14 November 2012 marks the ninetieth anniversary of the BBC's first ever broadcast and the beginning of the British love affair with radio. This fascinating book takes as its starting point those early, tentative programmes broadcast from Marconi House on the Strand, and follows the story of those magical radio voices through the years of economic depression, war and austerity, to the swinging Sixties and up to the digital era. Above all, it celebrates the great, the forgotten and the notorious voices of radio from the last nine decades, and the programmes they made famous: Marion Cran in the 1920s, who pioneered the first gardening programme; Lord Haw Haw, whose sinister catchphrase 'Germany calling' punctuated broadcasts throughout the Second World War; the Goons and Kenneth Horne, comedy greats of the 1950s; John Peel, Alan Freeman, Kenny Everett and other heroes of Radio Caroline and the pirate stations; all the way up to Eddie Mair, Fi Glover and Danny Baker, the much-loved voices of today.

The result is a wonderful blend of insight, history and nostalgia that will appeal to radio's many aficionados.

17.5.10

This is "Her Ladyship's" guide to speaking and writing better English. Wherever you are, whatever the company, good English will always stand you in good stead. The world's most important language has a number of difficult areas and pitfalls, and almost all of us have some area to improve, whether it's how to spell 'millennium', how to pronounce 'schedule' the English way (as opposed to the American way), or find the correct word for the 'toilet' when talking to bishops and barons.

Why do we find polar bears only in the Arctic and penguins only in the Antarctic? Why do oceanic islands often have many types of birds but no large native mammals? As Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace travelled across distant lands studying the wildlife they both noticed that the distribution of plants and animals formed striking patterns - patterns that held strong clues to the past of the planet. The study of the spatial distribution of living things is known as biogeography. It is a field that could be said to have begun with Darwin and Wallace.

stocked 2/11/06

Contains real stories from British life as heard on BBC Radio 4's "Home Truths". This collection of the best stories from the programme reflects the particular character of the show and its contributors, ranging between comedy and tragedy, eccentricity and inspiration.