day I Fell into a Fairytale, recently hit the shelves. Below, Miller discusses the titles which have influenced his own writing and comedic career, selecting the books he’d line up on his Fantasy Bookshelf. Miller shares the childhood book he reads to his own children, his dream role as an unhelpful caterpillar and explains why he’s more like Huckleberry Finn (with ill-fitting swimming shorts) than master detective Sherlock Holmes. Which books inspired your career in comedy acting? I read a lot of Dickens growing up, and it's had a huge influence on me. The idea that names alone can be funny: that language and character and situation can have you in stitches, before you even add so much as a gag. I love the later, socially-conscious novels, but for pure fun you can’t do much better than The Pickwick Papers. If you could star as a character from any book, which would it be? My daughter Lana’s favourite book is Alice in Wonderland, so I’d like to be in that, please. The caterpillar would be my first choice. Sitting on a mushroom, smoking a hookah, and being of no help to Alice whatsoever is safely ‘in my wheelhouse,’ as they say in Hollywood. Which character do you see yourself in? Huckleberry Finn. In real life I’m a bit of a daydreamer, and Huck was the character I really identified with in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. When Huck ran away and had an adventure of his own in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I felt like it was happening to me. But then that’s the brilliance of Mark Twain; it’s all so natural it doesn’t feel like writing at all. Which character do you wish you could be more like? Sherlock Holmes. Who doesn’t? To have that tidy a “brain-attic” that you can instantly access any piece of knowledge. Mine is more like my bedroom floor: piled high with unfinished stories, half-remembered facts and badly-fitting swimming shorts I bought online and forgot to send back. What is your favourite quote? It's from The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery; "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the naked eye." There are children's books that you must keep reading as an adult and The Little Prince is one of them. What was your favourite book in childhood? It would have to be King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. It weaves all the magical stories of Arthurian legend into one glorious arc: the sword in the stone, Lancelot and Guinevere, and Gawain and the Green Knight. My father used to read it to me at bedtime, right up until I was a teenager, and I’ve kept the torch burning by reading it to my kids too. Your new book, The Day I Fell into a Fairytale is now out in hardback. Which stories inspired your own writing? Every time I sit down to write a new children’s book, I get my eye in with a bit of AA Milne. Every soft toy living in the Hundred Acre Wood is effortlessly drawn: even the punctuation is funny. The problem is the writing is so nailed down there’s nothing to steal. But then, who cares? At least I get to read a bit of Winnie-The-Pooh. Is there a piece of reading which has had an impact on your life? My friend Jez Butterworth once gave me a change of address card by a young man called Alexander Armstrong. It was a sort of shaggy dog-poem, where the last line sounded out his address. That didn’t turn out too badly. What was the last book you read and would you read it again? I just finished Serpentine by Philip Pullman, and yes, I would definitely read it again. It’s quite short, beautifully illustrated, and deliciously atmospheric. We get a glimpse of Lyra in between His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust, as she works a few issues through with Pantalaimon, her daemon. As you do. It made me think I’m not nearly thoughtful enough as a writer, but then just as we can’t all be AA Milne, we can’t all be Phillip Pullman either. What’s next on your reading list? Next on my list is The White Ship by Charles Spencer. In fact I’ve got it sitting next to me as I write. It’s the true story of an extraordinary shipwreck that took place off the coast of Normandy in 1120, when Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, lost his only legitimate son, his treasure, and two hundred of his court. As a direct result, England plunged into anarchy. Can’t wait. Ben Miller’s book for children of all ages, The Day I Fell into a Fairytale, is out now in hardback. New period drama Bridgerton is streaming now on Netflix. Buy Ben Miller's Fantasy Bookshelf The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery (translated by Irene Testot-Ferry) Buy the book Listen to the audiobook King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green Buy the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Serpentine by Philip Pullman Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Day I Fell into a Fairytale by Ben Miller Buy the book Listen to the audiobook
My Fantasy Bookshelf: Ben Aldridge shares the books which influenced his life and career
The Fleabag and Our Girl actor opens up about his favourite reads.
Ben Aldridge is an actor known for his roles in BBC One’s army series Our Girl and Phoebe-Waller Bridge’s Fleabag. He now stars in the Batman prequel Pennyworth, playing Thomas Wayne, the man who will one day become Bruce Wayne’s father. Below, the actor discusses the much loved books he’d choose to line up on his Fantasy Bookshelf. Aldridge shares the title he can’t wait to read next, the character he’d most like to play on screen and explains how he tried to get out of reading at school. What's the best reading recommendation you've ever been given? A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. That was recommended to me and it's one of my favourite books. Is there a book which stands out in your memory from your childhood? I didn't really read when I was younger, I pretended to read all the time. We had to read for 10 minutes every day at school and I used to act as if I was reading really convincingly. I remember my mum reading a book called The Very Worried Sparrow a lot and that was about a sparrow that was basically scared to do everything. I think it's because she had to give me a little bit of an extra push to do things. In The Very Worried Sparrow he eventually plucks up the courage to fly. If you could tell everyone in the world to read just one book, which would you choose? The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz. He's a therapist and each chapter is a client of his. It was the first time I'd really read about the benefits and intricacies of therapy. It's really satisfying to read because each chapter opens with the client and their issue. Then by the end of the chapter [Grosz] has cracked the problem and the person's life has improved. It’s an interesting insight into that world inside a therapist's room. If you could narrate the voice of any character in an audiobook, who would it be? I wanted to do the audiobook for Lie with Me by Philippe Besson but it was already taken. It’s this queer love story between two teenage boys in France. One of them is an adult, reflecting back and finding out about where the other man is now because they never managed to make their love work. It’s just a really beautiful and painful book. Is there anything you’ve read which has taught you something? I've just read a book called How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones, which is a memoir. It’s him detailing his life growing up in America as a black, queer man and it opened up my perspective on those things. It's also just a brilliant book and I'd recommend it to anyone. He's a really talented writer. Is there a character that you can see yourself in or becoming like? Anyone you play, even though a character might be transformative, it has to exist within you somewhere. Acting is like turning the volume up and down on parts of you. Your only resource to play that character is yourself or your imagination, so it's all there already. If you could star in an adaptation as any character next, who would it be? It would be A Little Life again. I would love to play either Jude or Willem. What have you been reading during lockdown? I read a book called Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. It’s his debut novel and I loved it, I couldn't get enough of it. I got a little bit obsessed. It's a queer love story in communist Poland, which is a country and era that I didn't know very much about, and it's this really beautiful, forbidden love story between two men. What’s next on your reading list? A friend of mine just gave me a book called Staring at the Sun by Irvin D. Yalom. It sounds really intense. It's about reckoning death and the fact that we all know that's where we're headed and how much it affects our living lives. Pennyworth: The Complete First Season is now available on Blu-ray and DVD Read Ben Aldridge’s Fantasy Bookshelf A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Very Worried Sparrow by Meryl Doney Buy the book The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Lie with Me by Philippe Besson Buy the book Listen to the audiobook How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Staring at The Sun: Overcoming the Dread of Death by Irvin D. Yalom Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Swimming in The Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski Buy the book Listen to the audiobook If you’re looking for more inspiration, we’ve also got lists of the best audiobooks on Audible and the best audiobooks for kids.
The Booker Prize longlist 2020 announced - here's who made the list
13 books have been longlisted for the prestigious award.
One of the most prestigious awards in the literary world, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction has announced its longlist for 2020. Known as the “Booker Dozen”, the list of 13 titles was selected by an expert panel of judges, chaired by Margaret Busby. Later in the year a shortlist will be drawn up from the total 13 before an overall winner is selected. Last year’s prize was awarded jointly to Margaret Atwood for her The Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments and Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. To be considered for the prize, a novel must be written in English and published in the UK or Ireland, although the author can be any nationality. This year’s candidates were chosen from 162 titles published between 1st October 2019 and 20th September 2020. The 2020 longlist includes historical fiction writer Dame Hilary Mantel, who previously won the Booker Prize twice, for Wolf Hall in 2009 and Bring Up the Bodies in 2012. Man Booker Prize longlist 2020 The New Wilderness - Diane Cook Buy now This Mournable Body - Tsitsi Dangarembga Buy now Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi Buy now Who They Was - Gabriel Krauze Buy now The Mirror & The Light - Hilary Mantel Buy now Apeirogon - Colum McCann Buy now The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste Buy now Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid Buy now Real Life - Brandon Taylor Buy now Redhead by The Side of The Road - Anne Tyler Buy now Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart Buy now Love and Other Thought Experiments - Sophie Ward Buy now How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang Buy now If you're looking for more reading inspiration, we've got a list of the best audiobooks, best non-fiction audiobooks and best audiobooks for kids.
My Fantasy Bookshelf: Richard Herring shares the books which influenced his life and career
The comedian shares his favourite and most significant reads.
Richard Herring is a comedian, writer and podcaster and the creator of BBC Radio 4's comedy drama Relativity. Here, Herring shares the significant books which have influenced his life and career and earn a place on his Fantasy Bookshelf. The comedian explains his parents’ disappointment in his early literary choices, the characters he most identifies with and why he should never be trusted with a chocolate factory. If you could only save one book in the world, which would it be? The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson. We might as well let the future aliens know we were funny. As a child, which character would you say you were most similar to? I think there was a little bit of Piggy from Lord of the Flies in there. Luckily I didn’t get stuck on an island with a load of public school boys, so I survived. Your comedy drama Relativity draws on your own family. Was there anything you were inspired to read because of their influence? My parents had lots of books and always wanted me to read as much as possible. They were disappointed when I bought Peanuts books with my book tokens. My dad always wanted to read Swallows and Amazons to me and my siblings, but we didn’t like it as much as him. I was a reluctant reader and pretended to have read every Doctor Doolittle book when I’d maybe made it through three. My parents still battled to get books into my hands though. Which book has taught you the most? Kurt Vonnegut’s books are so full of wit and wisdom and a disregard for the conventions of the novel. I think he is the greatest writer of all time and his jokes are top rate. His love of and fears for humanity despite our evils and faults are wonderful. What was the last book you couldn’t put down? The Real Great Escape by Guy Walters is a fabulous and fascinating, honest appraisal of the story we think we know so well. What’s the next audiobook you can't wait to listen to? Adam Buxton’s Ramble Book. He’s one of the funniest men in the world and also one of the nicest. His comedic invention and honesty both dazzle me and I can’t wait to find out how he became the admittedly small man that he is. Which book would you most like to see adapted for screen or radio next? Limmy’s autobiography Surprisingly Down to Earth and Very Funny. He is a unique voice and a comedy genius but his story of his battles with depression and drink is moving and extraordinary. Too many writers come from the same basic background but Limmy is a one-off. Can you think of a book which inspired your own writing, particularly comedy? Jonathan Ames' What’s Not To Love? showed me how you can write about your deep secrets honestly and with wit and make them universal, even when they are away from the supposed norm. If you could claim to be the author of any book, which would you choose? I’d love to pretend that I was Margaret Atwood. She’s the greatest living writer and I fear that nearly all her predictions for the near future are going to come true. Let’s say it was me who wrote Oryx and Crake. Which character from a book can you see yourself in? Willy Wonka. Don’t ever give me a chocolate factory or I will use it to torture bad children. The third series of Richard Herring’s Relativity is on BBC Radio 4, Fridays at 11:30am and runs until 21st August. Available to listen to on catch up for 30 days after transmission on BBC Sounds. Read Richard Herring’s Fantasy Bookshelf The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson Buy the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding Buy the book Listen to the audiobook The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964 Buy the book Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome Buy the book (that Richard’s dad wanted him to like) Listen to the audiobook Doctor Doolittle (The Complete Collection) by Hugh Lofting Buy the book (that Richard pretended he’d read) Listen to the audiobook Kurt Vonnegut Complete Stories by Kurt Vonnegut Buy the book The Real Great Escape by Guy Walters Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Ramble Book by Adam Buxton Listen to the audiobook Surprisingly Down to Earth, and Very Funny: My Autobiography, by Limmy Buy the book Listen to the audiobook What’s Not to Love? by Jonathan Ames Buy the book Listen to the audiobook Oryx And Crake by Margret Atwood Read the book Listen to the audiobook Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl Read the book Listen to the audiobook If you're looking for more inspiration, we've also got lists of the best audiobooks on Audible and the best audiobooks for kids.
Samira Wiley narrates new The Color Purple audiobook
The Handmaid's Tale star narrates the classic novel for Audible
Samira Wiley, Emmy Award-winning actress of The Handmaid’s Tale and Orange is the New Black, is narrating The Color Purple by Alice Walker for Amazon’s Audible audiobook service. The Pulitzer Prize winning novel has sold millions of copies worldwide and been adapted into an Oscar-nominated film (starring Whoopi Goldberg) and a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Now, Samira Wiley has narrated an audiobook release of the title which is available to stream and download now on Audible. Sign up to Audible 30 day free trial The acclaimed novel primarily follows Celie, a young African-American woman in the early 1900s as she encounters abuse and oppression in Georgia, United States. The story is told via a series of letters which Celie writes to God throughout her life. Samira Wiley brings the words from the page in her narration of the story, which includes an author’s introduction, written in honour of the book’s 25th anniversary. To listen to the The Color Purple, you can access the audiobook from your Audible account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial. Wiley is no stranger to the narration world as she previously narrated the Netflix documentary Night on Earth and was nominated for Best Female Lead Vocal performance for her part in The Walking Dead video game. Sign up to Audible 30 day free trial You can also read the original novel, The Color Purple which is available to buy on Amazon. Find something to watch tonight with our TV Guide
Hobbit star Richard Armitage to narrate Chekhov audiobook collection
The actor will narrate a collection of six stories for Audible.
Richard Armitage, star of the The Hobbit and Neflix’s The Stranger, will narrate The Chekhov Collection of Short Stories for Amazon’s audiobook service, Audible, released on 11th June. The collection will include six short stories written by the celebrated Russian writer Anton Chekhov, best known for writing plays such as The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. Due to the lockdown, Armitage was unable to record the audiobook in a studio, as would normally be the case. Instead, the actor set himself up to record from home, as he explains in the below video: View Green Video on the source website While preparing to perform in Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London this year, Richard Armitage read some of Chekhov’s short stories for the first time. “In his short stories Chekhov really exposes something in himself; he lets you into his heart and his mind a little bit more,” said Armitage. The actor helped select six of the stories for the Audible collection which will be available to stream and download from the service from 11th June this year. “We picked a selection of stories that I felt was quite relevant to who he was, what I was looking for, and the times we’re living in right now,” Armitage said. Which stories are included in the Chekhov collection? Ward 6 - a patient in an asylum comes into conflict with a director of the institution. The Kiss - a man becomes infatuated by a woman who accidentally kisses him in the dark during a party. Betrothed - a young woman strives to asset her independence by choosing education over an arranged marriage. The Black Monk - an ageing scholar experiences strange hallucinations, but is her a genius or is he losing his mind? Neighbours - a beautiful young woman subverts society expectations by going to live with her neighbour, an older married man. The Student - a depressed young student has his spirits lifted by recounting a religious story to two strangers. Also included in the collection, is an introduction from Richard Armitage discussing his research for his own Chekhov role, where he first encountered the stories selected for this collection. To listen to the The Chekhov Collection of Short Stories, you can access the audiobook from your Audible account to stream as soon as it is released. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial. The Chekhov stories are far from Armitage’s first to narrate, with the actor even being awarded Audiobook of the Year for his narration of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 2014. Also narrated by The Stranger star are Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, Joy Ellis’ Jackman and Evan series and The Monster Collection, which includes classics like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sign up for a free 30 day Audible trial Anton Chekhov's short stories are also available to read and buy on Amazon. Ward 6, The Black Monk and The Student are included in Ward No. 6 and Other Stories and you can read more in The Complete Short Novels, About Love and Other Stories and Forty Stories. Find something to watch tonight with our TV Guide
Doctor Who: David Tennant’s Doctor takes on death itself in new Time Lord Victorious books
The first steps in the multi-platform story have been revealed.
The first entries in Doctor Who’s mysterious multi-platform Time Lord Victorious project have been revealed, with BBC Books announcing two new novels which will star David Tennant’s Doctor, playing off themes explored in the actor's last year in the role. In the first book, titled Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead and written by Steve Cole, the Tenth Doctor travels back to the Dark Times of the universe to try and prevent death from ever becoming part of life. In the second, called All Flesh is Grass (and written by Una McCormack) the story deals with the fallout from his actions, with the Doctor coming into contact with his past selves (specifically Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor and Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth) as people around him keep dying. The two books are set to be released on the 1st of October and 10th of December respectively, and you can read short plot summaries of each below. Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead by Steve Cole “We live forever, barring accidents. Just like everyone else in the universe.” The Doctor travels back to the Dark Times, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known... Then come the Kotturuh – creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality. They judge each and every species and decree its allotted time to live. For the first time, living things know the fear of ending. And they will go to any lengths to escape this grim new spectre, death. The Doctor is an old hand at cheating death. Now, at last, he can stop it at source. He is coming for the Kotturuh, ready to change everything so that life wins from the start. Not just the last of the Time Lords. The Time Lord Victorious. Doctor Who: All Flesh is Grass by Una McCormack “Even a Time Lord can’t change the past.” A wasteland. A dead world… No, there is a biodome rising from the ashes. Here, life teems and flourishes, with strange, lush plants and many-winged insects with bright carapaces – and one solitary sentient creature, who spends its days talking to the insects and tending this lonely garden. This is Inyit, the Last of the Kotturuh. In All Flesh is Grass we are transported back to The Dark Times. The Tenth Doctor has sworn to stop the Kotturuh, ending death and bringing life to the universe. But his plan is unravelling – instead of bringing life, nothing has changed and all around him people are dying. Death is everywhere. Now he must confront his former selves – one in league with their greatest nemesis and the other manning a ship of the undead… View oEmbed on the source website So far it’s unclear exactly how this massive Time Lord Victorious story will spool out, with more entries expected in the realms of audio drama, Virtual Reality gaming, comics and more – but clearly, it’s already off to an intriguing start. Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead and Doctor Who: All Flesh is Grass cost £9.99, and are available for pre-order here and here
The author's most popular books for every age
Although most adults will associate David Walliams with his comedy sketch show Little Britain or as a judge on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, most kids will know him as one of their favourite children's authors. Walliams' first novel was the heart-warming story of Dennis, aka The Boy in The Dress, and he has since gone on to write a long list of other children’s books over the past decade. The author’s inventive and charming characters have won over both kids and parents with touching stories; Jack goes on adventures with his usually forgetful Grandpa, Ben takes on a jewel heist with his Granny and Joe is a boy who has all the money in the world but doesn't have any friends... What age are David Walliams' books suitable for? The majority of David Walliams’ children's books are written for kids aged eight and older. The author has also penned picture books such as The First Hippo on the Moon and Boogie Bear which are suitable for children from age three. 10 of the best David Walliams books We’ve pulled together a selection of some of David Walliams’ most popular books and characters below, from tales of terrible children to stories of evil dentists. 1. Gansta Granny Ben thinks his grandma is really boring but what he doesn’t know is that she used to be a jewel thief. With Ben’s help, she wants to return to her life of crime and plot to steal the Crown Jewels. Buy Gangsta Granny on Amazon 2. Ratburger Zoe thought it was bad enough to having to put up with a lazy step-mum at home and a mean bully picking on her at school. Now, evil Burt from Burt’s Burgers has decided to come after Zoe’s pet rat and make him into a burger. Buy Ratburger on Amazon 3. The Boy in the Dress This was David Walliams’ much-loved first book which originally came out in 2008. The Boy in the Dress has since been adapted into a TV film and musical. The story follows Dennis who decides to wear a dress, even though he’s a boy. Buy The Boy in the Dress on Amazon 4. The World’s Worst Children The first of three bumper books in the Worst Children series. The novel features 10 truly terrible children; there's a girl who watch so much TV she's turning into a sofa and a boy who dribbles and drools all over the place. Buy The World's Worst Children on Amazon 5. Grandpa's Great Escape Jack’s grandpa makes strange food and shuffles around in his slippers. He’s also become very forgetful, sometimes he doesn’t even remember Jack’s name. But put Grandpa in a Spitfire plane and he’ll be off on an adventure in no time. Buy Grandpa's Great Escape on Amazon 6. The Bear Who Went Boo This picture book is great for younger kids from age three. The story is set in a cold and snowy land, where there lives a naughty polar bear who just loves to shout boo. Buy The Bear Who Went Boo on Amazon 7. Billionaire Boy Twelve-year-old Joe is so rich he has a private bowling and a orangutan for a butler. But there’s only one thing Joe really wants and it’s something all the money in the world can’t buy – friends. Buy Billionaire Boy on Amazon 8. Mr. Stink Chloe hasn’t spoken to Mr Stink even though she sees him every day, because he stinks. He stinks very much. Then, she finds him hiding in the shed at the bottom of her garden. Buy Mr. Stink on Amazon 9. Demon Dentist There’s something evil lurking in the town at night. Instead of coins being found under children’s’ pillows where they left their fallen teeth, there are creepy crawlies and slugs instead. Evil is at work. But who or what is behind it…? Buy Demon Dentist on Amazon 10. There’s a Snake in My School Another picture book for younger children, this one tells the story of Miranda who is determined to bring a snake into school, no matter what the headmistress thinks. Buy There's a Snake in My School on Amazon For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides. How many books has David Walliams written? David Walliams has written 26 books for children. Eight of Walliams' books are picture books written for younger children, including The Queen's Orang-un which was written in support of Comic Relief. Complete list of all David Walliam’s kids’ books The Creature Choir – buy now The Beast of Buckingham Palace – buy now The World's Worst Teachers – buy now Fing – buy now Geronimo – buy now The Ice Monster – buy now The World of David Walliams: Book of Stuff – buy now Boogie Bear – buy now Bad Dad – buy now The World’s Worst Children – buy now The World's Worst Children 2 – buy now The World's Worst Children 3 – buy now The Midnight Gang – buy now There's a Snake in my School! – buy now Grandpa's Great Escape – buy now Awful Auntie – buy now Billionaire Boy – buy now The Boy in the Dress – buy now Demon Dentist – buy now Gangsta Granny – buy now Mr Stink – buy now Ratburger – buy now The Bear who went Boo! – buy now The First Hippo on the Moon – buy now The Slightly Annoying Elephant – buy now The Queen's Orang-utan – buy now.
New BBC book to celebrate the women of Doctor Who
Featuring illustrated, inspirational tales about inspirational women from the show - and beyond...
Ahead of the launch of the first female-led series of Doctor Who, the BBC is to release a book celebrating the women of the show across its 50+ year run. 7 secrets and surprises we noticed in the new Doctor Who trailer Doctor Who: Everything we know about Jodie Whittaker’s new Doctor When is Doctor Who back on TV? Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived, an illustrated collection of inspirational tales about the show's female characters and historical figures, will be the first official book released to accompany the series, and it is set to arrive in September. It is written by Christel Dee, a former presenter of Doctor Who: The Fan Show, and Simon Guerrier (author of previous DW books The Time Travellers, The Pirate Loop and The Slitheen Excursion). View oEmbed on the source website According to a release from the BBC, it will feature 75 tales about the women of the Whoniverse. "From historical figures such as Agatha Christie and Queen Victoria to fan favourites like Bill Potts and River Song, each woman has made a unique contribution to the world of Doctor Who," the statement reads. "Whether they’re facing down Daleks or thwarting a Nestene invasion, these women don’t hang around waiting to be rescued – they roll their sleeves up and get stuck in." Check out a picture from the book, featuring Billie Piper's Rose Tyler, below. Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived: Amazing Tales for Future Time Lords is published on 27th September in hardback, priced £16.99 by BBC Books Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter
Books 'have played a huge role in my life': actress Emily Mortimer on the power of literature
Emily Mortimer, star of upcoming film The Bookshop alongside Bill Nighy, discusses her love of all things literary
Emily Mortimer has something to confess. “I’ve been talking so glowingly about the role of books in my life, but my biggest treat is to read crappy, terrible magazines... but then I feel disgusted by myself!” It’s an unlikely revelation from Mortimer, considering her latest role is playing Florence Green in The Bookshop (in cinemas from Friday 29th June). The film is based on the 1978 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, in which a woman’s decision to open a bookshop stirs up tensions in a coastal town in 1950s England. When is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald released? "I want my books to be hopeful, because that's what life is like": author and cancer survivor Ruth Hogan on the "up lit" book trend Sign for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter View oEmbed on the source website But Mortimer clearly has much in common with Florence – her admission comes in the midst of an enthusiastic near-sermon about books, which, she says, “have played a huge role in my life... the times when they’ve been more present I think of as the happy times”. If anything, Mortimer’s done a little too much reading; she grew up in a bookish household (her father was Rumpole of the Bailey author John Mortimer) and went on to study English and Russian literature at Oxford. “Reading still sometimes feels a bit like homework,” she says. Watch the trailer for The Bookshop, starring Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy View oEmbed on the source website Like Florence, Mortimer is emphatic about the power of books: “There’s this moral certainty right now that I find really scary,” she says. “But books are where the grey areas of life are examined, which is so important.” Mortimer calls books “the spoils of your life”, and hers are to be found in the Brooklyn home she shares with her husband, actor Alessandro Nivola, and their two children, Samuel and May. Has she ever pictured her own book on those shelves? After all, she co-wrote Doll & Em, the comedy TV series she devised and starred in with her childhood friend Dolly Wells. But Mortimer is unsure. “Writing a novel feels scary... but maybe! I do find writing very cathartic. It’s so hard to sort your way through what you think and feel, and by writing things down you magically manage to get a bit of clarity.” The Bookshop hits UK cinemas on Friday 29th June Sign for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter
"I want my books to be hopeful, because that's what life is like": author and cancer survivor Ruth Hogan on the "up lit" book trend
"I don’t want to be the author who had cancer, but I did have cancer. The kindness I had from people was amazing”
Ruth Hogan is showing me around the cemetery in her home town of Bedford. She points out memorials to soldiers and missionaries, and the statue she has nicknamed “Angel Cate” – an image of which adorns the cover of her new novel, The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes. This walk could be slightly morbid, but Hogan, tall, vivacious, with a blonde quiff, is one of the most life-enhancing people you could meet. She often solves “knotty problems” in her novels while walking her two rescue dogs in the cemetery. “If you confront death openly, I think you enjoy your life more,” she says. View oEmbed on the source website Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter What do we know about the real-life Durrells and their adventures in Corfu? The Durrells: Who was the real Great Aunt Hermione? Hogan, whose first novel, The Keeper of Lost Things, won the 2017 Richard and Judy Autumn Book Club Readers’ Award, is one of the new stars of “up lit” – the book trend with kindness at its core, where everyday acts of heroism, human connection and love are celebrated. In a year that has already seen a lot of political upheaval, it’s perhaps not surprising that readers are drawn to stories with an unashamedly optimistic message. But “up lit” isn’t slushy or sentimental. Hogan’s novels tackle depression, loneliness and dementia – but you will also find in them resilience and redemption. Other “up lit” bestsellers include Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, about a young woman who learns to survive, and Joanna Cannon’s Three Things about Elsie, where the 84-year-old heroine was inspired by patients Cannon met as an NHS psychiatrist. In Hogan’s new novel, the lead character, Masha, spends her life in graveyards and swimming in a freezing cold lido, punishing herself for the death of her son. But as she meets a cast of eccentrics – including Sally, a 70-something opera singer – she begins to live again. It is, Hogan explains, about “finding joy in the smallest things”. Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter After studying English and drama, Hogan worked for ten years in human resources for local government (“I was a square peg in round hole”). Then, in her early 30s, she had a car accident that left her unable to work full-time. “I became an osteopath’s receptionist and spent all my spare time writing.” Her life changed again in 2012 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. When chemo kept her up all night, she started her first novel, The Keeper of Lost Things, about a man who has spent his life collecting lost objects to atone for a promise broken years before. Inspiration came from reading an article about unclaimed ashes at funeral directors’, and Hogan’s own friendship with a neighbour who was “a hoarder on a massive scale and whose fiancée had died when he was young”. In the new novel, The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes, Hogan writes about the experience of chemotherapy. Being ill was “bloody inconvenient”, she says, but “I wanted to capture it all. I don’t want to be the author who had cancer, but I did have cancer, so I’m going to use that as part of my experience. The kindness I had from people who were treating me, and people that I met during that time, was amazing.” The nurses marvelled at her colourful outfits. She gave lessons on how to tie a scarf like Mary Berry in the corridors of Addenbrooke’s Hospital. “It really taught me that if you go in with that attitude, you get it back.” When her hair grew back, she adopted the quiff. Friendship – between different generations and backgrounds – is a key theme of up lit. As a society we’ve become very insular, Hogan argues. “On trains, everyone is plugged into their phone. So when I write, I think, ‘What can I give people with my story?’ I want my books to tackle topics that perhaps other people wouldn’t tackle because they’re slightly difficult. But I always want them to be hopeful, because that’s what I think life is like.”
Man discovers Harry Potter book he is reading is actually adult fan fiction
Somehow it wasn't the sex scene between Harry and Hermione that gave it away...
A woman in the US has had to break the news to her friend, an incredibly late-comer to Harry Potter, that he had been reading a bizarre adult fan fiction version of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix instead of the real deal. In a series of tweets, Shelley Zhang shared the story about her pal Chris Chappel, who had come to her to confirm whether or not the murder of Harry's cousin Dudley had actually happened. View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website View oEmbed on the source website While we must take every iPhone screenshot tweet we read with a pinch of salt, we really do hope this one is true. Could the lesser known Harry Potter & the Psychic Serpent be the next My Dad Wrote a Porno? The work of art is available in its entirety online.
The author explains what first drew her to the curious figure of Thomas Cromwell
In the City of London, behind the Bank of England, there is a little street called Austin Friars. Sober and narrow, it offers a glimpse of a city garden, something sweetly natural at the granite heart of the establishment. The garden belongs to Drapers’ Hall, which stands on the site of one of the great powerhouses of Tudor London. In the 1530s, Austin Friars was the home of Thomas Cromwell, who was, except for the king, the most powerful man in England. Rich, cultured, multilingual, a friend and patron of artists and scholars, he was a master of the political arts. The house was a bustling ministerial headquarters, where petitioners from all over Europe pursued the royal secretary for favours and begged for a glimpse, a word. Thomas Cromwell was a man of property. He had apartments at court, and the Rolls House in Chancery Lane went with his job. London was small then, and his Hackney and Stepney houses stood in the fields. He had a hunting lodge in Canonbury where in summer, in his rare quiet moments, he could sit in one of the garden towers and look down on London’s tree-tops, contemplating the daily challenges thrown up by his master, the exacting, clever, capricious Henry VIII. Who was he? Where did he come from? To find the answer you had to cross the bandit country west of London, to Putney, where he was born on a date unknown. The year 1485 seems to fit. It was the year of the battle of Bosworth, the year that Henry Tudor (according to legend) picked the crown of England out of a thorn bush. It’s where, for convenience, the historians begin “modern history”, sloughing off the Plantagenets, the Middle Ages, the old world of candlelit, Roman Catholic England, and inaugurating a new era of hard-eyed moneymen, with Thomas Cromwell leading from the front. View oEmbed on the source website It wasn’t that simple, of course. The people in Putney had no idea a new era had begun. To them the triumph of the new regime must have looked like another incident in the civil war that England’s aristocrats had been fighting for a generation. No one knew the Tudors would manage to hang on to power for more than a century and reshape their country – thanks in no little part to the unremarked, unrecorded birth of the son of Walter Cromwell, the parish bully. As the 15th century closed, Thomas was the country’s most common male name. It was the equivalent of calling your baby “It”. Thomases came two a penny, and no one noticed this one till he was a teenager, and in trouble. If he went to school, nobody remembered. At some point he disappeared: possibly in dispute with the law, as his father was so frequently. Walter Cromwell was not a poor man. He ran a small brewery; he had an interest in a fulling mill, and possibly a smithy. But he was the neighbour from hell. He consumed a good deal of his own beer, or (since he was routinely fined for watering his ale) perhaps someone else’s. He was violent and quarrelsome: a father worth escaping. It is at the point of escape – the night before the 15-year-old boy is booted out of his home and his childhood – that my novel Wolf Hall opens. It begins with a beaten boy lying on cobblestones, his vision clouded by his own blood, while his father bellows down at him, “So now get up”. The trilogy – the last book is in progress – will follow Thomas Cromwell’s life from that moment – from that instant, that pulse beat, when he thinks he is going to die – to the reprise some 40 years on, when he thinks the same, and he is right: he ends on Tower Hill, looking at the executioner’s boots, an axe poised above him. The project is like a breath held. I want to know how it felt to live in the space of that breath: to begin as Walter’s no-good heir, and end as Earl of Essex. About the year 1500, the young Thomas Cromwell fled England. The next few years are dark. “I was a ruffian in my youth,” was all he ever said. It seems likely he joined the French army, as a mercenary, and campaigned with them in Italy. Destitute in the wake of French defeat, he joined the household of a Florentine merchant banker, perhaps as a servant; his uncle had been a cook. Agile-minded and quick to learn languages, he was promoted; facts are scant, we can only guess. Before the age of 30, he nudges on to the historical record, sighted in Venice and in Rome, in Antwerp; he is a banker, an apprentice lawyer, a broker in the wool trade. Then he comes home, to the hopeful country of the young Henry VIII. Soon he is talent-spotted by Cardinal Wolsey, the king’s omni-competent, vain and splendid minister. Wolsey took to him. What’s not to like? The scowling, asocial Cromwell is an invention of posterity, over-influenced by Holbein’s dour portrait. His contemporaries saw easy charm and social adroitness. He was ingenious, keen to please, irreverently funny; his energy seemed inexhaustible. The writer Nicola Shulman has remarked that he lived in an element of “decelerated time”, accomplishing a week’s work in a day. He acted for the cardinal as lawyer and business advisor, and when Wolsey fell from power he transferred his services to the king and did what the cardinal couldn’t do; he freed his master from his first marriage to Katherine of Aragon, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, the woman he believed would give him a son to secure the future of his dynasty. The fall of Anne Boleyn is the subject of Bring Up the Bodies, my second Cromwell novel. The novel, and the TV retelling, ends with her execution. View oEmbed on the source website Why revisit some of the best- known events in English history? It seemed to me that at the core of the story there was something missing. There was a moving area of darkness where Cromwell ought to be. Much studied by academic historians, he appears in popular history as an all-purpose, pre-packaged villain. In fiction and drama he’s just off the page or in the wings, doing something nefarious: but what? I wanted to put the spotlight on him; more than that, I wanted to get behind his eyes, the eyes of a man obscurely born, and watch as his country shapes itself about him, a dazzle of possibility. To do that I had to accustom my inner eye to bare, underfurnished rooms, where possessions are kept in chests, and floors are strewn with rushes, and Turkey carpets glow on tabletops in the houses of the wealthy. I needed to wear, in my imagination, fresh linen, heavy draping wool, damask and diamonds. My palate had to grow used to the sweet, spicy, scented tastes of Tudor cooking, to winter stockfish and summer fruits tarts. I had to live in a gated city, with green open spaces surrounding monasteries, with the long gardens of noble houses running down to the Thames: a London where the river was the main highway, and there was only one bridge, sometimes decorated with severed heads. One mistake and you were finished, if you worked for Henry VIII – or if you married him. Once I felt comfortable in this world I opened the door to others. The first two Cromwell novels have been adapted for the RSC (above) by Mike Poulton. After two successful seasons they are heading for Broadway. Now a six-part series – another cast, another adaptor, a fresh take on the material – brings the stories to the screen. People say to me, “Is it strange to see the people brought to life?” I think, but when were they ever dead? The story of Cromwell, Henry and his wives is about power politics and religious strife, but also about shame and sexual desire and the mysterious destabilising power of femininity. In this era, women become players as never before. The figures in this drama live in our psyche. They’re part of our folklore, our mythology. You can reshape them, and choose – every writer chooses differently – how you relate to the historical facts. My own method is to wrap the fiction around the documented record, to let imagination lead us by touch into the rooms where history can’t shine a light. The truth is always best: if you can get at it. Time and again, looking at the events of Henry’s reign and Cromwell’s life, you say, “You couldn’t make it up”. Or you could, but no one would believe you. Thomas Cromwell is a man who makes his own luck. As a boy he loses his home, his language. He rebuilds his life but his wife and daughters die, his patron Wolsey is hounded to his grave. Damaged but not broken, Thomas keeps climbing, agile, tenacious and without illusions; as he says in the third novel, smiling, “Every chancer has his chance with me”. He is a recognisably modern man, and we think we understand him; but the swift savagery with which he solves his problems leaves us shaking in our shoes. At the end of the story (so far) he has a hand on the next rung of the ladder. Soon to be Lord Cromwell, he is climbing towards the height of his power: he has four years to live, in the puzzled regard of a king who is perhaps already a little afraid of what he’s created. Wolf Hall begins on BBC2 tonight (Wednesday 21st January) at 9:00pm
Readers are being underserved, says Alison Graham
I always want to pat the BBC’s head when it presents themed seasons. Not in thanks but as one patronising gesture acknowledging another patronising gesture. Take the current #LovetoRead (with its modish and indeed possibly required-by-law hashtag) season of documentaries. It feels as if the BBC has only just discovered that, yes, people do love to read, and what’s more, this is a discovery all of its own; no one else knows this. So look what we are giving you, viewers! Aren’t you lucky? Because did you know that people love to read? I know! Isn’t it amazing? Who had any idea? Every single one of us who’s loved to read (or #lovedtoread) without the BBC’s help since, oh I don’t know, we were five years old, can be forgiven for sighing as we open the latest of the paperbacks we have piled on our bedside table. Though I’m currently reading Alan Bennett’s latest diary-drop, Keeping On Keeping On, which is so enormous it’s like balancing a breeze block on my stomach. None of us needs the BBC to tell us this, and we don’t particularly need one-off documentaries about writers or regional programmes focusing on books and writers heavily identified with a particular town. (On Sunday BBC4, The Books That Made Britain visits Whitby, so we get Dracula again. As if there’s no one left in the world who doesn’t know the story.) What we do need, however, is a weekly books programme on a major channel reviewing new releases and books on the bestseller lists. Radio listeners who read are well served by Open Book (Sunday Radio 4) and its monthly Bookclub. But on telly? Nothing, apart from the occasional author interview on a Saturday afternoon on the BBC News channel. Come on, readers aren’t being looked after properly. The BBC throws enormous resources at Glastonbury every year (and surely the whole point about Glastonbury is that you have to be there?). Yet up and down the country there are book festivals in towns and cities attended by huge, engaged, interested audiences. I hosted events at both the Hay and Cheltenham festivals this year and was thrilled by the keenness of sell-out crowds (who weren’t there for me, I hasten to add). Every year I help to judge the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award and visit the accompanying crime fiction festival. It’s great – lively, good-natured and packed with crime readers who really know their stuff. Though books are routinely adapted for TV (Zadie Smith’s NW starts on Monday BBC1) and there’s always a high-fallutin’ hoo-hah about the Booker Prize shortlist, where the winner is even revealed and interviewed on BBC News, as for popular fiction – nothing. This hasn’t always been the case. When I was a teenager, I developed a hopeless crush on Melvyn Bragg when he hosted Read All about It on BBC1. It was a smashing programme with Paperbacks of the Week and author interviews. And Melvyn… ah, Melvyn, with your lovely hair and Northern accent. Er, where was I? Yes, books. RT now has a books section (page 152), by popular demand; the country has some fabulous, imaginative independent bookshops; there are informal book groups in households across the land; and sit in any train carriage, take out your book and you’ll doubtless see lots of your neighbours doing the same, either with e-readers or actual proper books. There’s nothing like the delightful absorption of reading a book, so it’s time that TV caught up with readers everywhere. #giveusaweeklybookshowplease
George R.R. Martin just released new interactive Game of Thrones books
Although we’re not really sure if we Westeros to be more lifelike
Ever since season six of Game of Thrones moved away from George R. R. Martin’s source material into the (very bloody) unknown, book fans haven’t had much to be smug about. Until now. The Thrones author has teamed up with Apple to create a series of A Song of Ice and Fire enhanced editions for the 20th anniversary of the release of A Game of Thrones, the first novel in the saga. “Enhanced editions?” They’re essentially iPad/Phone versions of the novels with added features, such as in-depth illustrated character maps at the start of each chapter that show a) where the point-of-view character is, and b) details of nearby castles and important landmarks. But it’s not just going to make following the sprawling plot easier. Quite the opposite. Throughout the text you’ll find small crown icons that, when pressed, will reveal annotations approved by Martin that offer more trivia about the world of Westeros and beyond. Plus, the appendix at the end of each novel contains a feast for crows of yet more Ice and Fire details. With extra trivia and family trees of the great houses of Westeros, it contains even more insights into the original text. Because what the series really needs is more depth. The new editions will also contain … drum roll, please ... a sneak peak at Martin’s ever-upcoming sixth instalment to the story: The Winds of Winter. Still not persuaded you to become a book fan? Well, you’ll have to wait until HBO’s Game of Thrones returns to screens Summer 2017.
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction: the contenders
Ben Macintyre, chairman of the judging panel, assesses the books vying for a top literary prize
Truth is stranger than fiction. It is also, in many cases, a lot more interesting: witness the staggering array of non-fiction titles submitted for the Samuel Johnson Prize this year. As judges we had to consider more books than ever before – 208 in all – covering the widest range of subject matter. Winnowing down the contenders to a longlist of 18 was hard enough; cutting that down to six finalists was even harder. How far the definition of non-fiction has expanded. Alongside the traditional, scholarly and fascinating lives of the great and good (and bad) in the books submitted, there were also an extraordinary number of what might be called cross-genre works, combining history, travel, anthropology, art, memoir, science, psychology, polemic and humour. Each of the six books that made it onto the shortlist combines profound inquiry with superb writing, but above all each is highly original, inviting the reader to look at the world in a strikingly new and different way. Choosing a winner will be the most demanding task of all. Samuel Johnson himself once observed that “books, like friends, should be few and well chosen”. The prize judges have had to choose just a few books from the vast trove of non-fiction published over the past year. We invite you to make the acquaintance of these great books, in the certainty that they will become your friends. Bismarck: A Life tells the amazing story of the 19th-century political genius and deeply flawed man who forged Germany, but never ruled it. Jonathan Steinberg reveals the character contours of this extraordinary, contradictory man, the “Iron Chancellor”, as never before: witty, malicious, generous, destructive, offensive and brilliant. (Jonathan Steinberg, Oxford University Press) Caravaggio: a Life Sacred and Profane Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and his vivid world burst from the pages of this breathtaking masterpiece of biography. Here are the rough streets of Milan and Rome, frequented by an artist of pure inspiration and extreme habits, who lived in a world of whores and brawls, killed a rival in a fight, escaped from prison, and died at 38, leaving paintings that transformed art. (Andrew Graham-Dixon, Allen Lane) Mao’s Great Famine ensures that no one will think of Mao Tse-tung’s rule over Communist China in the same way. Frank Dikötter had access to hitherto closed party archives, and his hauntingly beautiful prose exposes in meticulous detail the scale of the devastation wrought by Mao’s effort to force China into superpower status in the disastrous experiment known as the Great Leap Forward. (Frank Dikötter, Bloomsbury) The Rational Optimist offers a refreshing, incisive, superbly argued counterattack on the doom-mongers and pessimists. The majority of the world, Matt Ridley insists, is better fed and housed, healthier and happier, than ever before, and problems will be solved as they always have been: by the free, fertile, promiscuous mixture of human ideas. (Matt Ridley, Fourth Estate) Reprobates: the Cavaliers of the English Civil War is as swaggering and colourful as its subject: the cavalier, with his high boots, plumed hat and debonair ways, is not only a defining symbol of the English Civil War, but remains a part of the language. John Stubbs explores the poets, wits and womanisers, the gamblers, rakes and conspirators of King Charles’ court, to create not just a picture of the “roaring boys”, but an entire history of that tumultuous age. (John Stubbs, Viking) Liberty’s Exiles Maya Jasanoff has created a history of the loyalist diaspora, the American losers in the Revolutionary War, the thousands of people, white, black and Indian, whose loyalty to the crown compelled them to leave the country that would become the United States, and seek refuge in other parts of the British empire. It’s a lyrical account of a group whose dispersal and effect on the wider world were profound. (Maya Jasanoff, HarperPress)